Confession Stand

The next few days passed in a busy blur. Rouge’s campaign kept Amy very occupied, rushing from one side of the City to the other as the candidate gave speeches, cut ribbons, and held fundraising dinners. Frying fish, kissing babies, and giving handies, as Rouge liked to call it.

Though Amy got a front row seat to everything Rouge said or did in public, the bat avoided her backstage, apparently fulfilling the candidate’s promise to Espio. Amy didn’t feel slighted in the least. It felt good to just focus on her craft instead of worrying if she was about to receive a lecture on cynical civics. She really enjoyed whenever she could pretend to be a Beta.

Her body seemed to be adapting to going cold turkey from the heat inducers fairly well. Amy found she had more energy and an increased appetite. She wasn’t as prone to succumbing to large waves of sudden emotions and, overall, experienced less skittishness.

Still, Amy avoided getting her hopes up that change was permanent, too afraid of disappointment if she took a turn for the worse. Besides, she’d have to go back on blockers eventually – real blockers this time – so the changes weren’t permanent no matter what.

At Dr. Quack’s request, Abby returned to the KLS offices every day for continued blood draws and tests. As annoying as that was, Dr. Quack’s team’s willingness to mold their activities to her convenience mitigated the impact on her work for Rouge. Having Bruno chauffeur her around sure helped too.

Amy hadn’t realized how much of her time and energy had been utilized figuring out how to get to and from places until she didn’t have to do that anymore. It gave her a new facet to view Shadow through. He was a powerful and busy CEO. Maybe having someone cook his meals and drive him around wasn’t just opulence, but valuable time saved.

But, let’s be real, he still should be able to do those things, right? Not doing something and not being able to do something were different beasts.

All of these (arguably) positive developments gave Amy the space take a breath, make herself a nice cup of tea, and think, despite all her activity. She could finally sit down and take a look at what her life had become.

And what a God-damned mess it was!

…Amy didn’t even know where to start.

First and foremost, she was so happy to have made up with Sonic. Now that they were reconciled, the scattershot of random Sonic texts returned in force. He sent her pictures from his constant meetings at KLS’ HQ captioned with silly little things.

And pictures of Shadow glaring at Sonic.

o man lok @ ths 1

I’m not encouraging this.

dude haz resting murder-face

Lots of those.

You frown at Sonic a lot…

Tell him to cease being the biggest pain in my ass and I will consider a reduction in disapproval.

You are still available to come over on Friday?

Yes! I’m looking forward to it!

I as well.

When Sonic was pestering Shadow, he was lamenting his broken relationship with Silver. The two spent a lot of time in the same conference room, but Sonic reported that Silver wouldn’t look or speak to him. The cold shoulder threatened to end Sonic’s determination to give Silver space. Good sense tends to go out the window in the face of a broken heart.

Amy’s chest ached for him and Silver, but she couldn’t do much other than comfort Sonic and give unqualified advice. Some ridiculous ideas had bubbled up from the caverns of her imagination, such as asking Shadow to tell Silver to get back with Sonic…but nothing came close to a realistic solution.

Speaking of friends in difficult situations, there was also Liam.

The poor jackal was finally off his rut and madly sorry for how he’d treated Amy when she’d visited him. Truth be told, he admitted over text, he didn’t really remember much what he said or did, but he was beside himself with remorse, nonetheless.

Amy debated how much to tell Liam and settle on everything…minus the part where his Voice affected her. As dedicated to her new policy of honesty as she was, admitting to actually being an Omega this whole time felt like more of an in-person confession…

Liam was predictably mortified at his behavior. He wrote a whole long (poorly punctuated) text where he expressed his guilt and shame. He understood if she never wanted to talk to him – much less see him – ever again. He had valued her friendship and it was nice while it lasted.

Thx fr taikng a chnce on mee

Amy rolled her eyes and asked if he had time to hang out the next week.

wyhy?

I know the world keeps trying to treat you like you’re always your worst self.

But I know you were trying to change and before everything went really bad with Ruby.

I just don’t want to judge you for your worst days.

