S. Chensu: Hello people, today we've got the characters from Eternal
Darkness. If you don't know anything about the game then I should probably
point out that all of them are dead apart from two and one we're not sure
about.
Michael Edwards: Can someone please tell me whether I'm dead yet or not?
Pious Augustus: If I have my way then you will be!
Alex Roivas: I thought I'd killed you already!
Pious: Not quite missy! And now I will kill all of you! *Coughs* Again in nearly all cases.
*All other characters appear*
All: Not if we have a say in it!
*Each person brandishes their best weapon. This includes Short Sword, Two- Edged Sword, Ram Dao Broadsword, Dual Flintlocks, Marine Shotgun, Mace, Saif, .303 Rifle, Elephant Gun and OICW Special Forces Rifle (set on grenade mode)*
Luff: Oh, isn't she sad, people?
Pious: I will get you one day! *Disappears* The darkness prevails.
Ellia: What shall we do now?
Maximillion Roivas (Yes, he is related to Alex Luff: Duh): Let's compare the horrible ways in which we all died. I'll start by telling you that I died in an asylum surrounded by rats because they all thought I was crazy *Eyes start rolling and spit flies everywhere*
Paul Luther: I wonder why they thought that. Anyway, that's nothing compared to what happened to me. I was crushed to death by a terrifying monster! (Note from S. Chensu: This is my favourite death because the thought of a monk having his head explode makes me laugh lots Luff: He dies in three different ways, depending on what path you chose)
Anthony: What about me then? I had a curse put on me and gradually became a zombie!
Luff: *Coughs loudly* Yes, I'm sure we all want to hear your lovely stories but not now. You're making the readers sick.
Edward Roivas (Yes, he's also related to Alex Luff: *Snorts*): Oh, sorry about that.
Luff: And I should think so too, I don't want to mop everyone's dinners up thank you very much.
S. Chensu: I'll do the disclaimer. We still don't own the Sonic characters but we do own the story, Zelgan, Gelest and for this episode only, Jemma.
Luff: This episode the group settle down into their new flat and things are bought. That's why it's called "The boring part". But there will be kissing in this episode. If you are sensitive to kissing then I suggest you don't read this. Thank you.
S. Chensu: You may now get on with reading. Sorry for interrupting you.
***************************************************************************
Episode nine: The boring part
As the group neared London, Sonic, Tails, Rouge and Knuckles began to get excited, as they wanted to see the apartment and the area in general. Eggman pointed out major things in London such as Big Ben and Tower Bridge as they flew past them. Shadow was too busy thinking about Zelgan's words though to listen to the others.
~My greatest fear. Will I have to face it alone? When will it happen? Why am I even thinking about it? She was probably making it up to scare me. But she sounded so serious.~ He continued to think about Zelgan's words as they finally arrived in Bickley.
The town was large and in the middle of it was the shopping centre and other things such as a cinema and restaurants. There were also shops on the streets near the centre. It was a Friday and traffic ran through the town centre along the roads. The houses were mainly on the outskirts and were mostly large and middle class. The block of apartments they were going to live at was next to Healy Park. The park had a pond as its main feature although there was also a half pipe and playground. The avenue, which led to the apartments, was new and the building stood at the end, surrounded by large houses.
The apartments had balconies, made of white painted wood and people sat on them, talking to each other. The car park had several garages, which contained cars, and overall there was a sense of neatness. On one side of the building was a glass lift and all the apartments had large windows. The sign at the front read 'Garden Views' and the entrance was a revolving door.
Eggman led Tails to one of the garages containing a car on one side. The planes were parked and once everyone was out, they were transformed back to the walkers. Eggman led them through the door and they entered a reception.
On one side were post boxes for each flat and on the other was a desk, with a door leading to an office behind it. A woman sat at the reception and as they entered, she looked up and saw Eggman.
"I'm glad you're back Dr. Ivo. Deliveries for your place have been coming in every day and you haven't been there to sort them out. I put everything inside the flat as you asked but it isn't sorted out or anything."
"Thank you Janet. I don't have any more business for at least a week so I will be able to sort them out." Eggman said as they walked up the stairs. "Everyone that is Janet, the receptionist here. Very nice woman." Eggman explained as they finally got to the fifth floor. Sonic, who was at the front, stopped when he saw the huge pile of bags at the top of the stairs.
"Who on Earth just left their stuff by the stairs here? I mean, Gucci, Versache. Who buys that stuff anyway?" He asked.
"It's here, I hoped it would arrive before we did." Rouge said and she pushed through them to the bags. She counted them quickly and was soon satisfied. "And it's all here too!"
"I'm sure that's very nice for you but as you may not have noticed, it's blocking the door to the flat." Eggman said.
"We'd better move it then. If we get Tails to go in between the bags then he can open the door and we can get them in." Rouge suggested.
"Why me?" Tails asked, looking at the mountain of bags.
"Because you're the smallest. Come on, hop to it." He took the key that Eggman held in his hand and seeing a small gap, crawled into it. It was so dark that he didn't see the door and hit his head against it.
"Ow!" He called out and he paused to put his hand to his head. When the throbbing had gone down slightly, he stood up and saw the keyhole. He opened the door and as it swung inwards, the bags fell onto the floor and Tails was pushed to the ground.
"Tails, are you all right?" Sonic shouted when he saw the bags sliding downwards. He climbed in among them and found Tails flat on the floor, covered in bags.
"Not bad but it would be nice if you could help me out." Sonic grabbed Tails' hand and yanked him up.
"All we have to do is get them in now, but where are we going to put them?" Knuckles asked.
"We can put them in the living room for the moment." Eggman said and they looked into the flat.
Now that the level of the bags had sunk, they could see that the main part was one big room, which combined a living room, dining room and kitchen together. The floor was not carpeted but instead had polished floorboards. The walls were white and the area was crowded with many a box. The only unwrapped things were the table, cupboards and electrical appliances. Sonic and Tails who were in the flat already grabbed a bag each and plonked them down on the table. Rouge and Eggman followed, carrying two bags each, which were also put on the table. Knuckles and Shadow started a chain towards it and soon all the bags were in.
Everyone except for Eggman took this opportunity to take in their surroundings. The table was in the kitchen area and it took about a third of the space overall. Eight doors in total lined the walls of the main room, six that obviously led to the bedrooms and two for the bathrooms.
"Now then, you can decide which rooms you want if you wish. My room is that one there, and those are the bathrooms," Eggman said, pointing to some of the doors as he said so. "But you can choose from any of the others. At the moment they only have the basics but we can worry about decorating later." Not sure what to do, the others went to each room in turn to look at them.
"I think Rouge is going to need the one with the biggest cupboard." Sonic joked.
"Yeah and Knuckles will have to have the one next to hers." Tails added quietly.
"What was that?" Knuckles asked.
"Oh nothing. If you ask me, I think this one has the biggest cupboard."
"I think I agree with you there Tails. I'll have this one then, if no one minds." Rouge said as they looked in the last room.
"Who wants to be next to Rouge? Anyone, anyone at all? How about you Knuckles?" Shadow suggested, smiling.
"I don't mind." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, that's two down and three to go. Who's going to be on the other side of Knuckles?" Tails asked.
"Seeing as you two are best friends, won't you want rooms next to each other? If so, you can have them two over there and I'll have this one." Shadow proposed.
"Sounds good to me. What about you Tails?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah, that's ok with me. What about all of these other deliveries?" He said, looking around at the boxes.
"They are mainly the pieces of furniture for the living room and a couple of other things." Eggman explained.
"Did you go to Jade?" Rouge asked.
"Yes, yes. You can check it first if you want. We had to reach a compromise in the end." Eggman said as Rouge lifted the flap of the biggest box.
"Not too bad I must say. I assume it's a three piece suite?"
"Yes it is. The other boxes contain a couple of rugs which Jade suggested to me and a coffee table." Rouge rummaged in it and the others looked at the sofa. It turned out to be black and leather while the rugs were grey and white. The coffee table was made of black wood and Rouge inspected it.
"I would say that you have done very well, for a man." She said.
"You wouldn't believe how tiring it is, doing all of that shopping in a couple of days." Eggman said.
"Shall we get the sofa out?" Tails asked.
"Why not? If we don't we won't have anything to sit on." Sonic pointed out.
Eggman ripped the box apart and soon pieces of cardboard littered the floor. Together, Eggman, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and even Shadow moved the sofa along the floor. Rouge told them where to put it and played the role of a fussy person very well.
"Put it right there! Now move it a bit to the left, left I said not right!"
"How were we supposed to know you meant your left?" Eggman complained.
"Perfect! Now just the two armchairs to go." She said happily.
"No, not more lifting! I think I've done permanent damage my back." Sonic said.
"Of course you haven't! If you had you would be screaming in agony." She scolded. The group sighed as they set themselves to the task of moving the armchairs too. They were in place a lot faster than the sofa had been and soon the five of them had collapsed on any available bit of furniture.
"Men, absolute wimps! I'll do the rug myself then." She looked at the two rugs and deciding on one, spread it out in the middle of the three-piece suite. "That doesn't look so bad. Now the table and we're done." But try as she might, the table would not move. "I don't suppose one of you would actually help me please?"
"If you insist." Tails said as he rose from his seat. Now there were two people, the table was easier to lift and when that was in place too, the space didn't look too bad.
"Now that that's done, we should go into the town and get your uniforms." Eggman said and Shadow smiled slightly. The others sighed and stood up.
They left the flat and trudged down the stairs, Rouge moaning along the way.
"I hate uniforms, they leave nothing to the imagination." Tails who was by Shadow gave him a nudge.
"I'm sure Knuckles wouldn't mind that." He whispered and Shadow grinned.
"Hey you two, I did hear that you know." Rouge rebuked. Tails looked at Shadow and they both laughed. Rouge rolled her eyes and walked faster down the stairs.
"That must mean it's true then." Shadow said. By now, they had reached the entrance and Eggman led them to the garage.
"The next three days will be like this one in that there will be lots of shopping so while this is nice for Rouge it will be hell for us." Eggman said as they stood in front of it. He opened the door and got out a set of car keys. "I had a bit of spare time so I got a car. That's the car you saw earlier."
They looked at the car and it turned out to be a purple Ford Galaxy (Note from S. Chensu: my favourite car!). Eggman got into the driver's seat and reversed the car out. While the others got into it, Eggman closed the garage door. Once everyone was in and belted, they set off for the town centre.
