S. Chensu: Well, I don't have much to say this time because Luff wrote this whole episode on her own! Mind you, I did do the last two…
Luff: And I'm completely knackered! Don't ever make me write something like this in two days ever again!
S. Chensu: anyway, onto reviewer replies (reviews have been a bit thin recently…)
Snow-the-hedgehog- Thank you for the recommendations, we will check up on the as soon as we can! And don't worry about not reviewing; loads of regulars haven't reviewed for ages! It's because we haven't updated for so long…
the funk master- Aw, you poor old thing! Yes, pictures are done (nearly) and we will be sending them out when we post up a last thank you very much chapter with more information on them.
Yugi and Mai- When you take the time out to type a long review, could you please at some point MENTION THE STORY? It's not asking much but it is the whole point of reviewing a story. Anyway, thank you for the…conversation you typed instead and we hope you like this chapter. And we want another long review. This time with some reference to the story please.
Luff: Anyway, we don't own anything in this, blah blah blah…
S. Chensu: So enjoy this special Christmas Day episode from us and enjoy yourselves today!
Episode 37: STREKS plusAlcohol equals Hilarity
"Let's party!" Sammie announced and the others cheered in agreement, helping them with the bottles into the living room. This was going to be /very/ interesting…
"What are they?" Tails asked quizzically, pointing to the brightly coloured bottles clasped in their hands.
"Well, they're certainly not for /you/ my dear Tails. You're far too young. And you as well, Marie." Emily said, smiling kindly as she said this.
"Oh, no fair! I'm not /that/ young!" Tails whined, flopping down onto the sofa.
"Where did you get /these/?" Sonic asked, taking one of the Bacardi Breezers, as they turned out to be, from Sammie's laden hands. "You couldn't have bought them on your own…"
"Umm… yeah…"
"Aw, come on! It's Christmas!" Emily said brightly. "We'll just stick these in the kitchen…" And with that they walked off to their destination, being very careful not to drop anything on their way.
The door opened once again, this time to reveal a disgruntled looking Gregg.
"Is this it?" Gregg said, a despising look on his face. "I hate parties…" He tugged off the heavy cloak that swathed his body, which he had evidently used to cover up his lack of a body.
"Gregg!" Sammie and Emily had now returned from the kitchen, and had run up to embrace him in a bone-breaking hug. "It's so good to see you!"
"Ah, who let these two in?!" Gregg said grumpily, pushing them off.
"Hey! That's not nice." Emily sniffed. "You're so mean to us…"
"Yeah!"
"Oh, all right, all right! Just stop whining." He paused, only to realise that a whole room of people was now staring at him. "What?! Whaddisay?"
"Eh-heh, never mind Gregg…" Sammie said nervously, shimmying him over to one of the sofas.
"Hey, I've just suddenly realised! Eggman will be really mad if he sees those bottles in the kitchen…" Sonic suddenly said, now suddenly eyeing the front door suspiciously.
"Quick! Put them in my room before he comes back!" Rouge said, rushing into the kitchen.
"Why?! Where's Eggman gone?" Emily asked with a confused look on her face.
"Oh, he's just doing some last minute food shopping. Tails and Knuckles forgot to get some crackers. And cheese. He was supposed to be back before you came here…" Marie said cutely, who had now sat herself on the sofa next to Tails.
"Ah, now I understand! Right, let's shove these ol' bottles then…" Sammie frog-marched Emily into the kitchen, dragging several other people with her to help.
"Right." Emily counted the amount of bottles they had. "There are… eight bottles." She turned to see who else was in the kitchen. "Right, I'll take two, the rest of you can take one each." She followed Rouge into her bedroom, the others' following behind.
"Tails, you do realise you can't drink any of that, don't you?" Rouge said as Tails shut the door behind him.
"Aww, stop being mean to me! It's Christmas! Can't I just have half?" Tails pleaded, innocently standing near the bed. He clasped the bottle of Bacardi close to his chest.
"I'm sorry Tails…" Rouge said comfortingly, shaking her head. "It's for your own good." Tails pouted and handed the bottle over to her, sinking down onto the bed.
"Right, who has the bottle opener?" Sonic said merrily, looking around as if nothing had happened.
"Sonic! Way to be insensitive…" Knuckles muttered under his breath.
"What?" Sonic looked confused.