Especially if you’re not that person anymore.

So, hang next week?

Was it so wrong to want to see the best in Liam? To let him know that someone saw who he was trying to become and give him credit for it? Liam and Shadow seemed to share the same kind of regrets and poor self-esteem, but Amy couldn’t image that Shadow’s past could be worse than Liam’s…

If Amy could resist judging Liam for his crimes, she might be able to do the same for Shadow when the time came…

Amy really did need to come clean to Liam, both about her status as an Omega and her relationship with Shadow. She knew there was something bad between the ex-con and the Kintobors, but avoiding the connection was probably going to lead to trouble.

Look how hiding Shadow from Sonic turned out…

On the positive side of Liam related stuff, Jacoline Doe had responded with a very guarded how the hell do you know that name*?* to Amy’s Prompta inquiry. Frankly, the hobbyist detective was completely taken by surprise. Maybe her wild shot in the dark had paid off and Jacoline was a distant relative of Liam and his brothers or something? Maybe she could give Amy a fresh lead on Two? Wording her reply softly, Amy sent it off.

And, speaking of Liam and honesty, it took an embarrassing amount of time for Amy to realize that Liam constituted a massive lie still in operation between her and Sonic. “Oh, fuck me…” She felt the revelation like a blow to the gut.

“Hmm?” Sonic hummed from the kitchen, “what’s that, Ames?”

Amy looked up from her phone on which she’d been arranging a time to visit Liam. “Uh…” Come on. She could do it. Don’t be a coward! Just say something, damn it!

“You…okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Sonic’s brow furrowed. He tapped a wooden spoon against the edge of the pot of chili he was making. “Did one of your relatives die?” He asked with increasing urgency. “Is it Aunt Susan?”

“No!” Amy squeaked. “No, no one died.” Except for her in a minute, probably. Oh god, may she shouldn’t poke this bear…“I have a confession!” Amy declared loudly, before she could chicken out.

“Uh. Okay.” Sonic turned the burner off and came to sit beside her on the couch. “Shoot.” He pointed finger guns at her.

She took a few tries to get started, but once Amy got going, the words fountained out of her like water from a burst pipe. Starting from the beginning with getting the job from Vector, to meeting Liam in the park, to drinking coffee and exploring the warehouse full of Starline drugs, to visiting him during his rut and learning about his past, every detail she could recall came out.

Sonic’s expectant expression dissolved into something darker and darker the longer she went, but he remained blessedly silent throughout the whole recounting. When finally Amy finished recounting, she balled her hands in her lap and didn’t look at Sonic. “That’s it.” She concluded, not entirely sure that was true, given her bad habit of forgetting details.

Truth be told, Amy wasn’t exactly sure she should be so worried. It wasn’t like anything bad had happened. Amy was allowed to have friends. Amy was allowed to take risks. That’s what all the independence she struggled to maintain was for: making her own decisions, good or bad.

Still, she’d hidden her relationship with Liam like it was something to hide…

Sonic wasn’t saying anything. Why wasn’t he saying anything? Had Amy spontaneously gained some Sonic-silencing related superpower? Yes, it’s called lies and deception.

Amy stole a quick glance towards her best friend in all the world.

His muzzle was pale. “Amy,” he said finally, his tone terrifyingly flat. “What the actual, flaming fuck?” Amy blanched back, cringing. “Are you fucking kidding me!?”

Sonic shot to his feet and started pacing, his fingers lacing through his quills in quick strokes. “Okay, okay, okay…Let me get this straight.” He gestured wildly in the air. “Instead of following some dude for his parents, like you told me, you’ve been stalking a literal murderer-“

“Attempted murderer.” Amy corrected unhelpfully…then she realized that was a lie too. She had it from Liam’s own mouth that he was had been a cold-blooded murderer. “Sorry, no you’re right. He’s- yeah, he’s a...he was a murderer…”

He stopped and glared at her.

Sonic!

Glaring!

At her!

Man, she’d really messed up…

Stop! No! This is more complicated than that. Relationships are not like failing a math test. The morality wasn’t binary.

