Yay, new chapter. Wootness! I actually think this one isn't as funny as the others. Ah well, I worked on it, which is what really matters. That and money. This one does not focus on Sonic much (gasp!) but it goes back to the others of the Sega characters. After all, we can't forget about them! And thanks for some people offering your own fancharacters, I may use them...maybe. Oo I'm sort of writing this as I go along! So if my brain wants me to, I'll add a character. Right now, only ones I'm using are mine and Sky the Hedgehog's. But thank you everyone:D
Let me warn you that Knuckles in this fic really does not like fan characters. You'll see why. No offense to anyone!
Now read on...it's quite long...eveything's exxageration...remember...
Chapter 3- Rescue Mission…or something like that…
Now the reader may be wondering, while Sonic was getting acquainted with all his fan character worshippers, as well as some haters, what was going on with the rest of the Sonic gang back at their humble home?
"Shadow, what did you do to my room!"
Not many good things.
Knuckles glared at the black hedgehog in extreme rage, his large fists clenched tightly, growling loudly. Shadow barely showed any reaction, just sitting near the kitchen counter on a wooden stool, a bored expression on his face as he read a large book that he had found lying around the apartment. It was deeply fascinating.
"Answer me, you freak!" The echidna shouted in a hoarse voice. He was clearly not happy with this.
Shadow looked up at the fuming red echidna, irritated that the guy had interrupted his reading. "Hey, I told I was going to shooting practice today."
"But not in my room, you idiot!"
Shadow just shrugged and went back to his reading. The book was getting to an interesting part.
Knuckles just fumed quietly, not able to come up with any words.
"Hey, what's all the screaming about?" Tails came in, holding a small flamethrower in his left hand, the protective mask over his face. He was covered in soot and had obviously just been working on another new invention of his.
"That…hedgehog… just mutilated my room!" Knuckles pointed an accusing finger- no, wait, those mitts of his. Okay, pointed an accusing hand toward Shadow who paid no attention to the situation.
Puzzled, the young fox walked over to the echidna's room to have a look. "Aw, come on, Knuckles, it can't be that ba- Oh my…"
Yeah, it was bad.
It was like a hurricane had taken place in such a tiny area, and then brought in a couple of its tornado buddies to finish the job. The bed had been torn down to mulch, mattress shredded and bedpost ripped to tiny wooden pieces. The walls were embedded with thousands of bullet holes, the covering wall paper slashed until they were hanging limply.
Shadow had gone trigger-happy in here. Very much so. Probably a couple of spin dashes and chaos spears to add in the fun.
"See? See what I mean!" Knuckles waved his arms around frantically to express his anger but only succeeded in looking like an idiot. Shadow noticed the action and quietly laughed. This made the echidna much more paranoid. "What the (bleep) are you laughing at? What is it with you and guns? I respect your personal space and you should respect mine! Yet you go and massacre-!"
"What's with all the yelling about?" Amy had walked in from the front door, eye ridge raised in confusing. In her arms were held paper bags of groceries, results of her afternoon shopping. "I could practically hear you from all the way downstairs, Knuckles."
"Hey! I'll scream as loud as I want!" the echidna countered.
"He's just mad because Shadow killed his room," Tails helpfully explained.
"Of course I'm mad! I'm just glad that I had taken my Master Emerald out of there before that hedgehog went in. I swear once Angel Island gets fixed, I am outta here!"
"Yeah, you do that," Shadow replied, eyes still fixed on his book. This made Knuckles even angrier, but before he could retaliate in another shout, Amy jumped in.
"Say, where's Sonic?" she blurted out, setting down the food on the kitchen counter.
Knuckles bit off his retort, clearly suppressing his rage. "Out for another run, I guess. It's always the same thing with that hedgehog."
"But he did leave earlier than usual though," Amy said, a tiny bit concerned.
The echidna just shrugged indifferently. "It's nothing. Sonic can barely sit still for an hour, except when he's sleeping."
