Wasn't that a fun wait? Now you're all going to hate me.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.
Chapter Eleven: Missed Opportunities
"You didn't tell him!" Rouge shouted at Shadow as he paced around her room. "It was the perfect opportunity!"
"I know," Shadow only felt more frustrated with himself and Rouge was certainly not helping. "I know, but…it's not the right time…not now."
Rouge placed her hands on her hips, giving Shadow a disbelieving look. "Oh really? If it's not now, then when will it be the right time?"
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be worrying about so much."
"You know what I think?"
He might as well humor her. "No, Rouge. What do you think?"
"I think you're not telling him because you're afraid he'll reject you. He's your second chance at having a family again and if he pushed you away, you'll be you'll be completely alone again."
Shadow came to a sudden halt, his back to Rouge. With quick strides, he headed for the door, visibly upset.
Rouge instantly regretted what she said. As a straight forward person herself, she simply couldn't understand Shadow's thought process and why he was spending so much time beating around the bush. "Shadow, wait." She followed after him, grabbing his arm. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."
"No." Shadow gave a sigh. "You're right. I just don't want to face my biggest fear right now. I'm only coming up with excuses as for why I'm not telling him."
Rouge put her arm around Shadow's shoulder with an encouraging smile. "Don't worry. You'll get another chance soon, I'm sure." Her gaze softened as pulled her arm across from Shadow's back to grasp his shoulders, facing him directly. "Besides, even if the whole world turned on you, you'll always have me. I'll follow you to the end of the world and back."
"Thank you, Rouge." It wasn't often Shadow smiled, but he couldn't help himself. It was nice to know there was someone looking out for him. Gently removing Rouge's hands from his shoulders, he continued walking.
"Where are you going?" The white bat asked, curious if Shadow intended to reveal the truth to his brother right now.
"The doctor wants me to get another chaos emerald. It'll be a good chance to clear my head and think this through. I need to make a personal stop while I'm at it."
"Do what you need to do, Shadow."
"That's Rouge's handwriting for sure." Knuckles confirmed as he finished reading the letter. He was all too familiar with it after reading all the thank you notes the jewel thief would leave for him after stealing the master emerald yet again.
"Do you recognize where this picture was taken?" Tails asked hopefully. It was the only lead they had at the moment
"I doubt it." Amy answered on behalf of the echidna. "The green couch is the only clue we have as to his location. There could be thousands of those in Station Square, assuming he's still even in Station Square."
Tails knew it was true, but he still couldn't help but feel upset.
Seeing his frown, Knuckles gave the fox kit a playful punch. "Don't be like that. We know he's still alive and wherever he is, Rouge is with him. She may be annoying, but she gets results."
"All we can do for now is keep searching for Scourge. We'll find him." Amy said hopefully. "Eventually."
Tails opened the door to his workshop with a large yawn. After sharing the note with Knuckles and Amy, the three of them had spent most of the day searching for Scourge, unsuccessfully.
The workshop was still badly damaged from Scourge's attempting to burn it down, and repairs had been going slow. Tails had been spending most of his days searching for Sonic and Scourge, and the last few remaining hours before he fell asleep repairing the place. Amy and Knuckles would come to help out on their down time, but it was still a huge task for three people.
So far, they had disposed of all the electronics and damaged furniture, which was just about everything in the workshop. The broken windows had been replaced, but it was a useless task as they were never closed. The smell of smoke lingered in the place as did piles of ash in the corners of the rooms. There were pieces of torn out wall in all the rooms and halls as Tails worked towards re-wiring the entire workshop.
Everything would have to be replaced, the floors, the walks, the plumbing, the wiring, the ceiling, and so much more.
After having extinguished the fire with the help of the Station Square fire fighters, the humans had pleaded with Tails not to return to the building. It was structurally unsafe they had told him, and would need professional work to repair.
Of course, Tails paid no attention to their warnings. He had built this workshop with Sonic, using nothing but their own two hands. He could rebuild the place with nothing but his own two hands if he had to.
Picking up where he left off the other day, Tails grabbed his tools and went back to working on the wiring and electrical sockets in the house. He figured it would be easier to work with many of his tools if he was able to power them on while inside the workshop. Placing his goggles over his eyes to prevent any damage to them, he went straight to work.
As Tails became absorbed in his task, he didn't hear the door to the workshop open. He also did not hear a black and red hedgehog step into the workshop.
Shadow had known something was wrong from the moment he had lay eyes on the outside of the building. It had scorch marks all over it and the plants that surrounded it on the outside were nothing more than dead shrubbery.
Inside, it was even worse. The whole place smelled of smoke fumes and the floor was misshaped, and sunken in, all signs of heavy water damage.
Taking care not to step on the sunken parts of the hardwood floor, Shadow searched for Tails, finally finding him wedged in between the space between the ceiling and the floor of the second story of the building. "Tails?" He called out questioningly, not sure if he should be interrupting the kit while he was working.
Whatever project Tails had been working on was stable, as he immediately turned his power tools off and dropped down from the ceiling, using his tails to break his fall. "Shadow." He greeted in surprise, never having received said hedgehog as a visitor before. "Is that really you?" The thought that his visitor might be a robot did cross his mind.
