Author Notes: I'm going to try and make these a little longer. Sorry if I updated too late.

Internet Reference, Corner Pocket

Silver decided to do his exploring on the second floor since he was honestly too lazy to go up to the third floor. The second floor was mostly made up of hallways and widely spaced out doors. Some were bedrooms, and the rest semed to be entertainment rooms it looked like. The lights went out again a few minutes ago too. The mansion wasn't creepy, but Silver kind of regretted watching old horror flicks earlier.

It was after 8 now; the sun was just about gone and it was getting darker outside by the second. He would have to find a room to sleep in for the night, but he wanted a room he would feel comfortable in. All in all, he didn't want to somehow find himself sleeping in old man Gordon's bed since he heard the guy died on it. Because, let's face, that's creepy and a little gross.

Silver had almost made it to the end of the hallway when he started to hear what sounded like a toy trumpet playing coming from the other end. Silver's ears perked up immediately and he began to follow the sound. After a few moments, he heard that the noise was coming from the door smack-dab in the middle of the hallway. Silver pressed his ear upon the wooden door to make sure this was the right one. Sure enough, the sound of the trumpet was very strong on the other side. The silvery hedgehog wasn't sure if he should enter or not, but he was curious on who or what was making that sound. Also, the song that was playing sounded very familiar...

Taking a deep breath and holding it, Silver placed his hand on the cool door knob, turned slowly, and opened.

On the other side, the room appeared to be a game room of sorts. A carpeted (green and blue polka-dotted carpetting) room with a large flat screen, along with a lot of game systems and their games stored in a cabinet underneath it. Multicolored bean bag chairs were all over the floor, so were many varities of toys. There was a foosball table and orther table games in the room too, along with some long couches that lined the wall. But there was someone on the couch...

Silver saw a very odd looking girl sitting on the couch, playing with a platinum toy trumpet. She looked young; possibly Cream's age or a little older. Her skin was a deep purple; she had no visible nose or ears, just two eyes and a mouth were on her face. Her eyes were oddly colored; she had yellow corneas in her eyes and a white iris, but no pupils what so ever. Had long blue hair in a ponytail with a bang; wore a pink short sleeved shirt, a yellow skirt and orange dress shoes. She also had a cute little pink flower clip in her hair.

Silver released a sigh of relief and smiled a bit; the girl may looked odd, but at least she was the one making that music. But, it also raised the question of why she was even in here. Since the mansion was for sale, shouldn't the place be empty?

Silver had to put his thoughts on hold when the girl suddenly stopped playing her trumpet and looked directly at him. His breath got caught in his throat and he started to get nervous. Sure the mansion was supposed to be empty and all, but what if she lived here? Plus, there's the fact that he trespassed onto the mansion to begin with. The girl could start screaming for help because there was an intruder, thus getting him and the others in trouble. But it wasn't his fault; he was influenced by Scourge to come in here in the first place! Plus, they couldn't leave because they were locked in now. So why should he get in trouble for someone else?

But, that didn't happen. The girl smiled at Silver and started to swing her feet, hitting the bottom of the couch a bit since she looked very short. Silver smiled again and walked towards her a bit, a sense of relief coming to him once more.

"Hi there," he said sweetly. The purple girl smiled again and started to play the trumpet again, playing the very same song. But now that Silver was in the room with her, he could recognize the song very well. It was the Forest Maze song from "Super Mario RPG". You know, that game that's the only one just for you? When you play the game you get lost in a phase, and then you find out you're stuck in Geno's maze? There are many secrets in the game that it makes some peeps insane? So some people sometimes cheat in a really good game? Yup, that game.

"Hey, I know that song," he said, nearly standing in front of the little girl now. "That's from 'Super Mario RPG,' isn't it? It's the Geno's Maze!" The girl stopped playing again and nodded furiously, looking happier for some odd reason. "Heh! I love that game. I got lost in the forest every time I played though. I'm surprised you know how to play the song so well."

The girl placed her trumpet on her lap and gazed at Silver as if she found a long-lost friend.

"I'm Cobalt," she said in a meek voice. Silver smiled again.

"Hi Cobalt. I'm Silver!" Cobalt smiled at the silvery hedgehog before she put her trumpet next to her, got off the couch, took Silver's hand and pointed to the Nintendo 64 system under the television.

"Do you want to play with me, Silver?" she asked innocently. Silver nodded, and Cobalt started to jumped with joy as she eagerly led him over to the television. When there, Silver pulled up a yellow bean bag chair as Cobalt began to dig through some of the games until she found the one she wanted. Then she went over to Silver and presented it to him.

