After the recap chapter, I want to do an 'extras' chapter. All the characters that keep the story going, on the sides, need their time in the spotlight. It's probably going to be a long one, I've been meaning to write it for a while now. I didn't realize it, but I have over 20 OC's in here as extras. XD
I won't be getting to them all, but most will get some time to shine.
On with the show. :D
-Chapter 50: Up To Speed-
Amy sat in front of Sonic. He cashewed himself around her bottom. Someone knocked. "It's open," she said.
Sticks was the first to join up again. "Two meetings in one day? Normally we have one a month, at best," she said and sat next to Tails. "Don't tell me Jules is out of commission now, too?"
Tails shook his head. "Not as far as we know."
Sonic yawned. "Jules sounded like she had good news to report."
"Knuckles comin' too?" she asked.
Amy laughed a little. "I called him a moment ago. Xaun got caught trespassing on Comedy Chimp's set. He's at the police station bailing him out."
"Really?" Tails scratched his head. "I think you have to sign for something like that."
"He only needs to sign his name. That shouldn't be a problem," Amy said.
"You know Knuckles can't actually write. Scribbles don't count," he clarified.
"Actually, Jules has been practicing writing his name with him. Whether or not he knows what he's writing, he can at least do that."
Meanwhile, at the station. Knuckles did his best to remember what Jules had shown him. He squinted at the paper as he carefully printed out the letters of his name. He stood up and held the paper straight out, only inches away from the police beaver's face. "What does that say?"
He was a little fearful as he refocused and read the word, "...Knuckels?"
Knuckles wore a proud smile. "Close enough," he said and slapped the paper flat against the desk. "Let's go, little idiot."
Xaun was freed. He walked out of the cell with slumped shoulders. "You don't gotta be mean."
"Yeah, I kinda do. You were told not to stow away again, ya didn't listen. If you keep doing stuff like that, you'll be kicked out of town."
"Ease up. I'm sorry," he said as they walked down the steps of the police station.
"I'm not mad, I just don't want you to have to leave if you like it here. Besides, I don't get to feel all smart and responsible very often; you're letting me have this one." He got the guy to smile.
Xaun chuckled a bit, "Fine. I'm dumb. It won't happen again."
Back at the house, Jules and Shadow teleported to the front door. She rubbed the chill from her arms. "I can see why Rouge doesn't like doing that," Jules briefly knocked and let herself in.
"Welcome back. Any success?" Amy asked.
Shadow followed close behind her. "Two for two. We found a dozen batteries and two of those cylinders Sonic came across." He looked at the blue hedgehog nestled behind Amy. "How's your back?"
He held his hand palm down and waggled it. "So-so. I'm waiting for the first dose of meds to kick in. Ask me again in twenty minutes."
Shadow briefed them on the following day's plans. Tails would accompany him on the next mission. After Shadow left, it looked like he stood outside for a time and then teleported away.
Not long after, Knuckles returned. He was filled in on the successful trip. "Xaun's at the house. He said he'll wire some of the walls and call it a night."
"It makes more sense for them to put the plumbing in before we do the split anyway," Tails said. "Did the plumber call? It's been a few days. They should have the line nearly finished by now."
Knuckles nodded. "He called earlier and said he'd be there in the morning. So, why're we all here again?"
Amy breathed a deep sigh. "It's time to fill you all in about what's going on."
A confused expression fell over the crowd.
Amy began. "This all started as a trip to find other echidna's, simple enough. I knew there were others in the world, though I didn't know where, exactly. I got everyone to wait until I reached out to the royal family to see what they knew. They told me there were a few families in the port town we landed in, so that was easy enough. They requested we wait to travel because they knew another one of their allies were on the run, Jami."
"You're telling me you knew about Jami before we left?" Sticks asked.
"I did. They rerouted trade ships so the one they were travelling on ended up here on the day we left. It felt like fate when Chopper came up and tapped you on the shoulder, Knuckles; more so when he showed me the picture of his friend Kline and his wife's new baby."
"We partied with them that night. You'd never think they came from such a forbidding place with how chill they were," Sonic said. "Jami talked to me the next day about the civil war that her country was in and why they were on the run. That's when I came back and told the rest of you...you know...the moment I found out."
Amy rolled her eyes. "Passive aggressive much?"
"I'm kidding." He smirked deviously and nuzzled her side. "Please, continue."
"I didn't realize how close the rebel forces were when we landed. If I knew they were being followed that closely, I'd have spoke up about it a lot sooner. Regardless, we got what we needed from the library and I let you all know what was happening the next day."
"I forgot to mention something," Knuckles interjected. "While I was working at the pizza shop with Mac and Re'kar, a soldier dropped in with a wanted poster."
Jules nodded, "I remember that one. You showed it to Re'kar and he thought you were harboring criminals. He was so mad for, like, two seconds. They were offering a reward and everything," she said.
"I seriously don't know what we would have done if you didn't meet him that day. He saved all our hides," Tails said.
"And then some," Amy agreed. "If not for the rest of his family, and the use of the underground tunnles, they'd have been trapped in town. The caravan he sent out reached the south in no time. If we needed to reach the caravan for any reason, being on the mainland was the only way we'd be able to help them in a hurry. I'm glad Re'kar could put us up for two, plus, months. In turn, we helped them out with their newborn and they helped us plug the island as a resort town."
