To everyone reading this author's note: I am -once again- sorry that this took me forever to post up! TT The new chapters might come out later because I tend to get writer's block, banishment (temporary) from the computer, etc. I also like to thank everyone who had read and reviewed some of the previous chapters! Thank you and enjoy chapter 8! XD
Disclaimer: Sonic belongs to Sega (c). OCs belong to me.
Chapter 8
Shocking News
"A little more to the left… No the right… A little bit more to the right… On second thought, just leave it the way it is." said Sonic. He, Tails, and Cream were trying to straighten a picture that was on the wall of a large ballroom in The Grande Matriarch, a fancy restaurant in the middle of Station Square. Tails and Cream groaned as they let go of the picture frame.
"Remind me why we're straightening pictures in a restaurant ballroom again?" asked Tails. The blue hedgie smirked.
"I booked for the wedding to take place here. It's a great idea if I don't say so myself."
"But Mr. Sonic, how did you get the money to pay for the wedding reservations?" said Cream. Sonic's smirk still remained on his face, but Tails and Cream could see the sweat rapidly rolling down his body. All three of them were kicked out in a heartbeat.
"If you've got no money, then no wedding reservations!" said the owner of the restaurant before slamming the front doors shut. Sonic stood up and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Sheesh. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" he muttered. The yellow kitsune sighed.
"Next time you want to book a wedding somewhere, find a cheaper place to have it!" he said, irritatingly.
"Sorry 'lil buddy. I can't. I promised Amy that our wedding would take place here; it is the hottest place to have the wedding and they had open reservations, I didn't even think about how much it would cost me until now." replied Sonic. Cream gently rubbed her head, trying to avoid touching the big bruise that was there. Sonic looked at her and had a look of worry on his face.
"Uh, Cream? Maybe you should go home for the day. You know… tooooo, uuuhh… take a break until-" Sonic started, but was cut off by Cream when she stood up and said, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Besides,"
She rolled one of her shoulders back and smiled, though there was a hint of pain in that smile. "It doesn't hurt that much! Really…"
Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Ya sure? I can get someone to escort you if you plan on-"
"I'm eleven years old Mr. Sonic. I can handle it." Cream gently retorted. Tails walked over to the injured rabbit girl and softly touched her shoulder, causing her to gasp a bit and look back to meet the kitsune's eyes.
"Sonic's not saying that you can't handle it. It's just… we're worried about you. Ever since you returned to the base with those terrible injuries, well… Amy freaked out; your mother became sick with worry,
Sonic grew worried… we all did, Cream." Tails said calmly with a mixture a concern. Cream was about to say something in her defense, but Sonic beat her to it.
"Those injuries you've got were worse than the ones you received after your mission. And Cheese wasn't even with you, not even when you gave me that call about the Chaotix and I had to rush over to the hospital to see you in a very sorry state!" he said. He paused for a moment. "What did happen on your mission anyway? I heard that the guy wasn't even in his apartment room when you first arrived there, so how did you get the injuries?"
Cream's body shook from both fear and sorrow. Fear because of what would happen if Sonic or her friends ever found out. Sorrow because of the gruesome thoughts of what had become of her chao friend. She couldn't even tell Chocola Chao what had happened to his brother on account of her fear. She didn't notice that she was crying until Tails wiped away her tears.
Tails smiled at her and said in a gentle tone, "You can tell us Cream. We can help you if you tell us what's going on. We trust you."
Cream just stared at both fox and hedgehog for a while, then she finally cracked a small smile. "Alright. I'll tell you guys."
Sonic urged her to continue when she stopped.
"You see…"
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Meanwhile, Amy was at the mall, window shopping for wedding dresses. She saw a lot of lovely dresses, but they were too expensive and she only had enough money in her purse to buy a wedding gift, a small gift, but a wedding gift. The pink hedgie sighed. "Normally, I'd buy a bunch of dresses by now. If only my apartment rent wasn't my number one concern." she said. 'And if only I didn't have to worry about who comes to my wedding. If my parents were coming, well dad'll throw a huge fit and mom would be worrying about me to no tomorrow. They never did approve to me when I said that I loved Sonic more than anything else.' she thought. "So why would they even bother to come?"
Amy sighed once again and walked over to an escalator. She was headed towards the food court for lunch today. On her way, she heard a group of girls behind her talking about something. It went something like this:
Girl 1: Hey did you guys hear about what happened downtown?
Girl 2: No. What happened?
Girl 1: It was on the news today! Three guys got mugged by some shady characters!
Girl 2: Get out!
Girl 3: Seriously?!
Girl 1: I'm not making this up! No one knows what they were doing downtown, but to get mugged and have their money taken? That was serious!
Girl 2: Who were they?
