The Right Reasons Chapter Nine

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CHAPTER NINE

I walk slowly up the stairs to Casinopolis and pass between the doors.  More Overlanders are gathered around staring at me.  Geez, it’s as if they’d never seen a blue hedgehog before.

Hm, maybe they haven’t.
I hate coming here.  They’ve got, like, this shrine to me in there, and I don’t even know why.  I mean sure, I saved their butts a couple times, but why does that mean you have to do all that?  I feel really stupid every time I walk in there.  And what’s that NiGHTS game about anyways?  I have a feeling they think I know that person or something.

I walk into the casino and wince.  It’s so garish…

I run my hand along the wall until it hits some dumb statue and I bring it back to my side.  It’s pretty empty, but then again it usually is.  I wonder how they run a casino that no one goes to.

“Amy?”

My voice bounces around in the big room.  It remains empty.

I guess I’ve got to find the computer room.

I’m not sure where it is so I have to wander around looking for it.  Thankfully the games are off.  I hate the bright lights and the cartoonish noises.  I poke my head in the shower room and pull it out just as quickly.  I always get the impression someone’s watching me when I go in there.

I’ve circled the one room in the place, so I duck into the banking room and take a quick look around in there.  Nope, no Amy.  I’m starting to feel a bit nervous.  How come you can’t find the girl when you want her?  I duck out from under that giant hand thing and run back into the casino proper.  I don’t have any rings anyway.

I’m looking around confusedly.  I need to find that computer room… where’s Vector when you need him…

Then I’m blinded by flashing purple lights and I run into a wall.  Amy must be starting the system back up… but where is she…

I stumble backwards and fall through the floor.

I land hard on rough concrete, and after blinking the purple haze out of my eyes I can see that I’ve found the computer room, judging by the dusty monitors and desktops spread neatly around the room.   I don’t know why they keep it in the basement… Tails would have a few things to say to them about that….

I brush off my bruised posterior and shake my head a little more to clear the fog.  I regret it as dizziness washes over me.  I put my hand out and it hits this random computer console.   When I look to see what I hit, I can see the tips of my fingers touching a button.

A red one.

I turn around and rub my forehead a little to get rid of the dizziness.  I really want to press this button.  I don’t know what it does, and it’s probably not good, especially considering what happened last time…

Okay, I’m not gonna press it.  I’m gonna walk away.  It’s a computer button.  It’s gonna start a doomsday clock or something.  I don’t know jack about computers.  I leave that stuff to Tails.

I look around the room.  It’s really dark and dusty.  I wonder why.  If this is a computer room, shouldn’t a whole bunch of people be in here all the time?

I go for a stroll, looking at all the dimmed computer monitors but there’s not much to see.  If there’s one thing I learned from Tails, it’s that you don’t touch another guy’s computer.  He’ll rip your face off.  So I basically just see blackness or occasionally green letters scrolling up a screen very fast.  I can read the letters, but I don’t understand them.

I end up back at the button.

Why do I always end up back at the button?

Was finding Eggman really that bad?  I mean I sure wouldn’t want to die like that, alone in a chair, nobody knowing or caring where I was.

The thought of it makes my fur stand up, and I shiver a little.

Then without hesitation I slap my hand down on the button.

There’s a popping noise and as I spin around to face it I see sparks.  Uh oh.

One of the monitors across the room explodes in a spray of glass and dark smoke.  Time to bail.

I’m glancing up at the ceiling, trying to see if I can just jump out or if I need some momentum when the dimness in the room fades to black.

My eyes adjust quickly to the darkness and I wish they hadn’t.  All the little glowy lights on those sleeping computers is creeping me out.  Like they’re a bunch of little snoring monsters and if I’m too loud I’ll wake them up.  

Then there’s a loud thunking noise and all the status lights go out.

I wonder what exactly I broke…

Then I’m yelling as the room is flooded with light, it’s burning my eyes out, and I fall against the console behind me as I try to cover them.  There’s a loud whirring noise and a lot of electronic beeping.

Please don’t let those computers be coming alive…

“Sonic?”

Oh boy.  I’m sprawled on the floor and Amy shows up.  Great.

“Oh uh… hi Ames.” I push myself up off the floor and manage to leap back to my feet with a lot more agility than I feel as she drops down through the trapdoor in the ceiling.  “How are ya?”

“Sonic, what are you doing here?”  She reaches out to grab my arm, but I pull away.  

“I… I came to ask you something.”  Thankfully my voice doesn’t waver.  

She steps back and leans against a desk behind her.  She’s got dirt on her face and her dress is greying from the dust.  “Well Sonic, this is sure a strange way to ask me out…”

I roll my eyes when I hear her usual attempt to be seductive.  “Ames, I’m not here to ask you out.  I’m never going to ask you out.  So stop asking me to ask you out!”

Amy leans forward and stretches her fingers out towards my face.  “Sonic, one day you’re gonna want a girl.  A girl like me.  Who you’ll want to get married to.”

I jerk backwards and almost fall over when I hit the console behind me faster than I intended.  “Getting married is the farthest thing from my mind right now, Amy.”

She steps forward.  “Actually, I think you’re thinking about it as we speak.”

Gosh darn it.

“Okay fine.  I am thinking about it.  But I’m thinking about NOT thinking about it.  So—“ She’s stepping closer and I’m out of room to back up.  “Amy!  Stop it!”

“Alright alright.”  She stops advancing, but she’s still standing way too close.

“Uh… you wanna let me breathe there Ames?”

