Amy took a deep breath in, her eyes red as she looked at her own reflection.
She had a headache and hadn't managed to get a wink of sleep. And now she had another thing to worry about. It was obviously something to do with the stupid amulet.
How was it possible for Sonic to have healed that quickly? Amy clamped her hands together. She was still covered in bruises and after that incident with the necklace; her hands were open wounds.
It would help if Amy understood the whole situation. What the heck did Rouge want with the amulet anyway? Earlier when she had called Rouge, Rouge had basically dodged the question, acting like she didn't know what Amy was worried about.
Her mind flicked into a deep grimace, Shadow forcing his way into her memory. Did this have something to do with him and what happened with GUN? How would a necklace hurt a Robot?
He knew something. About this whole thing and he was the only one that went to dark lengths to get there. He ended up getting kicked out of GUN for taking his own path and Amy hadn't seen him in so long. She needed answers, and she wasn't getting any staring at her own reflection.
She slammed a palm into her forehead, rubbing her temple as an attempt to push away the headache she already had. It was useless. She had to find Shadow, he might know more than even Rouge would let on, figure out what happened to Sonic.
It was now ten forty-five pm, not long until they met up with Espio. A small part of her had wondered if it would be the hedgehog she had been thinking of that would meet them, but they had been contacted that instead, it would be the chameleon that had become well accustomed to handing out missions and retrieving the end product.
She sighed, looking back at the bathtub. They'd cleaned the floor better now, dirty towels had been thrown out but Sonic's jacket was still sat in the tub, hidden from view.
Amy dragged herself away from the mirror and moved towards the tub, crouching down to pluck up the jacket. It was a soft blue and white, now destroyed with the stain of blood and torn from the metal. Though the jacket seemed to bundle at the pockets and out of curiosity, she pulled it out of the tub to rummage inside. The zipper was a little difficult to pull, but once she did, her hand tucked inside and pulled out more than she would suspect.
One, the walkie talkie she had lost only days before, something she had informed Rouge of. Guess that's what Sonic had gone back to retrieve. Two, some loose bandages torn at odd angles like they had been used clumsily. Three, a grotty torn sheet of paper that was folded into a crumpled mess. She did not bother to check his other pocket, too interested in the paper which she carefully unfolded.
The text on it was code, numbers.
Tails may have been able to make sense of it if she gave it to him, but she couldn't understand a slick of it. Nor could she understand what Sonic was doing with code in his pocket. It was dangerous to have a code, even if it was for something harmless.
Glancing at the closed bathroom door she pushed the note quickly into her coat pocket. Then she placed the bandages on the table, alongside Sonic's jacket, pouring the contents of the other pocket onto the table.
There was nothing of importance hidden in there, a wrapper from what looked like an oat bar, a packet of squished gum that looked highly forgotten and a broken pen. He was the only one of the four of them who didn't carry a walkie talkie on his person at all times.
Sonic owned one, but it usually was kept in the room in which he would only answer it if he hadn't spoken to someone through another walkie talkie. Tails had developed them, the frequency and use of electricity in them so low that they went undetected by robots. Alas, she folded up his jacket and filled the sink up with warm water and placed it in there, letting the jacket stain the entirety of the water pink.
She didn't want to throw it away after all, so at least Sonic could make the decision whether or not he wanted to keep it.
Letting that soak, she plucked up her walkie talkie and pushed it away into the hem of her skirt.
This motel room they stayed in had the living room, which there was a couch that they kept permanently as a bed. This room was immediate to the entryway, and said bed at the moment was a stained mess from Sonic's miraculous wound. To the front of the couch-bed was the bathroom. To the left of the bed was the actual bedroom, which is where whoever needed rest the most would sleep. Knuckles had put the necklace away in there after it had burned Amy's fingers to the touch and made Sonic… goodness knows what.
Knuckles was in said room messing with the amulet, Amy assumed.
She left the bathroom, glancing towards the couch-bed, but Tails and Sonic had moved to the table near the window instead and were talking amongst themselves while eating something warm from bowls. Distracted by one another, they didn't notice Amy leave the bathroom and she proceeded to the bedroom.
As she rapped on the door and gave the echidna no chances to answer, swinging the door open.
Knuckles flinched and froze, for Amy knew he had always been as curious as she.
''You look like you're staring at the Master Emerald.''
Knuckles slammed the Mobian box shut with an enormous force that made his bed shake, he hadn't been touching the necklace, simply looking.
''What? You know that all the emeralds are gone.'' Knuckles stammered as he pushed the box under his pillow, taking the atmosphere of guilt along with it.
''Why aren't you ready?'' Amy whispered, her voice washing through a little softer.
''Why aren't you?'' He replied, his voice low.
''I am.'' Amy melted around the side and sit beside Knuckles on the bed.
''I was just...'' He curled his back over, hands rested in his lap. His muzzle looked sticky and Amy could see his eyes more clearly. A bruise skirted his cheekbone like a canvas stretched tightly over a drum.
Amy cocked her head to the left, narrowing her eyes and waiting for Knuckles to continue. She had a strong feeling he was thinking the same thing as she was.
''So I'm not the only one who thinks this is somehow Shadow had something to do with this thing?'' Amy rolled her eyes, hope in the pit of her stomach, the more people that thought the same thing, made things seem more possible.
Knuckles pushed a finger to his lips like he had many things to say and wasn't willing to share with her in particular.
Amy lifted a brow, she wanted to talk.
Now.
She was fed up of being hushed away. Shadow had been part of GUN; him being kicked out didn't make him disappear. He knew things they didn't, plans they had for fighting the robots. Weapons, ideas.
He was good at what he did. Intelligent too.
''Knuckles? Tell me.'' She spat, feeling a hint of aggression kick her words. Her temper was easily tipped off these days.
Knuckles jumped up, his long figure towering Amy. ''Yes.''
''You do?''
''Yes, I think he probably knows something about it."
''I think so too.'' Amy smiled; glad to know that someone finally had some sense, at least she knew the Shadow thing was a little more possible now.
"I also… think we might know a little about it too." He added as he rose to his feet.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you said it yourself." He opened the case, allowing her to look inside, "The more I look at this... the more it looks like an Emerald."
"But it's too small, barely a shard."
"We knew the Emeralds were gone. Maybe there's still some pieces around."