They soon arrived and after parking the car, they headed for the shopping centre. It was called the Chequers Centre and they entered it. As it was the summer holidays, many people were walking around.
"The uniform shop is this way." Eggman said, pointing down the floor. The four of them moaned and followed him very reluctantly. Rouge soon became interested in the shops and Knuckles had to practically drag her away from them. They stopped dead when they saw a window full of blazers, jumpers and pleated skirts.
"Look at all that uniform, doesn't it make you shiver?" Sonic said.
"Try not to say that word Sonic, it gives me the collywobbles." Tails replied.
"Uniform." Shadow said for fun. He stopped though when he received an evil glare from Rouge.
"Oh why couldn't you have said he wasn't sixteen? I can't stand him being so happy in the face of our misery." Rouge complained.
"Because then I'd have five of you looking depressed at the sight of this shop. No thank you, four is enough for me. Don't think I enjoy this either." They entered the shop and a woman came up to them.
"My name is Jemma. Need any help?" She asked.
"Yes, do you have uniforms for Maples High School and Inverio Primary School?" Eggman asked.
"Getting ready for the new term? You're not the only ones. Come this way and we'll see what we can find." She led them down the other end of the shop where blazers hung on mannequins. "What size are they all then? And how many for each school?"
"All of them are size ten. Three for Maples and one for Inverio." Eggman replied.
"One of you not go to school then?" She asked as she searched the racks.
"Yes, I've finished it now. I've just come to enjoy the others' looks of misery." Shadow said.
"Start of term blues eh? Don't worry, we all had to go to school one time or another." Luckily she didn't see the looks that everyone gave Shadow. "Here we go, three blazers. Why don't you try them on while I get a jumper for your friend." She handed Knuckles, Rouge and Sonic a navy blue blazer each and they looked at them with despair.
"Do we have to try them on?" Sonic asked.
"We may as well." Rouge sighed as she slipped into it. She looked down at herself, shook her head and crossed her arms. Knuckles who was watching her, laughed. "What?" She asked, annoyed.
"I've never seen a woman look so irritated when trying on clothes! I didn't think it was possible that's all." He explained.
"Yeah well are you surprised? And what about you?" She indicated the blazer in his hands. He looked at it and shook his head.
"Oh no, I'm not putting this thing on." When Rouge heard that, she walked over and shoved him into it. He struggled wildly but she didn't stop. When it was finally on, he stood in it for about three milliseconds before trying to get it off.
"Oh no you don't!" She threatened and grabbed his arms tightly.
"Ow, get off me Rouge!" He shouted, trying to remove her grip. In response, she frog marched him over to the mirror. "Keep that mirror away from me! I don't want to see myself!" He said, twisting his head away.
"But I want you to!" She growled and forced him to look at the mirror. He saw himself and Rouge holding his arms to keep him still. "Now then, that wasn't so bad was it?" She whispered. Just then, Sonic appeared and stood behind them.
"Are you all right there Knuckles? I'm surprised you managed to keep him still Rouge." He said. The three of them looked at themselves in the mirror. "Don't we look awful? I hate uniforms of any sort." Sonic commented.
"Thanks Sonic, you've just improved this situation a lot." Rouge said sarcastically.
"She doesn't appreciate being told she looks terrible." Knuckles whispered to Sonic.
"Oh! I meant that uniforms don't improve the appearance at all." He corrected.
"I quite agree. I wonder what Tails looks like?" Rouge asked.
They wondered over to where Tails was staring at a red jumper with distaste. Rouge took the jumper from him and put it on him.
"It really clashes with your fur." She commented.
"I noticed." He said and he turned to look at them. "But you don't look much better so." He smiled.
"I don't think you should have said that." Knuckles said.
"He's telling the truth. What's wrong with that?" Rouge asked.
"So when we say that, you get mad but it's ok for him?" Sonic said. She nodded her head and he sighed. "Women, they can never make up their mind." Eggman and Jemma came back.
"Is everything ok?" She asked. They nodded their heads and handed over the blazers and jumper. "From what Mr. Robotnik has been telling me, you're new students. That means we'll have to sort you out with trousers etc. too." She walked over to another rack, which had grey clothes on it. She picked out two pairs of trousers, a pair of shorts and a pleated skirt. "Unfortunately you have to wear pleated skirts. I remember never liking them." She said as she passed them over. Rouge glared at the skirt with disgust. It was long and very unattractive, even to year sevens.
"I've got an idea." She suddenly said and she slipped the skirt on. It reached down to her knees but after rolling it up a bit, it looked a lot better.
"That's what I used to do with my skirt too." Jemma said.
"That looks at lot better. What do you think?" She asked.
"It looks all right to me. Tails, are you ok?" Knuckles asked, noticing the look on his face.
"S.s.s." He stuttered.
"Shorts, they're called shorts." Shadow said.
"Are you sure I have to wear shorts?" Tails asked.
"I'm afraid you do. These schools are quite strict about uniform unfortunately." Jemma said. Sonic and Knuckles didn't want to put the trousers on so they laid them on their hips.
"They look the right size, don't they?" Sonic said.
"Yep. Well, that's us done." Knuckles replied. They passed the trousers over and they were put with the other clothes.
"Not quite yet. You still need shirts and ties." She walked over to a shelf and picked up a pile of shirts. "That should be enough for you boys but you need tailored shirts." She said and she took some different shirts. "Can someone count the shirts please? I probably took too many out." Sonic and Tails counted them between them.
"There are fifteen shirts and five of the other ones." Tails said once the counting was done.
"That's enough isn't it? And now just the ties." She went behind the counter and placed four ties on the desk.
"I've just thought of something. They're probably going to need more trousers etc." Eggman said.
"Oh so they will." She quickly took out some more trousers, shorts and skirts and placed it on the increasingly large pile. "That's quite a lot you got there. This is going to need a fair amount of plastic bags." She started putting in the prices for the items and Tails sat down.
"I'm really tired. Can we go home soon?" He asked, while yawning.
"Just got to get some food for tonight. If you take your bags, you can go back to the car while I get the food." Eggman suggested.
"Ok then." He replied and took the bag, which Jemma held out to him.
"Here's your bag." Three more bags sat on the desk, which she was gradually filling with clothes. "Right that's everyone's bags. But I've noticed you're not carrying anything.here you go, you can take the blazers." She said, passing them to Shadow.
"But I don't want to carry something that I'm not going to use." He complained.
"Nonsense, it won't do any harm to help your friends here." She said as Eggman paid for the clothes. "Thank you for coming here."
"Bye!" The others said together before leaving the shop. Eggman gave Shadow the car keys.
"You lot go back to the car. I shouldn't be long." He said before turning away. The others walked back to the car and put the bags in the boot.
"I'm glad that's over." Sonic said as they sat in the car.
"Yes but we've still got another two days of this." Tails said.
"At least you're actually buying stuff. I just stand there, bored out of my head." Shadow said.
"But you don't have to go to school! Maybe we can go and get some decorating done. That requires the use of brains." Rouge commented.
"Great, we can go and get ourselves gassed by paint." He said.
"There is such a thing as non smelling paint you know." She pointed out.
"It doesn't matter if we flunk school because it's our last year." Sonic stated.
"But it's not my last year!" Tails wailed.
"Yeah but you're clever so it doesn't matter. And you never know, something may happen and we'll get to skive off." Knuckles said.
"Yeah, imagine if one of us got hurt and the others had to help them." Sonic pictured.
"That may not necessarily a good thing you know." Shadow looked very serious.
"Why do you say that? Do you know something we should know too?" Tails asked.
~Do not tell anyone what I am about to tell you.~ Zelgan's prophecy came back into his mind. "No, nothing. But you never know what could happen." He said.
"Yeah, we /might/ not have to do anything. We /might/ be able to spend the rest of our days with no cares. There's no point worrying about what could happen because it's now that's important." Knuckles observed.
"I agree with Knuckles. If it happens, it happens. Where is Eggman? He's taking his time." Rouge sighed.
Just then, they saw Eggman walking towards the car with some plastic bags in his hands. He pointed to the boot and Sonic got out to open it.
"Thank you Sonic. Now we can go back and have an early night." He said as he got into the driver's seat. He turned the car on and they set off back to the flat.
They soon arrived at the apartments and as they entered the reception, loaded with bags, Janet called out,
"Mr. Ivo, some more deliveries came while you were gone. They're up in your flat."
"Thank you Janet. Have a good evening." Eggman replied as they set off up the stairs. They entered the flat and dumped the bags on the sofa. Eggman started to put the food away with the help of Rouge while the others looked in the newly arrived boxes. There were three boxes in total. One contained a TV, another a radio and the last one had a huge cabinet in it.
"You can get this lot sorted while I start the dinner." Eggman decided. The group heaved the cabinet across the floor and placed it so that the three-piece suite faced it.
"I assume the TV goes in the cabinet?" Shadow commented.
"Yes it does. I think it goes in that part with the two doors." Tails said.
"But how are we going to connect the wires together?" Rouge asked.
"Leave that to me. I can sort that out." Tails said. While the others lifted the TV and set off across the floor to the cupboard, Tails went behind the cabinet. He saw the TV enter the space and picked up the connections on the floor. The others sorted out the bags while they waited for him to finish wiring it up.
Suddenly, there was a spark and a juddering sound and Tails landed on the ground.
"Tails, what happened?" Sonic asked.
"Just.got.shocked.by.TV." He said hoarsely. His hair had become frazzled and was now sticking out at odd angles.
"Maybe we should leave the rest to Eggman." He suggested. As he was saying this, Eggman walked over to the group.
"Get him onto the sofa. I'll get him a blanket." He disappeared into one of the bathrooms and came out with a duvet. "Wrap this around him." Knuckles was moving the bags while Sonic and Shadow helped Tails to the sofa. Rouge took the duvet and put it around him. When this was done, Eggman sat down next to him. "How do you feel Tails?" He asked.
"A bit tired and my hand feels weird but apart from that, I think I'll live." He replied.
"I think you should go to bed now and we'll get you something to eat later." He helped Tails to his room and got him into his bed. Tails closed his eyes and fell asleep. Eggman left the room and carried on with the dinner.
"Will he be ok?" Sonic asked.