The not telling Sonic part, though, yeah that was a major L on Amy’s part, but she was making up for that right now! Right…?

“A literal murderer, Amy Rose!” Sonic stabbed an accusatory finger. “An ALPHA, too! What were you thinking?” Okay, that’s rich coming from Sonic.

Instead of laughing, however, Amy grimaced. Sonic was sounding like her dad right now and she didn’t really like it.

No, she wasn’t being fair.

Amy knew Sonic well. He was upset because Amy could have been in danger and he wouldn’t have known. If something had happened to her, she’d have just disappeared out of thin air. “He already Claimed an Omega.” She tried to defend herself. Poorly, if Sonic was paying attention, because Amy had already started talking to Liam before she knew about Ruby. “He doesn’t even know I’m an Omega.”

God, Amy was making excuses.

“And the moment he finds out?” Sonic cocked his head. “What then, huh?”

“Then I’ll apologize!” Amy shouted. “Why are you so eager to assume the worst in people?”

Sonic’s lip curled back, revealing his dull fangs. “I dunno, Ames, maybe because the asshole has a track record!?”

Amy’s throat was tight. “Not every man who looks at me wants to rape me!” Her eyes went wide with the weight of truth that had escaped her. “I- I- I can’t live like that anymore…” She said, quieter.

Sonic looked at her with wild eyes. He opened his mouth but then closed it. And opened it. And closed it. Sonic – Sonic T. Hedgehog – was speechless, again. Talk about the worst superpower…

They stared at each other in silence for an awkward amount of time, both thinking so hard and loudly the lack of noise was deafening.

Amy frowned. “It’s not wrong to try to see the best in people.” She said.

Sonic looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. “I- I’m not saying it is…”

“Liam was just a kid when he committed his crimes.” Amy explained. “He had an awful father…I’m not excusing what he did… I’m just trying to say he’s basically a different person now…so I don’t think it’s wrong to treat him like the person he wants to be rather the person he was.”

Sonic’s shoulders slumped. “Ames…”

Her brow creased. “Things are really crazy right now, but for the first time in ten years, Sonic, I feel like I’m not living in the shadow of Rough and Tumble. Maybe it’s stupid to trust Liam.” Her hands balled into fists in her lap again. “Maybe it’s dumb to trust Shadow.” She turned and looked Sonic directly in his eyes, her determination cast in steel on her face. “But those are my mistakes to make.”

I am my failures.

Her scalp tingled as adrenaline coursed through her veins. Her body screamed for her to run, to hide, to flee Sonic’s terrible judgement.

But Amy was not her instincts, but she was her successes.

Amy was not her impulses, but she was her failures.

Amy was Amy for better or worse, and she was her choices…

She swallowed. “I know you care so much about me, Sonic, and I know you want to protect me from anything and everything, but I’m trusting you with this secret and I need you to trust me to make my own decisions.”

Sonic sighed and plopped down on the couch beside Amy. He was silent, thinking, for a long time as Amy sat stewing.

Finally, he said, “You’re right. I’m sorry, Ames. You’re an adult and I can’t tell you who you can and can’t see or whatever, but,” He looked at her with a pleading expression, “you have to promise me you’ll tell me when and where you meet up with this guy, Ames. I-I-I can’t be cool with this unless you do. I know it’s not kosher or whatever, but please? Just give me this one thing?”

“Okay.” Amy acquiesced quietly. Frankly, as far as punishment go, this arrangement was pretty minor. Hell, she should have been telling someone her location already after Liam ambushed her in the woods. There was being understand and there was being stupid.

“You’ve got a big heart Amy.” Sonic smiled at her sadly. "Biggest heart of anyone I know. And I- I- I couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt because of it.”

“I’m sorry to make you worry about me.” Amy leaned over and wrapped her arms around Sonic. God, it felt good to be able to hug him. Every time she felt like crying from relief.

