Chapter 4: Twinkle Park
Three figures walked toward the Twinkle Park entrance, all in trenchcoats. If anyone had taken a good look at them, he would have seen a scarlet fox, a gray squirrel, and a black hedgehog. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The fox and the squirrel were holding hands, so the gate man waved them through. The hedgehog placed some money on the counter and rolled his eyes.
“Um, sir?” the attendant said, “that’s not quite enough. You need two more Acorns.”
The hedgehog scowled in return.
“That won’t work, sir, and neither will the sad puppy face.”
The hedgehog groaned and pulled the money back into his pocket. He stood by the gate, hoping that someone would let him in…
He hadn’t been waiting for five minutes when a hyper, young rabbit who was no more than eight came up to him and asked, “Do you need a date, mister?”
“Come on, Cream,” another rabbit said with a slight southern hint to her accent. “Didn’t I tell you not to talk to strangers?”
“Ah, let her alone, Bunnie,” the other rabbit’s date said in a thick accent. “She is zeeing that ze young stranger is not to be having a date.”
“Thank you,” the hedgehog muttered as he and Cream walked through the entrance.
Once they were inside, Cream promptly began to introduce the hedgehog to her friends. “This is my aunt, Bunnie. And this is her boyfriend, Antione.”
“Now, Cream,” Bunnie scolded, “ya’ll don’t need to tell everyone that.”
“And why should she not?” Antione asked.
The hedgehog seized the opportunity and left. “Bye, mister!” Cream called after him.
-
- *
“I know I’m the last person you want to be with right now, Sonic,” Amy Rose said.
Sonic only grunted in reply and fingered the medallion hung around his neck. It was an old echidnan relic Knuckles had found. It shrunk the Chaos Emeralds down to about a fifth of their normal size and stored them, allowing the wearer to carry them hands-free.
As Sonic and Amy approached the admission gate, the paparazzi showed up. Photographers from every supermarket tabloid known were there, some with headlines already in mind: “Twinkle Park’s Cute Couple Spells Doom for Royal Relationship.”
Sonic, does this mean you and Princess Sally are officially broken up now?” one particularly obnoxious reporter asked amid the endless sparks of flash bulbs.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Amy said loudly, pressing her hand against the nearest camera lens and pulling an exasperated Sonic out of the crowd.
“Thanks,” Sonic breathed.
“Hey, I never realized how much of a hassle those people can be until they started following ME around after the ARK incident,” Amy said. “Why do you think I don’t buy those fan magazines anymore?”
Sonic thought for a little while. “Does this have anything to do with you not being in the crowd at Green Hill?”
Amy laughed. “I’ve seen you blow up robots before, Sonic. There’s nothing new there.”
“And this coming from the girl that gave me a bear hug, on national television, while I was on a date with Sally?”
Amy blushed. “That was at least 5 years ago, Sonic. People change.”
Just then Sally dropped out of thin air in front of the two hedgehogs. “I think the reporters have had enough fun,” she said. “Thanks for looking after him, Amy.” Before Sonic could cry foul, she kissed him quickly on the cheek and took his hand.
“How did you…” Amy began. Sally simply pointed up to Tails, who was hovering ten feet above the group’s heads.
Tails dropped to the ground. “So…” he asked, “what do we do next?”
“Bumper cars!” Amy yelled.
“Bumper cars!” Tails yelled.
“No!” Sonic yelled.
“That settles it,” Sally said. “To the bumper cars!”
-
- *
The black hedgehog walked through the park with a purpose. When he came to the edge of the food court he stopped and scanned the crowd for his two companions from before. He finally spotted the squirrel waving at him. He waved back, pulled out a Chaos Emerald, and muttered, “Chaos Relocate.”
He instantly teleported to the squirrel’s table. She was gray for the most part, with a light muzzle and teal streaks in her black hair. The fox with her was crimson and had his bangs combed in front of his right eye. He was a kitsune, a fox with two tails, but he usually kept them hidden inside his trenchcoat.
“Nice of you to show up, Shadow,” the kitsune said to the hedgehog, fingering a small, white ball.
Shadow scowled. “Didn’t have enough to pay admission,” he said. “Had to get in with that girl from the chao garden.”
The fox shook his head. “I told you to sell that typewriter, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Well I suppose you have a better way to leave anonymous notes, Emech?”
“Never had that problem. I’m not as obsessed with remaining incognito as you are.”
“Thank you, gentlemen,” the squirrel said pointedly. “We’re here to discuss the mission. Shadow, are Sonic and Tails doing okay?”
“They’re doing fine, Dulcy. Sonic’s a little rusty, but he’s starting to get back into his groove. Tails is starting to interest me, though.”
“How so?”
“Well, in the Secret Base, all I did was show him the Emerald. He holds it for a few seconds, then I hear him mutter something about Sonic being in trouble and he takes off. Boom. Next thing I know he’s pounding down the door I didn’t even know Sonic had gone through.”