"Yes, he just needs dome sleep. His heart has just been put under a lot of strain and a few hours of sleep will help it return to its normal pulse. Leave him be until later and we'll see if he's awake then." Eggman explained.
While the dinner was cooking, Eggman went around the back of the TV cabinet and inspected the wires.
"It looks like one of the cables are faulty. I had better go back to the shop and get a new one tomorrow." He returned to the dinner and soon it was ready. Rouge set out the plates and a few minutes later, they were all eating.
"What are we going to do tomorrow?" Sonic asked.
"I was thinking that we could go and get everything for painting the place. We also need to get stuff for the two bathrooms." Eggman said. The rest of dinner was eaten in silence and when everyone was finished, Rouge stretched.
"Well I'm pooped so I'm going to bed now. Anyone else going?"
"I think we all want to get some sleep. Who's going to check on Tails?" Knuckles asked.
"I'll go." Sonic volunteered.
"We can do the washing up tomorrow if you want. If you check on Tails first, you can tell us if he's awake." Eggman suggested. Sonic left the table and peeked around Tails' door. His eyes were still closed so he shut the door.
"Still asleep. Well, see you lot tomorrow." He said before leaving the room as Eggman stacked the dishes by the sink.
"Night everyone." He said before going to his room too. Shadow walked over to the balcony and stepped out onto it.
"Aren't you going to bed?" Rouge asked.
"I'm not tired and I need to do some thinking anyway." He replied. They left him alone on the balcony and as they stood in front of Rouge's room, Knuckles gave her a hug.
"Night Rouge." He said.
"Goodnight Knuckles." She whispered and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. She let go of him and entered her room. He smiled slightly to himself and was about to enter his room when he heard Shadow mutter,
"The group will be split apart.but when will it happen?" Knuckles frowned and considered asking Shadow what he meant but he might accuse him of eavesdropping. He shrugged his shoulders and walked into his room. "And how will the group be split?" Shadow added. He looked up at the sky and saw the full moon shine down on him. "But Knuckles is right. There is no point worrying about what could happen.except for that doesn't help me." He sighed and feeling his eyes itch, left the balcony and headed for his bed.
************************
Tails woke up the next morning feeling a lot better than last night.
"Hmm.Eggman was right. Some sleep did do me good." He got out of his bed and left his room. No one else was up yet so he searched the cupboards and found some cereal. After pouring himself a bowlful, he walked out onto the balcony. The sun shone down and warmed him up. The park nearby was a vibrant green and a few joggers could be seen. The pond reflected the blue sky and ducks sat around the edge, sunbathing. He heard a movement behind him and saw Shadow walking out onto the balcony.
"Feeling better?" He asked.
"Yes thank you. Isn't it a lovely day? And to think, we're going to spend it in a stuffy shop." He sighed.
"Maybe if we get it done quickly, we can go to the park. We can't have that much more to do." He paused. "And aren't you looking forward to decorating?" He asked, jokingly.
"Oh yes, decorating is my most favourite way of passing the time on a lovely sunny day such as this." He said sarcastically.
"No need to be like that. That's too much sarcasm for a ten-year-old boy. I can imagine Rouge will be excited though." He stopped and he stood in silence while Tails finished his breakfast off. "Tails, can I ask you something?"
"Of course you can." He said, putting the bowl down on the ground.
"Do you think the Biolizard is still out there?"
"It might be. And if not, then maybe the professor created something else. Why do you ask?"
"I've got the feeling that something is out there, somewhere. Zelgan said- " But he stopped suddenly.
"Said what?"
"She said that there's something out there more dangerous than it. She also told me that everyone would be split apart and I would have to face it."
"Do you think this will happen?"
"That's what I've been wondering. If it does, then that just makes me more afraid."
"It seems to me that there is evil everywhere in the world and we all have to fight it sometime, even if we've been involved with it in the past." He looked at Shadow pointedly as he said this. "You can't tell what it is yet because you don't know what your fears are. She wouldn't have told you this if it wasn't going to happen."
"I suppose so."
"It is obviously meant to happen though. And if it is meant to happen, then you can only succeed. Whatever happens, we'll always be there to support you even if only in your mind."
"Thanks for talking to me Tails. Do you know you're very wise for your age?"
"Other people say that too. I just tell the truth. Are you going to have breakfast?"
"I suppose I should." They entered the flat and Tails sat at the table while Shadow got himself some breakfast. While he was eating, Tails got up and brought his bag of uniform to the table.
"Would you look at that? Shorts! What happens when it's winter? I'm going to freeze."
"Maybe you wear trousers in the winter. I'm glad I don't have to go though."
"I know. All those people who think they understand you just because they know your name."
They stopped talking when Eggman emerged from his room, stretching.
"Morning you two. Eating breakfast already? You must have been up early." He greeted.
"About half an hour. Should we get the others up?" Tails asked.
"No, no. There's no rush so they can have a lie in. Anyway, how are you feeling Tails? You certainly look all right." Eggman inquired.
"All of that sleep did me good, I feel a lot better now. Are the showers working yet?" Eggman nodded his head. "I'm going to have one then." He headed for the nearest one and entered the room. As he left the room, Sonic entered.
"Hi everyone. Have you seen Tails this morning?"
"Yes, he's just gone for a shower. Will you be having breakfast?" Eggman asked. Sonic nodded his head and he grabbed a bowl.
"So then, another day of shopping eh? Do you think we'll survive the weekend?" He joked.
"Probably not. At least it's not uniform shopping today." Shadow commented.
"Morning everyone." They heard Rouge call out as she walked into the room. "At least I'm not the last one up. Tails and Knuckles are still in bed by the looks of things."
"No I'm not. I was the first one out actually." Tails contradicted as he entered the room looking clean.
"I'm corrected. Just Knuckles then." She said.
"Well I suppose I should have a shower now." Shadow remarked. Sonic drained the last of the cereal and stood up.
"Me too. I'll see you lot in a minute." They both left the table and Rouge put Sonic's bowl away before getting one herself.
"That reminds me, I should have some breakfast as well." Eggman commented and he put two slices of toast in the toaster. While he waited for them to come up, he started to get the sink ready for washing up. Once the toast had popped up, Eggman took a plate and put one on it as he ate the other. As he finished his toast, Shadow and Sonic emerged from the bathrooms.
"That feels better." Sonic said as he walked to the table.
"Well now there's a bathroom free, I'll go and have one. Will someone go and wake Knuckles up please?" Eggman asked as he left for the bathroom. Tails and Shadow looked at Rouge.
"What? Oh I suppose you want me to wake him up." She stood up and strolled to Knuckles' room. She knocked on the door. "Knuckles, are you awake?"
She heard a grunting noise and she opened the door, only to be nearly knocked over by Knuckles as he flew through the air. "Knuckles, could you stop trying to kill me for a moment please?" He landed on the ground and smiled apologetically.
"Sorry about that. I was just practising my karate skills that's all. I have to keep in shape you know. So then, what did you want?"
"How rude! Not a hello or anything! You would have thought." But she stopped when he shut the door and caught her lips in a kiss. She smiled when they broke apart. "Well you've paid a little bit of your debt at least."
"At little bit? I'll have to punish you for that." He jumped into a fighting pose but seeing her scared look, started laughing. "Don't worry, I was only joking."
"You had better have breakfast now because we've all been up for." She started.
"A lot less time than me." He finished. "I've already had breakfast and I'm clean too."
"You've just been doing lots of movement for a least a couple of hours and you think you're clean? Think again mister." And with that, she dragged him out of his room towards the empty bathroom.
"Rouge let go of me! You're embarrassing me." He said as he went a wonderful shade of magenta. Tails and Shadow sniggered but Sonic just looked on confused.
"Don't worry, I'll have you clean in no time!" She replied and when they both were in the bathroom, she locked the door. They heard distinctly loud voices outside the bathroom singing,
"Rouge and Knuckles in the bathroom," Shadow started.
"Ew, I don't want to know!" Tails finished and they both laughed.
"What's so funny you two? Is it something I should understand?" Sonic asked confused.
"No Sonic, I don't think you'd understand it." Shadow reassured.
"They are so immature." Rouge said, in a vain attempt to calm down Knuckles' face, which was varying between crimson and blood red. "Why don't you have a shower? Otherwise your cheeks may explode with all that red." Knuckles nodded his head and she wondered around while he was washing.
He didn't take long and soon he was finished. She hugged him when he had got out and breathed in deeply.
"That's better. Now you don't smell of sweat and exercise." She remarked.
"Was it really that bad?" He asked.
"No not really but it's much nicer to not have to hold your breath all the time. Especially if you want to repay that debt." She smiled slyly.
"You and debts. How much do I owe you now?" He asked.
"Who cares about the amount? I'll tell when all that's due has arrived." And she lunged forward to shove her tongue in his mouth. He nearly choked at the shock of the muscle entering his mouth and Rouge put her hands on his back to stop him from falling over. He remained stiff even when she edged him backwards so he leant against the wall. She started to stroke his back and he slowly began to relax. Before, he had been resisting Rouge's attempt to engage him in a response but now he started to go with the flow.
Things had started to get heated when they heard a knock on the door. Knuckles tried to break away but Rouge wouldn't let him, and she even put more pressure on his mouth.
"Hello, are you two ready yet? We've been waiting here for ages." They heard Tails say. By now Rouge was finding it hard to keep Knuckles still and seeing the panicked look in his eyes, she rolled hers and finally loosened her hold on him. He pulled away from her and she put her finger to his lips.
"Don't say a word." She whispered. "Sorry Tails, we had a bit of trouble in here. Knuckles refused to get in the bath so I had to force him to." She said loudly before unlocking the door.
She glared at Tails before walking out and Knuckles followed her, keeping his head down.
~Oh.my.god. Ew, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross.~ Tails continued to think as he trailed behind them. The others were standing by the door looking very bored until they saw the three of them.
"Now we can get going! What were you doing anyway?" Shadow asked.
"You don't want to know." Tails said loudly. The look on Tails' face told Shadow everything he needed to know.
"Oh, I see." He raised an eyebrow at them and seeing Knuckles' embarrassed look, grinned.
They left the flat and as they sat in the car, Rouge tried to link arms with Knuckles and sit closer to him but he shrugged her off. She glowered at him but he ignored her. She was about to shout at him but she stopped herself just in time.
