I forgot to mention this before. All characters are copywrite Sega, and other media companies responsible for the international Sonic franchises (including DiC and Archie). This applies to all 'Glint' stories.

Story is by: M.C. Griffin (unless otherwise stated... I guess.)
******************

The night was always brightened by the burning lanterns on everyone's huts whenever anything bad happened. You walked solemnly through the streets spotted with dancing fire from everyone's windows. You might've killed Antoine. You would have been responsible for the death of a friend. You would've gotten away with it.

It would've been the perfect crime.

Bunny stepped into the strategy room right as Antoine did it. He looked at her the moment he struck down. Bunny's ears rang with the loud, messy crack sound that echoed throughout the village.

Antoine was stronger than anyone ever gave him credit for. You'd have to be strong to run your sword through a heavily armored SWAT Bot, or to run a pair of paper cutting scissors through your wrist, shattering the bone, and sticking into the table.

Antoine let out a bit of a whimper as he stared at Bunny, staring at him. She was stunned by what she saw. She never witnessed that much blood before but that wasn't what held her there. Antoine gave her a look of violent disgust. As if she betrayed him in some horrible, distasteful way.

You should know that the first thing she thought about was you. She dropped the book she was sent to get and it fell in the large puddle of blood that had collected. She seized the pair of scissors impaling Antoine's wrist.

He screamed.
She pulled.
He screamed.
She tugged.
He screamed.
She screamed.
He screamed.

"Don't!! I 'ave to die!!!"

As the scissors finally came out blood squirted from Antoine's wrist and splattered all over the maps of Robotropolis. Men shed their blood to get that info and now they were stained by Antoine's self sacrifice

"I can't live in zis lie anymore!!!"
Bunny ran out of the strategy room to get the nearby medics. The moment she tried to speak she through up.

"Our attempts are futile!! We can never 'ave our home back!!!"

When the medics showed up Antoine tried to get up and hit them with his good hand

"We're stuck!! We'll be stuck for ze rest of our lives in zis purgatory!!"

He fell to his knees, his blood smearing on one medic's face.

"We're stuck and zere is nothing we can do about it!!"

The medics made it half way to Knothole's poor excuse for a hospital. Antoine's self inflicted wound was one of their hardest to mend in a long time. There was even some worry that they might have had to amputate. You weren't surprised. There wasn't much holding Antoine's hand together. You watched as they stitched his hand together and attempted to keep him calm when he woke up half way through.

In Knothole there is no anesthetic.

His screams...

You became impatient with his struggle.

The lamp went out, and all was silent. The medic let out a light sigh.

"He'll be fine... Someone get that lantern!!"

You could hear Antoine's garbled speech as he tried to debate the doctor's decision to save him.

Suicide. You inspired suicide.

"Its... all... futile..."

The doctor left the room to wash his hands and you stayed and listened to Antoine.

"Fighting it just prolongs ze... inevitable"

"What? What is inevitable?" You ask.

"Roboticization... Zat or death, Robotnik left no other options" It was hard enough to tell what he was saying through his thick accent.

"So... why kill yourself?"
"It was zat or prolong my existence... until a fate worse zan death."

"There is no fate worse than death."

"Wha...?"

"Now you can either try to end yourself and waste a perfectly good body, or you can suck it up and except whatever hand your dealt"

"If I'm caught...? If you're caught?"

"Then we except."

"... But...Roboticization...Slavery"

"You never know" You smiled "It could be wonderful."

Antoine tilted his head as if he had gone blind in one eye. Then his eyes rolled back in his head unevenly and he passed out. You looked about the lantern-lit room with all of its tools, chemicals and medical books, some still stained with blood from keeping Antoine alive. Alive against his will.

You emerged from the hospital hut. The drama was over, so all of the lights were off. You saw Bunny sitting down, leaning against the hospital wall. She was almost camouflaged against the light, goldish brown texture of the hospital. Her metallic legs glinted in the moonlight.

"You gonna be okay?" You asked.

"Ya... I'll be fine." she replied uneasily. "I'm gonna hit the hay"

"Well goodnight." You said, walking away a bit disappointed in how this great day had ended. If Antoine was going to give them the grief of an attempted suicide the least he could do was finish the job so you wouldn't have to worry about his psychological well being.

"Y'know..." You heard bunny call out behind your back, "it wouldn't hurt to have some company tonight." The moon reflected so brightly off of the metal parts of her.

You smiled innocently "Is that an invitation?"

She grinned "I don't know... Could be."

The two of you held hands as you walked down to her hut.

It felt so odd. Only this afternoon did you attempt to relieve yourself to the thought of Sonic without avail. Only this afternoon did you realize that you ever felt anything for Bunny except friendship. Only this afternoon did you ever feel intimacy. Only this afternoon did you ever have a memory of my invasion. Only this afternoon did you ever vent your frustration, or speak in a disciplinary manner. Only this afternoon did Antoine try to kill himself. What an eventful day.