"I'm not an android, if that's what you're asking." Shadow watched as Tails wiped the dust from the crawlspace out of his fur. "What happened here?"
"Scourge." Tails said bitterly. "He destroyed my tornado and set the workshop on fire." Tails motioned to the burn marks on the walls. "But at least the place is still standing, right?"
Scourge had really done all this? The green hedgehog did have a certain dislike for Sonic and his friends, but even Shadow found this a little on the extreme side. "Where you…in the building?" He asked delicately. Tails didn't have any visible burns, but fire damage could harm a person in so many different ways.
"No. We only found out it was Scourge because we showed in time to watch him blow my plane up." Tails' tone dropped to bitterness once more. Realizing he had forgotten his most basic manners, he spoke once more. "I would offer you something to drink, but…"
"No, it's alright. I'm fine." It was pretty obvious the workshop was in no condition for entertaining guests.
"If you're looking for Sonic," Tails continued, trying his best to keep his emotions under control. "He's not here. He's…"
"Rouge told me." Shadow stopped Tails, not wanting to upset him. "I came to help." He did promise Sonic he wouldn't let anything happen to the kit. It wouldn't hurt if he spent a few hours with him, helping re-build the place.
"Great!" Tails lit up at the prospect of help. It would certainly speed up the process! "I could sure use some!"
"Alright, Shadow!" Tails shouted from the crawlspace in the ceiling. "Turn it on!"
When Shadow had offered to help, this wasn't exactly what he had in mind. Flipping the first switch on the control circuit, he saw the lights in the next room turn on.
That one action had pretty much summed up the past two hours for the ultimate life form. As Tails had repaired the power to the workshop section by section, he had been standing by the switchboard, turning various fuses on and off or replacing them with new ones if needed.
Though Tails had been too shy to ask, Shadow had taken it upon himself to tear out the ceiling of the areas that had been repaired. Thanks to his impressive strength, he simply grabbed the burned stucco and pulled it off, only relying on tools when he came close to the walls, not wanting to send the whole place crashing down.
Luckily, the fire hadn't reached the second floor of the workshop, so most of it was still intact. The furniture did have to be replaced due to the smoke smell that lingered in all the bedding and carpet.
"Alright!" Tails entered the room rather excitedly, covered in dust. "We have power to the whole house! Thank you so much, Shadow!" He pulled the goggles off, rubbing away the dust from his muzzle. "All that's left is to dispose of the roofing we've torn out and we can call it a night. There's a dumpster out by the train station. It may take a few trips, but I'm sure we can-" The kit stopped in his tracks as he watched Shadow pick up the massive pile all at once, "…that works too."
With two flashes, Shadow had left the workshop with the debris and proceeded to return without it, having used chaos control to reach the dumpster quickly.
"That makes everything so much easier. Thank you!"
"It must be very late." Shadow checked his wrist communicator, confirming his suspicion. It was nearly one in the morning. "You're not going to be sleeping here, are you?" If the workshop didn't collapse on him, killing him instantly, the damage the carcinogens left behind from the fire would do it slowly.
"I've been staying with Amy in her apartment in Station Square, but I missed the last train to station square a while ago. I'll probably string up a hammock on some trees outside. Worst case scenario, I'll stay with Knuckles at the Master Emerald Shrine." Tails didn't mind camping outside. Before he and Sonic had taken up residence at Knothole, it was a nightly occurrence.
Shadow took ahold of Tails' arm. "I know where Amy's apartment is. I'll take you there." He had promised Sonic he would take care of Tails. He couldn't very well leave him out in the wilderness to fend for himself.
Before Tails could protest, he found himself standing in Amy's living room with Shadow. "Wow. Well, thank you for this. And for all your help."
Satisfied Tails would be alright for a night, Shadow disappeared in another flash.
Tails rubbed the back of his head as he walked through Station Square with Amy. Though the damage had been inflicted hours ago, the pain was certainly still there, along with an impressive bruise.
"Will you stop doing that!" Amy said rather angrily. "I already said I'm sorry. Several times!"
After Tails had arrived with Shadow at her apartment, he began setting up the couch to sleep for the night. Amy, having heard the commotion from her room, immediately awoke, summoning her Piko Piko hammer. She had cautiously stepped into the living room to see a figure moving about. Not bothering to see whom it was or what they were doing, she struck them square in the back of her head. Imagine her surprise when she found out it was actually Tails and not a burglar.
"It's not your fault, Amy." He said sheepishly. He didn't mean to make her feel guilty or keep reminding her about it. "It just hurts."
"Next time, use the front door!"
The two of them were heading for Club Rouge after overhearing a call for help on the police radio frequency. It seemed a certain green hedgehog was causing a scene and destroying the casino property along with threatening many of the patrons with physical violence.
As they arrived and entered the club, they could already hear the green hedgehog shouting at the various employees, all of whom were trying their best to calm him down while remaining calm themselves.
"Sir, we are going to have to ask you to leave." The club manager said for the hundredth time, attempting to get a hold of Scourge.