~Keep calm Rouge, he's just a bit irritated that's all.~ She thought, breathing in deeply to keep herself composed. ~That doesn't mean he can ignore me though! I'll have to make him pay for that.~ She added. The car started to move and she contented herself with looking out of the window as landscape went past.
They soon rolled into the car park of the largest DIY store and Sonic nudged Tails awake.
"What? What? Oh, we're here at last." Everyone got out of the car and they headed through the door. It was so big that it seemed to contain everything needed to build your own house, let alone decorate it. The store had been split into different sections and looking at the banners hanging from the ceiling, the group headed towards the paint section.
Rouge's eyes lit up when she saw row upon row of paint cans and as she already had several ideas for what she wanted, she immediately started to compare the different shades of lilac available. The others meanwhile wandered along the shelves, pausing occasionally to frown at the pots. Reaching a decision was going to be harder than they thought as they had no idea what would go with what. Feeling bored, Knuckles strolled over to where Rouge was, smiling slightly as she looked at two different shades.
"Having trouble making your mind up?" She asked, seeing his empty hands.
"I'm not the only one." He replied, indicating the two cans.
"Which one do you think I should have?" He stared at the two colours, unable to see a variation between them.
"They're exactly the same!" She glared at him and rolled her eyes.
"You're a man, of course you would say that!" She gave one of the pots to him. "This one is darker, see?" He glanced from one to the other.
"Hmm, I suppose there is a small difference. I think this one." He pointed to the lighter shade.
"You really think so?" She asked happily and she put the other one away.
"Now you've done that, I don't suppose you could-" He stopped, embarrassed by what he wanted to ask her but she seemed to understand him.
"Let's see. Your room is quite shady so we need a warmer colour. Orange or yellow is probably the best choice. It all depends on which one you prefer though." She said, shrugging her shoulders.
"I think I like yellow better." He said and they had a quick look at that section. After picking a few, Rouge looked at them critically before choosing one.
"I think this one is probably the best. It's bright but not brash. What do you think?" She passed the pot to him and he stared at it.
"That looks fine." She raised an eyebrow and he looked directly at her. "It's great, honest. It's just that I think I'm feeling the affects of shopping already." He sighed and she hugged him tightly.
"Come on, you're supposed to be brave and strong! Surely a little bit of shopping can't be that bad?" She asked, a grin in her face.
"No comment." He muttered, seeing the others coming towards them.
"So then, managed to find some paint?" Eggman asked. It was at this point that Knuckles and Rouge saw they all carried pots of paint in their hands.
"Yeah but how did you manage to chose your colours?" Knuckles enquired.
"Oh we got someone to help us." Sonic said.
"You're going to need at least four pots for your rooms." Eggman commented and taking some more off the shelf, they placed them along with the others in the trolley that Eggman suddenly produced.
They continued their shopping, now looking for curtains for Knuckles and Shadow's rooms and carpet. Desks and shelves had already been fitted so there wasn't anything else to worry about, at least not any other basics. As Tails sensibly put forward, they should leave posters and other things until later. By the time they got to the checkout, Eggman had 'tired himself out' and so Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles were pushing the trolley together, because it was so heavy. They took the few minutes of Eggman paying for everything to rest before dragging the trolley back to the car.
"Did we have to do all of this today?" Sonic gasped as he dropped the last can of paint into the boot.
"Careful with them, you'll spill it everywhere!" Eggman scolded as he sat in the car.
"Yeah Sonic!" Tails added in a childish voice and Sonic glared at him.
"All you've done is sit there! You can't complain at me!" Before Tails could reply, Eggman got out of the car and everyone turned to him.
"Right you lot, I'll get this lot home and start the painting. You should go and get your stuff for school."
"What stuff for school? Haven't we got it all yet?" Sonic asked and Eggman shook his head.
"No, not more shopping!" Tails wailed.
"What about me? I haven't got anything to do." Shadow said.
"You can go with them or go home."
"Just school stuff then? Nothing else?" Knuckles asked.
"Well there are a few other things but they can wait for the moment." Eggman explained.
"I suppose we should get going if we want to get this done any time soon." Tails said and the others nodded in agreement.
"I'll see you lot later then." Eggman got into the car and drove away, leaving the others to find the shops.
Half an hour later and they had managed to find the Chequers Centre after getting lost several times and several tempers getting frayed.
"At last, we're here! Remind me that I now actually hate shopping!" Sonic said angrily and Rouge rolled her eyes.
"Typical reaction of a three year old."
"What are you trying to say?" Sonic demanded.
"Tails is being calmer than you at the moment and he's nearly six years younger than you!"
"Even I must admit Sonic, there's no need to act like that." Shadow commented.
"Great, now everyone's going to have a go at me!" Sonic said bitterly.
"Let's just get going." Tails said quietly.
"Yeah, I agree. I just want to get this over and done with." Knuckles added and they set off for the shops.
Not much happened while they bought their school stuff (plus I don't want to bore you with the details of trying to choose between two different pencil cases). They finished getting their stuff when Rouge's eyes happened to sight a shoe shop. She headed for it, having managed to persuade herself at least that she should have a look inside. The others followed her, too tired to argue and they slumped down into the chairs while Rouge looked around.
Eventually choosing on a couple, she brought them over and proceeded to try them on. She had one pair on and looked up at the others. Sonic and Shadow had actually fallen asleep against each other and Tails and Knuckles were ready to fall off their chairs. Frowning, she suddenly had an idea.
"Hey you two, want to make things more interesting?" She asked.
"Depends what it is." Tails replied, looking suspiciously as her.
"Notice them two are asleep."
"Yeah."
"Why don't we play a little trick on them?" She indicated the shoes in her hands and Knuckles smiled evilly.
"I like the sound of this." Even Tails had to grin as carefully, Knuckles and Rouge took their shoes off before replacing them with high-heeled boots.
"Surely won't they notice?" Tails asked and Rouge shrugged her shoulders.
"Maybe. I don't really care if they do though."
"Yeah, they look like a right sight!" Knuckles added, trying to suppress a snigger but failing miserably.
It wasn't long before Rouge had decided on a pair of boots and paid for them. Once she had done that, Tails and Knuckles woke Shadow and Sonic up.
"Come on you two, Rouge is finished." Knuckles said and Sonic opened his eyes, as did Shadow.
"She has? At last." He went to stand up and immediately fell over. "What's going on here?" He demanded as he looked down at his legs and then Tails and Knuckles, who held their shoes. Shadow had also suffered the same fate and he looked even madder than Sonic was.
"Give them back right now!" He shouted and Knuckles and Tails took a couple of steps backwards.
"You'll have to catch us first." Knuckles said.
"Why you-" Sonic stood up suddenly but fell down again.
"Sonic, you idiot! Take them off!" Shadow hissed, who was already dealing with his boots, treating them like they were poisoned. Seeing what they were doing, Knuckles and Tails quickly dropped the shoes and ran out of the shop. Rouge followed them in amusement as Sonic and Shadow ran out of the shop too.
She eventually found them running along the road outside the shopping centre, people being scattered to the left and right to get out of the way. They didn't slow down though, continuing to chase Knuckles and Tails into the suburbs of the town. By this point, Rouge was getting annoyed with them, very annoyed.
"You lot, stop right now!" She yelled and instantly, they stopped. Well Sonic and Shadow skidded into Knuckles and Tails at least. While they sorted themselves out, she had enough time to catch up with them. Everyone looked round and Tails was the first one to admit what they all knew.
"I think we're lost." Houses surrounded them and it was starting to get dark. Tails flew up into the air and had a look around. Rouge followed him and soon both of them were trying to work out where the block of apartments was.
"What about that building over there?" Rouge asked, pointing to a small block of flats near the park.
"Yes, I think that might be it. We're not that far away luckily." Tails commented.
"So we have to go up this road and then to the right." Rouge noted before the two of them landed on the ground.
"Find it?" Shadow asked.
"Yep, this way." Everyone followed Rouge and soon they were on the main road, which went towards the park.
"Anyone know what the name of the road is?" Sonic asked as they stood at the edge of the park.
"Yeah, it's Nelson Road." Knuckles looked around and saw a street sign. "Here it is!"
Now they knew they were on the right road, everyone recognised this part of the area. They walked down the road quickly and finally reached Garden Views. They knocked on the door and Eggman opened it, letting them in.
"I wondered if you were coming back anytime soon." He commented. Suddenly, Knuckles' powerful sense of smell was nearly knocked out from the paint fumes.
"It smells awful in here!" He exclaimed, feeling dizzy.
"Ah, sorry about that. That would be the second coat of paint drying. It's taken a bit longer than I thought it would so you won't be able to sleep in your room tonight." Eggman explained.
"What?" Knuckles demanded.
"You can sleep in there if you want but I assumed you didn't like the smell."
"Not like is an understatement." He muttered.
"Don't worry, you're not the only one. I did three rooms today and I'll get the others done tomorrow. Unfortunately, that means that you, me and Rouge will have to sleep in the living room tonight."
"On what?" Rouge demanded.
"I'll sleep in one of the armchairs and you two can sleep on the sofa." Eggman smiled slightly. "I assumed you wouldn't mind." He added.
"Will they be finished by tomorrow?" She asked and Eggman nodded his head. "That's all right then."
Now that that had been sorted out, the group sat down to eat dinner. They all decided to go to bed afterwards, as they felt very tired from the day's activities. Eggman left the balcony door open so the place could be aired before moving an armchair to a corner. He sank down into it, pulling the duvet over him. Rouge lay down on one end of the sofa, duvet covering her. Knuckles didn't know what to do so he perched on the other end, closing his eyes in relief. Hearing creaking from the other end though, he opened his eyes and watched in silence as Rouge moved up to lie in front of him. He simply put his arms around her waist before drifting off into sleep.
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S. Chensu: See, I told you it was boring!
Luff: In fact, so much so that we've managed to send all the Eternal Darkness characters to sleep *Snores are heard in background*
S. Chensu: Aw, they look so sweet!
Luff: What, even Pious?
S. Chensu: Hmm, maybe not. In case you're wondering, he's a burnt body that looks quite skeleton like wearing Roman armour. You should probably look for a picture of him for it to make more sense.
Luff: But if you can't be bothered, you can take our word that he's very ugly and could never be "sweet".
S. Chensu: Anyway readers, you'll be pleased to know that the next episode is called "The boring part 2". So it will be quite similar to this in a way.