Knuckles smiled, "Yeah, getting to stay so long also gave me a chance to learn a lot about my culture from Jules grandfather. I got tons of stories Simon let me record," he said and pointed to his wrist communicator. "We echidna's have a long history with the chaos emeralds and chaos energy in general."
"Wait a sec, is that why you suggested what you did about Shadow and Rouge?" Sonic asked.
Knuckles nodded. "Kinda; it was only a hunch. I told Simon where we lived and he talked about how Angle Island used to be floating with the power of the master emerald. He said that these islands used to all be powered using chaos technology. I guess they still are."
Amy smiled. "A lot of good came from our trip. We managed to use Kai-Li's concections to get a ferry service once a week and she even got us in touch with Dr. Sang who gave us our first ultrasound."
"Soon my little hellions...soon," Sonic muttered as he snuggled Amy.
Amy gave him side eyes. She continued. "The technology we're going after is going to be used to power a drill to tap into an oil reserve under Dr. Eggman's lair. The royal family hire forces to protect fringe areas like ours. We give them oil in exchange for protection, our island gets to expand without fear of pirates raiding our home. The oil in turn is either used or sold to fund the militia that they hired, which is where Shadow and Rouge come in. They both work for the military. They're in charge of finding the chaos energy and reporting any suspicious activity."
Everyone calmly took in the information.
Sonic said, "Rouge, private first class and Major Shadow are getting orders from a colonel, who's getting orders from a duchess, who's getting orders, presumably, from a king. We're the bottom line in a long chain of command."
"You don't need to sound so glib about it," Tails said.
"Yeah. We're sitting pretty in the shade," Sticks added.
"It's peaceful in the shade, but the sun goes down eventually. Then everyone's cold," Sonic said and rubbed his eyes.
"Try to think of the royal family as an electric heating blanket, to get us through the night." Amy sugested.
"Why would a royal family be interested in helping us in the first place?" Sticks asked.
"They wanted to protect us after what happened to my crew druing the dig three years ago. A harmless dig nearly turned into a kidnapping secenario because of Duchad's lackeys." Amy requested Sonic and Tails keep her prosthegic on the down low for the time being. "I do a lot of work for this island and our constituents. They joined the resistance on our behalf. The island doesn't know that they technically aren't impartial anymore, but that's fine since we now have the protection of the entire O'Hedge family on our side."
"O'Hedge? That's a big name. They control the entire kingdom of Acorn." Sticks sounded surprised.
"Shadow and Rouge were both in the committe meeting that made the decision to allow them to explore. As far as the town's concerner, those two are here to find minerals and report them back to me. Since I already know the location of mineral deposits, every few days I report a new loaction for the town committee to excavate." Something occured to her as she checked the time. "Speaking of which." Amy called the mayor's personal line.
"Good evening, Amy. Any luck today?"
"Indeed, plenty. We found the biggest iron deposit to date."
"Wonderful news. Send me the coordinates and I'll have someone out there in the morning."
Amy finished her call with the mayor and turned back to the rest of the group.
"Thas kinda what Rouge tol'me the other day, she'za geol'gist. I guess she technically wasn'lying," Sonic sloppily spoke.
Amy looked behind her to Sonic. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I don't feel anything. I can't even feel m'tongue," he said and stuck his tongue out and bit down lightly. "Fee? Nuffin," he said with it half hanging out of his mouth.
"Let's not bite down too hard." She closed his mouth for him. "We should probably wrap this up now. I think that's everything that's happened up until this point. Tails, Knuckles, would you help me get him into the bathroom? I don't think he needs to be covered in mud and dried blood for the whole evening."
"Amy, I don't know if I can stan'fer long in the shower ri'now." His head felt heavy and dizzy as he sat up. "And they told me not to get my stitches wet for the first two days." His friends delicately got him to his feet.
"I'll be cafeful to keep the rest of you dry." Amy went into the closet and pulled out a small unopened box that contained a seat to go in the tub. "I bought this yesterday, for when my belly gets too big and it's too hard to stand in the shower for long. We can sit you on this and get you cleaned up for the evening."
Knuckles stayed behind to help Amy get Sonic in and out of the tub. The other three made tracks. The girls followed Tails to wherever he was going. "Any plans for tonight?" he asked.
The girls shook their heads. "Nope," Jules said. "You?"
He nodded. "Mina's coming over to drop off some concert supplies and hang out for a bit."
Sticks narrowed her eyes. "I thought Amy asked you to keep it professional? She's been over there everyday since you two met. Things are starting to look a little fishy," she pointed out.
"Trust me, that's not an issue," Tails said with a chuckle. "Come on over and hang out with us. You'll see what I mean."
Jules and Sticks shrugged at one another. They tagged along to Tails pad.
My laptop is fried and I had to write this on my phone. The keyboard is tiny an there is NO spellcheck. Forgive the typos. X.x
I had a bluetooth keyboard, but after the apartment fire this past summer, it was probably stolen with all my snes games. TT_TT fml