Sonic hugged her back. When they parted, he rubbed the back of his neck. “And you’re right, if this guy served his time and he wants to change then that’s good, right? That’s what is supposed to happen, right? Getting a second chance?” Sonic shook his head and looked away. “But I’m having a hard time getting over thinking this is a terrible idea, Ames. That you can’t possibly trust this guy.”

“I understand.” She said quietly. “I know…how it looks.” Oh boy, she realized, Sonic’s reaction would be nothing compared to when Shadow did...She didn’t have the bravery for that, at least not yet.

“But I’ll try. I won’t stop worrying about you though. That’s just impossible.” He straightened. “Besides, I did make a promise, even if you want to nullify it. It’s my job to rescue you if you ever get in trouble.” Sonic jabbed a thumb at himself.

Amy smiled. “And I won’t stop worrying about you. You’ll always be my hapless knight in shining armor.”

Sonic held up his hand, pinkie extended. “Pinky promise, mi’lady?”

For the first time in ten years, Amy made a pinkie promise, curling her digit around Sonic’s. “On my heart and hope to die.”

“Stick a needle in my eye.” Sonic concluded.

They laughed together. Amy was surprised to find her chest felt lighter somehow. Like some weight had shifted…or been shared.

“Fuck me, Ames. I think I need a drink.” Sonic stood up, stretched, and went to the kitchen. He retrieved a beer from the fridge and cracked the bottle cap off with the kitchen countertop in the way that always made Amy worried for their security deposit.

The bottle stopped midway to his muzzle. “Wait.” Sonic’s face froze. Amy quirked a brow. “What was in that warehouse again?”

Amy’s eyes grew wide. “Right! It was pallets and pallets of Starline Pharma ‘heat suppressants’!” She bracketed the last part with air quotes.

“Holy shit.” Sonic lowered his beer. “What are the odds? And this is where the stuff is coming and going out?”

Amy shook her head. “Just going out, Liam said.”

Sonic canted his head. “Going out?”

“The pallets all came in at once and have only gone out since. And,” The pieces were coming together in her mine, “they all have the same lot code.” She covered her mouth. “That’s the tainted medicine!”

Sonic’s eyes went wide and he took a long drink from his beer. “Okay, so, Ames, you don’t know this, but, holy shit, that makes so much sense! Fuck me, Ames. You have no idea, oh my GOD!” Sonic slammed the bottle onto the counter and Amy yipped.

“Sonic!”

“Sorry,” he offered meekly, “but one of the biggest pains in my ass for the last, like, three months, was getting samples of the Starphar shit. You see, the over-the-counter stuff, the stuff you just fork over cash for, the stuff I could just buy, well that shit worked.”

“Worked?”

“Perfectly fine generic estrigestrelix. Did what It was supposed to. No problems. But then we’d test stuff we got from Omegas complaining about issues and it was terrible. Drove me nuts! Dr. Prower had me recalibrating and recalibrating every machine in the whole lab. I spent so much time tracking down errors that didn’t exist until we had to conclude that the prescription stuff was different.”

“Only the Public Insurance blockers are bad?”

“Yeah, only the prescription pills distributed by Public Insurance seemed to cause problems and those were tough to get to test because, well, I’m not an Omega and it didn’t exactly feel ethical to take the meds of someone who needed them, so we had limited samples.”

He laughed. “And the few boxes I could get a hold of all had the same lot code, so I couldn’t eliminate the possibility that it was a single small bad batch.” He took another swig from his bottle.

“Because it is.” Amy breathed. “One massive, tainted batch given exclusively to Omegas on public insurance.”

“Fuck, that’s diabolical.” Sonic waved the mostly empty bottle. “You’re one million percent sure this Liam guy isn’t involved, right? Kinda sus he works at a warehouse containing pallets of evidence of malicious, criminal intent.”

He couldn’t have known, right? Liam didn’t seem to care much about what was in the warehouse he was guarding. “Liam just wants to live a quiet life. He doesn’t want anything to do with a mess like this. He only took the job because no one else would hire an ex-con.” A job was a job.

“I dunno…”

“Can you trust me on this? Just wait a week and let me talk to Liam.”