“Curious…” Dulcy drifted off, but Emech brought her back.
“I think I know what’s going on here,” he said.
“Great. Mr. Know-It-All to the rescue…”
“Shadow, stop it,” Dulcy scolded. “Emech, you were saying?”
“Right. You have to remember that Tails is a kitsune. He’s beginning to grow up, and some of his powers may begin to show through now. He could easily be slightly telepathic, and since he and Sonic are so close, he can sense when he’s in trouble.”
“Well, keep an eye on Tails,” Dulcy said. “He’s going to be your assignment in the next week or so. Shadow, you’re doing good so far. Keep it up, and make sure that Robotnik doesn’t have a chance to use the Emeralds.”
“And I’m supposed to keep out of sight and not interfere, I suppose?” Shadow asked, his scowl still plastered on his face.
“Keeping out of sight is your decision. However, you are not to fight in this war yet. It’s not your time. You still have much to learn.”
“I assume those are the Master’s orders?” Shadow said with disdain.
“Yes, and you would do well to obey them. Obedience—”
“Is the path to true freedom, I know. How many times have you guys lectured me on this?” Shadow got up in a huff and stormed off. “Freedom,” he spat. “All I ever do is what HE tells me to do.”
Emech turned to Dulcy. “The Master wants him to learn humility, correct?”
Dulcy nodded. “Part of him wants to stay with us, and part of him wants to be with Sonic. The initial excitement he had when the Master first saved him is beginning to wear off. This is his moment of truth: whether he stays with us or whether he goes off on his own. Either way, it will be as the Master plans.”
Emech nodded. “Personally, I hope he stays. I know he and I are at each other’s throats half the time—”
Dulcy laughed slightly, prompting a confused glance from Emech. “What?” he said.
“Oh, it’s just—” Dulcy said with a smile before she interrupted herself. “Sonic!” she called across the eating area.
Sonic waved back and ran over to the table. “S’up, Dulcy?” he said quickly.
“Nothing much. You still up to your old tricks?” Dulcy said.
“Looks like it. Ol’ Buttnik’s got his old Death Egg back up and running and he’s launching day after tomorrow.”
“Yeah, so I heard.”
Sonic rolled his eyes. “Figures you would. I only know ‘cause some guy left a typewritten note for me at the chao garden… wait, did you leave me that note?”
Dulcy and Emech both smiled. “No,” Dulcy said, “but I know who did. And before you ask me,” she added, seeing Sonic’s anticipation, “he has asked me not to reveal his identity until he is ready.”
Sonic nodded. “So who is he?”
Emech hit his head (rather hard) with his hand while Dulcy just smiled. Unlike Emech, she had known Sonic for the past 6 years and was well aware of his spur-of-the-moment humor.
Sonic chuckled at Emech’s reaction. “Take care you guys; Sal’s gonna be wondering where I am. I told her I was getting chili dogs… you guys don’t have any by any chance, do you?”
“The recruit ate the last one,” Emech said.
Sonic sighed. “But I’ve only got one acorn…”
“A bag of chips isn’t bad,” Emech said. “Good for every occasion?”
Sonic shook his head and replied in a low, guttural voice, “No, give us a chili dog. You keep nasty chips!”
“You’re hopeless,” Emech muttered to himself. To Dulcy he added, “But now that I see him, I do pity him.”
Dulcy just raised an eyebrow and backed away.
-
- *
After an hour of riding whatever rides came to mind, Sonic and company were exhausted. Sonic was sprawled on one bench while Sally talked to Bunnie and Antione on another. Tails, Amy, and Cream were off playing one of the novelty games that involved squirting a water gun at a moving target. Sonic would have been with Sally, but between Bunnie’s southern accent and Antione’s foreign accent, he was getting a headache.
“So how have you and Cream been doing?” Sally asked Bunnie.
Bunnie shrugged. “Oh, it’s been good and it’s been not so good. It’d be a lot worse if ol’ Ant wan’t around to help out.”
“Oui, zat is true,” Antione said. “Ze little Cream is extremely— how do you say it, hyper? She can run around in circles for an hour and not get tired. At least ze little girl is not easily saddened, oui?”
Sally nodded. She opened her mouth to reply but was silenced by a sudden explosion from the other end of the park.
Tails jumped into action and started hovering. “It’s Eggman,” he yelled back to the ground. “He’s got some hovercraft thingie and he’s down by the merry-go-rounds!”
“How far away is he?” Sally asked.
“About two minutes, and he’s coming this way!”
“Go see if you can stall him! Amy, go with him,” Sally ordered. She turned to Sonic and said much quieter, “It’s a diversion. The light blue emerald is hidden in the underground here. There’s an entrance over by the elephant ears. Go!”