Luff: But please read it! Now go and review before we put the next episode up! That means the boring parts will be over sooner! I promise!
Michael Edwards: Can someone please tell me whether I'm dead yet or not?
Pious Augustus: If I have my way then you will be!
Alex Roivas: I thought I'd killed you already!
Pious: Not quite missy! And now I will kill all of you! *Coughs* Again in nearly all cases.
*All other characters appear*
All: Not if we have a say in it!
*Each person brandishes their best weapon. This includes Short Sword, Two- Edged Sword, Ram Dao Broadsword, Dual Flintlocks, Marine Shotgun, Mace, Saif, .303 Rifle, Elephant Gun and OICW Special Forces Rifle (set on grenade mode)*
Luff: Oh, isn't she sad, people?
Pious: I will get you one day! *Disappears* The darkness prevails.
Ellia: What shall we do now?
Maximillion Roivas (Yes, he is related to Alex Luff: Duh): Let's compare the horrible ways in which we all died. I'll start by telling you that I died in an asylum surrounded by rats because they all thought I was crazy *Eyes start rolling and spit flies everywhere*
Paul Luther: I wonder why they thought that. Anyway, that's nothing compared to what happened to me. I was crushed to death by a terrifying monster! (Note from S. Chensu: This is my favourite death because the thought of a monk having his head explode makes me laugh lots Luff: He dies in three different ways, depending on what path you chose)
Anthony: What about me then? I had a curse put on me and gradually became a zombie!
Luff: *Coughs loudly* Yes, I'm sure we all want to hear your lovely stories but not now. You're making the readers sick.
Edward Roivas (Yes, he's also related to Alex Luff: *Snorts*): Oh, sorry about that.
Luff: And I should think so too, I don't want to mop everyone's dinners up thank you very much.
S. Chensu: I'll do the disclaimer. We still don't own the Sonic characters but we do own the story, Zelgan, Gelest and for this episode only, Jemma.
Luff: This episode the group settle down into their new flat and things are bought. That's why it's called "The boring part". But there will be kissing in this episode. If you are sensitive to kissing then I suggest you don't read this. Thank you.
S. Chensu: You may now get on with reading. Sorry for interrupting you.
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Episode nine: The boring part
As the group neared London, Sonic, Tails, Rouge and Knuckles began to get excited, as they wanted to see the apartment and the area in general. Eggman pointed out major things in London such as Big Ben and Tower Bridge as they flew past them. Shadow was too busy thinking about Zelgan's words though to listen to the others.
~My greatest fear. Will I have to face it alone? When will it happen? Why am I even thinking about it? She was probably making it up to scare me. But she sounded so serious.~ He continued to think about Zelgan's words as they finally arrived in Bickley.
The town was large and in the middle of it was the shopping centre and other things such as a cinema and restaurants. There were also shops on the streets near the centre. It was a Friday and traffic ran through the town centre along the roads. The houses were mainly on the outskirts and were mostly large and middle class. The block of apartments they were going to live at was next to Healy Park. The park had a pond as its main feature although there was also a half pipe and playground. The avenue, which led to the apartments, was new and the building stood at the end, surrounded by large houses.
The apartments had balconies, made of white painted wood and people sat on them, talking to each other. The car park had several garages, which contained cars, and overall there was a sense of neatness. On one side of the building was a glass lift and all the apartments had large windows. The sign at the front read 'Garden Views' and the entrance was a revolving door.
Eggman led Tails to one of the garages containing a car on one side. The planes were parked and once everyone was out, they were transformed back to the walkers. Eggman led them through the door and they entered a reception.
On one side were post boxes for each flat and on the other was a desk, with a door leading to an office behind it. A woman sat at the reception and as they entered, she looked up and saw Eggman.
"I'm glad you're back Dr. Ivo. Deliveries for your place have been coming in every day and you haven't been there to sort them out. I put everything inside the flat as you asked but it isn't sorted out or anything."
"Thank you Janet. I don't have any more business for at least a week so I will be able to sort them out." Eggman said as they walked up the stairs. "Everyone that is Janet, the receptionist here. Very nice woman." Eggman explained as they finally got to the fifth floor. Sonic, who was at the front, stopped when he saw the huge pile of bags at the top of the stairs.
"Who on Earth just left their stuff by the stairs here? I mean, Gucci, Versache. Who buys that stuff anyway?" He asked.
"It's here, I hoped it would arrive before we did." Rouge said and she pushed through them to the bags. She counted them quickly and was soon satisfied. "And it's all here too!"
"I'm sure that's very nice for you but as you may not have noticed, it's blocking the door to the flat." Eggman said.
"We'd better move it then. If we get Tails to go in between the bags then he can open the door and we can get them in." Rouge suggested.
"Why me?" Tails asked, looking at the mountain of bags.
"Because you're the smallest. Come on, hop to it." He took the key that Eggman held in his hand and seeing a small gap, crawled into it. It was so dark that he didn't see the door and hit his head against it.
"Ow!" He called out and he paused to put his hand to his head. When the throbbing had gone down slightly, he stood up and saw the keyhole. He opened the door and as it swung inwards, the bags fell onto the floor and Tails was pushed to the ground.
"Tails, are you all right?" Sonic shouted when he saw the bags sliding downwards. He climbed in among them and found Tails flat on the floor, covered in bags.
"Not bad but it would be nice if you could help me out." Sonic grabbed Tails' hand and yanked him up.
"All we have to do is get them in now, but where are we going to put them?" Knuckles asked.
"We can put them in the living room for the moment." Eggman said and they looked into the flat.
Now that the level of the bags had sunk, they could see that the main part was one big room, which combined a living room, dining room and kitchen together. The floor was not carpeted but instead had polished floorboards. The walls were white and the area was crowded with many a box. The only unwrapped things were the table, cupboards and electrical appliances. Sonic and Tails who were in the flat already grabbed a bag each and plonked them down on the table. Rouge and Eggman followed, carrying two bags each, which were also put on the table. Knuckles and Shadow started a chain towards it and soon all the bags were in.
Everyone except for Eggman took this opportunity to take in their surroundings. The table was in the kitchen area and it took about a third of the space overall. Eight doors in total lined the walls of the main room, six that obviously led to the bedrooms and two for the bathrooms.
"Now then, you can decide which rooms you want if you wish. My room is that one there, and those are the bathrooms," Eggman said, pointing to some of the doors as he said so. "But you can choose from any of the others. At the moment they only have the basics but we can worry about decorating later." Not sure what to do, the others went to each room in turn to look at them.
"I think Rouge is going to need the one with the biggest cupboard." Sonic joked.
"Yeah and Knuckles will have to have the one next to hers." Tails added quietly.
"What was that?" Knuckles asked.
"Oh nothing. If you ask me, I think this one has the biggest cupboard."
"I think I agree with you there Tails. I'll have this one then, if no one minds." Rouge said as they looked in the last room.
"Who wants to be next to Rouge? Anyone, anyone at all? How about you Knuckles?" Shadow suggested, smiling.
"I don't mind." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, that's two down and three to go. Who's going to be on the other side of Knuckles?" Tails asked.
"Seeing as you two are best friends, won't you want rooms next to each other? If so, you can have them two over there and I'll have this one." Shadow proposed.
"Sounds good to me. What about you Tails?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah, that's ok with me. What about all of these other deliveries?" He said, looking around at the boxes.
"They are mainly the pieces of furniture for the living room and a couple of other things." Eggman explained.
"Did you go to Jade?" Rouge asked.
"Yes, yes. You can check it first if you want. We had to reach a compromise in the end." Eggman said as Rouge lifted the flap of the biggest box.
"Not too bad I must say. I assume it's a three piece suite?"
"Yes it is. The other boxes contain a couple of rugs which Jade suggested to me and a coffee table." Rouge rummaged in it and the others looked at the sofa. It turned out to be black and leather while the rugs were grey and white. The coffee table was made of black wood and Rouge inspected it.
"I would say that you have done very well, for a man." She said.
"You wouldn't believe how tiring it is, doing all of that shopping in a couple of days." Eggman said.
"Shall we get the sofa out?" Tails asked.
"Why not? If we don't we won't have anything to sit on." Sonic pointed out.
Eggman ripped the box apart and soon pieces of cardboard littered the floor. Together, Eggman, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and even Shadow moved the sofa along the floor. Rouge told them where to put it and played the role of a fussy person very well.
"Put it right there! Now move it a bit to the left, left I said not right!"
"How were we supposed to know you meant your left?" Eggman complained.
"Perfect! Now just the two armchairs to go." She said happily.
"No, not more lifting! I think I've done permanent damage my back." Sonic said.
"Of course you haven't! If you had you would be screaming in agony." She scolded. The group sighed as they set themselves to the task of moving the armchairs too. They were in place a lot faster than the sofa had been and soon the five of them had collapsed on any available bit of furniture.
"Men, absolute wimps! I'll do the rug myself then." She looked at the two rugs and deciding on one, spread it out in the middle of the three-piece suite. "That doesn't look so bad. Now the table and we're done." But try as she might, the table would not move. "I don't suppose one of you would actually help me please?"
"If you insist." Tails said as he rose from his seat. Now there were two people, the table was easier to lift and when that was in place too, the space didn't look too bad.
"Now that that's done, we should go into the town and get your uniforms." Eggman said and Shadow smiled slightly. The others sighed and stood up.
They left the flat and trudged down the stairs, Rouge moaning along the way.
"I hate uniforms, they leave nothing to the imagination." Tails who was by Shadow gave him a nudge.
"I'm sure Knuckles wouldn't mind that." He whispered and Shadow grinned.
"Hey you two, I did hear that you know." Rouge rebuked. Tails looked at Shadow and they both laughed. Rouge rolled her eyes and walked faster down the stairs.
"That must mean it's true then." Shadow said. By now, they had reached the entrance and Eggman led them to the garage.
"The next three days will be like this one in that there will be lots of shopping so while this is nice for Rouge it will be hell for us." Eggman said as they stood in front of it. He opened the door and got out a set of car keys. "I had a bit of spare time so I got a car. That's the car you saw earlier."
They looked at the car and it turned out to be a purple Ford Galaxy (Note from S. Chensu: my favourite car!). Eggman got into the driver's seat and reversed the car out. While the others got into it, Eggman closed the garage door. Once everyone was in and belted, they set off for the town centre.