"Yeah, so he went inside that place instead." Everyone turned to Shadow who had spoken suddenly, eyes still rapt on the book.
"Wait, what did you say? What place?" Tails asked.
Shadow looked up, seemingly surprised that they didn't know. "Across the street, to that fan character place. He went in last night. I was up to go get some snacks and that's when I saw him outside, just going in that door."
"WHAT!"
Shadow's ears bent downwards in an irritated gesture. "Must you always talk in such a loud voice, Guardian?"
But it seemed that Knuckles did not hear the hedgehog's remark, his face fixed in an unreadable expression. Fearfully, he turned his head towards the window, spotting the large building, its appearance deceiving the horror inside.
Sonic was with them…the Mary-Sues! Horrible scenarios of what they were doing to Sonic flashed through his frightened brain. Hey, that means he cares. How sweet.
"Uh, Earth to Knuckles? Hello?" Tails waved a small hand in front of the echidna's blank face.
"I'm not sure but, it looks like he fainted on his feet," Amy said, green eyes sparkling in bewilderment.
Then he suddenly sprang back to life and grabbed a surprised Shadow by the shoulders, lifting the black hedgehog off the stool until his feet were inches away from the floor.
"Why didn't you say anything before!" Knuckles practically screamed in Shadow's face, shaking him so violently his teeth rattled.
"Why should I care!" The hedgehog screamed back.
Amy and Tails' ears were beginning to hurt now from such deafening yells. They imagined that all of Station Square must have heard them.
Knuckles dropped the Ultimate Life-Form roughly to the floor and was headed out the door quickly. "We have to go save him now!"
"Wait, save him from what?" Tails asked.
"From what? Did you not hear?" The echidna had a lucid and horrific gleam in his eyes. "Sonic's trapped inside there! Who knows what kind of torture he's going through now!"
"Torture?" Amy was now beginning to get frightened, her hands clasped before her. "Why would they do that to my beloved Sonic?"
Knuckles gave a sorrowful look. "Because those Mary-Sues are made that way. They exist to make us suffer in horrific ways. Mentally, physically, even forced marriages have happened on numerous occasions-"
"Forced marriages!" Amy gasped in sheer, utter terror. The image of her Sonniku being forced down the aisle in a tuxedo by the barrel of a gun held by some domineering brute (father-in-law), an ecstatic bride jumping up and down as her future husband walked toward her reluctantly. It filled her with dread.
An old regular shotgun wedding. How romantic.
"Noooo! Don't do it, Sonic!" Amy had gone full-blown hysteria, the terrifying omen playing before her eyes so clearly. Her meant-to-be, her soul mate…he would be lost forever…and to some other girl…It was too terrible, too blasphemous (yes, blasphemous) to even contemplate.
Of course, Sonic could get a divorce like every rushed marriage but all that paperwork, taking custody of possessions, real hassle. Sometimes for months, it goes on and on…
And as if that Amy Rose was going to wait around for that.
"We have to rescue him!" The pink hedgehog hefted her large mallet which she seemed to pull out of thin air. No seriously, where does she hide that thing? An invisible pocket? In her dress? Hey, we're getting off topic again.
"We have to go save him now!" Amy yelled fervently, her fan girlish love for Sonic overriding everything.
"Exactly!" Knuckles agreed to Amy's statement, holding up his massive fists. "We must leave now before any other torture is done on Sonic!"
Though the young fox was not as overzealous as his other two friends, Tails was getting a tad worried for his hero. Sonic had been a big brother to him, and if he was suffering, well, by golly, he was going to help!
"Count me in! I'm going too!" he proclaimed, punching one fist in the air.
"Thatta boy!" Knuckles praised.
Only Shadow remained unconvinced.
"This is all so stupid." His dark, sardonic voice cut through their enthusiasm like a bloody knife.
"You're coming too, you know," the echidna stated.
"Are you kidding? Why do I have to go on this little 'rescue mission'?"
