Lanterns

(THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BETWEEN SONIC RUNAWAYS: RESTRAINED AND SONIC RUNAWAYS: HEXED. IT WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED UNDER THE SONIC RUNAWAYS MISFITS SIDE SERIES.)

Amy of the Roses awoke to the sound of bells just outside the house she shared with Sonic and Tails after leaving Angel Island. Looking to the curtains, she could see the faint red glow of a lantern. This had become a common occurrence. This old-fashioned, worn-down swamp town called Kerosen, Veinia loved its lanterns. In this Zone especially, Flashlight Forest, everyone depended on such tools to illuminate their way at any time of day because of the trees that constantly blocked out any rays of sunlight.

"Go away, please," Amy yawned. "I'm sleepyyyy…" The small light didn't go away, it stayed in place. It cut through the darkness that Amy counted on to sleep. Like a knife through flesh. The fact that someone was insisting on standing right outside their small cabin put Amy on edge. She felt a cold sweat go down her face. She pulled out a tarot card that had an illustration of a Piko Piko Hammer on it. "Leave." She warned. She didn't know what this person wanted, or why they were standing right outside. Amy, opening the door, formed a large hammer in her hands from the card. The air was moist and tense. She crept forward in the desolate streets during the devil's hour. Everybody was inside, and no other lanterns were on. As she turned the corner of her house, she lowered the hammer. There was nobody there, only a broken, flickering lantern on the gravel sidewalk. It was not red. It looked like someone had accidentally knocked it over from the top of the post. The post that was just shy of 20 feet high.

"What?" Amy asked herself. She could just about make out a trail of glass mixed with the sharp rocks. She stepped forward, wary of her footsteps as her shoes made a crunching sound against the gravel and, every now and again, a clinking sound against the glass. She looked all around for any signs of whoever was just standing outside. Before she knew it, she had arrived at the end of the trail of glass. She shivered, realizing how cold and damp the air was. She had walked right into the wettest part of the swamp. She was miles away from her house. Come to think of it, what was she still doing out there? Even she didn't know. Unable to decide if she should have gone back or not, she took out her cards. "Okay… cards. Which way do I go?" As Amy went through the process of laying out some cards to show her the way to go, she heard a rustle behind her. She jumped to her feet, only to be bonked in the back of the head by a small, unknown object. Amy turned around and looked at the dirt.

Lying there, was a small, baby blue bird. Not quite anthropomorphic, but somewhere in between a humanoid animal and an unevolved animal. That would make it a Flicky. It lied there, unconscious. "Oh no! Are you okay, little guy?" Amy asked, kneeling down and scooping the Flicky out of the mud. "Wake up!" No response. The Flicky must have been knocked out when it flew into Amy. "Birdie! Can you hear me?" The Flicky rolled over in her hands and tweeted in its sleep. "Oh, good… he's alive."

The Flicky had a pendant hanging around its neck. Amy curiously opened the pendant and looked inside. It was a picture of three Flickies, one of them being the bird that Amy held in her hand. Amy looked around for any signs of Birdie's family. But there was nobody else there. The poor Flicky was lost. "I should take you back home," Amy stated, picking up the cards on the ground. They disappeared into little shimmers. "Sonic will know what to do with you. He can be your bodyguard!" Amy began to walk back to the house, when she saw a pair of crimson eyes looking at her from the path back. She stared back like a deer in headlights. Then, she saw a red laser pointer lock onto her, originating from the creature's forehead. It was aimed at her own. A beeping sound grew faster, higher-pitched and louder.

"Barrier!" Amy shouted, realizing what was happening. She held forward a tarot card of a shield, and it turned into a violet magical barrier between the pointer and herself. Just in the nick of time, just as the laser fired. The laser bounced right off of the shield in a brilliant flash of light, ricocheting into a tree. It pierced through that tree and then five more, leaving a few sizzling and meticulous holes that bled sap. "Come on, Birdie! We need to get out of here!" Amy ran off in the opposite direction from the house, sluggish and slow as usual. She was only ever a particularly fast runner when she had the incentive of chasing Sonic, and she had lost her warp abilities along with her Angel Statue form. Right now, she could only rely on her legs and panicked state to keep her moving through the swamp.

Amy evaded many more lasers as she continued to run. She looked behind her, and caught a glimpse of her pursuer in the lantern light. It was a green, red and yellow robot of some kind, scuttling forward with four small metallic needles. Its head almost looked like that of a squid. Worst of all, it was gaining on her.

"Thorns!" Amy shouted, as she grabbed hold of another card. Rose stems shot forward from the card, but the squid-like killer robot grabbed them and tore them apart without even stopping. It then discarded the shredded pieces of stem. "Flames!" Amy shouted, shooting a blast of flame from a card towards the robot. The robot bounced into the air and landed in front of Amy. Its hands folded into buzz saws, as it shot towards Amy from the direction she had been running. "Barrier…!?" Amy shouted, before realizing all her barrier cards were out of magical charge. She gulped, and dove out of the way as the robot nearly diced her. Amy then got up and ran as the horrible robot drifted around to keep chasing her. She dashed off behind the treeline, away from the lanterns. It was so dark that she could hardly see a thing.