“You’re so picky.”  She clambers up on the desk behind her.  “So.  If you’re not here to ask me out, what ARE you here for?”

I hop up on the table behind me, mainly to get as far away from her as possible.  “Well, I was wondering if you could help me find something.”

“Mmhmm…”  She starts playing with the bracelet on her left wrist.  “And what would that be?”  I’m taking the breath to ask her when she whips the Chaos Emerald out of nowhere.  “It’s not this, is it?”

“Well, uh, actually it is.”  I stammer a little bit as I say this.  My right leg starts twitching again.  Damn it.  I pull it up onto the desk and drape my right arm on it casually.  Stay still damn it.

She twirls it around in her hand for a minute.   “Well, we usually pass these off to you after a while, don’t we.”

I feel a little hopeful but force it back down.  Amy never gives me anything for free.  “Yeah, usually.”  I start swinging my other foot a little to distract myself from the twitch in my leg.  “You wanna… you wanna do that now?”

Amy looks at me, and her eyes narrow a little for a moment.  She shifts a little on the table.  “I already knew you were coming for it.”

“Yeah… I heard.”  I wonder how long she’s gonna draw this out.  I don’t have all day.  The longer I sit here playing her game, the more time I’m wasting to find the rest of the Emeralds.

“A little birdie told me.”  She continues playing with the Emerald.  

“I know.  Look, Amy, can I have that now?  I don’t have all day.”  My other hand is gripping the lip of the desk, hard.

Amy slams the Emerald down on the desk and I jump.  She looks annoyed.  “And I don’t suppose you can be bothered to tell me what you need it for?  I just have to hand it over to you, just like that?”

“I need it to save somebody’s life!  Is that a good enough reason for you?”  I’m tired of explaining this to people already and I’ve got so many Emeralds to go.  I gotta get a handle on my temper.  Yelling’s not gonna change her mind.  Oh God, who else am I gonna have to get the Emeralds from…

“Why can’t I come with you?  Why won’t you tell me who it is?”  She’s leaning forward on the desk now, eyes boring into mine.  I try not to think of just who it is I’m losing my mind to save and look away.

“I just… I just can’t, okay?  It’s really important, Amy!”

“I think, as your friend, I deserve some respect, Sonic.  At least let me help you.  Give me that.”  Her voice is calm and reasonable, and I feel myself softening.  For some reason all of a sudden I can see her being dragged away screaming by Metal Sonic the day we met, her rescuing me from Prison Island only to be captured herself, her being sucked away and trapped in time, and I’m about to tell her what’s going on when I realize just how angry she must be inside.  All those years of being kidnapped and used for bait.  All those years of being dismissed as a stupid fangirl, when she’s her own distinct person.  She must hate Eggman’s guts.  I can’t… I can’t risk it.  I can’t tell her.  If it were anyone else she’d understand.  This is Eggman.  And if I tell her, it’s only going to feed that anger, and maybe even take her beyond the breaking point.  That I’m willing to save a man who did all this to her.

And why doesn’t she trust me, anyway?  Don’t I always save her?  Don’t I always protect her from the worst of the danger?  Why is she putting me through this?  Suddenly  I’m clenching my teeth and my fingers hurt from gripping the desk so hard.  Why does no one trust me?  I’m trying to let them keep their peace, like Tails said I should!  Why won’t they let me protect them?   I speak without thinking through a sudden haze of confusion and anger.

“If you’re my friend, you’ll understand and you’ll do what I ask you to do!”

We just stare at each other.  My entire body has frozen, and the sick feeling comes back into my stomach.  What in the world did I just say.  And how’m I gonna unsay it?

Sadness flashes across Amy’s face.  It’s only there a moment, but the intensity of it staggers me and while I’m trying to get that image out of my head she’s crossing the space between us and pressing the gem into my right hand.

“I hope to God this person you’re saving is worth it, Sonic.  If you’re willing to treat me this way I don’t want to know how you’re treating the others.”

I sit there frozen on the desk.  I can’t move.  I want to run after her, screaming, giving her back this stone that’s burning a hole into my hand right down to my soul and corrupting it.  I want to run after her and make her stop so that I can ask, hell, beg her forgiveness.  It’s one thing to turn her down.  It’s another to break her heart entirely.

When I’m finally able to get off the desk I’m stiff from sitting in the same position for so long, and a section of my back is numb from leaning against a computer for however long I’ve been here.  I rub at it a little.  

My legs don’t seem to be in very good shape right now.  The knee Knuckles twisted hurts and I can’t walk quite straight.  By the time I make it outside, it’s pitch black.  I must have been there for hours.  I don’t remember it.  I feel kind of numb.  And it has nothing to do with my back, which is now tingling uncomfortably.

All I can think of is what I said to her.

I hate when Amy comes on to me.  I hate when she harasses me.  I hate it when she texts me, I hate it when she won’t leave my house, I hate it when she tries to trick me into taking her out.

But I would endure all of that, maybe not happily, but I would endure all of that and not say a word ever again if I could take back what I told her.  Everyone says I’m bossy.  That I take everything over.  That I can’t not be the leader.  That I demand everyone does what I say.  I’ve always denied it.  I try not to do that.

But those words… they were my instinct, I said them without thinking.  Doesn’t that mean they’re true?  Doesn’t that mean that’s in my heart?

For every Emerald I get, I lose a friend?  Is that how this is gonna be?

I’m with you, Amy.  I hope to God Eggman is worth saving.

I hope I’m doing the right thing.