"If you had told us last night, then we wouldn't have to go on this mission in the first place. Sonic's probably suffering now and it's all your fault!"
Unfazed by the accusations, Shadow merely cocked one patronizing eye ridge as he stared at the red echidna. "Did you suffer from some traumatic experience from a fan character recently?"
Knuckles' face went rigid, eyes recalling a far-distant memory.
"Uh, you okay?" Amy questioned. It was a full-blown thirty seconds before the Guardian could respond.
"Never mind about that! Let's go!" He was now heading out the door, face set into battle mode.
Tails blue eyes expressed concern. "Knux, if something happened-"
"It was nothing! Let's go now!" Before anyone could say anything, Knuckles was out the door, screaming his war cry. "Yahhhh!"
Amy cast aside the odd little happening from before and joined the echidna in the rescue. "Sonic, I'll save you!" Then she was screaming along side of him with her own "Yahhhh!"
Tails just walked outside, calmly. "Well, this should be interesting." Turning back to the apartment, he was surprised to see Shadow following him out. "So you are actually coming?"
"I guess so," Shadow answered somberly, arms crossed over his torso. "It would be rather nice to see if Sonic was actually suffering." The hedgehog smiled as he said the last word.
"Oh, glad to…uh, hear it," Tails replied somewhat nervously. Then his sapphire eyes caught the slim object in the hedgehog's left hand. "Wait, are you actually bringing that along?"
"What? You got a problem with it?" Shadow frowned just slightly, holding up the gun casually, finger dangerously close to the trigger.
"No! No, I'm good."
With a grumpy "humph," the black hedgehog nonchalantly walked past the fox boy who gulped loudly.
Tails sighed and put a hand to his head. "I wonder how this'll turn out."
The four gallant heroes, heads up high, courage emanating from their forms, marched their way up to the forbidden door of fan characters-
"Mary-Sues, dang it!" Knuckles shouts.
Fine, Mary-Sues. Whatever. They marched their way up to the forbidden door of Mary-Sues, prepared to rescue their most cherished comrade at any cost.
Well, most of them.
"Let's just get this over with. I'm missing Days Of Our Lives for this thing," Shadow complained in an irritated tone.
"You watch soap operas, Shadow?" Amy asked with a sly smile.
"Wha- No! Of course not! I was just messing with you!" Shadow instantly replied, silently reprimanding himself for releasing such valued information.
"Uh huh, yeah…anyway, here we are!" Knuckles announced as they approached the door. "Right here, with that terrible, forbidden door…of doom!" he lamely added.
Amy just gazed at it uninterestingly. "It doesn't look that scary, Knuckles."
"Do not challenge me, woman!"
"Excuse me!"
"We're not suppose to fight each other!" Tails called out, trying to be the peacemaker of the group, glancing fearfully at the large mallet gripped in Amy's hands.
"As I said before, let's just get this over with," Shadow said with crossed arms over his torso, putting on his 'bad boy' expression, the kind that makes us fan girls go crazy for.
Knuckles turned away from Amy swiftly, wavering his dreadlocks about his shoulders. "Don't worry, Shadow. You'll get to your precious soap opera in time."
"I told you I don't watch those things!"
Ignoring the sputtering hedgehog, Knuckles walked up to the door, trying to sport a casual façade though it was clear in his eyes he was downright scared. He actually trembled with each step. Tentatively, he laid a hand on the wooden barrier, and then with a high yelp, stepped back as if he had touched red-hot metal.
"I sense an unfathomable evil coming from in there!"
"Yeah, we get it. You're a coward."
"…Shut it, Shadow."
Amy tapped her foot rapidly, unconsciously imitating one of Sonic's habits after spending so much time with him. "So, are we going to go in or what?"
"Patience!" the echidna held up a hand to her face. "We cannot rush into a situation blindly. I've seen many things, many freaky things come out of this door. Don't be fooled by its appearance. It happens to be made from the strongest material known to man and animals, or Sonic would have broken it down a long time ago."
"What kind of material?" Tails asked with inquisitive wonder.