Girl 1: You know that detective agency that earns money for their cases? Those guys.
Girl 3: Were they taken to the hospital?
Amy ran down the escalator, not really caring about the answer at the moment. She had to tell Sonic about this!
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"……… Oooooooohhh… hm?" The red echidna guardian, Knuckles stirred. His body was sore, but wet. "What happened to me?"
"You're awake." said a female's voice. Knuckles slowly turned his head to his right and saw a light orange echidna girl wearing ancient white and green clothing and a Mayan style, thin headband around her head. She was kneeling beside him, a look of worry in her eyes.
Knuckles gasped. He knew this girl!
"Tikal?!" He asked, completely baffled. Tikal nodded.
Knuckles sat upright and looked around at his surroundings. He was near the ocean and was sitting on the beach. The whole place looked deserted.
"Did I die or something?" he asked, mostly to himself, but loud enough for Tikal to hear. Tikal shook her head and replied, "You're not dead. When I entered this time, I slowed your fall so that the impact on the water didn't kill you."
"Yeah, and that's the thing. How did you enter this timeline anyway?" Knuckles asked.
"I tried to communicate you through the Master Emerald. But when you didn't respond, I used the Master Emerald's power to send me to your time to tell you something important. But I entered this time spiritually; if something happened to the Master Emerald, then I become part of this timeline physically."
Knuckles processed all of this and realized something. "So that voice from before was you?" he asked. Tikal nodded.
"But! I don't get it! What was with the last part? Why did you say that?!"
Tikal sighed, "I know that this is different from the words you're used to hearing, but you see… that last part was a prophecy that had been long since forgotten. And it still lives on today!"
Knuckles looked confused now. "What do you mean it 'still lives on today'? If it was forgotten, then how-?"
"Well, not in words at least. You were attacked on Angel Island, correct?" asked Tikal. Knuckles nodded, although he wasn't exactly sure how she knew that.
"The foe you faced there… she had Chaos Energy flowing through her entire body. I sensed it when I arrived."
The red echidna guardian was confused now. Tikal just continued her explanation. "Chaos Energy is the power that resides inside of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Within a human, it is uncontrollable and unstable. But within another life-force, each Energy has a different effect. One-"
"Was a shield meant for defense. I know, Tikal! I had the fing experience!" Knuckles finished. "After that, she blocked and deflected a BOULDER that I threw at her… with a fing huge WALL!! What the hell did she do?!"
Tikal sighed. "It may be possible that she had a Chaos Emerald with her to double the shield's strength. But if she were to do that… then she would be giving up a lot of Chaos Energy…"
"SO?!?!" Knuckles stood up. "She used up a lot of Energy, so what! It's not like there were going to be any flaws in the process!!"
"It's not as simple as it seems! Yes, a lot of Energy would be used up. But it's the Chaos Emerald that'll absorb all of the Energy she used to create that wall."
"And?"
"Knuckles, please understand. When the Chaos Emerald absorbs Chaos Energy out of a life-form's body, then he/she loses a lot of stamina and is left exhausted and weak!" Tikal said this very seriously. Knuckles' eyes bulged. 'Exhausted and weak?! I didn't know that Chaos Energy was that complicated… Wait, now that I think about it, didn't Tikal say that humans can't control Chaos Energy? But, how was it that that girl (Celestial, was it?) could control Chaos Energy? That's just nuts!' he thought. He was about to ask Tikal something when the communicator on his left ear vibrated a bit.
Knuckles answered the incoming call.
"Yo!" he said.
"Hey Knuckles! Glad that you finally answered your communicator since five days ago!" That was Sonic.
Knuckles groaned. "Yeah? Weelll… I had a few problems that needed resolving, but it's all good now. So Sonic, waddaya need?"
Sonic sounded a bit firm and concerned when he said, "Just get your ass over here at the hospital!!"
"Is this about Rouge again?"
"No! The Chaotix are hospitalized again!!" Then the communication was terminated.
"Sonic? Hey, Sonic! Are ya there?! SONIC!!" No response. He looked over at Tikal. "C'mon Tikal. We need to tell Sonic and the others about what you told me. This is something that everyone needs to know!"
Tikal nodded and stood up. "I had a feeling that you would say that."
Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"
Tikal just shrugged, then took off when Knuckles ran off.
At the Station Square hospital…
A doctor entered the waiting room, clipboard in one hand while his other hand adjusted the glasses on his face. Another doctor, female this time, followed behind the first. The name tags on their doctor's outfits read: Dr. Daryl and Dr. C. Smith.
Daryl stopped when he got to Sonic, Amy, and Tails, who were all there because of the Chaotix. Sonic was impatiently tapping his foot, Amy was twiddling her thumbs a bit, and Tails looked a little nervous. Cream was also there, but the doctors took her to a room in the hospital where she would have a checkup and have new bandages on her wounds.