"Oh, never mind. Sheesh, he's always totally clueless about everything, isn't he?" Rouge said, who had already opened herself a bottle, which was watermelon-flavoured.
"Yeah…remember how long it took for him to realise that Knuckles and Rouge were going out?" Tails said, getting back into the jovial mood.
"Yeah, even I managed to work it out faster than him, and I wasn't even /there/ for most of the time." Shadow was glad to see a slightly irritated look spreading across Sonic's face.
"Shut up." He glowered as he took the bottle-opener and rather violently pinged off the metal lid.
"Are you sure you can handle that, Sonic…?" Shadow asked, his smirk growing wider as he heard him growl.
"Yes, of course I can! I'll show you…" He continued to mutter as he took a huge gulp of drink, almost spitting it back out as it went down the wrong tube. Emily sighed.
"Oh dear."
"Uh-huh." Sammie agreed, sipping at her cherry flavoured Bacardi.
"What about you, Knuckles…?" Rouge sidled over to him, holding a pineapple flavoured Bacardi in her hand.
"I really shouldn't…" He insisted, backing away slightly. "It…um…reacts badly. With...my stomach. Yeah!"
"Oh, don't be ridiculous…" Rouge pulled the lid off before shoving it in his hand. "Drink. Or I won't be very happy…and you know what that means, don't you…?" Knuckles gulped.
"Um…yeah." He sighed, before slowly bringing up to his mouth, looking at it as if it were poison.
"Good boy!" She kissed his cheek, causing him to blush the same colour as his fur. She giggled, pulling his arm around her waist.
"Sonic! You shouldn't drink that so quickly!" Everyone turned to see Shadow standing in front of him, holding a now empty bottle in his hand.
"Hey…hic…I'm okay…hic…" Sonic giggled as he swayed on the spot, reaching blindly for some sort of support.
"Yeah, of /course/ you are, Sonic." Shadow rolled his eyes. "See? I told you you couldn't handle your drink."
"I'm hic, not pissed…" Sonic tried to pull a convincing face, but it inevitably didn't work.
"Yep, he's pissed." Sammie said knowledgeably. She swirled her now half-empty bottle, before taking another sip from it. "Lovely."
The rest of the time in the room passed eventfully enough: Rouge managed to down another bottle of drink; she tried to persuade Sammie and Emily to have another one, but they refused, saying that they wanted to remember what happened that evening.
Knuckles only managed to get through half of his drink before he started acting strangely; amazingly, he managed to produce a joke that made everyone laugh. He also seemed incapable of walking in a straight line, falling onto the bed when he tried to get to the door. "Now I can see why he didn't want a drink…" Rouge had muttered to herself, shrugging her shoulders and finishing the rest of her drink.
Eventually Shadow got annoyed with everyone getting tipsy, so he left the room, and to his annoyance the others followed him.
Making himself a drink in the kitchen, he left to go the toilet, little suspecting a conspiracy to spike his drink…
"I can't believe Shadow was hic stupide enough too leave his hic driink un hic guarded…" Sonic giggle, tipping out half of Shadow's drink down the sink and filling it up with half a bottle of Bacardi. "Hee hee…"
Shadow came back to find Sonic walking out of the kitchen, giggling his head off about one thing or another. Shadow sighed, before taking hold of his drink and taking a huge gulp. He paused, looking at his drink with confusion. This drink tastes a bit strange… He shrugged and continued to gulp it down. Before long he was on the floor, hiccupping worse than Sonic was and holding his head in his hands.
"Shadow?" He looked up blearily to find a fuzzy-looking Eggman looking curiously down at him, vaguely recognising a hand that was being waved in front of his face. "Have you been drinking?"
"Noooo-/hic/-ooo…" He felt himself being pulled to his feet, tight grips clenching on his arms as he was guided into the living room. He vaguely recognised Gregg waving his scythe in front of him, as if threatening him that if he had he would shove it where the sun don't shine. (Sorry, had to stick that in somehow.)
"Right, who did this?" Eggman asked wearily, holding up a limp Shadow in his arms. He raised an eyebrow when all hands were pointed towards Sonic, apart from Sonic who was pointing to something outside the window. "Sonic, what have I told you about drinking?"
"What drink-/hic/-ing?" Sonic grinned stupidly, still pointing to the window.