"I have no idea. But nonetheless, we shall prevail! I'm sure that if I gather enough strength in these powerful arms of mine, I might be able to break down this door in just a couple of hits and-"
Fed up with the echidna's rambling, Shadow walked nonchalantly toward the scary door, unnoticed by the group who listened attentively to Knuckles blabbering.
"All those bench presses at the gym are finally going to pay off here. Better stand back everyone in case some of the door pieces hit you as I pound this thing to kingdom come-"
"It's open."
"What?"
Shadow looked back, hand on the doorknob which he used to push the barrier inward. An open door was the result. Knuckles just stared, wide-eyed and dumbfounded. "How did you-?"
"It was unlocked…idiot." Shadow lowered his eyelids in clear annoyance.
"I…was going to do that next!" Knuckles defended, trying to regain some of his lost pride.
"Right, Guardian," Shadow responded, obviously not believing a single word.
Tails peeked inside the building, seeing a couple of lights lit in the hallway. "So, can we go in now?"
Amy casually headed toward the opening. "Yeah, I think no one's around-"
"Hold it!" The echidna commanded, stopping the pink hedgehog in her tracks. "We must first check out the premises! As the only person here who had experience with these kind of creatures, I shall go in first!"
"Whatever you say," Shadow gestured toward the open door, completely bored.
Though Knuckles seemed to stall for time as he did stretches, performed karate moves in the air, did some breathing exercises, meditated for a good three minutes, then went back to stretching.
"We're waiting, Guardian!" Shadow yelled, impatient at the echidna's doings.
"A warrior must always prepare himself for battle!"
"What battle? It's just a freaking building! Just hurry up already and get that stupid faker!"
"You don't know what we're dealing with, you freak of a creation by some mad scientist who had serious issues like you!"
"Huh?"
"You heard me!"
Tails sighed, putting a small hand over his face in embarrassment. "Really, can't we go inside already? We've been standing here arguing for over ten minutes."
"We'll go in when I say so," Knuckles stated, taking the leadership role a bit too far.
"Well, you might want to hurry up here!"
Surprised, the echidna, hedgehog, and fox turned toward the ajar door, spotting young Amy who was already way inside in the hallway, waving to them cheerily. Knuckles felt his pride deflate again. "But I didn't-"
"The girl did something right for a change. Let's hurry this up." Shadow gave his dark smile, walking inside with a curious Tails following suit. The echidna had the look of a beaten dog, head bowed down in defeat as he trailed behind the others in a sorrowful manner. Any more depressed and he would have whimpered pathetically.
Finally, the foursome were within fan character areas. Prepared to expect the worse; such as three-headed demons, terrible fire-breathers, maybe even some ecstatic super powerful teenagers with erratic mood swings (and that is scary!), all that they found were a normal living area, bare and deserted for the most part. They were in the hallway with its many doors, along with the small tables and lamps. But nothing seemed unusual. In fact, their thoughts were the same as a particular blue hedgie when he first entered the building.
Bo-ring! Just like this chapter…bah…
"Gee, Knux. When do these horrific Mary-Sues come to eat us alive?" Shadow asked in a sarcastic and conceding tone. "I'm practically shaking in my jet shoes."
Knuckles felt like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. He knew what he spoke before was true! But it looks like the fan characters were forming against him by not doing their usual routine of torturing the copyrights. Just his luck.
Both Amy and Tails had to reluctantly agree with Shadow. Nothing here seemed the least bit sinister at all. Watching a snail crawl was more exciting than this.
"You were making a big deal out of nothing, Knuckles," Amy said out of sincerity yet the words still stung the poor echidna's pride.
"…You don't have to rub it in…"
RING!
The 12:30 class will now begin, blared a voice from an unseen loudspeaker.
"Huh?" said all four in unison.
Then the doors opened up, a bunch of bodies marched rapidly out into the hall, and the stampeding ritual commenced once more…
And the rescue group were right in the midst of it all, ready to be trampled underfoot.
