Disclaimer (whoop-ti-doo!): Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Rouge, and Shadow are © Sega. Everyone else is © whoever invented hospitals.
Holes and Tricks
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna
Part 3
"Amy, please just wake up!" Sonic worriedly cried out. He was obviously very upset about the condition the pink hedgehog had walked into the apartment in, which made me secretly wonder if the female's feelings for Sonic were equally matched.
As everyone else stood back, stunned at the sight of Amy, I walked up next to the blue hedgehog and said, "Sonic, we've got to get her up on the couch. Help me lift her!"
Sonic nodded, and then we carefully picked her up off the floor. Amy groaned softly as we set her on the couch, which reassured everybody in the apartment that she was alive, just semi-conscious. As soon as the pink hedgehog had been set down comfortably, she muttered one single word, itai, before she quit moving completely.
It was then that Tails discovered that there was a blood stain on the carpet where Amy had collapsed. I then knelt down to the female hedgehog's level and lifted her into a sitting position, which was rather difficult since she was unconscious, or for all I knew, possibly dead. While doing this, I felt my glove being saturated by a type of liquid. I then lifted my hand from Amy's shoulder to reveal the entire palm of my glove soaked in blood from the female hedgehog's shoulder.
"Not good. This is NOT good." I muttered as I discovered the source of Amy's blood loss. Five large gashes in her right shoulder, shaped in the formation of a paw, suggested that she was attacked by an extremely aggressive animal, or maybe even a mechanical creation. I wondered right away if Eggman had anything to do with this, but forgot about it as soon as I heard myself say, "We have to get Amy to a hospital FAST!"
Shadow and Sonic quickly obliged to lift Amy back up off of the couch while Tails and Rouge and I gathered up everyone's things.
As soon as we got outside the apartment building and onto the city street, I realized just how late it actually was. The sky was pitch-black except for a few dotted across the summer sky and a full moon overhead. The normally busy streets of Station Square were now littered with just the faint smell of gasoline.
"The only hospital that would be open this late would be the Station Square Community Hospital, but it's a couple of miles away from here… Sonic, Shadow, you guys up for a run?" I turned to the two hedgehogs that were gently carrying Amy.
"Sure thing, Knux!" exclaimed Sonic. The blue hedgehog then turned to Shadow as he said, "We've got to keep a steady pace against each other, or we could risk losing our grip on Amy. Got it?"
"Right. On three. One… Two… Three!" With that, the look-alike hedgehogs raced down the street in the direction of the hospital with the wounded younger female balanced between their grip. Tails, Rouge, and I followed in the air.
We reached the hospital within five minutes of leaving the apartment. As soon as Sonic and Shadow had cleared the door, the blue hedgehog took full possession of Amy's limp body and shouted, "We need a doctor here, NOW!"
A nurse quickly walked up to my blue friend and patiently asked, "What seems to be the problem, sir?"
Seemingly annoyed by the woman's collectiveness, Sonic answered the female hospital worker's inquiry by simply emitting, "This!" and lifted the pink hedgehog's head to his shoulder to allow the nurse to get a look at Amy's bloody shoulder.
Apparently, Tails had been the only one back at the apartment that hadn't seen the female hedgehog's wound, because as soon as he had gotten a good look at our pink friends' shoulder, the orange fox clapped his hand over his mouth and grew a disgusted look on his face.
At the same time, the nurse took in the sight of Amy's source of blood loss and the calm hospital worker gave in to a frantic, worried woman.
"We need a Mobian E.R. surgeon, stat!" cried out the doctor's assistant.
Sure enough, a doctor that specializes in Mobian surgery rushed seemingly out of nowhere with a gurney in tow. The average-sized human then inspected Amy's shoulder and stated, "She'll need stitches and a blood transfusion, from the bloodstain on the red sir's glove and the blue sir's forearm. Please set her on the gurney and we will take care of the rest."
Sonic did as the surgeon said and laid the pink hedgehog down on the gurney. As soon as that was done, the doctor sped away toward the operating room. The blue hedgehog just stood in the same spot for a moment, stunned, and then realized what had happened and punched his fist forward at the air and exclaimed, "Man, I HATE waiting!"
Waiting for Amy to come out of surgery seemed more like thirty hours than thirty minutes. During that period of time, Sonic and I washed the pink hedgehog's blood off of ourselves. While my blue-furred friend scrubbed at the dark red stain on his right forearm, he turned to me and asked, "Knuckles, you know how Amy's had that crush on me ever since I saved her back on Little Planet?"
"Yeah, it's been about four years now, right?" I looked right back at Sonic as I said this, whilst washing my glove as best I could.
