Sonic Runaways

"Well, boys… and girls… looks like we made it!" Vector yawned, stretching as he stepped out of the rickety monorail and onto the fluffy red carpet leading him down the southern wing of Casino Park. Thousands of diamond stars dangled and shimmered above the levitating city like a mobile above a glitzy million-dollar crib. The ludicrous drop down was only blocked off by a few precarious stanchions. The rest of the Chaotix stepped forward… now including Ata and Professor Pickle. "Okay, Casino Park may look fun, but this ain't no time to play. We gotta pray, and I mean PRAY, that we can get some decent pay!" Ata suddenly gasped and covered her mouth. "Huh? Oh, I was just winging those bars, I'm always open to constructive criticism."

"It's not your rap! I've skimmed through every second of Casino Park from the past few months," Ata mumbled. A brief pause where she could only fidget her hands. "I- I don't want to rile anyone up, and I certainly don't want to slander a big establishment over such sloppy research… But not a single person has won any of these games since the casino opened back up from the initial blast that shattered Erius." Espio and Charmy looked to Vector. He sighed, then grinned.

"Well it's probably a safer idea to get kicked out and possibly sued for suspicious activity than to risk never seeing our retirement days playing the bingo tables," Vector said, shooting Ata a thumbs-up. "Tell us everything you know… Ata, was it?" They all walked further into the casino.

"Ms. Roses? I would like to ask you a question," Cream mumbled, sitting in the backseat of Amy's Pink Cabriolet. Amy turned to her. Cream had her ears flat as paper against her back. "Why were you so scared when we saw Sonic? You must really…" Cream trailed off. Amy felt a nervous sting course through her body. She stopped car surfing and sat down. She saw right through the bright colorful lights into the darkness, the song playing over the car radio could now be clearly dissociated from the one blaring throughout the greater eastern district. There was so much noise.

"Nothing! No reason!" Amy cried in a panic. She looked all around, hardly keeping her eyes on the road ahead. "Cream, I need to tell you something about what happened earlier." Amy mustered up the courage to say what she had to say. "I don't think that was Sonic."

"WHAT?!" Cream cried, horrified. Amy's eyes widened.

"Shh! I… don't want to freak you out, but I think he was a shapeshifter trying to kill us," Amy whispered. Cream squeaked in fear. Amy bit her tongue. She knew she had to tell somebody, but she didn't know who she could talk to safely. One thing was clear: she couldn't confide in Cream or Big for their own good. No matter how much she wanted to. "Uhh… shoot. I shouldn't have told you that." Amy racked her brain to come up with anything to say. "Hey, we're far away from there. So what if we ran into some creep in a large city…? I think we'll be fine."

A sudden rush of wind and a crack of lightning overhead. Amy's heart fluttered, and only then did she realize what was going on. She looked to the sidewalk on the right, and saw a figure floating through the crowd, right alongside the car. It looked like Sonic. Amy tried to hold in a scream, and locked her eyes onto the road ahead. She took an abrupt left turn onto a craps table bridge, narrowly avoiding a bad crash with a huge decorative dragon float. "Ms. Roses? Was that him?" Cream squeaked.

"No, Cream. We're just seeing things," Amy sighed, trying to keep her composure. Cream gave Amy a confused look. Amy screamed internally for half a second, before gripping the steering wheel harder. "Cream, keep your head down. Mr. Big, put your hat over your eyes." Amy looked into the side-view mirror and watched the wolf in hedgehog's clothing bolting towards her faster than the car would go. She glanced down at the giant pinball table below the bridge.

"Why?" Big asked, stuffing his face into his hat. Amy instantly swerved off the bridge, knocking the stanchions down.

"Because driving off of bridges is a traffic violation! Keep a low profile!" Amy cried. The cabriolet made a bumpy landing onto the pinball table, Amy trying to retain control over her car as it spun out in the unpredictable maze of slot machines threatening to slow her down and bumpers trying to bounce her back towards the shapeshifter. The shapeshifter jumped down without hesitation and spun towards them, though he seemed like he was having trouble. He was knocked right into a slot machine and hit a jackpot.

"Talk about suffering from success! Amy, I promise it's the real me!" The shapeshifter cried, being dropped out of the slot machine along with a blast of cash. Amy took her eyes off the Pinball Highway, it wasn't like attempting to drive would do her much good anyways as her car rolled downhill. She looked at the Tails Electric as Cream, Cheese and Big screamed. Her mystery lead was typing a message. She glanced back and forth between the tablet and the shapeshifter as he continued to chase her. Finally, the message went through.