They soon arrived and after parking the car, they headed for the shopping centre. It was called the Chequers Centre and they entered it. As it was the summer holidays, many people were walking around.
"The uniform shop is this way." Eggman said, pointing down the floor. The four of them moaned and followed him very reluctantly. Rouge soon became interested in the shops and Knuckles had to practically drag her away from them. They stopped dead when they saw a window full of blazers, jumpers and pleated skirts.
"Look at all that uniform, doesn't it make you shiver?" Sonic said.
"Try not to say that word Sonic, it gives me the collywobbles." Tails replied.
"Uniform." Shadow said for fun. He stopped though when he received an evil glare from Rouge.
"Oh why couldn't you have said he wasn't sixteen? I can't stand him being so happy in the face of our misery." Rouge complained.
"Because then I'd have five of you looking depressed at the sight of this shop. No thank you, four is enough for me. Don't think I enjoy this either." They entered the shop and a woman came up to them.
"My name is Jemma. Need any help?" She asked.
"Yes, do you have uniforms for Maples High School and Inverio Primary School?" Eggman asked.
"Getting ready for the new term? You're not the only ones. Come this way and we'll see what we can find." She led them down the other end of the shop where blazers hung on mannequins. "What size are they all then? And how many for each school?"
"All of them are size ten. Three for Maples and one for Inverio." Eggman replied.
"One of you not go to school then?" She asked as she searched the racks.
"Yes, I've finished it now. I've just come to enjoy the others' looks of misery." Shadow said.
"Start of term blues eh? Don't worry, we all had to go to school one time or another." Luckily she didn't see the looks that everyone gave Shadow. "Here we go, three blazers. Why don't you try them on while I get a jumper for your friend." She handed Knuckles, Rouge and Sonic a navy blue blazer each and they looked at them with despair.
"Do we have to try them on?" Sonic asked.
"We may as well." Rouge sighed as she slipped into it. She looked down at herself, shook her head and crossed her arms. Knuckles who was watching her, laughed. "What?" She asked, annoyed.
"I've never seen a woman look so irritated when trying on clothes! I didn't think it was possible that's all." He explained.
"Yeah well are you surprised? And what about you?" She indicated the blazer in his hands. He looked at it and shook his head.
"Oh no, I'm not putting this thing on." When Rouge heard that, she walked over and shoved him into it. He struggled wildly but she didn't stop. When it was finally on, he stood in it for about three milliseconds before trying to get it off.
"Oh no you don't!" She threatened and grabbed his arms tightly.
"Ow, get off me Rouge!" He shouted, trying to remove her grip. In response, she frog marched him over to the mirror. "Keep that mirror away from me! I don't want to see myself!" He said, twisting his head away.
"But I want you to!" She growled and forced him to look at the mirror. He saw himself and Rouge holding his arms to keep him still. "Now then, that wasn't so bad was it?" She whispered. Just then, Sonic appeared and stood behind them.
"Are you all right there Knuckles? I'm surprised you managed to keep him still Rouge." He said. The three of them looked at themselves in the mirror. "Don't we look awful? I hate uniforms of any sort." Sonic commented.
"Thanks Sonic, you've just improved this situation a lot." Rouge said sarcastically.
"She doesn't appreciate being told she looks terrible." Knuckles whispered to Sonic.
"Oh! I meant that uniforms don't improve the appearance at all." He corrected.
"I quite agree. I wonder what Tails looks like?" Rouge asked.
They wondered over to where Tails was staring at a red jumper with distaste. Rouge took the jumper from him and put it on him.
"It really clashes with your fur." She commented.
"I noticed." He said and he turned to look at them. "But you don't look much better so." He smiled.
"I don't think you should have said that." Knuckles said.
"He's telling the truth. What's wrong with that?" Rouge asked.
"So when we say that, you get mad but it's ok for him?" Sonic said. She nodded her head and he sighed. "Women, they can never make up their mind." Eggman and Jemma came back.
"Is everything ok?" She asked. They nodded their heads and handed over the blazers and jumper. "From what Mr. Robotnik has been telling me, you're new students. That means we'll have to sort you out with trousers etc. too." She walked over to another rack, which had grey clothes on it. She picked out two pairs of trousers, a pair of shorts and a pleated skirt. "Unfortunately you have to wear pleated skirts. I remember never liking them." She said as she passed them over. Rouge glared at the skirt with disgust. It was long and very unattractive, even to year sevens.
"I've got an idea." She suddenly said and she slipped the skirt on. It reached down to her knees but after rolling it up a bit, it looked a lot better.
"That's what I used to do with my skirt too." Jemma said.
"That looks at lot better. What do you think?" She asked.
"It looks all right to me. Tails, are you ok?" Knuckles asked, noticing the look on his face.
"S.s.s." He stuttered.
"Shorts, they're called shorts." Shadow said.
"Are you sure I have to wear shorts?" Tails asked.
"I'm afraid you do. These schools are quite strict about uniform unfortunately." Jemma said. Sonic and Knuckles didn't want to put the trousers on so they laid them on their hips.
"They look the right size, don't they?" Sonic said.
"Yep. Well, that's us done." Knuckles replied. They passed the trousers over and they were put with the other clothes.
"Not quite yet. You still need shirts and ties." She walked over to a shelf and picked up a pile of shirts. "That should be enough for you boys but you need tailored shirts." She said and she took some different shirts. "Can someone count the shirts please? I probably took too many out." Sonic and Tails counted them between them.
"There are fifteen shirts and five of the other ones." Tails said once the counting was done.
"That's enough isn't it? And now just the ties." She went behind the counter and placed four ties on the desk.
"I've just thought of something. They're probably going to need more trousers etc." Eggman said.
"Oh so they will." She quickly took out some more trousers, shorts and skirts and placed it on the increasingly large pile. "That's quite a lot you got there. This is going to need a fair amount of plastic bags." She started putting in the prices for the items and Tails sat down.
"I'm really tired. Can we go home soon?" He asked, while yawning.
"Just got to get some food for tonight. If you take your bags, you can go back to the car while I get the food." Eggman suggested.
"Ok then." He replied and took the bag, which Jemma held out to him.
"Here's your bag." Three more bags sat on the desk, which she was gradually filling with clothes. "Right that's everyone's bags. But I've noticed you're not carrying anything.here you go, you can take the blazers." She said, passing them to Shadow.
"But I don't want to carry something that I'm not going to use." He complained.
"Nonsense, it won't do any harm to help your friends here." She said as Eggman paid for the clothes. "Thank you for coming here."
"Bye!" The others said together before leaving the shop. Eggman gave Shadow the car keys.
"You lot go back to the car. I shouldn't be long." He said before turning away. The others walked back to the car and put the bags in the boot.
"I'm glad that's over." Sonic said as they sat in the car.
"Yes but we've still got another two days of this." Tails said.
"At least you're actually buying stuff. I just stand there, bored out of my head." Shadow said.
"But you don't have to go to school! Maybe we can go and get some decorating done. That requires the use of brains." Rouge commented.
"Great, we can go and get ourselves gassed by paint." He said.
"There is such a thing as non smelling paint you know." She pointed out.
"It doesn't matter if we flunk school because it's our last year." Sonic stated.
"But it's not my last year!" Tails wailed.
"Yeah but you're clever so it doesn't matter. And you never know, something may happen and we'll get to skive off." Knuckles said.
"Yeah, imagine if one of us got hurt and the others had to help them." Sonic pictured.
"That may not necessarily a good thing you know." Shadow looked very serious.
"Why do you say that? Do you know something we should know too?" Tails asked.
~Do not tell anyone what I am about to tell you.~ Zelgan's prophecy came back into his mind. "No, nothing. But you never know what could happen." He said.
"Yeah, we /might/ not have to do anything. We /might/ be able to spend the rest of our days with no cares. There's no point worrying about what could happen because it's now that's important." Knuckles observed.
"I agree with Knuckles. If it happens, it happens. Where is Eggman? He's taking his time." Rouge sighed.
Just then, they saw Eggman walking towards the car with some plastic bags in his hands. He pointed to the boot and Sonic got out to open it.
"Thank you Sonic. Now we can go back and have an early night." He said as he got into the driver's seat. He turned the car on and they set off back to the flat.
They soon arrived at the apartments and as they entered the reception, loaded with bags, Janet called out,
"Mr. Ivo, some more deliveries came while you were gone. They're up in your flat."
"Thank you Janet. Have a good evening." Eggman replied as they set off up the stairs. They entered the flat and dumped the bags on the sofa. Eggman started to put the food away with the help of Rouge while the others looked in the newly arrived boxes. There were three boxes in total. One contained a TV, another a radio and the last one had a huge cabinet in it.
"You can get this lot sorted while I start the dinner." Eggman decided. The group heaved the cabinet across the floor and placed it so that the three-piece suite faced it.
"I assume the TV goes in the cabinet?" Shadow commented.
"Yes it does. I think it goes in that part with the two doors." Tails said.
"But how are we going to connect the wires together?" Rouge asked.
"Leave that to me. I can sort that out." Tails said. While the others lifted the TV and set off across the floor to the cupboard, Tails went behind the cabinet. He saw the TV enter the space and picked up the connections on the floor. The others sorted out the bags while they waited for him to finish wiring it up.
Suddenly, there was a spark and a juddering sound and Tails landed on the ground.
"Tails, what happened?" Sonic asked.
"Just.got.shocked.by.TV." He said hoarsely. His hair had become frazzled and was now sticking out at odd angles.
"Maybe we should leave the rest to Eggman." He suggested. As he was saying this, Eggman walked over to the group.
"Get him onto the sofa. I'll get him a blanket." He disappeared into one of the bathrooms and came out with a duvet. "Wrap this around him." Knuckles was moving the bags while Sonic and Shadow helped Tails to the sofa. Rouge took the duvet and put it around him. When this was done, Eggman sat down next to him. "How do you feel Tails?" He asked.
"A bit tired and my hand feels weird but apart from that, I think I'll live." He replied.
"I think you should go to bed now and we'll get you something to eat later." He helped Tails to his room and got him into his bed. Tails closed his eyes and fell asleep. Eggman left the room and carried on with the dinner.
"Will he be ok?" Sonic asked.
"Yes, he just needs dome sleep. His heart has just been put under a lot of strain and a few hours of sleep will help it return to its normal pulse. Leave him be until later and we'll see if he's awake then." Eggman explained.
