I cannot tell you how happy it makes me that we are getting into longer chapters! As an avid reader it drives me nuts when there's so little to read X3.
Rouge stretched tiredly as they made it by to the safe-house. Shadow had kept up with her easily enough, though he didn't see how she could have expected any less. They had kept to the rooftops, keeping as discreet as possible. Fifteen checkpoints, all overrun with not a speck of life in sight.
"Thanks for the assist, Shadow," Rouge says as she pulls a coke out of a mini-fridge. "Most of the other agents are already at the new HQ, so I had this place all to my lonesome. It's nice for a change, even if that change has the attitude of a rock."
"Hmph," is Shadow's only reply as he glances around. It doesn't look much different on the inside than a regular apartment. There's a couch, a TV, a fridge, a mini-fridge, a kitchen, and a couple of cots in the next room. Rouge starts poking through the cupboards, and sighs.
"There's not much, but we gotta eat at some point, want something?"
"Whatever," he doesn't care. Shadow lies down on the couch, picks up the remote, and flicks on the TV. He feels a great sense of loathing as Barney starts playing on the screen, and it's all he can do not to crush the remote in his hand as he changes the channel. He pauses in his channel surfing when Amy Rose's face appears on the television, advertising lipstick.
"The hell…?" he raises an eyebrow at the screen.
"I told you they were in LA," Rouge plops down next to Shadow's feet with a bowl of popcorn.
"So Rose is famous, no big deal." Shadow starts flipping through channels again.
"MMM, not just her," Says Rouge around a mouthful of popcorn, and then she swallows. "Most of the Sonic Team, as they got labeled, lives in Beverly Hills. Amy's an actress, probably got the idea to get Sonic's attention. She's pretty good, as a matter of fact. Knuckles got scouted for heavy-weight boxing, and won the championship last month. No one's stupid enough to take him on now in an official ring, but G.U.N. Intel says that he gets by on a few underground fights, and the occasional bodyguard job. Tails made a new laboratory along the coast, and basically spends his days making the latest conveniences, and he's a G.U.N. tech-consultant on the side. He and his little Honey Bunny do alright for themselves.
"His what," Shadow raises a skeptical eyebrow at Rouge.
She tosses a piece of popcorn into the air, and catches it in her mouth. "I think you might have met her, remember Cream? She's the orange rabbit with the pet Chao?"
Shadow nods, "I remember."
"Well gossip on the media says that they're engaged. Well, they're both about nineteen now, so I guess it's okay." Rouge shrugs, and Shadow passes her the remote. Shadow hadn't thought about age in a long time, considering he doesn't age even a second. He'd been created over fifty years ago, and even if he hadn't been put into Cryostasis, he doubted that it would have made a difference. He'd thought that he'd only been away for a few months, but can it have been longer? Last he'd checked that fox had only been nine years old. Sure he hadn't paying attention to time in Yellowstone, just living day by day, but ten years? It seems impossible.
"Anything on Ivo?"
"If you're asking if he's in BH, then no, he's not. G.U.N. Intel actually doesn't know exactly where he is, or they don't tell me anyways. He's not here now though, and that's good enough for me."
Rouge finally just settles on a series called "101 Ways to Leave a Game Show", and leans back into the plush couch. Shadow puts his arms behind his head, and says, "Anything else that I should know about?"
"Wow, Shadow, you almost sound interested." She ignores his glare, and laughs as one of the contestants starts to scream while a monster truck runs over the car she's in. After she wipes a tear from her eye, she says. "Well, nothing's changed for Sonic, he's not in LA. "Not enough running space," he says. So he's out there somewhere, just being Sonic."
Shadow says nothing, just leaning over to get some popcorn before watching the TV. Four contestants are standing on what looks like diving boards on a ten story tower. They're given a question with four answers. They have to pick the right one if they want to stay on their feet; if they guess wrong then the host will push a button that makes the platform fall out from under them. There's deep water at the bottom, so they won't die, assuming they can swim, but they won't win the ten-thousand dollar prize money either.
"Why would they consent to this," Shadow muses aloud. Rouge replies, thinking that he was talking to her.
"Maybe they want the money, maybe they want to be famous for thirty minutes, maybe they want the thrill, or maybe it's all of the above; who knows? Hey, I'd do it for a little spending money, but I'm not that great at trivia."
"And you can fly," Shadow points out.
"It's a good thing too, because I hate swimming."
They carry on like this throughout the night, and after dinner they head to bed. Shadow takes a cot in the living room, while Rouge gets the couch. The cot is not the most comfortable of beds, but Shadow falls asleep almost as soon as his head hits the pillow. Ten years of sleeping on leaves, grass, and dirt will do that to anyone.
I think I'll try to post 2-4 chapters a week if I can. Please reveiw, and don't be afraid of being brutally honest, as it will only help me improve!
That reminds me; blaze13401, I realize now that I was being a little obnoxious with my reveiws. I'm only saying it here because, since you blocked me, I have no other way of contacting you. *shrug* And when I had said that I thought you might have been making mistakes on purpose, what I'd said was, "I think you might be doing this on purpose so that no one will suspect you of being a PROFESSIONAL AUTHOR." It was a compliment! I read Young Heart, by the way, very good work!
Anywhooser, please reveiw!