Author's Note: Things are starting to heat up now. I'm tweaking a few details in the storyline, but for the most part these earlier chapters will be the AWAE you read so long ago.
Shadow couldn't help but feel odd as he sat down on the sofa in Amy's living room. He had barely spent an hour with her, but now he was being welcomed to stay in her modest, but comfortable apartment. Even though she made it clear that he would only live with her until other arrangements could be made, and that he had to sleep on said sofa, he still felt like he didn't deserve to live in such comfort.
Amy, meanwhile, was making some cold drinks. She had so much to tell him, and figured that having some refreshments available would make the conversation more pleasant. She poured herself some iced tea which usied her martial-arts teacher's favorite blend, and then paused when she realized that she had never asked Shadow about what he wanted.
"Hey, Shadow, what do you want to drink?" she asked. "I've got tea, soda, milk, orange juice…"
"Just some water…I don't mind if it's from the tap," Shadow replied, still a bit uneasy about being here. Amy poured him a glass of water from a faucet near the main one that was attached to a water filter, and dropped some ice cubes in it. Finally, she took the two glasses and brought them over to where Shadow was, and placed the glass of water near him before she sat down cross-legged on the carpet opposite from him, on a mat that had been placed there.
"Well, do you like the place?" she asked him. "I know it's not much, but I call it home." Shadow nodded pensively as he sipped his drink a bit. The cold water was nice going down his throat. The ARK's water always tasted somewhat foul, and he never needed much of it anyway.
"I'm glad you do, since my brother is paying for it and all," Amy replied as she took a sip of her own drink. "That Edgar Bishop doesn't like me to waste his government pay." Shadow raised an eyebrow at the name Edgar Bishop. It was a name Rouge had mentioned once.
"Isn't he one of GUN's top snipers?" Shadow asked. "You're related to him?" Amy made a sad smile, but shook her head.
"Well, he's my adopted brother. But he's almost always been there for me. Ever since he joined GUN, Edy's been using his paycheck to let me live on my own. I haven't seen him in a long time, though he does call me at least once a month."
Shadow nodded thoughtfully. Rouge had mentioned to him before the invasion that the Bishop family of hedgehogs was extremely influential in the military, the only Mobian family to have such prestige. While they were responsible for many victories in past battle (Edgar himself contributed significantly to the crushing of a terrorist organization) conspiracy theorists also believed to be involved in many shady operations in the government.
"You should consider yourself lucky, then," Shadow replied. "Rouge has told me he's a fine soldier." Amy nodded. There was a brief moment of silence before they heard a cell phone ring. Amy reached into her pocket and extracted her cell phone before opening it.
"Well, speak of the devil!" she said in greeting. "I was just thinking about you, Edy! What's up?" Shadow displayed obvious interest in the conversation, and listened closely.
"I'm just doing my usual check-up on my little sis. What's going on with you, Amy?"
"I'm talking to…" she replied while giggling. "Get ready for this…Shadow! You know…the one who stopped the Black Arms invasion? That Shadow!"
For a moment, there was silence, and then he hung up. Amy looked absolutely dumbfounded as she hung up the phone. Shadow, on the other hand, sensed that something suspicious was going on. He didn't know what, but he already knew from Rouge that the Bishops were quite secretive.
The question was…what did the Bishop family have to hide from her? It was a mystery he would solve once he got into contact with Rouge. But he decided that a topic change was needed, and he quickly found it in the various framed works of art Amy had created and hung up on the walls.
"Wow, Amy…you sure are quite the artist…I never thought you as the artsy type," he commented as he got up and looked around at the various works. "When did you start doing art?"
"A few months after the invasion," she replied. "I started taking classes as a way to keep myself occupied when Sonic wasn't around. I do some painting when I'm in the mood, but I draw most of the time."
Shadow was examining one of the paintings. It was a self-portrait of Amy tossing a framed picture of Sonic over her shoulder. She seemed content with herself in that moment frozen in time.
"I see you found one of my favorite works," Amy replied. "It was one I had started back when Sonic and I were dating. I didn't know how to finish it until after we broke up."
Shadow nodded thoughtfully. "So the picture represents you getting over him?"
"Wow, you're good at reading into art," she replied with some surprise. She never knew Shadow was so cultured.
"Well, it's wasn't all that hard, considering what you told me," the black hedgehog replied with a shrug.
Amy giggled at how shallow the painting's meaning was in retrospect. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. "Say, you want me to draw you a portrait?" she asked Shadow. "Not a painting, just a sketch."