"What's up? I'm heading to Bingo Bar on main street," it read. Amy put the pedal to the metal and didn't let up. The shapeshifter lunged forward and clutched onto the back of the car. Big punched him in the face repeatedly as he tried to climb up into the backseat. The shapeshifter hardly budged as Cream shot Cheese at him to help Big.

"No. I'm not letting you ride on Amy's wheelboat!" Big yelled. "Go away!" Big grabbed the shapeshifter's face, and slammed him onto the road below as they kept driving. A streak of green liquid followed behind the shapeshifter's head. He struggled and writhed as Big pushed down as hard as he could. Suddenly, the glass road shattered, sending veins of cracks through the surrounding road. The shapeshifter fell through, and the road began to twist downwards. Amy tried not to look at the mangled visage of the one she loved as she drove right by the shapeshifter's freefalling body. They left the winding road and entered the lower main street just in time for the body to splatter on the pavement behind them.

"Is that it?" Cream squeaked, hardly able to speak. Amy didn't let her foot off the gas, making sure she kept her head down to avoid suspicion. "Aah!" Cream suddenly cried. A green laser of some kind then shot into the right side view mirror, tearing right through before liquifying and turning into a strange bubbling ooze on the side of the road. The same gunk began to melt away at the mirror before quickly burning itself up. Amy looked back as smoke billowed out from where the shapeshifter had landed. There was no longer a body.

The Chaotix stood at a crosswalk on main street, waiting for traffic to let up. "This is boring!" Charmy whined loudly. "I wanna play AAALLLLL the games, even if they ARE rigged!"

"Be patient," Zik sighed. "You've been crying for five minutes." Espio, bored, threw a rope onto a street lamp shaped and decorated like dice. He zipped towards and perched onto the lamp like a majestic bird. "Espio, don't make me come up there."

"Why not? It is the ninja way to seize any opportunity you have," Espio argued. He raised his arms into the air like wings, balancing atop the tiny platform with the tip of his shoe. "I am a beautiful phoenix in spirit, as much as I am an invisible chameleon in body. Duality. Balance. That is what being a ninja is all about"

"No, it's all about remaining quiet and not making your presence known!" Zik shouted.

Espio zipped over to the other side of the road, and nobody else seemed to care. Charmy shrugged, and flew above the crosswalk.

"Everybody DO AS I SAY ALREADY!" Zik pouted, as Professor Pickle and Ata jumped and ran atop the hardly moving cars in order to cross.

"Posthaste, Ata! We can make it!" Professor Pickle exclaimed. Ata suddenly stopped on the hood of one car.

"In hindsight… these guys haven't moved for ages! We should have tried this a long time ago," Ata called over the car horns, continuing on with her fists close by her chest as the color returned to her face. She and the professor reached the other side just when the cars started moving. The path was clear, and yet the walk signal still hadn't shown up.

"Looks like it's just you and me, you strapping crocod—" Zik was cut off by Vector stomping forward quickly and diving for the other side, only to be bodied by a speeding cabriolet. He tumbled over the now dented hood and landed on the window, cracking it. Two screams emanated from the cabriolet, as the car came to an instant halt. Vector was flung off the hood and onto the road.

"Is he dead?!" Cream screeched, slobbering on her own fingers in abject terror as she, Cheese and Amy piled out of the car, leaving Big to peer over the nearly shattered windshield.

"I don't know!" Amy cried, holding Vector up. He opened his eyes drowsily. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?!"

"Wow, I've never caught an alligator this big," Big mumbled. "I'm a little bit jealous, Amy." Vector struggled to his feet and squared up against Big.

"I'm a croc, you got that?" Vector asked, puffing out his chest only to feel a sharp pain rocket through his ribs.

"Okay. I'm sorry," Big said, standing there awkwardly.

"Vector!" Espio shouted, as he and Charmy rushed over to keep him from falling. "What were you five lunatics thinking? You're lucky it wasn't someone like Charmy…"

"Umm, don't you mean 'WE'RE lucky'?" Charmy asked. Espio kept his mouth shut as he began to sweat.

"I'm sorry, that was all my fault!" Amy whimpered, all of them running over to the sidewalk. She could hardly be heard through her sobbing as her voice became a high-pitched squeal. "I was trying to drive away from the shapeshifter and I wasn't looking where I was going and I hit him I'msosorry…" Amy covered her eyes with her hands and took a deep shaky breath. "What's your insurance?"

