There were numerous options for the Olympic athletes when it came to breakfast, but one of the more popular options was a retro-styled diner across the street from the Olympic Village called Molly's Diner. Built before the Great War and largely untouched by the numerous bombings that Emerald City suffered, it was already decently popular before the latest Olympics, but it was seeing quite the uptick in business now. Shadow and Rouge took a booth in one of the far corners of the diner.

"Hi, welcome to Molly's!" Shadow and Rouge's waitress – a light blue bear – handed them menus. "My name is Carla! Can I start you two off with drinks?"

"I'll have a coffee…black," said Shadow.

"I'll have a green tea," said Rouge.

"OK!" Carla left to get their drinks.

Meanwhile, Rouge, seeing that Shadow looked like he hadn't gotten a good night's sleep, frowned and raised her eyelids.

"Shaddy, you don't look too good. Is everything OK?"

Shadow crossed his arms. "Why would everything be OK? I got in a whole pile of trouble with the only person who really cares about me just because I got into a fight with that Faker, and now I'm being expected to perform at a world-class level in some sporting event of which I fail to see the significance of."

"Shaddy, I just wanted to let you know that I'm not angry at you anymore for fighting with Sonic. As for the Olympics, I also wanted to let you know that you did great yesterday and that I'm really proud of you!"

Shadow sighed. "Whatever."

"Hey, if you're feeling that glum, I can give you an Extra-Special Hedgie Huggle if you want!"

"I don't see what good that'll do, but if you must insist, I won't stop you."

Without saying anything further, Rouge got up from her seat, scooched up to Shadow and huggled him. Try as he would, Shadow's iron front broke down again, and he uncrossed his arms and blushed.

"I…I can't," said Shadow. "It's like no matter how much I try to be me, your touch is just too much for me."

Rouge smiled. "See? No hedgies can resist the Extra-Special Hedgie Huggle!"

"Part of me still wants to be depressed, but on the other hand, the fact that you give me what I really want reminds me of why I stay with you."

"Oh Shaddy, you're so sweet!"

By this time, Carla returned with Shadow and Rouge's drinks, and when she saw Rouge huggling Shadow, she smiled.

"Oh, you two look so cute together!" said Carla. "Are you two dating?"

"No, we're just really good friends!" replied Rouge.

Rouge then returned to her seat, while Carla set down the drinks.

"Are you two ready to order or do you need a few minutes?" asked Carla.

"I'm ready whenever you are, Shaddy."

Shadow nodded.

"I'll have the chicken & waffles with the breast and wing, please," said Rouge.

"OK," said Carla. "And you?"

"I'll have the 12-ounce strip steak and eggs," said Shadow.

"And how would you like your eggs cooked?" asked Carla.

"Sunny side up."

Shadow and Rouge handed their menus off to Carla, who returned to grab their food.

"So anyways, I heard you're going to be playing basketball today!" said Rouge. "You must be excited for that, hm?"

"Actually, that's my favorite sport to play, so you got me there."

Rouge chuckled. "See? I knew you had something to look forward to!"

Shadow nodded. Granted, he was hoping that Sonic wouldn't bonk him with a basketball like he did with the soccer ball, but still, he was hopeful for this game.

Once again, the nice weather persisted, and this was fortunate for Sticks the Badger because today, she was participating in women's individual archery, which – as with all archery events – was being held at Deville Park, located in the neighborhood of the same name in the East Beach borough. It had taken a lot of convincing on Amy's part to get Sticks to participate, mainly because Sticks believed that the Olympics were just a global conspiracy to unite all the peoples of the world under a tyrannical New World Order where people would be required to eat candy that caused them to grow horns on their heads. Nevertheless, here she was, with her homemade recurve bow, hoping to at least get a good rank in the competition. Unlike many of her competitors, she didn't care about fame, fortune or any of the other trappings that came with being victorious; her main motivation for doing this was just to give a big "screw you" to those who actually did care.

The range that was being used for archery was an Olympic-approved 70-meter range. In both the men's and women's competitions, 64 people had entered, and Sticks was intent on beating out as many of the 63 other women who'd entered as she possibly could. Soon enough, her turn came up. Like every other archer, Sticks was given 72 arrows to qualify, to be shot in ends of six, that is, six at a time. She took her bow, strung her first arrow, drew it back, aimed, and fired. While this arrow didn't exactly hit dead center, it nevertheless hit the yellow area of the target, this being the innermost portion, thereby earning her a cool 10 points. Sticks smiled, knowing that her years of bow hunting had paid off. While her next four arrows didn't all hit the exact same spot, she nevertheless had very good grouping – one arrow even hitting dead center – and she was already looking to be a contender for the number-one seed. Then, for her last arrow in this end, her careful aim not only paid off once again, but she ended up hitting dead center yet again, splitting the arrow there in a manner that would make Errol Flynn proud. By the time the ranking matches were done, Sticks had more than qualified for the next round.

After the archery competition, Amy had come to see Sticks.

"Hey, GREAT job, Sticks!" said Amy. "I knew you had it in you!"

"Hey thanks!" Sticks smiled. "That actually means somethin' comin' from you!"

Amy put a hand on Sticks' shoulder. "I know you would've much rather stayed in your burrow, but we're all happy that you came out to join us for these Games!"

