Chapter Ten

Author's Note: Oh yeah, I'm on a roll! Just add an order of fries and call me a burger! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Bad puns aside, I've decided to make this chapter a little calmer, but things will still be interesting!

-- -- -- -- --

"Are you sure this is the right building?" Rouge asked as the two stared up at the apartment building. After many days of research, Amy finally found the home address of her mother. Rouge had offered to come along, since Shadow and Tahra were attending a rock concert. She was both excited and nervous, and she wondered whether her mother would even recognize her.

"I'm positive," Amy replied with a great deal of confidence. The two walked into the building and went up to the receptionist's desk.

"Excuse me, could you direct us to room 906?" Amy asked the receptionist, who was reading a magazine.

"9th floor on that elevator, third door on your right," the receptionist answered without even looking at them. She merely pointed to the elevator. Amy thanked the receptionist, and the two got onto the elevator. It seemed particularly dirty, but the two tried not to mind. Once they got off, the door was merely a few steps away.

"Nervous?" Rouge asked as she stood there. Amy simply nodded. Rouge decided to knock for her. The door was answered in a few moments by a small hedgehog boy, roughly seven or eight years old.

"Whatcha want?" the child asked.

"I wonder who this little fella is," Rouge said to Amy.

"Is your mommy home?" Amy asked in as kind and friendly voice as possible.

"Mommy! Two girls at the door for you!" the boy yelled. His mother, who wore a simple blue dress and a red apron came by. She took one look at Amy, and dropped the pile of dishes she was carrying, and stared at Amy in horror.

"You…you're alive!" the mother gasped in shock.

"Mom…don't you recognize your own daughter?" Amy said, trying to be as calm and kind as she could. "I found your address and…"

"Don't come near me, you freak!" the woman shrieked. She rushed into the kitchen and came back with a large frying pan, which she held unsteadily. The child who had answered the door was creeping away.

"Mom, I won't do anything to you!" Amy pleaded, trying to reason with her obviously insane mother. She just stood there, trembling and holding the frying pan like a baseball bat.

"You…how did you…find this place! Go away!" the woman stammered. Amy carefully approached her deranged mother, who raised the pan higher.

"Don't touch me! I won't let you hurt my family, demon spawn!" the woman said, recoiling from her daughter. "Don't make me call the police!"

"She obviously wants nothing to do with you, Amy," Rouge noted. "Let's leave before she actually does call the cops. Just look at her!"

Before Amy could do anything, she noticed the child sticking a syringe into his mother's leg and injecting something into her. After a few seconds, the woman dropped the pan, and fell to her knees. The child's head was drooped and shaking, as if saddened.

"I'm sorry about that, big sis," the boy said. "Mommy's been sick in the head a lot. When she's awake, she won't freak out."

"Is there anyone else living with you?" Amy asked her little brother.

"My daddy…we don't have the same daddy, I think."

"Well…my name's Amy. I'm your half-sister. What's yours?"

"I'm Kiran. Who's your friend?"

"Rouge…don't mind me," the bat answered.

After about twenty minutes, Amy's mother was coming around. Immediately Amy got up and stood over her mother.

"Mom…" Amy half-whispered.

Her mother was groggy, but able to speak. "You're…still here? I told you to go away…have you harmed my Kiran?"

Kiran was right next to her. "I'm fine, Mommy. Amy's nice."

"What do you want from me, demon spawn…" the mother growled, in a way that could be attributed to someone with a severe hangover.

"Mom…if you're going to be like this…I want to know why."

"Fine…I was forced to be pregnant with you…and then they turned you into a monster. That is why I hate you. When my husband gets home…he'll blow a hole through your head, and I'll never have to see you again! Tell that maniac Ragozine to never trouble me again!"

"Mom…Ragozine won't bother you anymore. He's gone."

"You liar…he torments me every day…and now he sends you to help him!" the woman spat.

"Mom…I saw him…I made him pay…with my own two hands."

"Stop your lies and leave me be…"

Amy had finally gotten the message. For reasons she could not truly know, her own mother did not want her. There was no way for Amy to prove that she wasn't the monster her mother thought she was. She held back the tears coming to her eyes, and started out the door. She did not see Kiran waving goodbye.

-- -- -- -- --

Amy was still stunned as she and Rouge sat down for coffee at a place a few blocks down from the building they were at. "I can't believe that my own mother rejected me! I wasn't expecting a sugar-coated happy meeting, but nothing like that."

"Considering your true nature," Rouge commented, "I suspect anyone would be a little uneasy around you. I've known you for quite some time, so it doesn't matter much to me. Heck, I've known you longer than your mother's known you."

"I guess you're right. But I just wish there was something I could do…"

Their conversation was interrupted by two men who seemed to be making a bad attempt to look cool. It was obvious that they were trying to flirt with them, which was creepy, considering that they were completely different species.

"Well, what are you two lovely ladies like you doing in a place like this?" one of the man said in a swaggering and flirtatious manner.