"Oh, never mind!" He dropped Shadow onto the sofa. "Well, seeing as you all seem to be out of your heads drunk…I'll join in too!" He rummaged in his pockets until he found a bottle of whisky. He sat himself in one of the chairs, pressing the bottle to his lips and taking a sip. "Hooo, that's good stuff…" Everyone stared at him as his face turned red, before getting onto what they were doing before.
Sammie and Emily were busy setting up a video camera, planning secretly to catch people in their most embarrassing moments. Or making up plans to force people to do embarrassing things.
Everyone also seemed to be giving Tails and Marie a drink, not realising that everyone else had done so as well. Soon enough they had managed to drink three bottles between them, and were wandering blindly around the living room, Tails singing very rude songs at the top of his voice.
"Hey, who gave them all the booze?" Sammie asked curiously, pointing the camera at Tails as he walked into the wall.
"No idea…" Emily tailed off, watching with amusement as Shadow, Sonic and Gregg joined in with the rude singing.
All was quiet until Tails started singing this one particular song, which he had 'cleverly' adapted from a perfectly innocent Christmas carol…
"I saw Rouge fing Knuckles
Underneath the mistletoe last night
She didn't see me creep
Down the hall to have a peep
She thought that I was tucked up
In my bedroom fast asleep.
"Then, I saw Rouge tickle Knuckles
Underneath his sacks so full and springy
Oh, what a laugh it would have been
If Eggman had only seen
Rouge fing Knuckles last night…"
"TAILS!!" Knuckles shouted as he saw that Rouge looked horrified. "Don't- you-" he yelled as he ran towards him, only for Tails to move out of the way just in time and for /him/ to crash into Sonic and Shadow.
Shadow had only just told the Christmas tree that he loved it, before they were all sent careering into its spiky branches. There was lots of shouting as butts got prickly needles stuck up them, causing shouts and screams for about the next five minutes.
"Who turned out the lights?" Sonic mumbled as he tried to see what it was that he had landed on. Still totally clueless.
About twenty minutes later they managed to get themselves upright again, with just about all of the decorations back on the Christmas tree, although now it looked a little…squashed.
Sonic had managed to entertain himself by finding a sprig of mistletoe and forcing Tails and Marie to kiss under it. They had by now sobered up a bit (well, they weren't as hyper anyway), but still they kissed with all the fervour that Knuckles and Rouge were forced to when Sonic came round to them. "Aww, they're so /hic/ sweet…" Sonic said cheesily as he goggled at them, freaking them out so much that they had to run away as soon as they were done.
"Oohh, fun!" He giggled as he turned around, only to find Shadow standing right behind him. He stumbled a little as he tried, and failed, to keep his balance. He leaned slightly towards Shadow, a dazed look on his face. Shadow looked up to see that Sonic was still holding the mistletoe above his head.
"What a good idea…" Shadow said happily, before he moved forward and kissed Sonic on the lips. Sonic looked slightly bewildered for a moment, eyeing Shadow suspiciously. Gregg, who just happened to be looking in their direction, retched and rapidly moved as far away from them as possible, muttering under his breath "Disgusting. Hedgehogs…why /hedgehogs/?" Sonic stared for a moment, before grinning and saying "Give us a hug…" to which Shadow happily complied.
"Hey, are you okay?" Sammie asked as Gregg sidled over to where they were standing, still muttering to himself.
"Yes, yes…I've seen worse…" He said before continuing his journey around the room. Emily sighed.
"Oh dear. Imagine what it's going to be like when he sees the tape tomorrow morning…"
"If he does." They smiled, before turning their attention back to scanning the room with hawk-like eyes to see if they could catch anymore stupidity on camera.
Everyone in the room paused when Rouge changed the CD in the CD player. There was now cheesy, pop music on. There was a huge groan as they rushed to cover up their ears, but Rouge seemed to have a better idea.
"C'mon, everyone! Let's do the conga!" She grabbed a startled Knuckles from the side of the room, before pulling his arms around her waist and dragging him around the room.
"Hey…that's a good idea!" Tails said, now persuading Marie to join him as they were pushed by Sonic to go to the end of the line.
"Yeah!" Sonic caught Shadow as they made their way around the room, forcing him to hold on for dear life.