"This is one of my favorites," she said as Silver looked at the object.

"'Paper Mario'?" Silver said. "This is one of my favorite games too! Boy, you have good tastes." Cobalt smiled again as she turned on the television while Silver began to hook up the game.

. . .

"This place is supposed to be worth millions, yet the electricity in here is shit!" Scourge growled as he manuvered himself through a dark hallway that was behind a door hidden under the main staircase in the foyer. The lights had went out again, and this time they stayed out. So now Scourge had to rely on the faint glow of an Anarchy Beryl he had with him, and it wasn't doing much, which was pissing him off even more. And since he could hardly see, the hallway was like a maze to him. He ran into a few dead ends and somehow ended up back where he started a few times. His gem was about to go out soon, and he knew it. Since his home world, Anti-Mobius (a.k.a Moebius) had an unlimited supply of Anarchy Beryl, they go out quickly, unlike Mobius' Chaos Emeralds where the power is unlimited unless all of their power was sucked out at once.

Scourge decided it would be best to go into the very next room he comes across to find some sort of light source like a flashlight before his Anachy Beryl went out. And sure enough, that's what he did. Luckily for him, the room he entered had light in it, though it was provided by a few dimly lit lamps. Unfortunately, his gem went out as soon as he entered, so he wasn't too happy. But, he was still lucky in a way; the room he entered was a bar. The bar itself sat on the far right; behind it were shelves and shelves full of all kinds of vintages and alcohol for him to choose from. There were arcade games, dart boards, regular and pool tables scattered everywhere. But then something caught the former king's eye...

He wasn't alone.

He saw a guy that looked around his age at one of the pool tables, but he looked rather odd. First off, he didn't look human, or a Mobian for that matter. Dark purple skin, nothing on his face except his mouth; no ears or nose. Wore a Black Sabbath t-shirt, baggy blue jeans, spiked wristbands and black shoes. He had long silvery hair that covered his eyes, but not completely. He could see that the guy's eyes were oddly colored; green corneas and white irises; no pupils in his eyes at all.

Scourge was on guard; he wasn't sure if this guy was a friend or foe, considering that the mansion was supposed to be empty. Plus, they (mostly he did) trespassed onto the property; this guy could call the authorities at any time and have them arrested.

But he didn't. In fact, he didn't seem to care that Scourge was there in the first place. Maybe he was glad that he came along.

The odd guy finally decided to acknowledge his visitor, quickly glancing up at him before continuing with his game of pool.

"'Sup?" he said simply. Scourge just shrugged.

"The sky." The purple-boy smiled for a bit before managing to get two billiards in the same pocket. Though Scourge was still a bit uncomfortable, he still found himself moving closer to the boy and the pool table. When he got closer, he realized that the guy was shorter than him; he estimated that he only came up to his chest, if not that. And he saw what looked like a scar going down his right eye.

"You play pool?" he asked, resetting the billiards on the table again.

"Used to," Scourge replied. "It's been a while since I played. Might be rusty."

"Then let's test ya." The purple boy suddenly grabbed another cue from its rack and tossed it to the green hedgehog, who caught swiftly from the air with ease. "You got a name?"

"Scourge. You?"

"Cal." Scourge shrugged again before he took his turn hitting a billiard, but not getting it into the pocket.

"Cool jacket," Cal suddenly says randomly. "Where'd ya get it?"

"It was custom made," Scourge replied. Well, he wasn't lying. Before, when he was still Evil Sonic, his jacket was just your everyday plain ol' leather jacket. It only got the flames when he absorbed energy from the Master Emerald that day when he and Rouge ambushed Locke on Angel Island. How they really got there, he would never know. But he didn't care; the jacket became badass, so that's all he cared about.

"So where are your bros?" Scourge gave Cal a look as the purple boy struck another billiard.

"'Bros'?"

"Yeah. Y'know, those other guys you came in with? You all look alike. Aren't you bros?"

"When hell freezes over!" Scourge snorted. "If those losers were my brothers, I'd disown 'em ASAP! We just live together s'all."

"Oh." And then it went quiet between the two. Cal and Scourge took time trying to hit the billiards into the pockets. Scourge was indeed rusty, but was discovering his skill the more he played. He always played pool whenever he went on a booze run at the bars, but it was mostly for gambling. He never lost at pool, especially if money was involved. The only reason he stopped playing was because one of the players found out that Scourge cheated him, and it ended up in a fight, and the police were called. Scourge had already had more than enough warrants on him during that time, and he didn't need another one. So he stopped going to bars; not he just gets his alcohol from the local liquor store whenever he had enough money on him. Though, he missed his beer coming straight from the draft. Now he drinks vodka and wine.