While the dinner was cooking, Eggman went around the back of the TV cabinet and inspected the wires.
"It looks like one of the cables are faulty. I had better go back to the shop and get a new one tomorrow." He returned to the dinner and soon it was ready. Rouge set out the plates and a few minutes later, they were all eating.
"What are we going to do tomorrow?" Sonic asked.
"I was thinking that we could go and get everything for painting the place. We also need to get stuff for the two bathrooms." Eggman said. The rest of dinner was eaten in silence and when everyone was finished, Rouge stretched.
"Well I'm pooped so I'm going to bed now. Anyone else going?"
"I think we all want to get some sleep. Who's going to check on Tails?" Knuckles asked.
"I'll go." Sonic volunteered.
"We can do the washing up tomorrow if you want. If you check on Tails first, you can tell us if he's awake." Eggman suggested. Sonic left the table and peeked around Tails' door. His eyes were still closed so he shut the door.
"Still asleep. Well, see you lot tomorrow." He said before leaving the room as Eggman stacked the dishes by the sink.
"Night everyone." He said before going to his room too. Shadow walked over to the balcony and stepped out onto it.
"Aren't you going to bed?" Rouge asked.
"I'm not tired and I need to do some thinking anyway." He replied. They left him alone on the balcony and as they stood in front of Rouge's room, Knuckles gave her a hug.
"Night Rouge." He said.
"Goodnight Knuckles." She whispered and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. She let go of him and entered her room. He smiled slightly to himself and was about to enter his room when he heard Shadow mutter,
"The group will be split apart.but when will it happen?" Knuckles frowned and considered asking Shadow what he meant but he might accuse him of eavesdropping. He shrugged his shoulders and walked into his room. "And how will the group be split?" Shadow added. He looked up at the sky and saw the full moon shine down on him. "But Knuckles is right. There is no point worrying about what could happen.except for that doesn't help me." He sighed and feeling his eyes itch, left the balcony and headed for his bed.
************************
Tails woke up the next morning feeling a lot better than last night.
"Hmm.Eggman was right. Some sleep did do me good." He got out of his bed and left his room. No one else was up yet so he searched the cupboards and found some cereal. After pouring himself a bowlful, he walked out onto the balcony. The sun shone down and warmed him up. The park nearby was a vibrant green and a few joggers could be seen. The pond reflected the blue sky and ducks sat around the edge, sunbathing. He heard a movement behind him and saw Shadow walking out onto the balcony.
"Feeling better?" He asked.
"Yes thank you. Isn't it a lovely day? And to think, we're going to spend it in a stuffy shop." He sighed.
"Maybe if we get it done quickly, we can go to the park. We can't have that much more to do." He paused. "And aren't you looking forward to decorating?" He asked, jokingly.
"Oh yes, decorating is my most favourite way of passing the time on a lovely sunny day such as this." He said sarcastically.
"No need to be like that. That's too much sarcasm for a ten-year-old boy. I can imagine Rouge will be excited though." He stopped and he stood in silence while Tails finished his breakfast off. "Tails, can I ask you something?"
"Of course you can." He said, putting the bowl down on the ground.
"Do you think the Biolizard is still out there?"
"It might be. And if not, then maybe the professor created something else. Why do you ask?"
"I've got the feeling that something is out there, somewhere. Zelgan said- " But he stopped suddenly.
"Said what?"
"She said that there's something out there more dangerous than it. She also told me that everyone would be split apart and I would have to face it."
"Do you think this will happen?"
"That's what I've been wondering. If it does, then that just makes me more afraid."
"It seems to me that there is evil everywhere in the world and we all have to fight it sometime, even if we've been involved with it in the past." He looked at Shadow pointedly as he said this. "You can't tell what it is yet because you don't know what your fears are. She wouldn't have told you this if it wasn't going to happen."
"I suppose so."
"It is obviously meant to happen though. And if it is meant to happen, then you can only succeed. Whatever happens, we'll always be there to support you even if only in your mind."
"Thanks for talking to me Tails. Do you know you're very wise for your age?"
"Other people say that too. I just tell the truth. Are you going to have breakfast?"
"I suppose I should." They entered the flat and Tails sat at the table while Shadow got himself some breakfast. While he was eating, Tails got up and brought his bag of uniform to the table.
"Would you look at that? Shorts! What happens when it's winter? I'm going to freeze."
"Maybe you wear trousers in the winter. I'm glad I don't have to go though."
"I know. All those people who think they understand you just because they know your name."
They stopped talking when Eggman emerged from his room, stretching.
"Morning you two. Eating breakfast already? You must have been up early." He greeted.
"About half an hour. Should we get the others up?" Tails asked.
"No, no. There's no rush so they can have a lie in. Anyway, how are you feeling Tails? You certainly look all right." Eggman inquired.
"All of that sleep did me good, I feel a lot better now. Are the showers working yet?" Eggman nodded his head. "I'm going to have one then." He headed for the nearest one and entered the room. As he left the room, Sonic entered.
"Hi everyone. Have you seen Tails this morning?"
"Yes, he's just gone for a shower. Will you be having breakfast?" Eggman asked. Sonic nodded his head and he grabbed a bowl.
"So then, another day of shopping eh? Do you think we'll survive the weekend?" He joked.
"Probably not. At least it's not uniform shopping today." Shadow commented.
"Morning everyone." They heard Rouge call out as she walked into the room. "At least I'm not the last one up. Tails and Knuckles are still in bed by the looks of things."
"No I'm not. I was the first one out actually." Tails contradicted as he entered the room looking clean.
"I'm corrected. Just Knuckles then." She said.
"Well I suppose I should have a shower now." Shadow remarked. Sonic drained the last of the cereal and stood up.
"Me too. I'll see you lot in a minute." They both left the table and Rouge put Sonic's bowl away before getting one herself.
"That reminds me, I should have some breakfast as well." Eggman commented and he put two slices of toast in the toaster. While he waited for them to come up, he started to get the sink ready for washing up. Once the toast had popped up, Eggman took a plate and put one on it as he ate the other. As he finished his toast, Shadow and Sonic emerged from the bathrooms.
"That feels better." Sonic said as he walked to the table.
"Well now there's a bathroom free, I'll go and have one. Will someone go and wake Knuckles up please?" Eggman asked as he left for the bathroom. Tails and Shadow looked at Rouge.
"What? Oh I suppose you want me to wake him up." She stood up and strolled to Knuckles' room. She knocked on the door. "Knuckles, are you awake?"
She heard a grunting noise and she opened the door, only to be nearly knocked over by Knuckles as he flew through the air. "Knuckles, could you stop trying to kill me for a moment please?" He landed on the ground and smiled apologetically.
"Sorry about that. I was just practising my karate skills that's all. I have to keep in shape you know. So then, what did you want?"
"How rude! Not a hello or anything! You would have thought." But she stopped when he shut the door and caught her lips in a kiss. She smiled when they broke apart. "Well you've paid a little bit of your debt at least."
"At little bit? I'll have to punish you for that." He jumped into a fighting pose but seeing her scared look, started laughing. "Don't worry, I was only joking."
"You had better have breakfast now because we've all been up for." She started.
"A lot less time than me." He finished. "I've already had breakfast and I'm clean too."
"You've just been doing lots of movement for a least a couple of hours and you think you're clean? Think again mister." And with that, she dragged him out of his room towards the empty bathroom.
"Rouge let go of me! You're embarrassing me." He said as he went a wonderful shade of magenta. Tails and Shadow sniggered but Sonic just looked on confused.
"Don't worry, I'll have you clean in no time!" She replied and when they both were in the bathroom, she locked the door. They heard distinctly loud voices outside the bathroom singing,
"Rouge and Knuckles in the bathroom," Shadow started.
"Ew, I don't want to know!" Tails finished and they both laughed.
"What's so funny you two? Is it something I should understand?" Sonic asked confused.
"No Sonic, I don't think you'd understand it." Shadow reassured.
"They are so immature." Rouge said, in a vain attempt to calm down Knuckles' face, which was varying between crimson and blood red. "Why don't you have a shower? Otherwise your cheeks may explode with all that red." Knuckles nodded his head and she wondered around while he was washing.
He didn't take long and soon he was finished. She hugged him when he had got out and breathed in deeply.
"That's better. Now you don't smell of sweat and exercise." She remarked.
"Was it really that bad?" He asked.
"No not really but it's much nicer to not have to hold your breath all the time. Especially if you want to repay that debt." She smiled slyly.
"You and debts. How much do I owe you now?" He asked.
"Who cares about the amount? I'll tell when all that's due has arrived." And she lunged forward to shove her tongue in his mouth. He nearly choked at the shock of the muscle entering his mouth and Rouge put her hands on his back to stop him from falling over. He remained stiff even when she edged him backwards so he leant against the wall. She started to stroke his back and he slowly began to relax. Before, he had been resisting Rouge's attempt to engage him in a response but now he started to go with the flow.
Things had started to get heated when they heard a knock on the door. Knuckles tried to break away but Rouge wouldn't let him, and she even put more pressure on his mouth.
"Hello, are you two ready yet? We've been waiting here for ages." They heard Tails say. By now Rouge was finding it hard to keep Knuckles still and seeing the panicked look in his eyes, she rolled hers and finally loosened her hold on him. He pulled away from her and she put her finger to his lips.
"Don't say a word." She whispered. "Sorry Tails, we had a bit of trouble in here. Knuckles refused to get in the bath so I had to force him to." She said loudly before unlocking the door.
She glared at Tails before walking out and Knuckles followed her, keeping his head down.
~Oh.my.god. Ew, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross.~ Tails continued to think as he trailed behind them. The others were standing by the door looking very bored until they saw the three of them.
"Now we can get going! What were you doing anyway?" Shadow asked.
"You don't want to know." Tails said loudly. The look on Tails' face told Shadow everything he needed to know.
"Oh, I see." He raised an eyebrow at them and seeing Knuckles' embarrassed look, grinned.
They left the flat and as they sat in the car, Rouge tried to link arms with Knuckles and sit closer to him but he shrugged her off. She glowered at him but he ignored her. She was about to shout at him but she stopped herself just in time.
~Keep calm Rouge, he's just a bit irritated that's all.~ She thought, breathing in deeply to keep herself composed. ~That doesn't mean he can ignore me though! I'll have to make him pay for that.~ She added. The car started to move and she contented herself with looking out of the window as landscape went past.
