Chapter 7: The bad kind of Attention
Espio stands face to face with the giant polar bear who doesn't look too excited about this match, and he drops his bag on the floor. Espio starts the fight with a few head butts to the snout. The bear coils back, then rushes the chameleon but misses his first two punches and Espio sweeps his big tree-trunk thick legs out from underneath the bear.
Espio stands back to let him up and as soon as the bear gets to his feet, Espio runs and lifts his knee to the muzzle of him opponent and the moment of impact makes the bear's eyes roll to the back of his head. The polar bear was out cold before Espio landed on the ground. The chameleon picks up his back and takes a sip of his liquor bottle.
"Good fight, y'all..get that bear cleaned up and outta the fight pen" The DJ for the underground club says over the PA system.
Espio stands back as three club assistants drag the polar by the arms and out of the fight pen. Before he could get a chance to leave, the chameleon is stopped as 7 more fighters enter the cage and surround him, then the Scout speaks to Espio.
"We have a rule for all new comers. To be members of this club, you have to stay in the pen and fight for 10 minutes straight" the scout grins as he opens a beer bottle and sits in a chair.
Espio reaches in his bag "Now that ain't fair.."
"You're a tough guy, right?" a fighter says
The chameleon touches his two Chaos emeralds and absorbs energy from them "..For you"
The audience roars in excitement as Espio goes around the cage and kicks in every direction at super sonic speed. He occasionally checks the clock for the time while one by one he drops each fighter to the floor. Soon they are scrambling to climb out of the locked cage and get away from Espio. The audience boos the fighters and a couple guys shout "PUSSIES!" from the back. The fight scout grins and the clock hits 10 minutes, then stops.
"Aw, come on guys, don't run! I'll go easy on ya this time!" Espio calls to the fighters as he goes to his bag and takes out his bottle of liquor.
"That, guys, Is how you kick some ass! A round of applause for Sky the Chameleon!" The scout says to the audience.
Espio leaves the cage and the crowd cheers for him as he makes his way out of the club and back the way he came in. The fight scout catches up to him and hands him a wad of cash.
"Your first pay. You did good out there, Sky. Come back every Saturday night at 8 and make sure you're ready to fight"
"Yeah, I'll be back. you make sure to get some guys who can actually fight"
Espio makes his way out of the abandoned building and back onto the street only to see it raining heavily. He makes his way down the streets and back to his motel suite, hoping he doesn't walk in on Cream and Tails again.
As soon as he walks into the motel lobby, the large hedgehog, Ron, gets in his way and asks for rent.
"Look, here's rent for this month, and just to be nice, here's 50 dollars to fuck off, Ron. Go get a beer or something, just leave me alone from now on" Espio shoves dollar bills in Ron's face and walks away.
Espio unlocks the door for his suite and goes into his room, then goes to see if anyone is around. He looks in Cream's room and sees Tails with no shirt on doing girl pushups on the floor and Espio laughs as he walks in. The Fox jumps to his feet and Espio sits on Cream's bed.
"Got a good pump going?" Espio takes a sip from his bottle.
"Piss off, ninja gaiden. Pass my shirt" Tails says
Espio picks up the fox's shirt and throws it to him "Old knucklehead show you those?"
"Yeah. He said they're perfect for a guy like me"
"Did he tell ya those are girl pushups?" Espio puts his bottle down.
"Whatever. It's a start"
"Where's 'The Princess'?"
"Ah, she's out tagging up a few buildings. It's her turn tonight. Hey, you get into a fight out there? You're not looking to good" Tails points to a couple bruises on Espio's chin.
"I'm feeling no pain, buddy"
Police sirens go off in different sides of town while Espio and Tails look out the window at the city.
"Guess that's how we know our girls' doing a good job out there. Lets just hope she don't get busted" Espio says
"If we keep tagging our name out there, we'll be on the front page of the paper" Tails says
Espio gets up and walks into his room just as Cream gets back in the motel. He greets her and goes into his room. The loud classic rock station comes on and the cycle begins again.
For months, Espio goes out to the fight club, beats every challenger and collects his pay check while Cream and Tails take turns spray painting SKYLINE all over various buildings and offices. Just like Tails said, team Skyline makes the front page of the news paper and are mentioned as "A band of hoodlum punks taking out other street trash" and are currently wanted by police.