Knuckles was grinning. "Ha! Told you!"
Tails was wide-eyed. "Oh boy…"
"Out of the way!" shouted a young squirrel, brutally pushing aside the kitsune.
And thus, the four were shoved and jostled among the mass, confused and dazed, trying to find an opening in the crowd to allow them to move away. But in a merciless act, they fell to the onslaught of pointed heels and heavy mountain boots, repeatedly saying "Ouch!" and "Yipe!" and "Why me! Oh God, why me?"
Though if you listen hard enough, you could just make out Knuckle's oddly cheerful "I was right! I was right! I was- ow! I was right!"
When it seemed that the crowd's charge would forever keep on going, the number of sharp heels diminished along with the insulting commands to move forward. Until in almost no time, only a few people were in the halls, tromping through the doors, shutting them tight.
"Wait for me!" shouted one tiny rabbit, pumping his little legs along until he, too went to a room.
Tails was hovering in the air with the aid of his rotating tails, having enough common sense and intelligence to do so before he got seriously hurt by the stampede. He descended back to the ground as he went to help his friends. "Hey, everyone alright?"
"I- I'm fine," Amy stuttered out, sitting on top of one of the tables in the hallway, using it before to escape the relentless march. "Where's Knuckles?"
Tails searched around and didn't see the scarlet one in his view, but did spot a hole in the ground, looking fresh and recently dug. Then a head timidly poked out of it with shifty eyes. "Are they gone?" it asked fearfully.
"Yeah, they left," Tails answered as he watched the echidna climb out of the hole he had created for escape. He was lucky to have brought his shovel claws along. Smart boy. But he cast aside his traumatic experience and had the most haughty smile on his face. "Ha! I told you! These guys are trouble! Now do you believe me?"
"Yes, Knuckles…" Amy and Tails both stated in monotonous voices.
The echidna was nearly squealing in delight. "See? If we had checked the premises like I said, then we could have avoided such an attack. These Mary-Sues probably set us up for a trap and they nearly caught us."
"Yeah, we get it. Should've listened to you," Amy impatiently replied, getting off the table. She wasn't exactly impressed.
The echidna was still blissfully giddy, which was usually not in his firm and serious nature. Now that dumb Shadow had to agree with him! Turning around to find the black hedgehog, his violet eyes widened slightly, almost dumbfounded. "Uh oh…"
"Huh? What is it?" Tails had been gazing cautiously at the doors, ready to react at any movement.
Knuckles merely pointed to the floor a couple of feet away.
Poor, poor Shadow. He had taken the brunt of the crowd's attack.
While Tails had flown above, Knuckles hiding underground, and Amy perched on a coffee table, Shadow had been right in the middle of the hall and, well…let's just say his screams of horrific, bloodcurdling terror were drowned out by the mob.
As I said before; poor, poor Shadow.
The remaining three gathered around the black hedgie sprawled on his chest, quills tussled left and right in messy angles, not really moving one bit.
"So, uh, is he alright?" Amy asked after they gazed down at the hedgehog for long amount of time. She bent down and started to tap his head curiously, like a naïve child poking a dead body with a stick. Wait, that's a pretty odd analogy.
"Wonder if he has his wallet on him?" Knuckles wondered out loud.
Tails looked with disappointment toward the echidna. "That's kinda low."
"Well, he tore up my room! Besides, the hedgehog owes me! Especially for those damned insults of his. I say he got what he deserved, always going on and angsting about his life and his precious Maria. It's enough to make a guy want to strangle him. And furthermore-!"
"Do you ever shut up!"
Knuckles was cut short by Shadow's curt and, obviously annoyed, interruption.
"God, even unconscious I can still hear you freaking gloat! What kind of-! Uh, I'm too tired to even yell anymore."
The black hedgehog clambered up on shaky legs, red eyes dilated in what would seem to be insanity. He put one gloved hand over his forehead, groaning from being run-over not so long ago. Knuckles seemed put out by Shadow's affront, and did not respond.