"Make me!" Scourge swung at the manager, missing by a mile. He was already well intoxicated at this point, having had several drinks and full cases on the house.
At first the employees thought they could simply give Scourge a few drinks and send him on his way. With Rouge away on a mission, there was no one around who was strong enough to fight the green hedgehog. Rather than create a scene and scare away customers, they gave in to his demands. It seemed to be going well at first, Scourge sat quietly at the bar with his drink. The employees had clearly underestimated Scourge's alcohol capacity as he continued to ask for more and more, demanding to have from Rouge's most expensive and old champagnes. When they said no, Scourge lost it.
"I want a drink, damn it!" Scourge continued to shout. Clumsily, he climbed over the bar and picked up the bartender. With a heave, he threw him over the counter at the manager.
The two humans landed in a pile on each other.
Scourge jumped back over the counter and grabbed one of the bar stools. He returned to behind the counter and used the stool to smash open the glass container which contained the most expensive drinks. Grabbing at the bottles, he read the labels, smashing them or drinking them depending on if he liked what he saw.
Amy and Tails ran to assist the manager and bartender, helping them back up on their feet.
"Ms. Amy, Mr. Tails!" The manager greeted happily. "Please, you must help. Scourge is going to destroy this place and Ms. Rouge is not around to stop him!"
"Don't worry." Amy had dealt with Scourge several times before. Though dangerous, Scourge was easy to handle while inebriated. "We'll take care of this."
"I'm on top of the world!" Scourge shouted as he stood atop the bar. He suddenly fell to the ground as someone kicked him in the back.
"Come on, your highness." Amy mocked, as she grabbed Scourge by the ear, dragging him towards the back.
"We'll take the exit out the back." Tails explained to the manager. "So the rest of the casino doesn't have to see him."
"Thank you very much!" The manager almost bowed in gratitude. He was already going to have a tough time explaining to Rouge what had happened to her bar when she got back, he certainly didn't want to make the situation worse.
"Ow, ow, ow! Hey! Let go!" Scourge swung clumsily at Amy, missing her every time.
As soon as they were in the alley outside, Amy let go of Scourge, only to have him grab onto her shoulders, wrapping her into a hug.
"Hey there, hot stuff." Scourge slurred, trying to sound smooth. "How about you and I go find somewhere private, and I can show you a good time."
"Ew! Gross!" Amy shoved Scourge away from her easily, watching as he lost his balance, falling over his own feet.
Surprisingly fast for someone with an abnormally high blood-alcohol level, Scourge launched himself at Amy again, wrapping his arms around her waist this time and burying his face into her stomach. "I miss Fiona!" He sobbed, tears rolling down his face. "I haven't had a girl in so long!" He continued crying into her stomach.
"I said off!" Amy gave Scourge a good whack with her Piko Piko hammer, sending him crashing into the wall of the alley.
Scourge slid to the ground, landing face down, not moving.
The two mobians watched as the moebian lay there, unmoving.
"I didn't kill him," Amy approached cautiously, "Did I?" The impact was rather powerful.
Tails hurried over to the green hedgehog's side and turned him over. There was blood on his face, where he had made direct contact with the brick wall, but he was still breathing. "No, he's fine."
"Go away." Scourge opened his eyes and swatted at Tails. "I'm still mad at you for this!" He pointed to his knee, where a scar had formed after Tails had attacked him with the screwdriver at the Mystic Ruins. "I would give you a piece of my mind for it, but Sonic," He drawled at the mention of his counterpart's name, "Would have a hissy fit if anything happened to you. Consider yourself lucky, Squirt."
"So you admit he's alive." Amy quickly jumped in. They already knew he was thanks to Rouge, but if they could get a confession out of Scourge, they might be able to get a location out of him as well.
"I never said he was dead!" True to his word, he had never specifically used 'death' or 'dead' to describe Sonic's condition. "I said he was in the sky!"
"Sky?" Tails asked. "You mean he's in the flying Egg Fortress?"
"Sure, whatever you want, Squirt!" Scourge laughed as he continued to lay on the floor.
Amy growled in irritation. If Scourge was able to keep his wits about him in his current state and not accidentally spill the truth, he was of no use to them. They were better off leaving now while he was in this state than stay and wait for him to sober up at which point he would pose a genuine threat. "We're not going to get anywhere with him!"
"If you wanna talk about getting somewhere." Scourge made the effort to stand up, though his posture slumped as he tried to walk. "Let's talk about us!" He placed his arm around Amy's shoulders.
Grabbing his hand, Amy swung around, letting go and sending the green hedgehog flying down the alley way.
"Fine!" Scourge shouted to the two mobians after flying over twenty feet. "If you're going to be like that, I'll find someone else to have a good time with! You missed your chance with the king!"
"You're not on Moebius, you drunk idiot!" Amy yelled back.
I've been basing Rouge's personality on her character from the SEGA games, especially Sonic 06. Yes, it was a disaster (even though I thoroughly enjoyed it), but I really like how loyal Rouge was to Shadow. I'm sure you can see it; the "even if the world turns its back" line is a line from her dialogue in the game, if I'm not mistaken.
But there still is not going to be any romance in this story. Just two very close friends.
Review please!