"Hey doc!" said Sonic to Daryl. "How are the Chaotix doin'?"
The doctor turned to the female doctor, C. Smith and said, "Go to the E.R. for now. Then you can check on the patients after that."
C. Smith was about to say something when Knuckles entered- more like barged into – the room, out of breath and sweating.
"Am I… late?"
"You are…" Sonic checked his watch. "Five minutes late, knucklehead."
Knuckles smirked, then said, "Shut up." before getting in a seat.
Smith nodded quickly and dashed to the E.R. Knuckles thought that she looked familiar for a while, but then brushed it off as nerves. Daryl cleared his throat and scanned his clipboard, flipping through the various prescription papers to get to a report on the Chaotix's condition.
"The Chaotix will be fine, but we're not sure how long that they should stay in the hospital for." the doctor said while scanning the report. "Vector Crocodile is unconscious, but alive. The only problem is his cranium, which has at least five bruises and bumps on it. He has deep gashes on his legs and the side of his stomach."
Sonic's eyes widened when he heard that. Amy, Tails, and Knuckles slightly gasped.
"We managed to stitch the gashes, so he'll be fine. But Vector will have to stay in the hospital for a few months just in case." said Daryl assuring the group.
"What about Espio and Charmy?" asked Amy while she held onto Sonic's arm. Daryl scanned the report again, then said, "Espio Chameleon has slash marks on his body and his horn had been chipped a bit due to heavy collision with hard surfaces or objects. There's also a bullet wound lodged in his kneecap… other than that he'll be okay. But I have to say that the bullet wasn't easy to remove. Espio will have to not move around as much from now on, is that clear?"
Everyone nodded.
Tails then piped up, "How long will Espio be here for?"
"About a month. The days will vary depending on his condition, though. Anyway, moving right along… Charmy Bee has major injuries. His wings are damaged, so he won't be able to fly around for a while. He's also suffered from hard blows since there are bruises all over his body. Scrapes were found on one side of his face and a scar is visible on his left eye, his eye is surprisingly undamaged, though.
"Both arms and legs are broken and he's lost plenty of blood…… We've already stitched his wounds, but he'll have to stay in the hospital for around five months or more"
Knuckles abruptly stood up in fury.
"FIVE MONTHS?! More like five YEARS!!! ARE YOU REALLY A DOCTOR?!?!" the red echidna hollered, drawing the attention of waiting patients, doctors, nurses, visitors, etc. nearby.
Embarrassed, Daryl replied, "Well… these things take time. And," He paused. "One of the doctors, Mrs. Smith, is in charge of taking good care of the threesome while they're here. She's very talented I might add."
Knuckles frowned at the doctor before sitting back down.
"Another thing you all need to know is how Miss Rouge is doing." Daryl added. Everyone gave him a 'Well?' look as if expecting an answer. Daryl cleared his throat again.
"Last week, some blood had entered Rouge's right lung due to stress and pressure, which had caused a problem for us. When we didn't know how to remove the blood in her lung, a new doctor had come in. Yes, it was Mrs. Smith. She knew exactly what to do in that situation. And because of her actions, another life had been spared from death."
"Sounds helpful." said Sonic.
"And highly skilled in the medical department, too!" added Amy. Knuckles just shrugged as if he didn't care much and Tails looked interested.
"She is wonderful all right. Anywho…" Before Daryl could say anything else, a nurse ran into the waiting room in a panicked hurry and whispered something in the doctor's ear. He jumped so fast that his glasses almost fell off his face!
"Ahem… very well then. I'll find Mrs. Smith and we'll head on over immediately." he said while pushing his glasses back in place. The nurse nodded, then ran back to where she appeared from.
Daryl turned his attention back towards Sonic and Co.
"There's an emergency in the West Wing's E.R. and Mrs. Smith and I are needed there ASAP. There are no visiting hours today I'm afraid, so… I'm sorry!" he said before running off.
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Before…
Mrs. Smith walked out of the E.R., wide-eyed and totally freaked out. She had just finished performing surgery on a thirteen year old boy who had appendicitis and was now taking a break. She pulled her mask down with one finger, making sure not to get some blood from her gloves onto her face as she did so. Her breath came out in a slightly rapid flow and her forehead had globs of sweat dripping down her face.
Smith awkwardly walked over to the sink and removed her blood-stained gloves. She turned on the hot water, then the cold water to make it warm. Smith then ran her cream colored hands underneath the warm water and splashed some on her sweat stained face.
'Never again… will I perform surgery. But… I need to.' She thought to herself as she finished up washing her face.
"Mrs. Smith?"
"Sacre bleu!!" C. Smith automatically spun around to see who it was. When she saw that it was just one of the nurses, Smith sighed in relief.
