Disclaimer: I don't claim ownership of Shadow the Hedgehog or Amy Rose (not that'd I want to…)
Inescapable Past
Part IV
Last thing Amy Rose remembered, she was standing in the trashed kitchen of her Station Square apartment, holding the hand of a wounded Shadow. Next thing she knew, she was lying in the neglected yard of some rundown house, in a neighbourhood dominated by dilapidated tower blocks. The glorious morning sun no longer hung in the sky, replaced instead by its lunar counterpart and the usual chorus of stars. Turning her head to the side, she found Shadow laying beside her, the Chaos Emerald still in his lap, his hand still clasping hers.
"Where are we?" asked the pink hedgehog.
"New Tek City," replied the black hedgehog. Amy blinked. In geographical terms, that meant they were as far away from Station Square as was physically possible. No wonder it was night.
"This dump one of your safehouses?" she queried.
"It has its uses," said Shadow, turning his head towards Amy and giving a faint smile.
"I bet," said Amy, smiling back. But as she held her companion's gaze, the pink hedgehog sensed something wasn't right. Shadow's eyelids were drooped, his blood-red eyes glazed and misty. Thing was, before GUN commandoes had blown up her front door, his vision had been fine, and even then, his aim had been unimpaired.
Sitting up, she moved to inspect his leg, and cursed. Blood was seeping from the bandage she'd applied. All that unassisted walking back in the apartment must have reopened the wound. Standing up, Amy ditched her backpack and bent down to heave Shadow off the floor. He proved to be far heavier on this occasion, a clear sign that his body was going into shock. She had to get inside and stop the bleeding, fast. If she didn't, whilst the wound wouldn't kill him, he would slip into a coma, and then it'd only be a matter of time before GUN found him.
Struggling towards the safehouse's front door, Amy kicked it off its rusted hinges when it refused to open of its own accord. Dragging the semi-conscious Shadow inside, the pink hedgehog cringed at the state of the 'interior design'; it was worse than her apartment, even after GUN's visit that morning. Lowering her de facto patient into a battered armchair, Amy dropped to her knees and rather unceremoniously tore off the blood-soaked bandage. Peeling back the similarly drenched dressing, she discovered her prognosis to be correct; crimson was practically spurting out of the circular bullet hole.
Looking around for something with which to cover the wound, Amy saw Shadow had dispensed with curtains in favour of boarding up the windows. Finding nothing to help stem the flow, it was after a moment's hesitation that Amy removed her towel and pressed it firmly against the black hedgehog's thigh. For several minutes, the pink hedgehog knelt there, hands clamped over the towel; her knees began to ache, and the cold night air coming in through the open doorway nipped at her bare body, but she stood firm until at last, the trickle of blood escaping down Shadow's leg and onto the floor finally ceased.
Her mission accomplished, Amy rested her head in Shadow's lap, understandably breathless. After a moment of silence, the sound of her patient's soft breathing reached Amy's ears. Despite how bitterly cold she now was, she couldn't help but smile. It was like when she'd grabbed onto Robotnik's airship at the EX Grand Prix, or when she'd laid flat that squad of commandoes. Despite the obvious dangers and ever-present risk of death, she'd found them naught but exhilarating. Maybe this whole adrenaline-fuelled lifestyle was for her, rather than the domestic fantasy she'd envisaged with Sonic.
Venturing out into the yard, Amy retrieved the Chaos Emerald and backpack. Leaving Shadow to rest a little longer before she spelled out what they had to do, she retreated to the bathroom upstairs to freshen up. Disposing of her bloodstained gloves, Amy sighed as she remembered the change of clothes she'd brought with her. In the heat of the moment, she hadn't considered the eventuality that there'd be more fighting to come, but now her sacked apartment was as good as off-limits, she'd just have to accept she would be fending off GUN in a scarlet dress.
Descending the rickety staircase, Amy was greeted by a conscious Shadow.
"How are you feeling?" asked the pink hedgehog, seating herself on the tattered couch opposite his armchair.
"Rhetorical question, right?" her patient replied, grunting in pain as he righted his posture.
"Look, your leg's going to need stitches," said Amy, getting straight to business. "Some morphine wouldn't hurt either."
"That might be a problem," said Shadow. Despite his fully-stocked arsenals of weaponry and gadgets, none of his safehouses or hideaways contained any medical supplies beyond rudimentary first aid kits - arrogant as it sounded, the hedgehog had simply never envisaged being in a situation where he might need them – a consequence of being known as the Ultimate Life Form his entire life.
"Well, I don't know how else to put this, but we need to get back to Station Square," said Amy.
"What, and let GUN try again at taking me out?" the black hedgehog retorted.
"C'mon, Shadow. Their headquarters are a hundred miles away, and their 'best' troops just got their asses kicked by a butt-naked twelve year-old!"
Shadow smirked; that he couldn't argue with. That said, a wounded ego hadn't stopped GUN from persisting in the past. Otherwise, they'd never have held back the Black Arms for so long.
Seeing she was dealing with the kind of stubbornness that seemed endemic in male hedgehogs, Amy got up off the couch, strode over to the battered armchair, leaned in and planted a kiss on Shadow's lips. Then, pulling away, she gazed intently into his blood-red eyes: "Shadow, you have to trust me on this."
Holding her gaze, the black hedgehog looked deeply into his guardian angel's harlequin-green eyes: "Then I guess you better get that Emerald."
Chaos Control!
Wary of any lingering GUN presence in the vicinity of Station Square, the duo teleported to where they'd met the day before. Then, leaving Shadow dozing in the battered armchair he'd somehow transported with him, Amy set off on the winding trail back towards town, en route to visit her old friend Vanilla, who had recently exchanged her picturesque cottage in the Emerald Hill for Station Square apartment.
In the wake of Robotnik's defeat, the Mobian education system had returned to life, and ever-mindful of her daughter's future, Vanilla wanted to Cream to have the best education she could. In a stroke of luck, the former Princess Sally had founded the Alicia Acorn Academy, named in honour of her mother, and the school had fast become the most prestigious institution on Mobius. Sally offered Cream free tuition, and Vanilla readily accepted. However, the rabbit's pride prevented her from accepting the same kind of charity herself.
So, in order to support herself and her daughter, Vanilla took her extensive knowledge of herbal remedies, amassed over three decades of rural living, and opened the Vanilla Clinic of Alternative Medicine. By using an independent pharmacist, Amy hoped to avoid being tracked by GUN, not that she or Shadow had any idea as to how they'd been found so easily that morning.
Turning down the street the clinic was on, Amy stopped in her tracks as she saw a figure matching the profile of Rotor emerge from the clinic, lifting a bed into the back of a pickup truck. Spurred on by curiosity, the pink hedgehog ran the rest of the way, discovering Hershey and Geoffrey St. John helping the walrus transfer his burden into the vehicle.
"I didn't know Vanilla was moving," remarked Amy, her arrival having gone unnoticed.
"Amy!" exclaimed Rotor, almost dropping the bed on Geoffrey. Dumping it in the back of the truck, he turned to face his old comrade.
"Why so surprised, guys?" asked the confused hedgehog, noting similar looks of surprise from his companions.
"We've been trying to get hold of you all morning. I stopped by your apartment earlier, but it was trashed. We were worried," replied Geoffrey.
"Why, what's going on?"
"It's Vanilla, Amy," said Rotor. "She's dying."
Amy blinked. This was going to complicate things. Considerably.