"That seems to be right… Well, anyway, the thing is, I've liked her since then, too. I mean, I've had a sort of crush on Amy while she had a crush on me."
"Are you joking?" I was so shocked at my hedgehog friend's confession that I dropped my wet (but now blood-free) glove to the tiled floor.
"No, I'm not joking. When Amy collapsed back at the apartment, she scared half the badnik-smashing life out of me, and it also sort of made my feelings stronger for her." Sonic then quit scrubbing away at his arm to see that there was no more blood left from the stain.
After I had picked up my soaked glove, I turned to my friend and said, "Tell her how you feel. That's all I can say."
"Thanks, Knux." Sonic said, and then he walked out of the bathroom.
I scowled after the blue hedgehog shut the door, and then quietly said to myself, "Great advice, Knuckles. Man, you should really practice what you preach." I knew how I felt about Rouge. I just couldn't understand why it was so difficult for me to let her know about it.
After I put my now-partially dry glove back on my hand, I also left the bathroom to wait for any news on our pink-furred friend's condition.
"Is Amy awake yet?" I asked Tails as I walked toward his spot on the bench outside of what I assumed would be Amy's hospital room.
"No, but she's out of the operating room, at least. The nurses that are monitoring her won't let anyone in the room until she's regained consciousness." The orange fox frowned a little as he told me this.
"Well, at least we know that she survived whatever attacked her now." I sighed as I stated this, and then sat down next to Tails and Sonic and waited for Amy to wake up just like everyone else.
Even though it took quite a while for Sonic and me to wash ourselves off, it still seemed like it was another half an hour before one of the nurses walked out of the pink hedgehog's hospital room. I looked over toward Sonic, who stared at the hospital worker with an anxious look spread across his face.
"Ms. Rose has awakened. You may come in and see her now."
Everyone let out a great sigh of relief as soon as these words connected with their ears, and then filed into the white hospital room.
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"Hey, guys." Amy looked up and smiled until she saw Shadow. At the sight of the black hedgehog, her eyes narrowed and she growled, "What's he doing here?"
"Chill out, Amy. There's something you didn't know behind all that's been happening with you." Sonic stepped forward and raised his arms in the "Calm down, nothing's going to happen" sort of way. He then told the pink hedgehog about the brainwashing devices that were on Rouge and Shadow, and immediately after being told what was going on, Amy apologized to Shadow.
After a bit of silence between everyone in the room, I stepped forward from the group and said, "Amy… I don't mean to be so blunt about this, but could you tell us what happened with your shoulder?"
The pink female nodded in response, and then took a deep breath and slowly began to tell her story.
"After I was taken to Eggman's base again, he started to talk about how he had fooled Tails into thinking he was using the brainwashers, or whatever you want to call them, as his main scheme. Then he took me over to this weird chamber-thing and threw me in. It started to fill with this green light, and it was beginning to get warmer and then it just stopped. When I looked around, I saw a different chamber across from the one I was in, and there was a copy of me in it! It, or she, looked exactly like me, except for a metal hand on each arm. When she saw me, she broke through the glass and attacked me. I tried to use my Piko Piko Hammer against her, but it wasn't in the best of shape because of the deal with Shadow kidnapping me when he was brainwashed.
…I guess I got away from my clone for a while, but she tried to grab my shoulder to crush it in, and I jerked it forward, but she still got me pretty good. That's how I got my shoulder all bloody." Amy let out a sigh before she started again.
"…I remember using the Hammer Jump, and I think I crashed through a window. I just ran as fast as I could back to the apartment, and when I got there, I was exhausted and my shoulder was hurting quite badly. Then I just blacked out." The female hedgehog seemed tired as she finished explaining her side of the story. Then I remembered that it was almost eleven-thirty at night, and one could understand why she was so tired.
"There's more, you guys… Eggman, being the fool he is, rambled on about how his duplicates of Shadow and Rouge were so easy to create since he used the brainwashing devices to get them to do what he wanted them to. I guess that's why Shadow kidnapped me; Eggman wanted him to." Amy looked around at everyone as she said this. Rouge and Shadow definitely did not like the fact that Eggman had created copies of them, much less brainwash them.
After a moment of silence, the pink hedgehog gave a yawn and said, "I think you guys should go soon. Those nurses are going to get mad if I stay up too late." She laughed a little as she stated the latter.
Sonic then glanced at me before he turned to the group and quietly said, "You guys, I wanted to talk to Amy alone for a little while. You can leave for the apartment if you want to; I'll catch up with you."
I looked at the blue hedgehog and nodded. I knew what he was going to tell Amy.
"Good luck." I said, and then motioned for Tails, Shadow, and Rouge to follow me out of the room.
