CHAPTER 4: Reunion

"Man, what a night," said Sonic, the famous blue hedgehog whose speed could be matched by just about nothing. He opened his front door and stepped into his little apartment, closing the door behind him. He caught the leg of his jeans in the doorway again: he had just recently taken to wearing them when he decided to try something new. Extracting his pant leg with a jerk of his leg, he walked over to his couch and sat down, and sighed deeply. "What a mess. Cops everywhere, the drunk drivers seem to be out of their bars a little early... Nuts. Couldn't even come near top speed on the sidewalk." Sonic picked up the remote and turned on his TV, the channel already tuned to the news.

"Recapping our top story of the day," a reporter was saying, "an as yet unidentified pink hedgehog of about 20 was found dead in a local restaurant less than 2 hours ago..."

"WHAT!?" yelled Sonic. "A pink hedgehog!? Don't tell me... AMY!" Sonic jumped up and sped out his door again, when he realized two things: he didn't know where the restaurant was, and he'd forgotten to open his door and went right through it. He ran back to the apartment after this first revelation and looked at the TV.

"The restaurant, located at 1934 Station Lane West, just opened in recent months..." the reporter droned on. Sonic was out the door again by the time the reporter was done saying the word "west".

"I can't believe this," Amy said in a dull tone of voice. Cream sat on the wooden bench beside her, right outside the restaurant. Amy hadn't told her what she'd seen yet, and had made her promise not to go into the restaurant. Cream was more worried about why Amy was a light shade of green than anything else. Espio was surveying the scene inside through the window. So far all he could tell was, the young lady had been sitting eating a very delicious-looking soup when a bullet shot through the window, right in her side, unless she'd turned toward the window, which seemed unlikely from the way her torso was lying. She'd probably slumped forward a little bit before it exploded and blew her in two large pieces and a lot of small ones. Why so brutal, though?

"Amy, we should probably go," Cream said. "We really can't do anything here."

"Alright," Amy said after a few seconds passed. She really didn't feel up to driving at the moment, but she wasn't sure if Espio had a driver's license, not to mention that would blow his cover, and Cream was still too young yet. Suddenly, though...

"Amy!?" a familiar voice called out. Amy whipped around. There he was, in all his glory.

"Sonic!" Amy shouted as she jumped up, ran to him, and threw herself on him before he could react. She hadn't seen him for two years, so obviously she was very happy to see him. As for Sonic, he was gasping for air, and not having much success.

"AMY!" he managed to spit out. "I-CAN'T-BREATHE!"

"Oh, sorry!" She let go of him, and he backed up half a step, his back popping in six places at once. "What are you doing here? Finally come to ask me out?"

"Not exactly" Sonic replied, rubbing his back. "I saw the news about the murder and thought it might have been you. They didn't give a name, they just said it was a pink hedgehog of about 20."

"Oh," Amy replied.

"MURDER!?" cried Cream.

"Ah shoot, I didn't want her to know what had happened," Amy said(that idea: PHAILED(not a typo)).

"Sorry," Sonic said, looking at the restaurant. He then noticed the name: Rose's Diner. He made a quick connection. "Amy, this isn't YOUR restaurant, is it?"

"Actually, yeah it is," she replied. "But now that it's a crime scene, the police are more or less gonna be running the place for a while."

"Speaking of that, aren't you concerned that the murderer was after you and just messed up?" Sonic asked her.

"I've got that covered," was his reply. It came from near the window, but Sonic couldn't see who had said it.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"That's Espio," Amy told him. "I've hired him to watch my back, since I suspected someone was following me."

"Oh," was all Sonic could think of to say. At least, that was all he could think of until he had another question hit him. "How'd you get the money to pay for this place, anyway? I remember you were always a bit well off, but there's a fine line between getting by comfortably and being able to buy a building and totally renovate it."

"Actually, I bought the land and hired a contractor to build it," Amy replied proudly. "As for how I actually got the money..."

::FLASHBACK::

"Hey Rouge, what're you doing?" asked Amy, only 16 at the time.

Rouge, a white bat of 21 wearing a purple T-shirt, stretch-waist pants, and white high-heeled shoes, looked up from her laptop, which was plugged in to a phone jack in the wall. "I'm trying to hack Eggman's files and find his account numbers. Then I'm gonna raid his accounts!"

"Is that legal?" asked Amy.

"Probably not," Rouge answered, "but the guy's an asshole. No one's gonna care. Wanna look for the account files for me after I hack his system? I'll share the wealth."

"Okay," Amy replied. Sure enough, ten minutes later, Rouge was getting up and letting Amy use the laptop to search for the account numbers.

"I've been at this for nearly 16 hours, I could use some shut-eye," Rouge said with a big yawn.

"Okay, knock yourself out," Amy said, beginning to systematically check the files one by one.

"If you find them before I wake up, write them down and leave them beside my bed," Rouge said as she walked off toward her room, "and I'll get to raiding the accounts when I get up."

"Okay Rouge," Amy said over her shoulder.

::END FLASHBACK::

"Whoa, Amy, you HACKED Eggman's accounts!?" Sonic was stunned. He had never thought Amy to be capable of it.

"No, I just found the account numbers," Amy said. "Rouge hacked the accounts. She found hundreds of thousands of credits in those things. True to her word, she shared the wealth. Those 10 hours of my life had to have been some of the best I've ever thrown away."

"Wow," said Cream. "I never would have thought it..."

"That's actually the reason we suddenly stopped running into each other," Amy said to Sonic. "I got busy investing it all, and totally forgot I was supposed to be out chasing you around all day. But, on the bright side," she pointed to the diner over her shoulder, "now the place's thriving. I'm actually thinking about opening another one."

"Cool," Sonic said.

"Sonic, why would you always run away as soon as you saw me?" Amy suddenly asked.

"Mostly because I expected you to nearly crush my back in one of those vicegrip hugs," Sonic said, "then ask me to either go out with you or marry you. Usually the latter."

"Oh," Amy said. "Well, could we maybe wipe the slate clean and start over?"

"Um... I guess so," Sonic said, expecting another marriage proposal to follow.

"Okay. So, you busy tomorrow night?"

"Not really..."

"Wanna go grab something to eat, say around 7:00?"

"I guess so..."

By this time, Cream was back in the car playing with Cheese and Chocola, the two Chao who'd joined her after school. Espio had finished surveying the crime scene and was in the back seat waiting for Amy to get done and take Cream home.

Well, there it is. Things are starting to take shape now, aren't they? Sonic's finally showed up, the likely explanation for exactly how the murder took place has been laid out, this chapter seems a bit longer than the others, Amy's FINALLY gotten him to say yes to a date... Wow, she keeps this up and she might even get him to marry her. Oh, and you Tails fans, don't worry, he's not outta the story. Just outta the picture for the moment(I'm referring to one of the reviews I got. The reviewer shall remain anonymous because I'm in a good mood(my favorite song just came on the radio.).). So far I'm getting good reviews, which suggests that I might not need to be so humble about my writing skills when I apply for college. SWEET! And I'd like to address one more thing. I said I'd do a chapter a week, but screw that. This crap's FUN! I'll do them as often as I feel like doing 'em, and I LOVE seeing my stuff take shape!