"Get lost, loser," Rouge said, waving her hand as to shoo them away. Of course, they were not going to be driven away so easily. Their flirting continued, and it got more and more annoying by the minute. Surprisingly, no one in the shop seemed to notice this. Though Rouge was able to keep her head, Amy couldn't stand the sight of the morons. She rose from her seat, and with a single swift kick to the crotch of the hapless Romeo, sent him straight to the floor. She grabbed her coffee violently and started out the door into the cold. As she left, two words, barely audible, crossed her lips:

"Disgusting humans…"

-- -- -- -- --

"I don't understand those humans, Shadow…" Amy said dejectedly as the two stood up on the small balcony of her apartment, watching the world go by below them. It was around seven o' clock, and they were waiting for a dinner Amy had made to cook. "How can they be such jerks?"

"We're like that too, sometimes," Shadow replied. "I don't understand what you're saying…"

"It's just that…how can humans be so hypocritical? They talk of peace on earth and good will toward men at this time of year…and yet they still continue hating. Why can humans persecute their own kind based simply on insignificant thing like skin color or religion? It disgusts me, and makes me hate them."

"Keep in mind that humans were a major part of our lives, Amy. But not everyone can be like Professor Gerald or Ullundara. Not everyone can be so good."

Amy sighed. "You're right…I'm thinking in Black Doom's logic. It's creepy. But still, sometimes I wish all the bad people would just disappear forever." The oven timer started beeping, indicating that the food was ready.

The two went inside, and Amy immediately removed the dish from the oven, with oven mitts. She didn't want to risk showing off with mind-over-matter stuff. It was vegetable lasagna, one of Amy's specialties. She took a deep whiff of it, and smiled. She always liked the smell of her own cooking, and silently thanked herself for taking cooking classes in addition to the art classes. She laid the pan on the counter, and cut a piece for herself, and then a bigger one for Shadow. After the two had hooked up, he had begun doing things he said that he didn't need to do, like eating and sleeping.

"Here you go…eat up," she said as she handed him the food. He stared at it blankly for a moment, as if he was having another flashback. When he realized what he was doing, he nervously began to eat.

"Sorry," he said after swallowing a bite, "vegetable lasagna was one of Maria's favorites."

"You still think about her?" Amy replied to this little tidbit of info. "I thought you were over her after the whole thing with the Black Arms."

"The day GUN attacked was the only thing that bothered me. The rest of my memories of her are happy. Maria…she was such a wonderful person. You almost remind me of her...maybe that's why I like you so much."

"I'm flattered," Amy replied with her usual smile.

Shadow looked down at his lap for a second then looked at Amy again. "Amy…do you think Maria's really happy for me…sometimes I feel like I don't deserve such a wonderful girlfriend like you."

"Of course she's happy for you! That's what she would want. I'm sure of it."

"You're a peach, Amy."

-- -- -- -- -- --

"A WHAT?" Sonic exclaimed when Tahra asked him to go out with her. "You can't be serious!" This question seemed to come out of nowhere as they were walking down the street together.

"Is it so wrong? I like you, Sonic." Tahra replied with a smug look on her face. "I'm thinking we could go to the big New Year's bash at Eagle Square. Shadow and Amy are going."

"Aren't you Goths supposed to stay home in your rooms, and avoid socialization of any kind?" Sonic said uneasily. "I mean, that's what I've heard…"

"I'm considered a perky Goth. We're more sociable than full Goths. So, you wanna go? Even Knuckles and Rouge are going…"

Sonic threw his arms up in frustration. "Okay, fine! It's a date then! Now would you please leave me alone?" He started off down the street by himself as he tried to get away from the girl. It was just like Amy…Tahra seemed to follow him wherever he went, yet at the same time he was horribly attracted to her. Sonic was never good at saying his true feelings to a girl he liked.
When he looked back to see if Tahra was chasing him, it seemed that she had disappeared into an alley he had passed.

When he poked his head in, he found three humans wearing black leather jackets and ripped blue jeans, obviously gang members of some kind, surrounded a defiant Tahra. Two of them were of average build, but there was one who looked particularly strong. They were all unaware of Sonic's presence.

"Look, dirty hedgehog…hand over ya money or you'll get what's comin to ya!"

"I don't have any on me!" Tahra replied in a defiant tone."And what do have against my kind?"

"You hedgehogs are getting so much attention these days, because of that stupid Sonic guy! If he was here, I'd pound that dirty good-for-nothing to a pulp!"

Sonic decided to jump in at this point. "Careful what you wish for, bucko…you just might get it!"

"Well look who decided to come to my rescue after all!" Tahra exclaimed. "I was wondering what was taking you so long."

The leader of the three, who had made the earlier statement, turned and saw Sonic.

"Well, well, well…the so-called hero decides to save his little girlfriend…"

Sonic took some offense from this statement, still trying to hide his true feelings. "She's not my girlfriend…she's just a friend, and a fellow hedgehog. Let her go."

"You and what army?" the human chuckled. "You're outnumbered, small fry."

"I'm a one hedgehog army, buddy…and I like these kinds of odds anyway." He leapt into the air and delivered his trademark homing attack to the leader, sending him reeling past Tahra and onto the ground, unconscious. The other gang members took one look at their downed leader, and bolted the scene.

"Thanks for saving me, Sonic," Tahra said when the others were gone. "But I could have handled them myself."

"Don't be stupid. They were big guys. Are you hurt?"

"From the way you sound, you really sound concerned about me…are you sure that we're just friends? I may be a Goth…but I know a lover boy when I see one."

"I'm sure, now come on…let's get you home."