Espio goes to the fight club tonight to take down everyone established with it and watch.
The chameleon pulls out Tails' cell phone and makes a call to the police about a suspicious activity going on. Within minutes, police race to the local entrance for the audience and raid the old parking garage.
Espio, Cream and Tails watch from a rooftop as everyone inside are taken to the street and arrested. A few thugs from a street gang show up to cause trouble for the cops, giving skyline their first taste of action all night.
"I'll take on the three street dummies on the left, Prower you get center and Cream you take the last two guys" Espio says
The chameleon climbs down the side of the building while Cream flies down and Tails puts on his beanie then joins her. They beat down the thugs in seconds, but Tails is surround. Until Espio shows up and takes down the rest.
"Hey, it's Skyline, get em!" A cop shouts
The three manage to get out of sight just before the cops can apprehend them and they run back to the motel.
One thug gets away from the cops and pulls out his phone. He calls someone else he calls "Boss" and tells him he saw them.
Back at the motel, Espio throws more bills at Ron and the group keeps walking. Cream opens the door and the three sit down in her room.
"Well, tonight was a success, guys" Cream says
"And I got you two a celebratory gift while I was out" Espio reaches into his bag.
The chameleon pulls out two beer bottles and hands them to Cream and Tails
"I don't condone this stuff but I think it's well deserved"
"Thanks, Espio. This is really cool, man" Tails says eyeballing his bottle.
Cream smiles and puts her bottle on a nightstand. She looks at Espio and he immediately gets the hint.
"I'll just leave you two now. Here's 100 bucks if you wanna order something" Espio leaves the money on a table and walks out.
"Cream, there's something I gotta tell you about I been keeping to myself for awhile now. I don't want to rush into things but I've been wanting a fresh start with you and I can't deny my feelings for you-"
Cream shuts the door and walks over to the Fox "I know, Tails and I uh, I feel the same about you. I gave you a second chance and you really impressed me" The rabbit takes the bottle from Tails and puts it on the table "I think I'm ready to move on with you, I just wanted to wait until the right time to tell you and I guess it's now"
She sits on his lap and doesn't lose eye contact. Tails gently puts his hand on Creams' and they sit in silence. Cream grabs both Tails' hands and holds them in hers while they get closer. The rabbit leans over slowly and her lips touch the excited fox's lips, making his tails move back and forth. Cream giggles and goes back to the kiss, even more passionate than the first.
Espio makes his way down the motel suite and notices other residents leaving the motel all at once. He wonders what is going on, noticing even Ron taking off. He tries to ask him what's up but the large hedgehog runs out the door too fast.
By now, Espio knows something bad is about to happen, then he sees a few gang members run past a window towards his suite.
"Shit!"
Espio runs down the hall back to his suite and busts the door open to see clouds of smoke fill the room.
"CREAM! HOLD ON!"
It's Tails, but Espio can't see where he is.
The chameleon hears the terrified screams of Cream and Tails grunting in pain so he tries his best to brush through the smoke cloud. He barely sees Tails holding onto Cream's hand but he is hit from behind with a metal crowbar. Espio races to him but he, too, is hit with a weapon.
"HOLD ON!" Tails keeps yelling to the rabbit.
Espio crawls to Tails but he is too late as the fox's grip is broken and Cream is taken into the darkness.
"NO! LET HER GO, GOD DAMNIT!"
Tails is hit one last time and he is knocked out. Espio blocks hits from the weapons coming at him from everywhere and tries to run after Cream but the gang pulls her into a truck and speeds off.
Espio runs full speed after them and reaches for Cream's hand in the back of the truck. He is just inches from her, until a gang member pulls out a gun and shoots Espio in the shoulder.
The chameleon falls down in the middle of the street and lies in pain. He can only watch as Cream is taken away in the dark blue truck.
Espio gets back to his feet and limps back to the motel. He takes a seat next to Tails and closes his eyes to rest.
What's going to happen after these two wake up? Keep reading to find out and don't forget to Review, the continuation of this story counts on it. until next time, later..