"So you're okay then?" asked Tails.
Despite being run over carelessly like some rodent on a busy highway where only death tolls, Shadow gave a weary nod that he was just fine. He was the Ultimate Life-Form after all. Which means that he is the best. This is a true fact and has nothing to do with the authoress having a great fondness for Shadow the Hedgehog. No, not at all.
What are you looking at? Freaks…Oops, there goes two of my reviews.
"You know, I expected you to use your gun on…those people," Amy ventured timidly.
Shadow merely shrugged. "Even though I was nearly punched to the ground by those things, I didn't feel like wasting any bullets."
"Ah, I…guess that makes sense."
"Are you insulting me?"
"No!"
"Please, let's not fight amongst each other!" Tails yelled, the companionship once again breaking. "Let's just calmly and rationally figure out a solution to find Sonic. Because I know that if we work together, we can achieve anything!"
Shadow yawned. "…That sounded terribly clichéd,"
"…I know."
Amy sighed in fatigue. At least things couldn't possibly get any worse-
"OMG!"
Speak of the devil.
The group turned around sharply at the high voice, ready for anything. But Knuckles was trembling in deep, dark fear. " Oh no… Oh no. It's you!"
An echidna girl who had suddenly appeared before them gave a guileless smile, her eyes radiating with ecstatic fervor. She gazed upon the four with rapturous awe.
"Eeee! Dis is gr8! I luv u all!111!"
Her voice was enough to make ears bleed, and to the reader, their eyes bleed.
Knuckles still looked at her with that awful dread on his countenance. "No…Not again! I thought I finally got rid of you! Why must I continue to suffer!"
Amy turned questioning eyes toward the shivering Guardian. "You know this person?"
The echidna girl jumped up and down in excitement, then started running forward to the group, her arms outstretched. "Knuckales! I mised u!"
The Guardian stepped back hastily, using his friends as shields. "Shadow, use your gun."
"What?"
"Don't question me! Just use your gun already! She's getting closer! We're all gonna die!"
"Knuckales!"
"AHHHH!"
The girl pounced on the red echidna, clutching on to him like a stubborn leech that particularly likes its prey. Screaming in sheer panic and horror, he ran around in circles in the hallway, while at the same time, attempted in vain to pry the girl off.
"Get her off! Get her off! Nooo!"
"I luv u, Knuckales!"
"Is there no God!"
Meanwhile, Shadow, Tails, and Amy watched the strange scenario of the fleeing Guardian in mingled amusement and pity. They would have helped, but they sort of enjoyed the show. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to catch the usually serious Knuckles in such an act.
"…I think I finally see where the Guardian got his strong dislike for fan characters," Shadow commented, an evil smile on his face.
"Yeah, no kidding," Tails chimed in. "So…shouldn't we go help him or something?"
Shadow still had that most wicked smile. "Five more minutes."
"For the love of all that is pure and holy and canon, help me!"
Amy sighed and hefted her large hammer expertly. "Alright Knuckles, stand still. I don't want to accidentally hit you instead."
"Are you out of your mind!" The Guardian screamed as he continued to run around frantically. "If I stop, she wins!"
Amy's green eyes flared. "Well, if you want me to help-"
"Have no fear! For I, the great and heroic Sky is here!" said a bright red hedgehog who came into view suddenly. He had a long, black cape wrapped around his form, twin swords strapped on his back, his face sporting a flashing grin.
"Who the heck are you?" Shadow asked rudely.
"I'm Sky! Didn't you hear what I said before? You need to get your ears checked."
"What?"
But the newcomer ignored Shadow and just strode nonchalantly to the screaming echidnas, one in terror, one in happiness. With each step, his two swords made a clanking sound against his back. Only a couple of feet away from the two, he procured a tiny Sonic plushie in his hand swiftly and waved it around in the air. "Hey, look what I have!"