"Keep going, guys!" Sammie said gleefully as she pointed the camera at them, hoping to get a least a minutes' worth of video time. "Oi, you join in too!" She said, before pushing Gregg to join in the conga. They were a mess, random legs being stuck out at wrong points in the song. Tails and Marie were being squashed in the middle, struggling even move as they were practically carried around the room. However, this did mean that they could now stick out both of their legs instead of just one at a time, poking Eggman several times on their way around. Several swearwords were issued from his mouth, as he waved frantically to try and push their legs away from him. Let's just say the room was…a bit of a mess afterwards.
"That was fun…" Marie sighed as she struggled to get up off the sofa, which they managed to collapse on just in time to save themselves from falling on the floor. She pushed Sonic's leg off her head, standing up and stretching as if she had only just woken up and got out of bed. She yawned loudly, falling back onto the sofa on top of Shadow.
"Ow…" Shadow groaned, his head dangerously close to…
"Hey, I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking!" She giggled, moving slightly so that Shadow could breathe.
"You wish…" he mumbled, sliding off the sofa onto the floor. Marie smiled, before yawning again. "Hey, will someone put the /kids/ to bed…"
"We're not kids!" Tails said indignantly, who had also been yawning like mad.
"Don't worry, I'll do it…" Gregg said, before getting his scythe (don't ask) and brandishing it in front of their faces. "Come on! Off to bed with yer! Or I'll chop yer heads off…"
"Gregg!" Sammie said angrily, pushing him away. "Hey, it's okay…" She said soothingly to the now petrified pair of foxes sitting on the sofa.
"Yeah, come on…its ten O'clock now." Emily knelt down in front of them, placing a hand on each of their foreheads. "Now, sleep." They dropped like stones, snoring loudly (well, in Tails' case anyway), so Sammie and Emily gathered them up in their arms and carried them into Tails' room. Gregg followed them in, still brandishing his scythe under their noses. "Will you stop that?!" Emily said, exasperated.
"Oh…" The scythe disappeared with a pop, and he shuffled out of the room, sniffling slightly.
"Tsk…always trying to make us feel sorry for him." Sammie said, before drawing back the bed covers and placing Marie on the bed. Once both of them were settled (in the same bed), Sammie and Emily left them, closing the door quietly behind them.
Knuckles and Rouge had managed to separate themselves from the tangle of people, and were standing in the corner of the room. Knuckles had his arms around her, and she had her head leant against his chest, eyes closed and a smile on her face.
"Aw, don't they look cute together?" Emily whispered, quickly grabbing the camera and focusing it on them. "Perfect…"
"Emily! Sheesh…" Sammie tutted, leaning against the back of one of the sofas. As she said this Rouge looked up at them, eyeing the camera wearily.
"Come on, Knuckles…" She said, before taking his hand and taking him into the bathroom.
"Oh. That was short-lived." Emily sighed as she turned off the camera. "Damn it! Everyone's calming down now. It's no fun." She continued to grumble as she rewound through the footage, deleting any of the bad bits.
Sonic and Shadow had found their way onto the balcony, wanting the fresh, cool air to calm their throbbing headaches. They stared out into the distance, watching as the little lights of the city twinkled in the darkness. The silence remained immanent for a long time, until Shadow cleared his throat.
"It's been so strange, hasn't it?" He said quietly, turning his head slightly to look at Sonic. He sighed.
"Yeah…I guess. I mean, what was the likelihood of all of this happening? And especially to us…it's unlike anything else I've experienced before, and I tell you, I've been through a lot of things in my life."
"Hmm." Silence befell them again. They were content with just being in each others' company; so much had happened to them, they needed each other to reassure themselves of their past, and of their future…
"Why are we brothers, though? I don't understand it…how is it possible? There's almost fifty years difference between us two, and yet…" Sonic paused. "It's not like I don't want it, but you can't help wondering why it has to be. It's the most important question, and yet nobody knows the answer." Sonic frowned.
"Why are you so bothered?" Shadow looked at him. "I'm just happy knowing that you are my brother. At least I have family now…family that's still alive, anyway." Shadow bowed his head as an image of Maria flashed through his mind.
"You miss her, don't you?" Sonic said quietly, sympathy drawn across his face.
"Yeah." A tear ran down his face, a small cry of the pain he was apparently carrying in his heart.
"Hey…" Sonic walked up to him and held him in an embrace, for the first time truly feeling like Shadow's brother. "Don't worry; you're not alone anymore…"
"Hey, Knuckles, are you alright?" Rouge asked as she put bubbles onto his nose. They were in the bath tub, warm water surrounding them as they sat cuddled in each others' arms.