They soon rolled into the car park of the largest DIY store and Sonic nudged Tails awake.
"What? What? Oh, we're here at last." Everyone got out of the car and they headed through the door. It was so big that it seemed to contain everything needed to build your own house, let alone decorate it. The store had been split into different sections and looking at the banners hanging from the ceiling, the group headed towards the paint section.
Rouge's eyes lit up when she saw row upon row of paint cans and as she already had several ideas for what she wanted, she immediately started to compare the different shades of lilac available. The others meanwhile wandered along the shelves, pausing occasionally to frown at the pots. Reaching a decision was going to be harder than they thought as they had no idea what would go with what. Feeling bored, Knuckles strolled over to where Rouge was, smiling slightly as she looked at two different shades.
"Having trouble making your mind up?" She asked, seeing his empty hands.
"I'm not the only one." He replied, indicating the two cans.
"Which one do you think I should have?" He stared at the two colours, unable to see a variation between them.
"They're exactly the same!" She glared at him and rolled her eyes.
"You're a man, of course you would say that!" She gave one of the pots to him. "This one is darker, see?" He glanced from one to the other.
"Hmm, I suppose there is a small difference. I think this one." He pointed to the lighter shade.
"You really think so?" She asked happily and she put the other one away.
"Now you've done that, I don't suppose you could-" He stopped, embarrassed by what he wanted to ask her but she seemed to understand him.
"Let's see. Your room is quite shady so we need a warmer colour. Orange or yellow is probably the best choice. It all depends on which one you prefer though." She said, shrugging her shoulders.
"I think I like yellow better." He said and they had a quick look at that section. After picking a few, Rouge looked at them critically before choosing one.
"I think this one is probably the best. It's bright but not brash. What do you think?" She passed the pot to him and he stared at it.
"That looks fine." She raised an eyebrow and he looked directly at her. "It's great, honest. It's just that I think I'm feeling the affects of shopping already." He sighed and she hugged him tightly.
"Come on, you're supposed to be brave and strong! Surely a little bit of shopping can't be that bad?" She asked, a grin in her face.
"No comment." He muttered, seeing the others coming towards them.
"So then, managed to find some paint?" Eggman asked. It was at this point that Knuckles and Rouge saw they all carried pots of paint in their hands.
"Yeah but how did you manage to chose your colours?" Knuckles enquired.
"Oh we got someone to help us." Sonic said.
"You're going to need at least four pots for your rooms." Eggman commented and taking some more off the shelf, they placed them along with the others in the trolley that Eggman suddenly produced.
They continued their shopping, now looking for curtains for Knuckles and Shadow's rooms and carpet. Desks and shelves had already been fitted so there wasn't anything else to worry about, at least not any other basics. As Tails sensibly put forward, they should leave posters and other things until later. By the time they got to the checkout, Eggman had 'tired himself out' and so Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles were pushing the trolley together, because it was so heavy. They took the few minutes of Eggman paying for everything to rest before dragging the trolley back to the car.
"Did we have to do all of this today?" Sonic gasped as he dropped the last can of paint into the boot.
"Careful with them, you'll spill it everywhere!" Eggman scolded as he sat in the car.
"Yeah Sonic!" Tails added in a childish voice and Sonic glared at him.
"All you've done is sit there! You can't complain at me!" Before Tails could reply, Eggman got out of the car and everyone turned to him.
"Right you lot, I'll get this lot home and start the painting. You should go and get your stuff for school."
"What stuff for school? Haven't we got it all yet?" Sonic asked and Eggman shook his head.
"No, not more shopping!" Tails wailed.
"What about me? I haven't got anything to do." Shadow said.
"You can go with them or go home."
"Just school stuff then? Nothing else?" Knuckles asked.
"Well there are a few other things but they can wait for the moment." Eggman explained.
"I suppose we should get going if we want to get this done any time soon." Tails said and the others nodded in agreement.
"I'll see you lot later then." Eggman got into the car and drove away, leaving the others to find the shops.
Half an hour later and they had managed to find the Chequers Centre after getting lost several times and several tempers getting frayed.
"At last, we're here! Remind me that I now actually hate shopping!" Sonic said angrily and Rouge rolled her eyes.
"Typical reaction of a three year old."
"What are you trying to say?" Sonic demanded.
"Tails is being calmer than you at the moment and he's nearly six years younger than you!"
"Even I must admit Sonic, there's no need to act like that." Shadow commented.
"Great, now everyone's going to have a go at me!" Sonic said bitterly.
"Let's just get going." Tails said quietly.
"Yeah, I agree. I just want to get this over and done with." Knuckles added and they set off for the shops.
Not much happened while they bought their school stuff (plus I don't want to bore you with the details of trying to choose between two different pencil cases). They finished getting their stuff when Rouge's eyes happened to sight a shoe shop. She headed for it, having managed to persuade herself at least that she should have a look inside. The others followed her, too tired to argue and they slumped down into the chairs while Rouge looked around.
Eventually choosing on a couple, she brought them over and proceeded to try them on. She had one pair on and looked up at the others. Sonic and Shadow had actually fallen asleep against each other and Tails and Knuckles were ready to fall off their chairs. Frowning, she suddenly had an idea.
"Hey you two, want to make things more interesting?" She asked.
"Depends what it is." Tails replied, looking suspiciously as her.
"Notice them two are asleep."
"Yeah."
"Why don't we play a little trick on them?" She indicated the shoes in her hands and Knuckles smiled evilly.
"I like the sound of this." Even Tails had to grin as carefully, Knuckles and Rouge took their shoes off before replacing them with high-heeled boots.
"Surely won't they notice?" Tails asked and Rouge shrugged her shoulders.
"Maybe. I don't really care if they do though."
"Yeah, they look like a right sight!" Knuckles added, trying to suppress a snigger but failing miserably.
It wasn't long before Rouge had decided on a pair of boots and paid for them. Once she had done that, Tails and Knuckles woke Shadow and Sonic up.
"Come on you two, Rouge is finished." Knuckles said and Sonic opened his eyes, as did Shadow.
"She has? At last." He went to stand up and immediately fell over. "What's going on here?" He demanded as he looked down at his legs and then Tails and Knuckles, who held their shoes. Shadow had also suffered the same fate and he looked even madder than Sonic was.
"Give them back right now!" He shouted and Knuckles and Tails took a couple of steps backwards.
"You'll have to catch us first." Knuckles said.
"Why you-" Sonic stood up suddenly but fell down again.
"Sonic, you idiot! Take them off!" Shadow hissed, who was already dealing with his boots, treating them like they were poisoned. Seeing what they were doing, Knuckles and Tails quickly dropped the shoes and ran out of the shop. Rouge followed them in amusement as Sonic and Shadow ran out of the shop too.
She eventually found them running along the road outside the shopping centre, people being scattered to the left and right to get out of the way. They didn't slow down though, continuing to chase Knuckles and Tails into the suburbs of the town. By this point, Rouge was getting annoyed with them, very annoyed.
"You lot, stop right now!" She yelled and instantly, they stopped. Well Sonic and Shadow skidded into Knuckles and Tails at least. While they sorted themselves out, she had enough time to catch up with them. Everyone looked round and Tails was the first one to admit what they all knew.
"I think we're lost." Houses surrounded them and it was starting to get dark. Tails flew up into the air and had a look around. Rouge followed him and soon both of them were trying to work out where the block of apartments was.
"What about that building over there?" Rouge asked, pointing to a small block of flats near the park.
"Yes, I think that might be it. We're not that far away luckily." Tails commented.
"So we have to go up this road and then to the right." Rouge noted before the two of them landed on the ground.
"Find it?" Shadow asked.
"Yep, this way." Everyone followed Rouge and soon they were on the main road, which went towards the park.
"Anyone know what the name of the road is?" Sonic asked as they stood at the edge of the park.
"Yeah, it's Nelson Road." Knuckles looked around and saw a street sign. "Here it is!"
Now they knew they were on the right road, everyone recognised this part of the area. They walked down the road quickly and finally reached Garden Views. They knocked on the door and Eggman opened it, letting them in.
"I wondered if you were coming back anytime soon." He commented. Suddenly, Knuckles' powerful sense of smell was nearly knocked out from the paint fumes.
"It smells awful in here!" He exclaimed, feeling dizzy.
"Ah, sorry about that. That would be the second coat of paint drying. It's taken a bit longer than I thought it would so you won't be able to sleep in your room tonight." Eggman explained.
"What?" Knuckles demanded.
"You can sleep in there if you want but I assumed you didn't like the smell."
"Not like is an understatement." He muttered.
"Don't worry, you're not the only one. I did three rooms today and I'll get the others done tomorrow. Unfortunately, that means that you, me and Rouge will have to sleep in the living room tonight."
"On what?" Rouge demanded.
"I'll sleep in one of the armchairs and you two can sleep on the sofa." Eggman smiled slightly. "I assumed you wouldn't mind." He added.
"Will they be finished by tomorrow?" She asked and Eggman nodded his head. "That's all right then."
Now that that had been sorted out, the group sat down to eat dinner. They all decided to go to bed afterwards, as they felt very tired from the day's activities. Eggman left the balcony door open so the place could be aired before moving an armchair to a corner. He sank down into it, pulling the duvet over him. Rouge lay down on one end of the sofa, duvet covering her. Knuckles didn't know what to do so he perched on the other end, closing his eyes in relief. Hearing creaking from the other end though, he opened his eyes and watched in silence as Rouge moved up to lie in front of him. He simply put his arms around her waist before drifting off into sleep.
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S. Chensu: See, I told you it was boring!
Luff: In fact, so much so that we've managed to send all the Eternal Darkness characters to sleep *Snores are heard in background*
S. Chensu: Aw, they look so sweet!
Luff: What, even Pious?
S. Chensu: Hmm, maybe not. In case you're wondering, he's a burnt body that looks quite skeleton like wearing Roman armour. You should probably look for a picture of him for it to make more sense.
Luff: But if you can't be bothered, you can take our word that he's very ugly and could never be "sweet".
S. Chensu: Anyway readers, you'll be pleased to know that the next episode is called "The boring part 2". So it will be quite similar to this in a way.
Luff: But please read it! Now go and review before we put the next episode up! That means the boring parts will be over sooner! I promise!