As I walked out of the room, I heard Sonic talking to Amy. "Amy, there's something you should know…"
Holes and Tricks
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna
Part 3
"Amy, please just wake up!" Sonic worriedly cried out. He was obviously very upset about the condition the pink hedgehog had walked into the apartment in, which made me secretly wonder if the female's feelings for Sonic were equally matched.
As everyone else stood back, stunned at the sight of Amy, I walked up next to the blue hedgehog and said, "Sonic, we've got to get her up on the couch. Help me lift her!"
Sonic nodded, and then we carefully picked her up off the floor. Amy groaned softly as we set her on the couch, which reassured everybody in the apartment that she was alive, just semi-conscious. As soon as the pink hedgehog had been set down comfortably, she muttered one single word, itai, before she quit moving completely.
It was then that Tails discovered that there was a blood stain on the carpet where Amy had collapsed. I then knelt down to the female hedgehog's level and lifted her into a sitting position, which was rather difficult since she was unconscious, or for all I knew, possibly dead. While doing this, I felt my glove being saturated by a type of liquid. I then lifted my hand from Amy's shoulder to reveal the entire palm of my glove soaked in blood from the female hedgehog's shoulder.
"Not good. This is NOT good." I muttered as I discovered the source of Amy's blood loss. Five large gashes in her right shoulder, shaped in the formation of a paw, suggested that she was attacked by an extremely aggressive animal, or maybe even a mechanical creation. I wondered right away if Eggman had anything to do with this, but forgot about it as soon as I heard myself say, "We have to get Amy to a hospital FAST!"
Shadow and Sonic quickly obliged to lift Amy back up off of the couch while Tails and Rouge and I gathered up everyone's things.
As soon as we got outside the apartment building and onto the city street, I realized just how late it actually was. The sky was pitch-black except for a few dotted across the summer sky and a full moon overhead. The normally busy streets of Station Square were now littered with just the faint smell of gasoline.
"The only hospital that would be open this late would be the Station Square Community Hospital, but it's a couple of miles away from here… Sonic, Shadow, you guys up for a run?" I turned to the two hedgehogs that were gently carrying Amy.
"Sure thing, Knux!" exclaimed Sonic. The blue hedgehog then turned to Shadow as he said, "We've got to keep a steady pace against each other, or we could risk losing our grip on Amy. Got it?"
"Right. On three. One… Two… Three!" With that, the look-alike hedgehogs raced down the street in the direction of the hospital with the wounded younger female balanced between their grip. Tails, Rouge, and I followed in the air.
We reached the hospital within five minutes of leaving the apartment. As soon as Sonic and Shadow had cleared the door, the blue hedgehog took full possession of Amy's limp body and shouted, "We need a doctor here, NOW!"
A nurse quickly walked up to my blue friend and patiently asked, "What seems to be the problem, sir?"
Seemingly annoyed by the woman's collectiveness, Sonic answered the female hospital worker's inquiry by simply emitting, "This!" and lifted the pink hedgehog's head to his shoulder to allow the nurse to get a look at Amy's bloody shoulder.
Apparently, Tails had been the only one back at the apartment that hadn't seen the female hedgehog's wound, because as soon as he had gotten a good look at our pink friends' shoulder, the orange fox clapped his hand over his mouth and grew a disgusted look on his face.
At the same time, the nurse took in the sight of Amy's source of blood loss and the calm hospital worker gave in to a frantic, worried woman.
"We need a Mobian E.R. surgeon, stat!" cried out the doctor's assistant.
Sure enough, a doctor that specializes in Mobian surgery rushed seemingly out of nowhere with a gurney in tow. The average-sized human then inspected Amy's shoulder and stated, "She'll need stitches and a blood transfusion, from the bloodstain on the red sir's glove and the blue sir's forearm. Please set her on the gurney and we will take care of the rest."
Sonic did as the surgeon said and laid the pink hedgehog down on the gurney. As soon as that was done, the doctor sped away toward the operating room. The blue hedgehog just stood in the same spot for a moment, stunned, and then realized what had happened and punched his fist forward at the air and exclaimed, "Man, I HATE waiting!"
Waiting for Amy to come out of surgery seemed more like thirty hours than thirty minutes. During that period of time, Sonic and I washed the pink hedgehog's blood off of ourselves. While my blue-furred friend scrubbed at the dark red stain on his right forearm, he turned to me and asked, "Knuckles, you know how Amy's had that crush on me ever since I saved her back on Little Planet?"
"Yeah, it's been about four years now, right?" I looked right back at Sonic as I said this, whilst washing my glove as best I could.
"That seems to be right… Well, anyway, the thing is, I've liked her since then, too. I mean, I've had a sort of crush on Amy while she had a crush on me."