"Well, I suppose…" Shadow replied.
"Great! Go sit over there in the light, would you?" Amy said eagerly as she dragged Shadow under a lamp she had on the left side of couch, which was in a corner of the room. She sat him down there and rushed back into her bedroom to get a sketchpad and paper, leaving the black hedgehog stumped. She returned and sat down on the other end of the couch, opposite Shadow.
"Okay, Shad…pose for me."
Shadow did so as best as he could.
"How's this, Amy?" he asked.
"That's too rigid," Amy replied, shaking her head. "Relax a little, be a little more natural." Shadow adjusted his position to a more comfortable one to comply with her demands. He wondered just what else he'd have to deal with, now that he was her friend.
"How about now?" he asked.
"Perfect! Now stay niiice and still…" she said. She eyed him carefully, and began her work. She moved her pencil carefully, and occasionally glanced up from her sketchbook to make sure she was getting a certain curve just right. It took her a half-hour before she felt satisfied with her work.
"Okay…I think I can finish it from here," Amy said with a satisfactory sigh. "You can get up now."
Shadow did so, and went over to examine Amy's progress. The sketch was quite good, but one thing did surprise the ebon hedgehog…Amy had put a little smile on his face, rather than his typical stoic expression.
"Oh, that's cute…veeery cute!" Shadow groaned. "You know very well I don't look like that!"
"I think you look fine with a smile," Amy replied with a smile of her own.
Getting out of bed was no longer worth it for Tahra. The loss of contact with her parents and the disappearance of her brother caused her to fall into a crushing depression. Tahra's depression kept her from doing many of the things she did: she could not go to art classes, work at Leopoldo's, or even hang out with the few friends she had. All she wanted to do now was to lie in bed and mope.
Even though she spent a lot of her life in the human society and adapted many of the customs and beliefs that humans held, she never felt at home there. Now that she was essentially stranded here with few friends, and the disconnection from her real home was too much.
As Tahra lied there in bed, she heard the doorbell ring. The girl lethargically rolled out of bed and trudged half-heartedly toward the door. As she slowly made her way, the doorbell kept ringing, as if the one at the door was impatient. The persistent ringing served only to irritate her.
"Yeah, yeah, keep your shorts on!" Tahra groaned loudly as she reached the door. Upon opening it, she was greeted by having a heavy book shoved into her hands. She looked up and saw Amy and Shadow, the latter of which she didn't recognize. Amy was smiling in a friendly way, while Shadow, still cloaked, seemed very impatient.
"Amy…w-what are you doing here?" the purple hedgehog exclaimed, her spirit revitalized a bit. "And what's this all about…and who's that under the hood?"
"In the few times I've been here, it looks like you're obsessed with some ancient hedgehog civilization," Amy replied, "And there's a special exhibit at the Westopolis Museum about the civilization, so we decided to go there, and bring you this book as a souvenir. Sonic told me you've been really depressed about your family, so we came to try and cheer you up."
Tahra smiled with gratitude. But she was still curious about the hooded fellow behind Amy. Her question was soon answered when she let the two come inside. Shadow removed his hood and looked around. Despite the police's cleanup efforts, they couldn't remove all the damage done by the attack. There were still long gouges in the wall, made by large claws, and some evidence of scorching. Most of the items decorating the room were either damaged or entirely new, replacing old items that were destroyed in the attack.
"What tore this place apart?" Shadow asked in his usual cold tone.. Tahra finally saw Shadow's face and was quite surprised, as she recognized him from news reports.
"Amy…you didn't tell you knew the hero Shadow too!" she exclaimed. "First I meet Sonic, now this guy!" Shadow rolled his eyes. He didn't like being reminded of his heroics.
"Shadow's not the talking type. C'mon, I'll show you what's in the book," Amy said as she hopped on the couch. "It's really interesting." Tahra joined her, interested to see what the humans had learned about the civilization. Shadow, who wasn't so interested, started perusing the various knick-knacks arranged on a shelf. Meanwhile, Amy started flipping through the book, stopping at a picture of a pair of white rings.
"These rings were found in the tomb of the burial ground of some priest," she explained. "They also found some old writing on the priest's coffin. They haven't been able to decipher it, though. But Knuckles seems to know a thing or two about ancient civilizations. Maybe he could read it."
"…Friend of yours?" Tahra asked, genuinely interested about him. Perhaps he could be a link from the human society to the own she knew best.
"Yeah," Amy replied. "He's the guardian of some huge gem called the Master Emerald. It's so powerful, it has the ability to counter and negate the energy of the seven Chaos Emeralds."