We had arrived.

To understand Bunny's room you must first understand a villager named Charlotte. Charlotte was a cat from the same industrial city that Bunny was from, although she lacked the accent. Charlotte was an artist of the dark, abstract kind. Bunny hadn't met Charlotte until after the resistance formed but she fell in love with her artwork immediately. Charlotte's parents had never been there for her and when they were it seemed to simply be to tell her how much of a disappointment she was. Her art featured black and red images of massive authority type figure making silhouettes of black in red archways. Large, scary. Other pictures were cold, death like pieces, one, a self portrait of her looking down on a worm coming up from the ground. The entire pic was done in shades of blue on white. Some of it was also very erotic, a highlight being a pair of breasts framed in thorns. Charlotte seemed to be able to make due with what she, you and the other villages could get their hands on.

Bunny's room was covered in Charlotte's art. A veritable shrine. It was all very creepy. You tried not to focus your eyes on one for too long as Bunny showed you around her room. You did, however, find one you liked. It was of a little mouse girl offering the viewer of the picture a dead cat. The blues and whites seemed to fit harmoniously with the feeling of the picture. It was called 'Evolution'.

The girl in the picture looked so happy with herself. Like she accomplished something praise worthy. Bunny came from behind you and kissed your neck. As you stood there looking at this creepy little mouse girl, Bunny placed kisses higher and higher on your neck. Upon the fourth kiss you held her head there. She began sucking on your head, flicking her tongue on your furry skin every once in a while. You pulled her up and the two of you embraced with a kiss. A long, deep kiss. Bunny's lower torso seemed colder than ever. Her cold, stimulating hand reaching down your waist.

The two of you collapsed onto her bed.

Images of Sonic began to flash in your head. Still unclear, still vague, but they were becoming larger and a bit less static.

No! You thought, I have to keep my head in the moment.

You pressed up against Bunny's large bust.
*Sonic jumping from something onto something*
Her natural hand grabbed your ass.
*Sonic standing on something with something*
You kissed her with tongue.
*Sonic running from something with someone else*
You pulled your head up, startled a little by the images now coming faster.

"What?" Bunny asked. "Am I doing something wrong?"

"You'd know better than I would..." You reply. Insecurities set in. "Are you sure about this, is this really what you want?"

Bunny reached her very cold, metallic hand to your face and stroked it softly. You remembered being paraded down the burning streets by my warriors. You smiled. "Of coarse." she said " I want you."

You put your hand to her steel hand and remembered waking up to town sirens.

You ran your hand down her mechanical arm and remembered Garret's violent death.

You held her cute, round robotic butt and thought of Uncle Chuck awaiting roboticization with the fake look of fear on his face.

The two of you kissed and groped continuously through the night.
You'd touch flesh and think of the hedgehog's blurry, blue image.
You'd touch metal and think of the happy murder and red fire of Mobotropolis.
Blue.
Red.
Bunny's two halves seemed to dawn opposite sides of the spectrum.

All of a sudden Charlotte's paintings didn't seem so creepy. They were understandable. Everything was love or death. Sex or violence. Blue or Red.

You didn't resist the images anymore. As you and Bunny kissed on her bed you just waded through them, and it began to make you happy. It began to become part of the sensation. A slide show for your mind. When the two of you finally finished, so did the images.

"Thank you, that was entertaining."

Bunny looked at you oddly for a moment. Then she smiled. "Indeed" she replied.

"I want you and Rotor to plan the next assault into Robotropolis, I can't trust Antoine in his current disposition."

Bunny's eyelids appeared to be getting heavy, it was late. She smiled warmly and said "Okay."

The two of you fell asleep in each other's arms.

Romance.

The next morning the two of you emerged from Bunny's hut with complete contempt. Your soft, furry hand on her smooth metal hand. The two of you had the brightest of smiles on your furry little faces. You hugged in public. You spoke with nervous friends, afraid to ask about why you were so close. They could ask if they wanted, but they never did. No questions asked, no secrets kept.

Your entire childhood, the adults would keep themselves around you. With other adults they'd cuss, cry, yell, fuck, talk of fucking, laugh at crude jokes and stories of personal exhibitionism. Everyone pretended that Mobotropolis was this happy, clean, problem free city and that Mobius was a happy, clean, problem free planet. It was refreshing to finally be able to express your true self with Bunny.

That is, until you came across little Miles in the Orchard.

Bunny had already parted with you to start working on the mission plan with Rotor. You were going to the orchards to pick some oranges. That's where you saw Miles standing on a stool picking oranges, his twin tails drifting in the wind, fallen leaves drifting through the air.

The sun shined through the trees in a bright orange and you had to shade your eyes to look up at him. Miles stepped down the stool with an arm full of oranges reaching up to his eyes. He dumped them into a nearby basket he had out for himself. He looked up and noticed you standing there.