Sonic just stood there. “Um… wanna say that again?”
Sally shoved him in the direction in question. “Just go get the emerald! I’ll explain later!”
Sonic rolled his eyes and started running. Another chance for him to show off, and Sally’s got him running off on some kind of recon mission. He found the entrance in question and tore down the stairs. At the bottom, he was confronted with the age-old dilemma: left, right, or straight. Tunnels ran off in every possible direction, intersecting with other tunnels and making for an extremely confusing grid. “Why does this always happen to me?” Sonic wailed. He pulled the blue Emerald out of his medallion and muttered, “Chaos See.”
The world around Sonic faded and became translucent. He was now looking at what the Emerald in his hand “saw,” which was limited to Chaos energy patterns. In other words, he could see where any Chaos Emeralds were in the area. Knuckles had told Sonic that the Chaos See ability could do much more than this, but Sonic hadn’t taken the time to learn just yet.
Finally, Sonic saw an extremely bright blue light coming from his left. He dropped the Emerald, bringing reality back into focus. Stuffing the Emerald back into the medallion, Sonic ran left. The technique proved to be correct: he found the container and the Emerald without much trouble. As he was heading back to the surface, he saw something familiar around a corner…
“Knuckles!” Sonic called. Sure enough, Knuckles came into view at a tunnel intersection several dozen feet away. He seemed to move a little stiff to Sonic, and he had on his old fighting gloves. “It’s okay, man,” Sonic continued, “I already got the Emerald here.”
Upon hearing that, Knuckles charged towards Sonic, knuckle spikes extended, his face seemingly bent on murder.
Sonic brandished his medallion. “Don’t make me use this!” he yelled. Knuckles apparently heard, for he quickly stopped and bolted in the other direction.
Odd, Sonic thought. He’s not normally like that…
-
- *
Tails had to make quick work of the robot. Robotnik was causing as much raw terror as he possibly could, and that included taking horribly aimed shots into the crowd of people. So far there hadn’t been any deaths, but Tails didn’t trust Robotnik to stay random. He was hovering up to Robotnik’s level and trying his tail-whip move, but it was doing little more than annoying Robotnik.
That was where Amy came in. After she had gotten kidnapped by Metal Sonic Blue and taken to Little Planet, Knuckles decided she needed a way to protect herself. He had found an oversized mallet in the Sandopolis treasure room with low-level power crystals in it, crystals that had energy but weren’t quite on the same level as the Chaos Emeralds. Amy, in keeping with her element, had covered the mallet with pink hearts and flowers. “The Love Hammer of Beatdown” as Sonic sometimes called it.
Dealing with Robotnik involved a simple strategy. Tails and Amy would attack from both sides. If Robotnik ever started ignoring Amy, she’d jump on the back of the robot and start talking about how cute Robotnik’s head was (or something along those lines) until Robotnik got so annoyed he’d turn his attention to her in a frantic attempt to make her shut up. Tails would then use the opportunity to take a well-aimed spin attack at the hovercraft’s engine.
Time was not on their side, however. With each spare moment Robotnik would fire into the crowd, causing random explosions and injuring so many people Tails had to stop looking. Amy saw what was happening as well, and as the battle progressed she resorted less and less to the annoying little girl technique, choosing raw Beatdown instead.
Then, as quickly as it had started, Robotnik fired up his engines and took off without warning, leaving a mess of chaos behind him. Tails landed next to Amy and the two walked up to Sally. “What’s the count?” Tails said, deathly serious.
Sally bit her lip. “At least 15 minor injuries, mostly burns and broken bones, nothing really serious. About 7 people have third degree burns, they’re heading to the hospital. One person was right next to an explosion. We already sent him to the hospital; think he’s in critical condition. And then…” Sally looked back into the dispersing crowd.
Tails and Amy followed her gaze and saw Bunnie being lifted onto a stretcher, moaning. Cream was wide-eyed and in shock, and Antione was doing his best to comfort her. “Bunnie’s got spinal damage,” Sally said. “She can’t feel her legs… or her left arm.” Tails just stood in solemn silence.
“Does that mean she’s paralyzed?” Amy asked softly. Tails was surprised for a moment that she seemed to grasp the seriousness of the situation. Sally nodded slowly.
Just then Sonic walked up. The fact alone that he was walking signaled to Sally that he knew what was happening. He leaned in close to her ear and said quietly, “I think we may have a Knuckles problem.”
“I know,” Sally said. “He shows up at all the Emerald sites one or two minutes after you guys get the Emerald. It’s also at nearly the same time Robotnik starts terrorizing the area.”
Sonic rolled his eyes. “Wonder what crazy story Eggman fed him this time.” He looked around at the damage and the busy paramedics. “One things for sure, though,” he said, “He’s got to be pretty desperate to be willing to risk killing people to get one Emerald.”