She heard the robot tearing apart the trees around her, and she could see the glow of its crimson eyes as it continued to search for her. Eventually, she felt as if she had lost the robot. She stopped running, and her heartbeat slowed a little.

"Looks like we're in the clear, Birdie," Amy whispered, looking all around. A frightened frown grew on her face. "But I don't know where we are." She couldn't call for Sonic. Not that he wouldn't hear even from this distance if she really put her heart into it, but she was scared a wild animal or that robot could find her before Sonic would even decide to wake up. He was a heavy sleeper. Amy took a deep breath. She was lost, and she had to accept that. "Okay, cards… where to?" She asked, as she laid down a few tarot cards. She then heard footsteps behind her. Her focus on the cards broke.

"You shouldn't have those here," a woman's voice stated. Amy turned around and fell on her rear. The cards fluttered away in every direction. Towering over her was a faintly green anthropomorphic bird of some kind. She had hair covering only one of her bloodshot eyes. "Oh! I'm sorry… for startling you."

"I-it's all good!" Amy stuttered. She was trying not to look at the imperfections, blemishes, discolorations and scars that covered the woman. "Who are you?"

"I'm Tekno the Canary," the bird woman introduced herself. She helped Amy up. Tekno was very tall. Even compared to Amy. "You?"

"I'm Amy! Of the Roses," Amy replied, trying to sound happy and not at all scared. Of course, she couldn't see her own face, but she could imagine that the cheery expression appeared as fake on the outside as it was on the inside. Even Amy felt the awkwardness of the situation a little bit. "Are you Birdie's mama?" Amy asked, holding the Flicky towards Tekno. Tekno looked down at Birdie strangely.

"No," Tekno answered. "You really need to get out of here. If they find out you have those cards, or that Flicky, they'll send the robots after you."

"Then it's okay. 'They' must be the ones who already sent that mean robot after me," Amy stated.

"Oh no, no no," Tekno mumbled, glancing all around frantically. "If you have an E-Series robot tracking you down, then it's already over. They won't stop until they kill you."

"Why do they want to kill me?" Amy asked, irritated.

"Come this way," Tekno ordered. She walked off, and Amy immediately followed deeper into Searchlight Swamp Zone. "You came here from Kerosen, right?" Tekno asked. Amy nodded. "Well, duh. It's one of the few towns in the entire country that allows witchcraft. Just on the other side of this forest is Illedence, a city that… well, doesn't permit witchcraft." Tekno seemed wary of how her feet touched the grass. As if she was trying to make as little noise as possible. "Their mayor, Cleave the Moloch, is probably the one that sent that E-Series robot after you. It's likely still searching for you so it can execute you for your usage of the cards. I think it also wants the Flicky."

"Why does it want Birdie?" Amy asked.

"The E-Series robots are powered by animals. So I'd imagine they want another… 'battery'… for when the ones they already have dry up," Tekno answered. "The entire E-Series was supposedly an early creation of Robotnik. Yeah, THAT Robotnik. The Robotnik Empire's allied with Veinia, so the Eggman sent the first batch of E-Series to Illedence a long time ago. Apparently it was supposed to be an extension of the police force, but when Cleave took the role of mayor, he started using them to harass the less-devout towns surrounding Illedence."

"How do you know all this?" Amy asked. "You're smart."

"Thanks. To answer your question, I used to live in Illedence," Tekno replied. "But I was banished for heresy."

"That's it?" Amy gasped. "That's all it took for them to banish you from the city?"

"Well, yes," Tekno mumbled. She looked embarrassed. "I was lucky. They could have executed me if they wanted to." Amy felt a chill go down her spine.

"It's no good for you to be living out here in the woods. Especially when you're so close to Illedence," Amy sighed. "Why don't you live somewhere else?"

"I won't make it far without being asked for documentation, something I don't have anymore. No towns around here will harbor someone who used to live in Illedence," Tekno answered. "Even if I do manage to become a citizen in any of the surrounding towns, that'll make it easier for Cleave to track me. Out here, I may as well not exist. I'd like to keep it that way." Amy frowned. Suddenly, they heard an extra pair of footsteps behind them. They both spun around to face the footsteps. Both of them were petrified. Standing there was a red E-Series robot with a yellow visor. It didn't look as bulky as Zero, but it must have still been equally as dangerous.

"Put your hands in the air," it said in a monotone electronic voice. It readied its arm-gun. Amy and Tekno both had laser pointers aimed at their foreheads. They put their hands in the air. The E-Series robot took one look at Birdie, who Amy was holding in the air. Something glimmered in the robot's eyes. To both Amy and Tekno, the glimmer appeared malicious. The robot walked over and picked them both up.

"Where are you taking us?!" Amy cried.

"Illedence. Cleave the Moloch, my master, would like to see you," the robot answered. "Now, please remain quiet. You are very lucky I found you before the others did."