"Oh, hi Aunt Sally!"

You smiled and your reply came out in a chuckle "Hey Tails, whatcha doin'?"

"Pickin' oranges fer' Rotor, he told me he'll need somethin' t'eat while he's workin'."

"I don't think Rotor needs anything more to eat." You said with a smile.

"That's funny Aunt Sally" he said with a giggle.

"Why can't you just fly up there Tails?"

"My tails get caught in the branches."

"Here, I'll help you."

The two of you picked oranges together, laughing all the way. This was the same little fox who has proven himself time after time to be a worthy warrior in the fight against me.

"Aunt Sally?"

Pick

"Yes?"

Drop

"I had a bad dream last night"

catch

"You did?"

Put in basket

"Ya, it was really scary"

pick

"What did you dream about?"

Drop

"A monster"

catch

"What kind of monster?"

Put in basket

"A big one, so big I could only see it's face"

pick

"Hmm."

Drop

"It had no mouth and it's face was completely red except for a blue forehead."

Put in basket

"Okay..."

Pick

"You were in the dream."

Drop

"I was in the dream?"

Catch

"Ya, you were running from it with me. I turned around a wall made of glass and I could still see you running and uh..."

Put in basket

"Yes, go on"

pause

"And then the blue part of it's head disappeared and it sucked you into it's forehead and I woke"
sit down on stool

"Wow, Tails that sounds scary."

"Ya, it was. I got up and I wanted to sleep with you but you weren't in your hut."

The kissing, the groping, the fondling. How could he ever know. You at first thought how horrible it'd be if little Miles knew about yours and Bunny's relationship.

"When I woke up, I saw you 'n Bunny were holding hands like she was your girlfriend. You even hugged her."

What do you tell the kid who has looked up to you for so long? What was your great response to hide the truth from this child staring up at you sitting on the stool? What did you tell him?

"Well, Tails, your Aunt Sally, it seems, is a lesbian."

The blatant, and corruptive truth.

"Do you know what a lesbian is Tails?"

"No, wuzza lebian?"

"Well, Tails your mommy and daddy loved you very much before they were robotocized. Well, your mommy was a girl and your daddy was a boy."

"Ya, I knew that but wassa lebian?"
"Well, lesbians love each other very much too, but lesbians are both girls."

"Ew... But I thought you liked Sonic though."

"Yes, well... I still, kind of, do."

"But Sonic's a boy!!" This was gonna be tough.

"Hmm... Well then maybe I'm bisexual, I don't know." You could hear some other villagers approaching from behind,

"What's biseshual?" What would they think if they saw you perverting a small boy? Think of the mark on your credibility.

"You're a smart kid, figure it out." You hopped off the stool and hurried out of the orchards, stopping only to give Miles a goodbye, and the villagers coming in a good day.

You, once again, felt dirty. Once again felt shameful. Once again felt perverse, but thus is the world and at least you told him the truth.

As you walked through the forest you head the machine gun sound of Sonic running down the path next to you and you thought of Miles' words.

But i tHouGht yoU liKed Sonic thoUgh.

As he got even closer, you began to run yourself, and tried to remember the flashes of images of him from the previous night...

*Sonic doing something and stuff*

... with no avail

You had picked up quite a bit of speed and the wind began to whistle in your ears. The wind blowing your hair back. By the time Sonic crossed your path you had picked up enough speed to almost be neck and neck.

You hit a tree and passed right through it.

You had picked up some more speed and the two of you were neck and neck. A brick wall popped up in front of you and the two of you rolled up into a ball. You were a little bit ahead by now so you smashed through it with ease. Sonic was now at your heals and lost a lot more speed when the two of you hit the loop-da-loop. When a buzz bomber showed up on the coarse showed up, you were quick to flip into it and destroy it, freeing the animal inside. You jumped on springs, and avoided spikes all while Sonic tried to keep up.

Finally you were equals.

Finally you could work out.

Finally you could relate.

You saw the finish line. A stationary sign with a checkered design. You rolled into it at such speeds that it spun around and revealed the other side which had your face on it, with just enough room on it to show you giving a victory sign with your index and middle finger.

Everyone began to cheer for you.

Sally

SALLY!

SALLY!?

'SALLY!?'

"SALLY!!?" You looked up at Sonic standing over you.

"Sally? Man, I'm glad you're okay!"

You gave him a coy smile and sang "I beat you-oo"

"Uh..." He helped you onto your feet to show you the tree right in front of you.

"Well, actually, you ran right into that tree."

It was the tree that you passed right through earlier, except with a big blood stain in the middle of it.

"It's a good thing I was passing by when ya did it huh?"

You tasted the blood leaking from your nose into your mouth.

It was never real.

You could never be equals.

You gave up on him while you took one last look at him before you passed out.