"So, what's the status, Mr. President?"
"Rouge is keeping a close eye on Project Shadow, as well as the emeralds. But, she has somehow learned about Project A.O.D…"
"But…wasn't A.O.D. killed in the raid 50 years ago?"
"No…somehow it escaped…the projects they were sent to kill and destroy each escaped and after being cryogenically frozen for half a century, someone has released these hazards."
"Rouge could kill them right now, she could just take a gun and shoot them off guard-"
"No, she might not be able to collect the emeralds by herself. Once we have all seven in our possession and sealed, we'll decide what to do- dispose of them or use them as weapons at our command.
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"Welcome back home, Angel."
Angel gasped as she and Shadow stepped out of the pod. She knew this place too well, every memory from the laughs and tears to the final hour seemed to have visually flashed before her eyes. She walked a few steps down the hall before she gazed upon a dried puddle of blood before her. She felt her head become light with a dizzy spell.
"I know it's hard to be here after all that's happened," Shadow said as he caught Angel before she fell over, "but, soon all of those deaths will be revenged."
Angel nodded her head as she regained balance, and continued on down the passageway with Shadow following close behind her. She knew every place in the ARK like the back of her hand. She went down to the dorms, and stopped in front of one particular door labeled "45" and slowly turned the doorknob.
"Maria's room…"
The room-unlike most of the ARK- was actually bright and very girly. Fuzzy blue and pink pillows graced the neatly made bed - a small plush of a white rabbit in front of the cushions - while shelves upon shelves held memorable photo albums, porcelain dolls with frilly dresses, a CD player with a few pop and classical genre CDs next to it, and a small pink laptop.
Angel went up to the bed and sat down upon the colorful fluff. She sighed deeply, remembering the blissful memories when she, Maria, and Shadow were the closest friends could be.
As Shadow looked around the room, his fists slowly clenched and before he could take any more, he left Angel in the room to reminisce her recollections.
"I'm home again," she said to herself as she looked out the window, seeing the little planet of earth orbit beneath. Angel reached for Maria's laptop –covered with stickers of bunnies and cute animals- and switched it on.
"I can't believe this thing still works after all these years…"
As the computer logged on, what she saw on the screen was enough for any friend to feel loved. The background on the monitor was a picture of Maria holding a birthday cake with twelve lit candles while she and Shadow stood by her side, each with a present in their hand.
"I remember that day, she was so happy…even after being crippled by that disease she always had high spirits…"
Angel looked at the picture one last time before clicking a button named "Internet Explorer." The homepage was the ARK's public website, which was long since abandoned. She was about to visit www.candystand.com to try to boost her spirit when a small window popped up on her screen.
"Join me in this chat! Chat #4738292624."
"What the hell is this?"
Being the curious type, she clicked 'Join.' She found herself in a chatroom with only one other person in it who called their self 'PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn"
"BlondeyBabe12: hello" Angel typed in. She could see that 'BlondeyBabe12' was what Maria chose for a screen name.
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: hello, i have been waiting 4 u to sign on,"
BlondeyBabe12: o, is that so?"
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: yes, i think u might be interested in an offer i have for u.
Angel read the posts the stranger was making and was getting a little worried.
"Shadow!" she yelled, since she was too lazy to get up. Within a few seconds, Shadow arrived at the door.
"Come look at this guy…he sent me this chat and he's being all…weird and stuff…"
"Ask him what he wants."
BlondeyBabe12: wut do u want?
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: u r looking for somthng called chaos emeralds right?
"What should I say?"
"Tell him you don't know what the hell he's talking about."
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: o u know very well wut i am talking abot. i know exactly where u r, so dont play dum. u r on the space colony ark
Shadow reached over Angel's shoulder and started to take the conversation into his own hands.
BlondeyBabe12: Okay, who the fuck is this?
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: my name is Giovanni Ferrara, i am wut u could cal the 'ladies man' of downtown Station Square. i have wut u r looking 4, a pritty green jewel. 1 of my clients received it as payment 4 doing a hit and run, and asked me wut we shuld do wit it since it is worthless to us.
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: *should
BlondeyBabe12: And
what made you decide to contact us?
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: she told me not 2
mention her name, but u undoubtedly no her. if u give
me $5,000 in cash i would be more than happy 2 give u
this worthless gem.
"Do you think we can trust him?"
"Well, if he knows who we are, where we are, and what we're looking for I think he's telling the truth."
BlondeyBabe12: Where
are you?
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: if u decide 2 giv me my money meet me at Casino Nights its
a famous strip club right off of 24th street in the back parts of the city.
"I know where that is," said Angel. She looked to Shadow, who returned her gaze. Neither of them were sure of what to do.
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: so r u cumming?
BlondeyBabe12: Yes…and not in that way you sick fuck.
PiMpDaDdyRoCkIn: lol i was just playing around. 2 get into dis club u must b invited or a member. u can meet my good man Butch at Whitman's, it is a fancy clothing company that will giv u just the look u need 2 pass as a member. b there at 2:00 2morrow and b at the club at around 11 when 'happy hour' starts. i look 4ward to doing business wit u.
And with that, Giovanni logged off.
"Do you think this is some kind of trap?" Angel asked as she closed the laptop.
"I don't know what his angle is, but we need to do everything and anything we can to collect all of the emeralds, so I guess we have no choice."
"It seems like he would have sold it to a jeweler, they would probably give him more money than we are."
"That's the part I'm suspicious of. Any jeweler knows what these emeralds are and would pay hundreds of thousands if not millions for them…we could go along with it and if someone tries to bust a move I'll kill them so fucking fast, so we really have nothing to worry about."
"Hmm…when you look at it that way I guess no, we don't have anything to worry about. Right now it's 6:45A.M., so we still have about 7 hours until we meet this 'Butch' at Whitman's. We could plan out our moves carefully in that time."
Shadow lit up another cigarette-well above his 7th one today- as he tried to think of what to do.
"Since when do you smoke?"
"God, I'm so sick of people fucking asking me that. I like them, blow me."
Angel quickly looked away from Shadow as a ring of smoke flew out of his mouth. She reached into her pocket, holding out the silver chaos emerald she gave to Sonic.
"I have one, you have two-"
"Three…Rouge gave us one when we first met her."
"Who's Rouge?"
"That bat, the sexy one with the big tits."
"Oh…nice wording…anyways I have one and you have three and if this Giovanni guy is telling the truth this'll be the fifth one-"
"This isn't first grade math class-"
"Jesus, shut up! ANYWAYS LIKE I WAS SAYING, if we get an emerald from this guy we only have two more to go, which means we're almost there!"
"Maria…just
you wait…we'll show this world not to fuck with us…"
****************************************************
Hehe, like how I wrote this chapter^^ Angel uses all this internet slang lingo and Shadow types every word out with punctuation and everything. Pretty cool, huh?
~Ash