He searched her face. “Okay.” Sonic said finally. “One week shouldn’t be a delay anyways, given how many lawsuits we’re dealing with right now.” He finished off his beer.

“Lawsuits?” Amy pushed to her feet.

He waved her off. “Don’t worry about it, Ames. Blaze’s KLS lawyer squad are on it.”

“Sonic…”

“Okay, fine.” He sighed. “Well, so, like, the lab is getting sued and Dr. Prower himself is getting sued. KLS is getting sued by Starline, ROCC, and the City Department of Health. Hell, I’m probably getting sued, too, I dunno. It’s…it’s going to be fine. It’s all civil suits.” Sonic shrugged. “Worse they can do is make us all bankrupt.”

Amy frowned. “That’s not really a great outcome.”

Sonic shrugged. “Chilidogs are pretty cheap, Ames. Be more worried for your boyfriend. Dudes like that probably spend ten thousand dollars to get out of bed in the morning.”

She didn’t like Sonic’s nonchalance, but if he could cut her a break about Liam…well, they could always go home and move into their parent’s basements. Amy chuckled. “I guess I should take your word for it.”

Sonic gave her a lopsided smile than decomposed into something a little bashful and a little embarrassed. “I’ve got, uh, like, also something else kinda not great to fess up about, though. Like, it’s really not a big deal. It’s, so like totally not a big deal.”

Amy leaned against the breakfast bar. “Your reassurances are having the exact opposite effect right now, Sonic.”

Sonic dropped his empty bottle into the recycling bin. “Look…look I just got to show you.” He produced his phone from his quill and unlocked it. He navigated to his email and handed it to her.

Frowning, Amy took the device and looked at his inbox. Her brows shot up. Sonic had dozens of unopened emails. “W-what is this?”

“I dunno, I figure they’re probably bots mostly.”

She scrolled through the list of subject lines.

Why did you kill him?

Maurice, you need to call mom

I KNOW WHAT YOU FUCKING DID FAGGOT

Request for interview?

You should be ashamed

Watch your back

Dude call mom she’s freaking out

Disgusting!

As Amy’s face grew more and more horrified, Sonic snorted. “You sure were right, Ames. Weirdos and freaks have been crawling out of the woodwork to harass me about Rough and Tumble. I’ve got my phone on silent because I was getting so many calls. My parents probably think I’ve walked into the river or something, but I just don’t want to talk to them about it. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“I’m sorry.” Her eyes filled with tears. If she hadn’t taken pictures of Geoffrey St. John, if she hadn’t been an Omega, if she hadn’t attracted the attention of a could of horny teenage Alphas…She should be the one getting all these terrible emails…Not Sonic…Not the one person who didn’t deserve any hate like this…

“Ames, cripes, this is so far away from your fault it’s insane. It’s all that cunt Geoffrey. It’s not that big of deal mostly. I hadn’t told you yet, cuz I didn’t want you to, well, get upset.” He gave her a lope-sided smile. “I guess I can hide stuff to spare your feelings, too.”

Amy rubbed her eyes and continued to scroll through pages and pages of vitriol. “Have you responded to any of this?”

“Nah, fuck ‘em.”

Amy laughed despite herself. “You need to reply or at least text your mom. Both Manic and Sonia are emailing you to.” She frowned. “If it’s this bad, why haven’t they…” She fished her own phone from her pocket. She had about fifty billion notifications that had been piling up over the past weeks with only the thread with Shadow being fully read.

And, yep, she had multiple missed calls from various members of Sonic’s family as well as a few from Amy’s. “Shit.”

“Ha!” Sonic jabbed a finger at her. “I’m not the only one who doesn’t answer their phone!”

Amy gave him a sour look and stuck out her tongue because he was completely right. “Don’t change the subject!” She chastised, changing the subject. “What are we gonna do about this?” She gestured towards Sonic’s phone.

Sonic shrugged. “Ignore these losers?”

“And when it’s not just texts and emails? When your face is on the news and your mom sees? What happens when one of these kooks show up here?”