"Don't sweat it, ladies. I've been hit harder," Vector huffed, with a confident smirk. "My name's Vector. Now what's this about 'the shapeshifter'?"

"Oh, Mr. Crocodile… It was terrible! We're being chased all around by somebody pretending to be my friend Amy's true love," Cream whimpered as Amy walked over to Ata. Vector knelt down to eye level with Cream. "They've been trying to kill us, and we don't even know why. I'm a little afraid." Vector's jaw dropped, but then he smiled reassuringly. "Was that all correct, Amy?" Cream looked over to Amy, who was hugging Ata tightly. Cream looked on, before Vector began to speak.

"Well you're in luck, we happen to be some decent detectives," Vector told her. "My agency will track down this creep who's following you girls…"

"I'm not a girl," Big said.

"Kids…?" Vector asked.

"Nope," Amy and Big said. Cream and Cheese looked away embarrassedly.

"Look, we'll find whoever's following you and your cat and we'll make 'em hurt. Free of charge," Vector assured Cream. Espio appeared shocked.

"You own a detective agency? I'm impressed!" Cream cheered him on. "If I may ask… what's it called? I would like to write a nice review." Cream pulled out her flip phone and managed to access the web browser.

"We're the Chaotix!" Vector boasted as Espio crept up behind him.

"Yes, WE are," Espio muttered coldly. "So I believe we should have a vote on whether or not we become a CHARITY again."

"Wow… that sounds scary," Amy mumbled to Ata and the professor, as Vector and Espio yelled at each other and Charmy started chipping away at Cream's iron patience with a barrage of questions. "And you're both okay?"

"I'm sure we will be sooner or later," Ata sighed. "Well, that's a lie. Eggman and those Dark Gaia monsters might still be after us."

"Gosh, I really hope they don't find you," Amy shuddered. "I would do a tarot reading to see if they will, but I lost my Hourglass Card so it wouldn't be 100% accurate. I'm very sorry." Amy looked to the floor, frowning.

"That's okay. Now it's not all doom and gloom. We have some really good news," Ata said with a big smile.

"We have found the location of another World Instrument," Professor Pickle followed up. "Its name is the Silent Celesta, it resides somewhere in Mystic Mansion. Mystic Mansion is an abandoned house in Bloodingham, Veinia that's often said to be haunted! Would you believe it?"

"Wow, Veinia?" Amy asked. "That's the country Sonic, Tails and I lived in before this all started. I wouldn't doubt that Mystic Mansion has some negative spirits. Because while I might be wrong, I'm pretty sure Bloodingham was just east of…" Amy trailed off. An anxiety-inducing correlation between her present concerns and her journey in Glace County formed in her head and quickly spiraled out into dozens of worrisome thoughts.

"Everything okay, Amy?" Ata asked.

"Yeah sorry, it's actually nothing," Amy laughed. "We need to get back to finding Froggy and Chocola-Chao, so we'll leave. We also have a date at the Bingo Bar. C'mon Cream, Cheese!"

"Okay, we'll scout the park and keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. We're still investigating some other things around here," Vector promised Cream. "If this guy follows you out of the park, I hate to say we won't be able to do much. At that point, I'd say call the cops."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Crocodile!" Cream exclaimed, running over to Team Rose's dented car and hopping in with Amy, Cheese and Big. The Chaotix ran off further into the city. "Good luck with your mysteries!" Cream called, as they took off. The Chaotix left to check where the shapeshifter had landed, Cream had told them it was a good place to start. They were none the wiser as they passed their culprit who was hiding in the alleyway.

The Sonic impersonator watched as they walked out of earshot. "Odd. The disparate teams have willingly divided themselves so that I may conquer them?" the thing asked. "Logical error. It would seem that Amy has already broken yet another promise that SHE made for me. The liar. She cannot be allowed to run loose and further slander me… D3-COY #2, arrive at Team Rose's destination and bring with you the Robot Carnival." The impersonator forced a dry laugh up its throat. "Can you see me now, my loathsome copy? I can tell you're nearby… Why of course, you're attempting to reach out and re-establish another one of your piddly bonds with these equal-opportunity traitors. To prove yourself the one true Sonic to these fraudulent anachronisms that you ride the same, primitive, sinking boat as." Uneven, quiet metallic footsteps as the shapeshifter began to limp through the park, bleeding green. He put a tattered black cloak with hot pink spray paint over his head, and gradually morphed into something similar in shape to Sonic, but different. He now looked just like Midnight Sonic from back on Whale Island.

"Run along now, run to your 'girlfriend'. Let's see if you can beat me there THIS time."