"So he's the current guardian," she mumbled to herself in the same language she used in the conversation with her parents on that fateful day. Amy looked at Tahra in a confused way. Meanwhile, Shadow was examining one of the objects on the shelf: a pool-ball sized white sphere with a flattened bottom. It was inscribed with similar writing to the objects he had seen in the museum.
This was writing Shadow was not unfamiliar with. He had discovered records of it in Professor Gerald's notes that were still saved on the ARK. In fact, the phrase on this orb was exactly the same as one he had seen in Gerald's notes.
"…Goddess' whispering wind…the ring and sphere send words between the appointed" he said. "That's what the writing on this thing says." Tahra looked over at Shadow and then got up. The phrase struck a chord with her.
"What does that mean?" Amy asked. "It sounds like nonsense to me." All of a sudden, Tahra suddenly ran over to Amy, pulled her up off the couch and started shoving her toward the door. Amy was completely befuddled by her friend's behavior, but she was obviously in a good mood.
"Well you two it was great to see you," Tahra rambled excitedly as she opened the door and nudged Amy and Shadow out, "But I just remembered I have something important to do and I reeeeeaaally need to do it by myself okay good to see you bye!" As she said "bye" she slammed the door.
"Well, it seems your friend could use some charm school," Shadow grunted. "Either that or she's hiding something."
Just hanging around in the city was getting pretty boring for Sonic. While the kidnapping certainly had the citizens of Westopolis spooked, there was very little other excitement for him, and he was considering the idea of leaving the city for a while unless something interesting happened soon.
Sonic was out on another of his morning runs, and once again he decided to take a rooftop route across the city. It was now the beginning of summer, and the weather was getting very hot. The sky that day was free of clouds, and the sun beat down heavily upon the city. Even the blue speedster was starting to feel the heat, and wished he knew how to swim so he could take a dip in the local swimming pool or the lake at the park. But he had to make do with the rush of the wind through his quills to cool him off in this heat.
There was also something else on his mind. Tails had told him that Shadow had returned to Earth and was spending a lot of time with Amy. There didn't seem to be any noticeable love business going on in Tails' mind, but he would have to ask Amy for himself. He gracefully bounded from a rooftop of a small apartment complex to another, and skidded to a stop when he heard a loud cracking sound, coming from the southeast. As saw two figures on another rooftop out in the distance and they appeared to be fighting. Concerned about what it could be, Sonic picked up the pace so that he could stop the fight before it got ugly.
But he saw there was no need. Amy, dressed in black gym shorts and a white tank top, was just sparring with someone. And that someone was Shadow, who was defending himself with ease.
Sonic watched as Amy delivered a mighty right hook at her opponent, who deftly blocked the attack. The force of the impact produced a loud sound like a sonic boom at half-volume. Amy looked over at Sonic, temporarily dropping her guard, which Shadow took advantage of by delivering a sweeping kick, tripping the pink hedgehog.
"So Tails was right," Sonic said in his usual cocky manner as he stood on the edge of the rooftoop, though it seemed that Sonic was also pretty happy to see Shadow. "You decided to come down out of your little hideaway after all." Shadow turned and saw Sonic as well.
"If it isn't the fake hedgehog," Shadow replied with his equally brash manner. "It's been a while. I was hoping to find you so we could settle the argument of who is the superior hedgehog at some point."
"I heard from Tails that you've taken a real shine to Ames, here," Sonic replied as he jumped down. "But what's with the fancy karate moves?"
"I'm going for my black belt tomorrow, Sonic, and Shadow was helping me practice," Amy replied excitedly. "Shadow promised me that if I passed, he'd teach me how to use Chaos Control!" Sonic raised an eyebrow in skepticism.
"…Chaos Control? That's way out of your league. Even I can do it, but I need a Chaos Emerald. Shadow is the only one who can do it without one. C'mon, Shad, tell me you're just pulling her leg."
"That's not what I heard," Amy replied with a giggle. "But sure, go ahead and dream, Sonic." She turned to Shadow next. "I'm going to head back to the house. Don't bruise Sonic too much, Shadow…he's still my friend!" With that, Amy did a graceful backflip off the side of the building, and landed on her feet. Sonic, still not fully adjusted to the pink hedgehog's newfound agility and strength, was astonished by her feat. After a few moments, Sonic turned back to Shadow.
"Well, you want to settle this?" the blue hedgehog asked, eager to get the brawl started.
"Let's dance, faker…" Shadow said with a grin.
