Sonic yawns, and stretches in a tree just outside Station Square. He'd just had a nice nap with his typical dream; running at the speed of sound to reach his favorite kind of tree, the kind that grew chili-dogs.
He takes in a deep breath, and lets it out. It's a beautiful day today; birds are chirping, there's only a few clouds in the sky, and in the distance he can hear police sirens.
… Wait... What?
Sonic hops out of the tree, and bolts for the city, curiosity getting the better of him. In about two seconds he's running across rooftops, eyes darting back and forth. He spots four, or five cruisers heading down the highway at top speed, and dashes over to them. He keeps pace with the lead cruiser, and the driver spots him, glancing at Sonic as he tries to keep his eyes on the street.
Sonic makes a circular motion with a fist, and the driver rolls down his window.
"Hey, Officer," Sonic calls into the car. "So where's all the action at today?"
The officer nods at Sonic, "Good morning, Sonic. It looks like your chubby buddy is making a ruckus at Station Square Bank, think you can buy us some time?"
"Are you kidding," Sonic gives the officer a thumbs up, and a grin. "Buy the time you get there he'll be begging for you to take him away." Sonic picks up speed, and vanishes in a blur of blue light.
Sonic arrives at the bank in about ten seconds, and dashes right inside. Suddenly a rope appears in front of him maybe two inches off of the ground. Sonic trips over it, and goes pinwheeling into the door of the vault.
"Ouch..." Sonic rubs the sore spot on his head, and looks over his shoulder. Eggman is crouching by the door, one end of the rope in one hand, and a gun in the other.
"Ho ho ho, Sonic!" Eggman chortles. "I was wondering when you'd be joining us. Now, listen to me very carefully, hedgehog. I want you to open that safe for me, if you don't..."
Eggman grabs one of his hostages, and puts a gun to her head. Sonic's eyes widen a bit when he recognizes the hostage.
"Huh, Amy?" Sonic stands up, and brushes himself off, "What are you doing here?"
"Trust me," she says. "This wasn't on my To-Do list today."
"Enough Chit-Chat," Eggman presses his gun harder into the pink hedgehog's quills. "Open the safe, NOW!"
"Sonic, don't do it!" Amy struggles against Eggman's grip, "He wants the Chaos Emeralds in there, don't let him have them!"
Sonic thinks for a minute, and then leans on the safe door with an arm, "Okay, Eggman, I'll open the safe. But just out of curiosity, what makes you think that I can't stop you from getting away?"
"Damn it, JUST OPEN THE BLASTED DOOR, OR I START SHOOTING!" Eggman's grip tightens on both Amy, and the gun.
"Okay, okay, jeez," Sonic straightens, and puts a hand of the vaults handle. "Don't get your mustache in a bunch." Sonic turns the handle, and pulls the door open with some effort. Suddenly a golden bolt of lightning flashes out of the safe, and collides with Sonic. He is sent flying, and hits the ground hard. Inside the vault is a large yellow robot with fists that crackle with electricity.
Eggman lets out a loud laugh, and says, "Say hello to my latest invention, Sonic. I call him Thunderfist, I hope you like him. I had to put a lot of effort into finding a way to immobilize you. After all, a taser would never work. I had to up the charge by almost a hundred!"
Sonic looks at the reader, and holds up an informative finger, "And that, kids, if why your parents tell you never to play with electric sockets."
Eggman looks around to see who Sonic is talking to, but just shrugs, and smiles at his old enemy. "Now then, Sonic, It's time to do what I came here for in the first place."
Thunderfist reaches into a hole in the bottom of the vault's floor, and pulls out a very large laser cannon. He braces it on a shoulder like a bazooka, and aims it at Sonic.
"This is a new experimental laser," Eggman explains. "I decided long ago that you were a pain that had to be dealt with as efficiently as possible, but history has shown that to be easier said than done. This laser is designed to take you apart, molecule by molecule, and rearrange your pieces into something truly grotesque. Sadly I can't harness enough energy, even with a Chaos Emerald, to disperse your atoms into thin air, so you'll just have to suffer a little."
Eggman laughs as the end of the cannon begins to glow bright orange.