Sticks frowned. "I'll be happy when I'm sure that I don't have to eat that horn-growin' candy. Speakin' of happy, have ya noticed how unhappy Shadow's been?"

"Sticks, Shadow's always like that!"

Sticks shook her head. "Not like this. Hell, remember when ya dragged me to that soccer game yesterday?"

Amy tilted her head a bit. "What about it?"

"I dunno about you, but near the end of the game, when Sonic kicked the ball to Shadow, I saw Shadow actin' real funny. You were there, so don't tell me ya didn't notice him gettin' bonked by the ball!"

"Well…yeah, but what if Shadow was giving Sonic one of those death glares that he's so inclined to dole out?"

Sticks positioned her arms above one another and swung in opposite ways as if signalling "safe" in baseball. "No way, Amy! That wasn't no death glare! I couldn't tell ya exactly what Shadow was up to, but I smelled somethin' funny comin' from him!"

Amy stared blankly at Sticks. Then, she blinked, and her eyes widened.

"Sticks…you don't think…?"

"Think what?"

"You don't think Shadow has a crush on Sonic…do you?"

"What!? NO! Don't get me wrong, I've heard of 'Sonadow' before, but that's just a conspiracy by the Mafia to get people to buy overpriced coffee mugs and T-shirts!"

Amy said nothing else. While Sticks was one of her best friends, even she had to admit that her ideas were more than a little out there.

As Shadow mentioned to Rouge earlier, he was taking part in the first round of men's basketball, against the Federal Republic of Columbia. This match was to take place in another famous Emerald City sports venue: the Emerald City Forum, located in the Upper East Side. Like yesterday's soccer game against the Roseinian Empire, this game was very hotly anticipated, mainly because the Columbian team had some of the hottest players in the game such as Wilt Ewing and Michael Bird. The Mobian team wore white jerseys with red/blue trim and white shorts with red/blue stripes, while the Columbian team wore dark blue jerseys and shorts with white/red trim and stripes.

Being that he was the tallest on the Mobian team, Robotnik was chosen to do the tipoff after the national anthems were done with, while Ewing was chosen for the Columbian side. The referee threw the ball up, and Ewing managed to reach it first, after which it was caught by Julius Thomas, who dribbled it at least to the half-court line before being blocked by Shadow. Shadow jumped up when Thomas attempted to pass the ball to Hakeem Malone and blocked the pass, but Bird recovered it and passed it to Malone, who took a shot and scored two points for the Columbians. Since the Mobians got possession of the ball next, Shadow passed it to Espio, who used his ninja training to juke around Bird and Kareem Worthy. Seeing Thomas bearing down on him, Espio decided to take a risk and shoot from the three-point line. Fortunately for him, it went in and put the Mobians ahead 3-2. In spite of this, and in spite of generally hard playing by the Mobians, the Columbians were ahead 20-17 at the end of the first quarter.

Not ones to be deterred, the Mobians rallied during the second quarter, for a time having the lead thanks to a couple of three-pointers from Sonic and Robotnik. However, Knuckles accidentally fouled Ewing while he was attempting a three-pointer himself, thereby granting Ewing three free throws, only one of which he missed. By the time the first half was over, the Columbians were still ahead at 42-35, and as they'd done during soccer, the Mobians convened during the halftime break to discuss their strategy for the second half:

"OK, barring Doctor Robotnik, we're at a serious height disadvantage," said Shadow. "Therefore, I expect each and every one of you to stay alert at all times and NEVER forget where the ball is."

"Right!" said everybody else.

"And Knuckles…"

"Yeah?" said Knuckles.

"Be careful about fouling people. You don't want to foul out…do you?"

Knuckles rubbed the back of his head. "No…of course not!"

"Hmph."

Once halftime concluded, the teams switched baskets, and the game got on again. At first, it seemed as though it would be the same old, same old for the Mobians, but eventually, they came close to the Columbians, at 50-51. Then, six minutes into the quarter, Knuckles fouled out and was replaced by Tails, who got a three-pointer to tie with the Columbians at 53 points. In spite of being forbidden from using his two namesakes to fly, Tails proved to be quite consistent with the three-pointers provided he had the opportunity to do so. Because of this, the Mobians finally ended a quarter ahead of the Columbians, 59-53. The Mobians were no slouch in the final quarter either, especially considering they were consistently following Shadow's advice from halftime. Finally, with the Mobians maintaining a comfortable lead since the beginning of the quarter, Espio passed the ball to Shadow, and in the final seconds of the game, the Black Blur performed a Chuck Connors-esque dunk, winning the game for Mobius at 82-65.

After the game, Shadow was minding his own business when…

"Hey, that last dunk was far out, man!" Sonic gave Shadow the heavy metal "devil's horns" gesture.

Shadow crossed his arms. "And you're congratulating me on this because why…?"

"Why not? Any cat who can end a game like that is good in my book!"

"Just shut up and go away…Sonic."

Sonic smirked. "Nice talkin' to ya too, jive turkey!"

Sonic ran ahead of Shadow with Tails following closely.

(How can I keep on being rude to him like this?) thought Shadow. (Am I really THAT concerned about not losing face that I have to push away the most beautiful hedgehog on this planet? Hopefully, I can get over this hangup eventually…)

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.