The echidna girl moved her head, staring at the Sonic doll, giggling excitedly. Jumping away from a now extremely troubled Knuckles, she ran towards the red hedgehog. "Soinic!"
Deftly, Sky threw the doll away from him, down farther into the hall. The girl chased after it like a dog, finally jumping on it as it landed to the ground. With a cry of delight, she clasped the doll tightly. "Yay, Soinic!"
"Now!" yelled Sky.
At his command, a flurry of bodies appeared from above, descending toward the echidna girl in a heap. She only had time to look up questioningly before she was trapped underneath the pile.
"We got her!" shouted one person from the mountain of fan characters.
"Good! But you might want to let her breathe!" Sky yelled.
Speedily, the people scrambled back to their feet, revealing a passed out echidna girl lying on the floor. Sometimes extreme situations call for extreme force. And this was one of them.
"Hey, I thought she liked me," said one person who was walking up to Sky behind.
The red hedgehog turned to meet with him. "Yeah, I think she likes both you and Knuckles but she can't decide. Hey, did you bring me a pizza like I asked?"
"Yep," replied the other hedgehog, holding out a steaming hot pizza slice to Sky.
"Yay! Thanks, Sonic!" And in no time at all, Sky munched on the food hungrily. "I barely had anything to eat since an hour ago."
Eating his tenth chili dog that day, Sonic turned his head and at last spotted his four friends that had come to his rescue. "Oh, hey guys. What brings you here?"
The group stared at him silently until Amy could not stay quiet, her overzealous love and worry for Sonic bursting through. "Oh, Sonic!"
"No, wait!" But she had already pounced on him in an anime-like glomp, squeezing the remaining air out of him. Unfortunately, the action caused Sonic to drop his half eaten chili dog to the ground. "Aw, man…Amy, what-?"
"I thought that you were going through some horrible things! After all that Knuckles said, I thought you were going to be…married!"
"Huh?"
"Sonic! Don't you ever leave me like that again!" To emphasize that, she gave him a slap across the face making him go "Ouch!", then immediately reverted back to hugging.
"So…you're okay?" Tails asked.
"Not right now he isn't," Shadow said dryly, seeing Sonic desperately trying to breathe from the crushing embrace. "Amy, you might want to loosen your strangle on him."
"Huh? Oh, sorry Sonic!" she said cheerfully, her playful smile back on her face.
Sonic took huge gulps of air, feeling the oxygen coming back into his lungs. "Yeah, okay. You guys went looking for me?"
Tails ran up to the blue hedgehog. "We were worried about you, Sonic. Well, most of us, I don't think Shadow really cared, but we were! Knuckles said that you would be in evil trouble if you stayed here."
Knuckles at this moment was shivering, casting frightened violet eyes at the fan characters that had appeared. Though no one was really paying him any attention right now.
Sonic laughed at Tail's concerns. "Nah, there's nothing evil going on here. A lot of these guys are really nice, like Sky over here."
"Hello!" the mentioned hedgehog greeted, still eating his pizza.
"Sky…I think I knew a girl once by that same name," Shadow mentioned.
Gulping down his meal, the red hedgehog assumed an offended front. "It is not a girl's name! Why do people keep saying that? It doesn't even make sense! I am proud of this name of mine, ever since the early days of my youth. You see, I was born in this log cabin-"
Then something fell from above, traveling in high speeds towards Sky's head with a hard clunk! Instead of a ceiling tile, this time it was pipe. A really big, long metal pipe. The kind that would hurt if one happened to hit you on the head when you didn't expect it. So since Sky didn't expect it, he fell forward to the floor, crying out in a yelp of pain.
"Ow! Why is this always happening to me! That's twice in the same day!"
Tails looked up to the ceiling, confused. "You guys don't really keep this place well-maintained, do you?"
"Add insult to injury, thanks," Sky said dryly, glancing over to Sonic who was laughing again.
"This just keeps getting better and better," said the blue hedgehog with a satisfied grin.
Well, at least the rescue group had achieved their goal. They had finally found Sonic.
