Motor on. XD

-Chapter 36: Good Morning Sunshine 2-

Shadow awoke to the smell of coffee and bacon. He tossed the pillow on his chest onto the other couch.

"You're alive," Amy said. "You hungry?"

It took Shadow a moment to realize where he was, regardless if he remembered every moment of getting there or not. "Don't trouble yourself."

"Trouble? It's already made. I have coffee, pancakes and bacon."

"Alright then," he said calmly and stood up. He stood for a solid four seconds. He sat back down and held his throbbing skull. "Give me a moment. Now I remember why I don't have fun. It hurts."

She laughed. "I bet. Sonic's not out of bed yet either. Where did Rouge go?" She asked as though she didn't know.

He tried to contact her but got no response. "Not sure." Amy put a plate together for Shadow and brought it to him. "Y-you, don't need to serve me, but, thank you." He dug in.

Sonic finally emerged from his tomb with a blanket still wrapped around him. He looked rougher than Shadow did. He proceeded to the kitchen and kissed Amy. With a sore head laid on her shoulder he said, "I'm hungover. Please tell me there's food left."

"Yes. The bacon's almost done. I'll get your plate, go sit," she said and went back to frying.

Sonic flopped face first into the adjacent couch. He groaned in pain and pulled the pillow he threw at Shadow over his own head. "Why did I agree to shots? I distinctly remember doing shots, Xaun did karaoke, we threw that bottle at the fire and it exploded...and then I woke up here."

"I told you not to try and out drink Rouge. She's a tank," Shadow said as he chowed down on his bacon.

"Duly noted." He smiled coyly. "So...how did it go?" He only knew of Shadow's exploits because Amy told him before she got up.

"I'm pretty sure your door isn't soundproof."

"Indeed, it isn't. You're welcome," he said and extended his fist for a bump.

"No," he said and continued his meal. Sonic's hand held fast, determined to get a bump. "You're insufferable," he said quietly and bumped fists with his rival. After food, he thanked his hosts and Shadow left the house, slowly, in search of Rouge.

Amy brought their plates to the coffee table. "We can eat in here if you don't want to sit up."

"Good call." Sonic's arm came out from beneath the blanket, grabbed a semi-crispy slice of bacon and sat there holding it.

Amy remembered this was how he was on the boat trip to the mainland. "Need any help?"

"Almost there," he said as he successfully consumed the bacon. "Good, we didn't get the reduced salt bacon. It feels weird to salt my bacon."

"I'm trying to cut down on salt because of all the fast food we eat, but I think I can let bacon be bacon. We can eat less of it if it's too salty."

"You want me to cut down on fast food?"

"Try to cut it out a little. It'll save us some money too."

"I can live with that...gonna have to get Knuckles to teach me make chili so I can do it from home."

"That's the spirit. Stay away from those peppers he found out in the jungle." Amy finished her plate before Sonic and took it to the sink. "It's probably pointless to ask, but I lost track of everyone last night, did you see where they went?"

"Nope."

"Didn't think so," she said as he front door slammed open.

Tails burst in, busting with news. "You're never going to guess who was at my house this morning!" He saw Sonic wince in pain. "Heh, sorry. Guess who."

"Vector?" Sonic guessed.

"Rouge?" Amy guessed.

"Eggman!" Sonic suggested louder.

"No, no and no. I had to look her up when I got home, but Mina Mongoose wants to do a gig here!"

Amy squealed, "You're kidding!"

"Nope! She wants to have a concert here next month."

Amy bounced and screamed, "She's here! Oh my goodness, she's here! AAAAAHHH!"

"Amy, you may want to quiet dow-" He tried to alert Amy that Sonic was trying his best to hide his head in the couch cushions to escape the ear piercing fangirling.

There was no stopping her. "I have all her albums!" Amy went to her luggage that still needed unpacking.

"I listened to a couple of her songs, it's not really my style. I'm glad you're into her though."

"Did you listen to her old stuff, or her new stuff? It's got a different feel. I found her newest release on the shelf at Tonic Concentration!" She pulled the CD and flashed it to Tails. The cover was racy and depicted a nude Mina with her back mostly to the camera and looking over her shoulder. Delightful looking rainbow sprites censored the right areas. "She, this person, Mina, was over your house today?"

"Yes," he said with a heavy blush as he examined the album cover.

Amy gave him sly side eyes, "You frisky biscuit, you."

He blushed deeper, "We were making plans to set up her stage, that's all! She has pyrotechnics she wants to put in. Someone told her I was the person to talk to for tech." Tails sounded proud.

"Next month, you said? That should give us time to build a new hotel. Eggman was full up last night and so was the bed and breakfast. I even saw a few people sleeping on the sand. We really cut it close. I'll put in a request to the mayor. We still have to wait until the end of the day to find out our earnings. This is between us right now, but we made a profit only a couple hours into the night. There's no telling what we walked away with." She looked at Sonic who was coiled into a ball. "What's your problem?"

He uncoiled from his ball. "Noise is painful."

She laughed a little. "Alright, I'll leave you be and get this all sorted with the mayor."

Amy got ready for the day and headed to town hall where she went over finance with the mayor. "These numbers are off the charts."

"I knew we should have sprung for bigger charts," he said.