"Are you joking?" I was so shocked at my hedgehog friend's confession that I dropped my wet (but now blood-free) glove to the tiled floor.
"No, I'm not joking. When Amy collapsed back at the apartment, she scared half the badnik-smashing life out of me, and it also sort of made my feelings stronger for her." Sonic then quit scrubbing away at his arm to see that there was no more blood left from the stain.
After I had picked up my soaked glove, I turned to my friend and said, "Tell her how you feel. That's all I can say."
"Thanks, Knux." Sonic said, and then he walked out of the bathroom.
I scowled after the blue hedgehog shut the door, and then quietly said to myself, "Great advice, Knuckles. Man, you should really practice what you preach." I knew how I felt about Rouge. I just couldn't understand why it was so difficult for me to let her know about it.
After I put my now-partially dry glove back on my hand, I also left the bathroom to wait for any news on our pink-furred friend's condition.
"Is Amy awake yet?" I asked Tails as I walked toward his spot on the bench outside of what I assumed would be Amy's hospital room.
"No, but she's out of the operating room, at least. The nurses that are monitoring her won't let anyone in the room until she's regained consciousness." The orange fox frowned a little as he told me this.
"Well, at least we know that she survived whatever attacked her now." I sighed as I stated this, and then sat down next to Tails and Sonic and waited for Amy to wake up just like everyone else.
Even though it took quite a while for Sonic and me to wash ourselves off, it still seemed like it was another half an hour before one of the nurses walked out of the pink hedgehog's hospital room. I looked over toward Sonic, who stared at the hospital worker with an anxious look spread across his face.
"Ms. Rose has awakened. You may come in and see her now."
Everyone let out a great sigh of relief as soon as these words connected with their ears, and then filed into the white hospital room.
************************************************************************
"Hey, guys." Amy looked up and smiled until she saw Shadow. At the sight of the black hedgehog, her eyes narrowed and she growled, "What's he doing here?"
"Chill out, Amy. There's something you didn't know behind all that's been happening with you." Sonic stepped forward and raised his arms in the "Calm down, nothing's going to happen" sort of way. He then told the pink hedgehog about the brainwashing devices that were on Rouge and Shadow, and immediately after being told what was going on, Amy apologized to Shadow.
After a bit of silence between everyone in the room, I stepped forward from the group and said, "Amy… I don't mean to be so blunt about this, but could you tell us what happened with your shoulder?"
The pink female nodded in response, and then took a deep breath and slowly began to tell her story.
"After I was taken to Eggman's base again, he started to talk about how he had fooled Tails into thinking he was using the brainwashers, or whatever you want to call them, as his main scheme. Then he took me over to this weird chamber-thing and threw me in. It started to fill with this green light, and it was beginning to get warmer and then it just stopped. When I looked around, I saw a different chamber across from the one I was in, and there was a copy of me in it! It, or she, looked exactly like me, except for a metal hand on each arm. When she saw me, she broke through the glass and attacked me. I tried to use my Piko Piko Hammer against her, but it wasn't in the best of shape because of the deal with Shadow kidnapping me when he was brainwashed.
…I guess I got away from my clone for a while, but she tried to grab my shoulder to crush it in, and I jerked it forward, but she still got me pretty good. That's how I got my shoulder all bloody." Amy let out a sigh before she started again.
"…I remember using the Hammer Jump, and I think I crashed through a window. I just ran as fast as I could back to the apartment, and when I got there, I was exhausted and my shoulder was hurting quite badly. Then I just blacked out." The female hedgehog seemed tired as she finished explaining her side of the story. Then I remembered that it was almost eleven-thirty at night, and one could understand why she was so tired.
"There's more, you guys… Eggman, being the fool he is, rambled on about how his duplicates of Shadow and Rouge were so easy to create since he used the brainwashing devices to get them to do what he wanted them to. I guess that's why Shadow kidnapped me; Eggman wanted him to." Amy looked around at everyone as she said this. Rouge and Shadow definitely did not like the fact that Eggman had created copies of them, much less brainwash them.
After a moment of silence, the pink hedgehog gave a yawn and said, "I think you guys should go soon. Those nurses are going to get mad if I stay up too late." She laughed a little as she stated the latter.
Sonic then glanced at me before he turned to the group and quietly said, "You guys, I wanted to talk to Amy alone for a little while. You can leave for the apartment if you want to; I'll catch up with you."
I looked at the blue hedgehog and nodded. I knew what he was going to tell Amy.
"Good luck." I said, and then motioned for Tails, Shadow, and Rouge to follow me out of the room.
As I walked out of the room, I heard Sonic talking to Amy. "Amy, there's something you should know…"