"Sonic, no!" Amy bites Eggman's arm. He yowls in pain, and drops his gun, clutching at his bleeding hand. Amy dashes across the room, and throws herself in front of Sonic as the beam lances at him.
It collides with Amy, making her jerk, and fall to the floor. Orange beams circle around her, obscuring her from view. Sonic squeezes his eyes shut as the light becomes blindingly bright, and then it fades. Sonic opens his eyes, and gasps. Where his friend once lay is now a pair of gloves, golden bracelets, A pink headband, red boots, and her red dress with a lump about the size of a loaf of bread inside it.
"She bit me," Eggman growls. Seeing what's left of her on the floor, he says, "Hmph! She gets what she deserves! Thunderfist, recharge the cannon, and this time shoot Sonic!"
"Negative, Master," Thunderfist says in a bassy robotic voice. "Energy readings show that another blast without using fifteen minutes for cooldown will result in meltdown."
Sonic twitches his fingers, and form a fist, the effects of the lighting are beginning to wear off. Eggman notices this, and then glaces down at his injury.
"Retreat," he says. "I need to get fixed up back at the base, the little vixen might have given me rabies for all I know!" With that, Thunderfist turns, and jumps into the tunnel in the vault floor, Eggman close behind him.
Sonic tries to get to his feet, but ends up having to settle for crawling over to Amy. He's mad now, and with good reason. Amy, one of his most loyal friends, just sacrificed herself to save him.
It's my fault, he thinks to himself. Amy only did it out of blind devotion, she deserved so much better than this. I'll get Eggman for this, I swear it!"
Slowly, Sonic reaches out with a trembling hand for the neck of the dress. Afraid of what he might find, he opens it, and looks inside. What he finds makes his eyes go wide.
...Oh ...No...
-----
Tails slides out from under the Tornado, his plane, when he hears his phone ringing. He wipes oil off of his hands with a cloth, and then picks up the phone, "Hello, this is Tails."
"Hey, uh, buddy, it's Sonic."
"Oh hey Sonic," Tails brightens up. "What's up?"
There's a moment of silence, and then Sonic says, "Uh, could you call Cream, and the two of you come over real fast? I kinda have an emergency on my hands."
Tails's eyes go wide, "Yeah, we'll be over as soon as we can. We're coming over to your place, right?"
"Yeah, thanks, buddy." With that, Sonic hangs up, and Tails dials Cream's number. In less than five minutes the two of them are headed to Sonic's house. They ring the doorbell, and they hear Sonic call, "It's open". They walk in to find Sonic on his couch, and stare at him with raises eyebrows.
Sonic looks up at them, and grins shyly. In his arms, wrapped in a blue towel, is a tiny hedgehog with pink quills, and emerald green eyes. She looks up at Tails, and Cream, and giggles.
"Sonic..." Cream gasps in her squeaky voice. "Is... is that...?"
Suddenly a hammer the size of a carpenter's mallet appears in the baby's hands, and she whacks Sonic in the head with it. Sonic groans, and rubs the spot.
"I think Amy's hungry."
Cream holds Amy as Sonic explains what happened at the bank. Tails scratches his head, taking it in as best he can.
"Well," Tails says, glancing at Amy. "Best I can tell, we got really lucky. It sounds like Eggman built the cannon with the intended results kinda up in the air. Anything could have happened to Amy, or you for that matter, Sonic."
"I know," Sonic says, staring at Amy who's burbling happily in Cream's arms. "Still, there's gotta be a way to fix it."
"What are we going to do in the meantime," Cream asks. "I can take Amy home with me, and Mom can take care of her."
Sonic thinks about it, and he seriously considers taking Cream up on the offer. He doesn't know the first thing about babies, and he's sure he'd make a terrible dad to any kid. Still...
"She probably saved my life, Cream," Sonic says, walking over to her, and running some fingers through Amy's quills. Amy makes happy baby noises at him, and grabs a hold of his hand. "I'll need your help, but I think I should take care of her until we can fix this."
Cream, and Tails share a look of surprise, and then Cream nods.
"Okay, Sonic," she says. "I'll give Mom a call, and see if she can come over. Should we call the others?"
Sonic scratches an ear with his free hand, "Yeah, but try not to make any of them freak out, okay?"