"I'll put that on the list for next time...bigger...charts," she said and squiggled down some numbers. "The ferry starts docking at five o'clock and we can calculate our earnings then. There was one final thing to mention." She discussed the concert with Mina and the mayor said he'd bring it up at the meeting later that day.

Amy went around town and sold the six return tickets in no time. She spotted the coveted Mina in her travels. With all the willpower she could muster she went over to the woman and didn't have a spaz attack. "Hi, Mina?"

She turned, "Hello," she said with a friendly wave.

"I'm Amy Rose, one of the head members of the planning committee," she said and they shook. "Tails told me you were looking to have a concert here."

"Yeah. I think performing in a tropical paradise would be a great selling point for my new album."

Amy giggled, "I can see that. I bought it only a couple weeks ago, and let me tell you, I fell in love."

"Oh, thank you. It's always great to meet a fan who's on board with my new image. I'm trying to leave the 'little girl pop star' behind. I signed with a new company months ago and I'm already loving the results. Is it alright if the whole concert isn't for folks of all ages? I want to do my new stuff and my old stuff."

She nodded, "Of course! Much like we did last night, we turned the censorship off at nine when the kids went to bed."

They traded communication info and Amy was off to check on the ferry. Amy froze as the ferry came into view. It was being packed with food for the trip back. She remembered that Xaun stowed away and had no return ticket, and she had just sold all the tickets they used to get home. "I'm going to have to let Sticks know her little stalker friend is going to be staying."

She went to Sticks burrow and before she laid a hand on the door to knock, Sticks opened it and revealed Xaun behind her. She quickly stepped outside and shut the door behind her. "My timing is awful. What's up?"

Amy stood there with a raised eyebrow.

"What? I threw the guy I bone."

Amy chuckled and extended a fist to bump. "I guess that means you don't mind if he has to stay on the island for a week?"

Stick gave her a bump. "What about our return tickets?"

"I forgot he snuck on board and I sold them already. Sorry," she said with clasped hands.

Sticks waved the notion away. "Don't worry about it. We got to talking about other stuff and Xaun said that staying on the island would help him out. No drinking buddies means he'll dry up."

"I supposed that's a good enough reason to stick around. Will he be staying here?"

She shrugged. "Not sure. Jules has my spare room and I'm not sharing my bed any more than I have to. I'll ask Jules when she gets up; she went to bed really early and she's still asleep."

Amy nodded. "Alright, I'll see if Knuckles is up and ready to start digging."

Xaun opened the door. "I can help dig."

"You eaves dropping on me?" Sticks readied herself for a fight.

"Wouldn't you?"

She thought about it. "...good point," she said and reentered her home and shoved Xaun out onto the doorstep. "I have to go...do some stuff. See ya later," she said and shut the door on them.

Amy and Xaun went to Knuckles hut. She knocked on the door frame and let herself in. "Knuckles, are you up yeeee-?!" She caught a glimpse of Knuckles and Jules spooning. She quickly left the hut. "Oops, I'll come back later."

"I'm awake," Knuckles said sleepily. He went to the door and yawned.

With a blush on her cheeks, she extended a fist to bump.

"Heh." Knuckles bumped. "What's up?"

"I was wondering when you wanted to start digging for the plumbing."

"Right after breakfast, I guess."

Jules walked past them all with a big yawn, "I'll help too. I'm going to use Meh Burger's bathroom and I'll be back."

Xaun laughed, "Use the bushes."

"Nope. Still too much of the city in me for that."

Three of them went to Meh Burger and Amy went off to see if there was anything to report at Eggman's lair, slash, hotel. She knocked and the doctor answered in his fancy red robe. He had a smoothie in one hand. "Hey, Eggman, I'm checking up on everything from last night."

"Sure thing. Come on in. I was making croissants for the girls." He walked with a slight limp but no cane.

Amy had heard from Rouge that he replaced his own knee. "How's your knee?"

"The bone feels great, the joint is taking nicely, but the stitches are a bit sore. I'm mostly staying off it for today." He led Amy to the main hall where the three human ladies all sat around and chatted in front of the television. "Tips alone were impressive," he said and handed out the earnings for the tiki bar. "I knew splurging on drink-bot would pay off." He located the hotel's finances and gave those papers to her as well.

After Amy got all the information she needed, she was seen to the door. "Oh, and Dr. Eggman, in the absence of any of the guys, I'm obligated to give you an obligatory fist bump." She extended her fist for the third time that morning.

He bumped it three times, "Heh, have a good day, I know I sure will." He heard something ding in the background. "Croissants are done." He shut the door to return his lady friends.

She returned home to find Sonic up and moving normally. He'd tidied up the kitchen for her. When she came in, he hit the kettle for water. "What's the word?"

Amy squeed with joy, "Last night was a bigger success than I thought."

"That's good news."

"Heh, yeah. I ran into Mina and she's looking to do a split show. One for the kids and teens and one for the adults."

Sonic snickered, "I bet. I listened to some of her new stuff while you were gone. Way different from her last album. I actually kind of like it."

Amy brightened up, "Would you go with me to the concert then?"

He nodded.

Amy squealed loudly. Sonic balled up. "Oops, sorry, I forgot you had a headache."

Gotta end on a joke. ;P