"I…" Knuckles was looking rather pale; apparently the alcohol was finally catching up with him, and he felt like he had the worst headache ever. "My…head…" Was all he managed to say, before he had to stop and clasp it in his hand.
"Ah, don't worry…you'll be okay soon." Rouge said soothingly, rubbing his chest with some scented oil. "Well, in the morning perhaps." I think he was right when he said 'I don't think I should drink anything'…oh well. Rouge was silent for a moment, before something sprang to her mind. "Hey Knuckles…do you realise it's been exactly six months since we got together?"
"Hmm…yeah." Knuckles sighed, closing his eyes. "It's been a long time." He opened an eye to look at her. "What are you planning…?"
"Oh, nothing…" But Knuckles saw that certain twinkle in her eye, one that meant that what she was saying was /definitely/ not true… "Oh God." was all he managed to say before she had sealed her lips over his, drowning them both in a sense of…well, you know the rest!
"Hey, look!" Emily whispered as she pointed to Eggman. He had half an empty bottle of whisky loosely clenched in his hand, a little string of dribble dangling out of the corner of his mouth. And then there was the snoring, although you wouldn't think it was actually possible for someone to make that much noise without realising it. This caused her to then say, "Do you think he's /actually/ asleep?"
"I dunno…" Sammie said, looking at him cautiously. "Do you think it's safe to find out?" She grabbed a stick (again, don't ask) and began to poke him with it, seeing if she was able to get a reaction. She did get one, but that was just him flapping his arm up into the air, with a short grunt to follow. "Have you got the camera?" She asked quietly, but Emily had already run to get it, turning it and giggling as the bottle of whisky finally dropped out of his hand onto the floor.
After a few more moments she turned it off, sighing as she sat down on the sofa. "We're all alone…"
"Yup. Apart from Gregg." He had now come over to join them from the corner of the room, where he had been spying on Sonic and Shadow from the window.
"This is boring." He announced, climbing onto the sofa next to Emily.
"Uh-huh." Sammie felt depressed. "Where did everyone go…?" But no-one gave her an answer.
"Well, that just leaves us to conclude the story, doesn't it?" Sammie looked at Emily.
"Uh?" Then her face lit up. "Oh, right!" She cleared her throat.
"Oh, here we go…" Gregg grumbled, pulling his cloak over his head.
Sammie: The end of the episode…and, as it happens, the end of the story.
Emily: Yup. It's been great fun seeing your reactions as you read this.
Gregg: Emily! You were supposed to say 'it's been great fun taking part in this adventure' or some sort of crap like that!'
Sammie and Emily: Gregg!
Gregg: What?!
Sammie: Oh, it doesn't matter. #Clears throat# Anyway, I'm afraid to say that you will no longer be able to read any more new and exciting adventures of the STREKS gang, as the authoresses have officially retired from writing it. Mainly because now, after writing and working on it for over three years, they are sick to the back teeth of us.
Emily: Yup! It's been so fun tormenting them. Well, we hope that you have enjoyed this final chapter, and apologies for the depressing bit. The authoress (Luff in this case) has a habit of putting a bit in like that in every single chapter of any story that she writes. But she is incredibly good, much better than her sister in fact, because she managed to write this chapter in TWO DAYS. How long did it take Chen? About three months.
Gregg: But she did write the majority of the story.
Emily: Uh…yeah…that's true.
Sammie: Ha! In yer face!
Emily: You're not supposed to take sides!
Sammie: You were first! #They start bitch fighting with each other, disappearing in a ball of dust#
Gregg: Oh, why am I always the one that has to finish everything off? Oh well, time now to kill the story-
Sammie: Oi! Nicely!
Gregg: Shut up! As I was saying, it is time for me to…/end/ it. Except it's not quite the end because Luff still has to write an epilogue. And her arm is hurting very badly at the moment. But this is going up on Christmas day! And I am now forced to say "Merry Christmas" to you all…eugh… Well, cheerio, I suppose. #Walks away, muttering something about cats and them being smelly#
Luff: PLEASE REVIEW AND MAKE THE TOIL I SPPENT ON THIS EPISODE WORTH IT!
S. Chensu: Next episode on…New Year's maybe?
Luff: NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!