It was quiet for a few more minutes before Scourge asked

"So whaddya doin' in this place anyway? Ain't this place for sale?" Cal found himself scowling.

"Yeah," he said "but it's only because of that broad Whitney. Phil didn't want to place to be sold, but Whitney didn't give two shits about what her dad said. She only wants money, so she put it up for sale anyway, even though Phil put it in his will that the mansion shouldn't be sold."

"So ya live here or somethin'?"

"Yup. We all live here."

"'We'?"

"Yeah. We were very close to Phil and his kids, y'see. But none of us didn't like Whitney. That girl is just a gold-digger, and everyone in the family knew that. Nothin' but a brat. We were so mad when we found out Whitney was tryin' to sell the place, so we started to purposely mess with her clients to get rid of 'em. It's worked so far, but we don't know how long we'll be able to keep it up. With the prices so cheap, we might not have much longer here. But we're not givin' up. We'll kill 'er if we have to, but we're not violent by nature; never were. We're very social, but we just don't like those people who're tryin' to take this place away from us...But we like you guys." Scourge had to raise an amused eyebrow at the last part.

"What makes us any different?" he asked.

"Well, you came right in. You weren't trying to buy the mansion." Scourge started to feel slightly guilty. SLIGHTLY guilty. "We've been lonely ever since Phil died...no one plays with us anymore. We don't get visitors, no one acknowledges us either. Until you guys came along." Cal hit another billiard with his cue, making it go into he top right pocket. "So you're stayin' right?"

"Just for the night." Cal's mood seemed to have dropped dramatically.

"...Oh."

"...But it ain't like we gots anywhere to go to tomorrow. I'm sure we'll be stayin' longer." Cal suddenly looked up at Scourge to find that the peridot hedgehog was smirking. The odd-looking boy smiled again as Scourge took his turn and hit another billiard. Still, unknowingly to Cal, Scourge was thinking heavily. Why the hell did he tell him that they were staying? The whole reason they were over here was the buy the damn place in the first place! And then that sense of guilt that came over him earlier when Cal said they weren't trying to buy the mansion...Usually he wouldn't give a crap about what this kid was saying. Why did it change now?

"Hey, you won." Scourge frowned as he looked at Cal and then the pool table.

"When, and how?"

"You got the 8 ball in the last pocket, so you scored higher than me."

"Huh. Wasn't payin' attention I guess."

"It's ok. Hey, can I ask you somethin'?"

"What?"

"How come your name is Scourge?"

"It's my nickname."

"So what's you're real name?" Scourge bit his bottom lip a bit; he hated his real name. His mom gave him that name, and he didn't mind that at all, but it was the fact of what name she chose to actually be his real name. And no, it wasn't Evil Sonic. Though Scourge would rather die than let a soul find out his real name; it was too embarrassing. So, he was simply going to have to "borrow" someone else's.

"...Maurice. But don't call me that. If ya do, I'll skin ya alive."

"I'm not, I just wanted to know."

"Well now ya do. So are we gonna play again or what?" Cal smirked as he set up the billiards again. Scourge actually found himself enjoying this little game, even if money wasn't involved. He seemed drawn to Cal for whatever reason; he wasn't sure if it was because he seemed just like him or the fact that the kid just looked weird. Either way, he didn't care. He was also trying to figure out how he won the last game.

"One more question," Scourge looked up at Cal with an exasperated look on his face, waiting for it. But Cal just grinned and asked "You got a square?" Scourge grinned, went into his pants pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"How 'bout we take a quick break an' then pick up the game?"

"Fine by me! Y'know how long it's been since I last had a cig? I get grouchy when I don't get my smokes. Haven't smoked in months. Phil supplied me with 'em." Scourge gave Cal one of his cancer sticks before taking one himself. Scourge put the pack back in his pocket before taking out a lighter and lit both cigarettes. It wasn't long before the room was filled with cigarette smoke and talking.

End Notes: I apologize for that reference up there, but I couldn't resist.

Ok guys, you know the drill, so you should already know what I'm about to say. I'm not the best writer in the world, and without my glasses, I can't see a lot things I should, but I'm going to try and correct anything that I see and missed.

And no, Scourge's real name is not Maurice. He "borrowed" Sonic's real name. and yes, Sonic's real name is Maurice. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Review if you want to; I'm not forcing you to, but I do NOT appreciate flames, people. So don't leave 'em; there a waste of both of our time. Anyway...

Thanks for reading! See you next time, and God bless!