Sunset was approaching as a brown hedgehog with his short quills gelled like a Mohawk rode along the road on a loud, black and chrome motorcycle toward Westopolis. Sewn on the shoulder of his black leather jacket was the insignia of GUN, and a pistol was holstered on his belt, while the wide leg holes of his jeans flapped in the wind.
As he zipped by the trees that the highway cut through, the hedgehog's mind was racing with both fear and hope. On the one hand, he knew that something fearsome was pursuing and might chase him into Westopolis. On the other, he had to prepare for what was coming tomorrow, and he knew his sister would be waiting for him.
Suddenly, he heard a piercing shriek. Not even bothering to glance in his rear-view mirrors, the hedgehog revved his motorcycle, causing it to speed up. He already knew that his pursuer had caught up. Behind him was a massive, legless reptilian creature that seemed to be shaped like a prehistoric bird about the size of a small bus with a bone-white carapace-like armor and greenish-tan flesh. It had a wingspan measuring about twenty-five feet from tip to tip, and its head was adorned with a three foot horn. Seated on its long neck appeared to be an egg-shaped, crimson red and mustard-yellow humanoid robot, an Egg Pawn.
As the hedgehog passed the city limits sign, he saw that his pursuer had suddenly stopped, and was hovering in place, while the robot kept trying to spur it on. The hedgehog sighed with relief and continued his drive into the city.
"I hope the Commander knows what he's doing…" the hedgehog thought. "I don't know if my sister can handle the truth so suddenly…"
The robot and the dragon that were pursuing the motorcycle-riding hedgehog had broken off their pursuit, and flew back in the direction they had come. The night was warm and dry, and the dragon was getting tired. Luckily, it didn't have to travel far before the ones who had sent them after the biker were visible, in a clearing somewhere in the forest. As they landed, Dr. Eggman, who had been in the cover of the trees talking with a mysterious masked figure, stepped out into the open, looking very steamed. While they would normally be spotted very easily from the air, the scientist thought ahead and brought a projector that created the image of an empty clearing to onlookers.
"Curse you, you bucket of bolts! Why didn't you continue the chase?" the egg-shaped scientist ranted as the robot hopped off the dragon. "You were supposed to capture him and secure the Chaos Emerald he was carrying! You can't do anything right!"
As he said this, the mysterious figure he had been talking with stepped out. It was another hedgehog, a grey one with one yellow eye and one red eye and shocked up quills. He wore a blue jumpsuit with green scaled sleeves, a mask made of the same green dragon hide, and he wore armor made from the bleached bones of young dragons. His hands were capped with dragon claws, a spine and ribcage served as torso armor, and leg bones covered his legs. The hedgehog also wore boots made of baby dragon skulls. This protection was light, yet pound for pound, was stronger than the most advanced titanium alloy. Finally, a great black cape added an air of regality to his sinister attire
"Ivo, you ignorant human, the machine would not break the pursuit…the fine steed I provided did," the hedgehog said, dismayed at his partner's outburst. "I specifically ordered it not to continue pursuit if Major Bishop got into the city limits. That would alert the human military to our presence. If people caught sight of my chaser, they would mobilize in time to fend off our attack."
"But Ragozine, you said your chasers could fend off GUN artillery fire!" Eggman complained to the hedgehog. "Surely the police wouldn't pose a threat."
"The panzer squadron I will use to attack the city can shrug off such armaments." the hedgehog replied. "But a chaser's armor is far too fragile to handle the heavier human weaponry. My chasers are bred for pursuit, capture and retrieval, while my panzers are more suited to torch entire squadrons of soldiers and demolish structures while resisting almost any attack."
"But there is the matter of that blue do-gooder Sonic," the mad scientist said with a snap of his fingers. "Surely he will interfere. That accursed nemesis of mine has toppled my creations time and again. I doubt even your panzers could handle a hit from him."
"Ah, yes…the blue one." Ragozine chuckled. "He'll make a suitable appetizer for my ultimate beast before its main course. To ensure his capture, I will personally enter the fray and direct my panzers on the battlefield."
"And what does that girl you keep mentioning have to do with all this?" Eggman asked curiously. "How do you intend to capture her? If she's as powerful as you say, I fear the worst!"
"Do you doubt me, human?" Ragozine growled, glaring at the egg-shaped scientist, who shook his head frantically.
"I thought not," the evil hedgehog continued as he turned to examine the dragon that had returned. "Now, return to your fortress. I will take things from here."
Author's Note: Alright! Next chapter, we can truly get the action underway!