Sonic sobered. “I mean, I have, like zero control over what Mom freaks out about, so that’s not even worth thinking about.”

“Sonic…”

“And, well, you’re spending some nights at Shadow’s, right?” He said flatly, still slightly peeved about Monday night. “You’d probably not even be here if someone got stupid. So, odds are it’ll be okay.”

Amy’s frown hardened. “I’m not talking about me, Sonic.”

“Well, Ames, I am talking about you.” He looked away and picked at his teeth. “It’ll be fine. This’ll probably blow over in like a week when I clearly don’t give a fuck. News cycle is fickle and all that.”

“And until then? What about you?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He shrugged. “I’ll figure it out.”

Amy growled, frustrated by Sonic’s flippant attitude. There had to be something they could do? Maybe get Geoffrey to back down somehow? How could she possibly do that? It’s not like she had-! An idea occurred to Amy. “I have photos of Geoffrey hitting his wife so hard she fell down.” Amy confessed.

Sonic snorted. “Motherfucker…He really is a piece of shit. Also, what?”

Amy spread her hands out across the stone of the breakfast bar. “That’s why he was harassing me at the wedding. I caught him arguing with Hershey.”

“Huh. I had guessed he was just being a raging creep. Now I see I underestimated him. Geoffrey is a piece of shift wifebeater raging creep.” Sonic clapped sarcastically. “Well done. Here I was thinking my opinion couldn’t get any lower of the fucker.”

“No contest.”

“I never got that asshole’s deal. Like, he wasn’t even there.”

Amy shrugged. “The St. Johns moved after, so maybe something like that?”

“Still doesn’t make any sense. How can he blame you for the fuckery his brother’s got up to?”

She’d never really understood the younger St. John’s rancor towards her. “Rough is dead. Maybe something happened there?”

“Again, whatever it was, you had nothing to do with it. So, like, you’re gonna leak the pictures to the press or something, right? Show the whole City was a scumbag he is?”

Amy shook her head. “Rouge didn’t want me to publish them. She thinks it’ll only hurt me and help Geoffrey.”

“What?” Sonic grimaced, incredulous. “What kinda backwards world do we live in?”

“Rouge can be kinda cynical.” Amy traced the seam of her gloves with her thumb. And Rouge wasn’t always right…She was right, like, ninety percent of the time, but not one hundred percent! “Maybe too cynical.”

“Well,” Sonic picked up his phone and brandished it, “I’ve had like fifty reporters try to interview me or get me to answer questions. I ain’t saying shit…but maybe one of them might be useful. Maybe if some of Geoffrey’s dirty laundry gets aired, he’ll tell his goons to back off? Glass houses and what not?”

“But he’ll know they came from me.” Amy frowned. That would take some of the heat off Sonic right? But then there was Geoffrey’s threat. I’ll let Tumble know you said ‘hi’. He just loves dropping in on old classmates unannounced.

Amy shivered. Luckily Sonic didn’t seem to notice.

“If the skunk hit is wife once,” Sonic’s brow furrowed in concentration, “he probably has done it other times. Maybe there’s other evidence of it out there?” He wiggled his phone at Amy.

She nodded. “Maybe.”

“Some of these investigative journalist guys are pretty good.” Sonic looked at his phone, thumbing it open and scrolling through his email. “Like one reporter connected all these dots about me. See there were a couple pictures of me and Silver from the rut riot and he paired it up with the shit with Rough and Tumble. The guy had this whole story about how I had a grudge against Geoffrey, so I coerced my boss and my lover into getting KLS to attack Starphar to create all sorts of news churn about Omegas. Total bullshit…but if some crackpot could find all that out in a week…Someone who’s not nuts could probably make a nice meal of it.”

“T-that could work!” Amy exclaimed. Sonic grinned. “And there’s no way they could peg any of this on you, you know. That would be absurd.”

“I mean,” Sonic snorted, “there is a literal fucking conspiracy going on, Ames. I’m just not the mastermind of it.”