Cream nods, and passes Amy to Sonic before heading to the phone. Sonic sits back down on his blue leather couch, bouncing Amy in his arms. She giggles, and presses a hand to his chin.
"Are you sure about this?" Tails looks between Sonic, and Amy, a concerned look on his face.
"Pretty sure, yeah," Sonic looks up at his best friend. "Aside from you, Amy is the only person who has always stood by me. It just feels kinda wrong to push her off on someone else when she's in trouble, you know?"
Amy grabs Sonic's bottom lips, and pulls on it. Tails chuckles, and says, "Yeah, but maybe you've bitten off more than you can chew on this one."
"Maybe," Sonic pulls his lip out of Amy's grip. She looks up at him with sad eyes, and starts crying. Cream pokes her head out of the kitchen with the phone held up to one ear, and Tails covers his.
"Shh, shh," Sonic presses a finger to her tiny mouth, which she grabs, and starts sucking the end of. She looks up at him with wide green eyes, and Sonic can't help but smile. He has to admit that she's kinda cute this way, even if she's not any quieter than before.
Cream walks into the room, "Mama says that she'll be over in a minute to help us get situated. She's bringing some of my old baby things, so we shouldn't have to buy much."
"Thanks, Cream," Sonic takes his finger out of Amy's mouth, and starts tickling her neck with it. "I don't know what I'd do without you guys."
Amy giggles, and starts squirming in his grip. Keeping a wary eye out for her hammer again, he wraps her tighter in the towel so she doesn't get cold. About fifteen minutes later Cream's mom, Vanilla, shows up in a van. Tails helps her move a white crib up into Sonic's room, and a playpen into the living-room. Cream brings in a box of baby stuff, and sets it next to Sonic. She takes Amy into the bathroom, ignoring her protests, and returns with Amy wearing a diaper, and a pink baby shirt with matching baby shoes.
Handing a crying Amy to Sonic, Cream looks over the setup with her mom. Amy quiets as Sonic holds her close, and snuggles into his chest. Tails wipes a few beads of sweat from his forehead as he sets a high-chair in the dining room.
"Well," Vanilla says, ruffling Amy's quills. "It looks like you're all set." Amy blows Vanilla a raspberry, and the elder rabbit just laughs.
Tails sets Sonic's cell-phone on his coffee-table, "I put Cream's home number, and my cell into your speed-dial, so we're only a push of a button away if you need something, alright?"
Sonic nods, and Cream turns to her mother.
"Mama, would it be okay if we spent the night here tonight, just in case?"
Vanilla smiles, "Well, if Sonic doesn't have a problem with it, neither do I. Fair warning though, I doubt any of you will be getting much sleep tonight if you do."
Sonic grins, "Thanks guys, if you wanna stay then I won't say no."
Tails heads for the door, "I'm gonna run home, and grab a few things. I'll be back in a few!"
"I have to go get a few things for Cream too," Vanilla says. "Cream, would you like to come with me? I'm sure Sonic can last a few minutes without us."
"Okay Mama, see you later Sonic!" With a wave the two rabbits disappear out the front door.
Sonic plops down with Amy in his lap, and she crawls off to the side to sit next to him on the couch. He picks up the remote, and turns on the TV to some cartoons. He powers through an episode of Sponge-Bob, and then he looks down to see Amy asleep with her head on his leg. He chuckles as he gingerly carries her up the stairs to his room, and sets her in the crib. He fishes a blanket, and a pillow out of the box of baby stuff, and tucks Amy in for her nap.
"Y'know," Sonic whispers to himself. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all."
He tip-toes out of the room, and leaves the door open a crack. He turns the TV onto some NASCAR, and waits for the others to get back.
About a half-hour later Sonic hears the van pull up, and he heads outside to help them carry stuff in.
"Welcome back," he says with a wave. "Ames just fell asleep a little while ago."
"Then we'll have to be quiet," Vanilla says with a nod. As quietly as they can, they set up a cot with a sleeping bag on it in the living-room. Just as they're finishing up, Tails comes through the door.
"Hey, I'm back!" He jumps a little when the others shush him, and then they hear crying upstairs. Vanilla heads up to get Amy, and Sonic sighs.
Tails lets out a nervous laugh, "Um, oops."