"Oh, it's just you, Maggie." she said with a hint of relief. The nurse just nodded.
"You know Mrs. Smith, I think maybe you should take a break from operating for a while. I mean, you just seem… so…"
"Out of it?" finished Smith. Maggie nodded. Smith took a deep breath and smiled. "I'll be fine Maggie. No need to worry."
And with that, Smith ran off.
She managed to stop in front of a door to a room where hospitalized patients were resting in. The door sign read: C1608.
Smith stared at the sign for a long while. A Chaotix member was resting in this room, a member that she had a fondness for. The only problem was this: he wasn't in a good mood.
Summoning up all of her courage, Smith entered the room and quietly made her way to where the Chaotix member was. His whole body was covered in a blanket by the time Smith got to him.
"Monsieur? Is everything alright?" she asked him. The Chaotix member in question removed the blanket off of his head. "Monsieur Espio. It's me again."
Espio looked over his shoulder at Smith and sighed. "You came to check on me?" he asked. The female doctor nodded, then lightly traced her finger over a scar that was on his left arm. The rest of the purple chameleon's body was wrapped in bandages while his horn was chipped a bit at the tip.
"I heard you were in a bad mood because of what happened... but you-" started Smith. Espio brushed away her hand from him before turning back to his side and pulling the blanket over him.
"I don't want to talk about it," he muttered. "I've shamed myself too much already."
Smith looked surprised at this statement. "What do you mean? When I first worked here, you and your friends were just fine; getting a bit excited about leaving the hospital. But now... Espio, there's nothing you should be ashamed about."
"I'm a ninja, doctor. I'm not supposed to fail in combat."
"Nor in your missions either. I know... but you can't let your shame stop you."
Espio sighed heavily and turned slightly, saying, "You wouldn't understand. You're not a ninja, so you wouldn't know what honor and shame are to us."
Smith's face turned sour and without warning, she started shouting in French.
"F.Y.I., Je SAIS CE QU'EST L'HONNEUR, PLUS Moi N'AI AUCUNE QUALIFICATION de COMBAT, NATURELLEMENT, Je Ne suis pas Un FOUTU de NINJA!!!!!! "
She took in a few deep breaths, regained her composure, realized that she had just shouted when their were other patients in the room, and blushed in embarrassment. She apologized to everyone and turned to leave. Espio stopped Smith before she could get further from his bed.
"Wait." Smith stopped. "I've been meaning to ask you, who are you really?"
Smith depressingly sighed and turned to face Espio, who was facing her; the blanket was removed.
"I can tell that some things that you say are lies. It's in your eyes... so who and what are you?" asked the purple chameleon. Some of the patients in the room were either listening to the conversation, or ignoring it, making it very hard for Smith to tell Espio her answer. She opened her mouth to speak, but was prevented by Daryl, who was sweating and gasping for air.
"Mrs. Smith! There's an emergency in the West Wing's E.R.! You'll need to bring your operation tools, stat!" he hurriedly said. Smith was about to say that she wasn't finished checking on the Chaotix, but instead answered, "Is it another E-section??"
"For the fifteenth time, it's called a C-section and YES!! Now bring your tools and get going!" And he dashed off.
Smith- again- apologized to everyone before getting her tools. Before leaving the room, however, she glanced over at Espio one more time and mouthed 'Later.' to him.
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Meanwhile, a window had been opened, letting the cool breeze enter the hospital and cause some of the patients to shiver. Rouge was out of bed, writing a note down on a 'get well' card that Knuckles had brought her on his last visit before he disappeared. When the white bat finished writing, she closed the card, put her own clothes on - though they were stained with her own blood- then stood on the window sill... and jumped. Rouge allowed herself to fall, then she flew just before she hit the ground, just missing it by a few inches.
'Even if I haven't healed all the way, yet,' she thought to herself. 'I have to find out where Shadow is. Then maybe I'll get all the answers I need.' And with that, she turned on a radar that was on her watch and managed to get Shadow's signal. It was faint, but it was enough for the bat-girl to know where to go.
"Don't worry Shadow. I'm coming for you." said Rouge as she glided out towards the ocean.
Well... not sure if this is good, but... ah, nevermind. It's up to you fellow readers to decide if this was or wasn't good. Now on with the preview!
Next chapter: Disaster strikes as Silva finds out what Pandora had done! He soon starts forcing someone named 'Hazard' to remember with a special drug, but the plan backfires and the impatient panther is running out of options. Meanwhile, Shadow and Pandora are catching up on old times and the black hedgehog learns from the heartbroken yellow hedgehog what had happened to their child. What's to become of this after all of the gruesome details of what happened 55 years ago?
COMING SOON OR LATER:)