So, who was? Was it a coincidence that Starline was causing rut riots and Geoffrey’s platform had plans for Omegas…would there even be a snap election if Mayor Jewel hadn’t been forced out because of the rut riots? Holy shit…

“Wait,” Amy frowned, “what does Geoffrey got to do with Starline Pharma?”

“Geoffrey was the Health Department official who approved the Starline heat suppressants before he quit to run for mayor. If Starphar gets found out, Geoffrey is fucked.”

Amy’s eyes went wide. “Oh my god, this is a conspiracy!” There was still some piece missing though…why was Starline Pharmaceuticals helping Geoffrey become mayor in such a crazy way? Why not just give him a ton of money like a normal corporation?

“Yeah, one KLS and Prower Labs is getting buried in lawsuits to cover up.” Sonic growled. “In the meantime, another rut riot could happen at any moment and who knows how many Omegas are getting hurt by unknowingly taking inducers.”

Amy had an idea. “They’re dying.” She said softly.

“What?”

“I’m on an Omega forum a lot and there have been lots of heart attacks killing Omegas recently. Remember you told me there could be heart problems if I took too much of my meds, right?”

Instead of answering, Sonic snatched away his phone and began typing furiously on it.

“Sonic?”

“That’s the mortality we needed! Proof of irreversible harm! Oh my god, Ames, between this and your warehouse full of tainted meds, I think- I dunno- We maybe got more firepower than we though.” His fingers flew across the screen, typing up notes or an email message. “How many? Do you know?”

“How many?”

Sonic didn’t look up form his phone. “How many Omegas have died because of Starline’s tainted crap?”

“I don’t know.” But Orion might. “I can ask though.”

“Could you, please?” Sonic looked up at her with glimmering green eyes full of so much sincerity it made Amy’s chest hurt. He really, truly, deeply cared about people he didn’t even know, people he wouldn’t ever meet. She nodded.

“And, do you think you can get that Liam guy to provide evidence or testify or something?”

“What?”

“If he’s not part of this then he could help us. Can you ask him?”

Amy rubbed her arm. “Yeah. I can ask. I don’t think he’s going to want to get involved, but maybe he could stay anonymous?”

“Anything’ll help to nail these bastards. And we need to get Vector involved. He’s a detective, right? I bet he can get all the pieces together!”

“Vector…right.” Amy bit her lip.

Sonic squinted at her. “What’s wrong?”

“Vector doesn’t really…know that I’ve become friends with Liam.”

Sonic’s shoulders slumped and he gave her an unimpressed look. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Amy’s cheeks heated. “I’ll tell him.” She said in a small voice. “You’re right. We need some help.” This was ballooning so quickly.

“We’ll have to be carful who we pick to break the story.”

“Which one?”

“Geoffrey’s domestic violence or the who Starline kit and kaboodle. Whoever we go with has to be legit so it doesn’t hit like some internet conspiracy.”

Amy pulled out her phone. Rouge would know…but she’d be pretty pissed to learn Amy was looking to make a target of herself. Who else did she know who they’d trust with something like this?

She pulled up her text chat with Shadow.

Do you know anyone in the media?

As always, the reply came almost immediately.

Yes.

Why?

It’s hard to explain. Cna tell you in person?

Three dots blinked for a while as Shadow typed, but the message, when it finally came, was very short.

Very well…

Amy sighed. What was even happening right now? She had been enjoying everything settling down a little.

“Whoo!” Sonic cried out. “And SENT!” He pumped his fist into the air. “I’m wired, Amy! Everything’s starting to make sense! We’re going to get these sleaze bags! You hungry?”

She didn’t quite share Sonic’s enthusiasm. There were sooooo many ways everything could go wrong. They could be incorrect with their assumptions. Starline Pharma could retaliate even more strongly. She swallowed. “I could eat.” Amy admitted.

Sonic turned the burner back on for his chili.

“I guess we’ll just have to play it by ear, then.” Sonic went to the fridge and retrieved another beer. He popped the cap in the same way as before and held it up. “Here’s to the craziest fall ever.”

Amy got her own beer to match and they clinked their bottles. “Here here.”