"It's okay," Sonic says with a shrug. "Maybe I should set up a sign for when she's napping?"
"A good idea," Cream says. "But I don't think that's really necessary."
Vanilla comes down the stairs trying to hush a bawling Amy. The little pink hedgehog whines, and stretches her arms towards Sonic when she sees him.
"She seems quite attached to you," Vanilla laughs as she passes Amy to him.
"Well there's a surprise," he says sarcastically, and Amy hugs him around the neck. Tails sets up a cot of his own on the other side of the living room, and Sonic sits on the couch with Amy in his lap. She snuggles against his stomach, and he can feel her purring which makes him smile.
"Aw, that's just so cute," Cream sighs, sitting on Sonic's left.
"So when do we tell the others?" Tails asks as he sits on Sonic's right.
"Why not leave it until tomorrow," Sonic tickles one of Amy's ears, and chuckles when she takes a swat at his hand. "Lets make sure we're set for today, and then plan tomorrow."
Vanilla checks the clock, "I have to go now, best of luck to you three!"
They all wave to her as she drives off. Amy starts crying in Sonic's arms, and he looks at her worried.
"I think she'd just hungry," Cream Takes Amy from her, and put her in the high-chair. She puts a bib on her, and warms up a thing of baby food. Sonic decides to let her take care of this, and sits in a chair at the table.
"Fatherhood is tough, huh Sonic?" Tails grins as he sits opposite of Sonic at the table.
"Please, Tails, don't start. I'm glad you're both here to help me with this. Looking at it now, there's no way I can really take care of her. I mean, I can't change her diapers, or give her a bath while she's like this. If I did, then she'd kill me when she gets back to normal."
Tails looks at the ceiling thoughtfully, "I think that's up for debate, actually." Cream, and Sonic look at him in surprise. He shrugs, "Well I'm just saying, this is Amy we're talking about, so she might not mind if it was Sonic."
Sonic shakes his head, "Regardless, I just can't do it. Cream, you don't mind taking care of that for me, do you?"
"Of course not," Cream squeaks as she spoons some food into Amy's waiting mouth. "Amy's my best friend, and I'll everything I can to help her."
"That might mean staying more than a night," Tails points out. "I mean, it's not like you can just run over here whenever Amy needs a diaper change, right?"
Cream frowns, "Yeah, that sounds true enough, but still I'm sure Mama won't mind."
Sonic smiles, "You're an angel, Cream, stay as long as you want."
When Amy won't eat any more food, Cream picks her up, and burps her. Amy giggles, and looks at the boys.
"Can I hold her?" Tails comes over, and Cream passes her to him. Amy giggles patting his face, and pulling the two-tailed fox's whiskers. With tears in his eyes, he gratefully passes her over to Sonic.
They head to the living-room, and Sonic puts her in the playpen. Amy reaches up to him in protest until Cream shakes a rattle, and hands it to her. After putting in a few stuffed animals in the pen, and a few extra toys, the three Mobians sit on the couch.
"Babies," Cream says, watching Amy wrestle a stuffed penguin. "An armful of joy, but they're hard work!"
"You gotta love the irony," Sonic grins, letting himself sink back into the couch.
Tails nods, "Yeah, she always wanted to have your babies, and now she is your baby."
"Tails, I asked you not to start." Sonic groans, "I can already hear Knuckles, Shadow, and Rouge giving me a hard time."
Tails winces, "Sorry, I'll stop."
"Thanks," Sonic lets out a deep breath as he picks up the remote again. A few hours of TV later the sun is starting to go down. Cream changes Amy's diaper, and gives her a quick bath in shallow bathwater before dressing her in pink pajamas. She passes her to Sonic who bids his friends goodnight, and carries her up to his room. He puts her in the crib, chuckling as she squeaks out a yawn. Though he doubts that she needs it, he winds up the lullaby machine hanging over her cradle, and watches her pass out.
As quietly as he can he tiptoes to his bed, and crawls under the blanket. Is it just him, or is he actually starting to enjoy this?
Because of Eggman's latest blunder Amy Rose is now an infant. Feeling responsible for her plight Sonic decides to care for Amy until such a time as he, and his friends can find a way to return her to normal.
