Chapter 5

It Starts Eyes Closed To Fingers Crossed

Disclaimer: ...it's pathetic that I have to tell you short-term memory-losing idiots every single chapter that I don't own any of these characters, and I'm not bringing in any that I do own! Because I'm lazy! (I just lied! You all suck!)

I don't have any reviews! That SADDENS me, you evilly mean people. But, I'm getting over it and writing another chapter anyway.

(Hey guess what? I didn't even read over this chapter, I totally winged it...so...if it's a little out there, I'm sorry...you are just going to have to LIVE WITH IT. Good day.)

"Unh, what are they doing in there?" Rouge stood beside Amy who eyed her door fiercely. "They've been in there for like ever, how long can it take someone to check if someone is awake or not." The more mature woman laughed at Amy's fretting.

"Take it easy..." Amy glared at her, then stomped back over to her couch and sulked. The pouting expression she had on her face did not add to the maturity level of her behavior. Rouge looked at the door one last time, what were those two doing anyway? They had been in there since she got there, but she wasn't about to knock on the door and throw one of them into a conniption of sorts.

"I don't want to take it easy, Rouge! Sonic is really getting on my nerves lately! All he ever says is 'go away, Amy!' It's like he hates me or something." Rouge blinked, she hadn't asked Amy what was wrong. But, of course she was left trying to help her feel better anyway. That was just the kind of luck she had.

"He doesn't hate you, Amy..." Amy looked at her after thinking that one over. She snarled slightly under her breath.

Her words were cold and mocking, "He's just got a lot on his mind." Rouge gave her a scornful look after that one.

"You have to take it easy on Sonic, Amy..." Amy rolled her eyes and then gave a resigned sigh and stared up at Rouge, she knew the bat lady was right. But it hurt her to admit that. Why did everything have to be so difficult?

"I know you're right, Rouge...I just like him so much." Rouge nodded her head and patted Amy on the head like she was some sort of a child. Amy swatted at her hand, then glared up at her not wanting to be treated like a little kid.

The older of the two women just smirked at Amy and shook her head, "I know you like him. That's why you have to give him a little room to breathe sometimes, Amy...heroes are like that!" She smiled slightly, managing to get a returned smile from Amy in response, this pleased her.

The exasperated girl just nodded her head and saw back against the cushion of the couch as she looked back to the door, "That doesn't answer the underlying question of what they're doing though." Rouge shook her head, no it didn't.

Another bang on Amy's front door kept them from thinking about it much longer. "Aw! Now who is it?" Rouge made her way over to the door.

---

Sonic put his hand on one of his ears and pulled on it, who looked over to Shadow, "...great, we have that established." Shadow laughed and crossed his arms, looking into those two emerald green eyes once again. "But, what now? I'm not about to run out there and tell everybody I just kissed you!"

"Actually, Faker...I kissed you." Shadow just got a cocky smirk on his face after that, and Sonic got slightly red. Shadow smiled at the younger hedgehog's expression.

"Whatever, Shadow! You know exactly what I mean!" Shadow found it somewhat bemusing that Sonic didn't mind one bit when Shadow called him faker. He just shrugged his shoulders, but then nodded his head.

"Well, whatever...they don't have to know everything...if they ask, we'll tell them." Sonic gave him an immediate scowl after that one. His cheeks were still slightly red, but he was definitely better off than before Shadow had kissed him.

"You're stupid, you know they're going to ask what we were doing." The black hedgehog had to admit Sonic had a point on that one. He gestured to prove that he was right, but seemed to give no initial signs of answering. "So...oh well, if they figure it out, they figure it out." Shadow smiled and nodded his head. He grabbed Sonic's arm again as he walked by him, though.

"Wait...I'm confused, so what exactly...?" Sonic smiled back at him for a second. Then just shrugged his shoulders. "That's not an answer, Faker."

"...I told you before I liked you, Shadow...and way more than a friend ever would...and you told me the same thing...so...as you said before, maybe we ought to just leave well enough alone and go with that for a little while?" The red eyed hedgehog seemed to like that idea as he smiled and nodded one more time.

"But..." He pulled the blue hedgehog back one more time and pulled the stunt for the second time. Less dramatic this time, but leaving the same feeling of utter giddiness beneath Sonic's blue fur. "What about that? Can I do that?"

Sonic looked down, red, then looked back up to his eyes. He grinned after a second of mulling over it and nodded his head, "Yeah, Shadow...you can do that." Shadow smirked and brushed past him, leaving him to get the redness to subside from his cheeks, though Shadow was still shaking off the feeling again as well. To be perfectly honest, the mere sight of the blue hedgehog was speeding his heart rate up. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed how adorable Sonic was before, or if he had, how he hid it from himself so well.

He opened the door and got a look from Amy, Rouge and Knuckles, "...wow, I didn't know we were scheduling a party! Why didn't you guys tell me?" Amy scowled at him and walked over there.

"Very funny, Shadow! Where's Sonic?" Shadow made a face at her and gestured with him thumb behind him to the hedgehog that had just regained his own composure.

"I'm right here, Amy." Shadow walked by Amy and over to Rouge and Knuckles, who seemed to be in the middle of a very important conversation. Of course, it was about Eggman, Shadow seriously hated that guy sometimes.

"What took him so long to get you up?" Amy cocked her head to the side and stared at the blue hedgehog curiously. He just put a hand on her head and pushed her head back, slightly playfully. She smiled, glad he was at least acknowledging her now.

"It didn't take him long at all." She just put her hands on her hips and roller her eyes at him, if he didn't want to tell her, that was just fine. No, that wasn't just fine. That was going to bug her now.

"I don't understand it at all...it was a robot of Eggman...but it was so real..." Rouge stared at Knuckles for a long time, thinking about what could have transpired near the Master Emerald. Shadow looked at them, back and forth, back and forth. Then, he ended up getting dizzy and having to just stick with Knuckles.

"Did it ever occur to you that he might have just made a robot of himself?" Knuckles returned Shadow's glance. That had occurred to him, but why would he have wanted to make a robot of himself? Shouldn't he have been concentrating of trying to get Metal Sonic back under control?

"Yeah, but why would he wanna do that?" Shadow shrugged and looked to Rouge to see if she had any ideas. She didn't seem to, so he decided to speak up again.

"...well, what happened exactly?" Knuckles told the events that had gone on while he was guarding the Master Emerald. Shadow seemed interested in what he had to say and Knuckles could tell something had entered his mind.

"So, you have the chaos emerald?" Knuckles quickly handed it to Shadow, it had been on the floor beside him. Shadow had not noticed it, oddly enough. "Knuckles, so you left the Master Emerald unprotected with that little robot near it?" The echidna's eyes got huge as soon as Shadow got finished speaking. He had left there with that robot, he had been in such a rush to leave he hadn't even been thinking about the Master Emerald!

"Dammit! I gotta go make sure nothing happened to it! I'll be back later!" He ran out the door in quite a fast manner. It was night time, so Rouge had to stop herself from worrying about him slightly.

Shadow noted Sonic beside him now, "Where's Knuckles going in such a hurry?" Shadow smirked and shook his head.

"The Master Emerald." Sonic smirked at that thought, then eyed Rouge, stifled a laugh. She looked worry, how very unlike Rouge.

"Figures." He looked at Shadow to respond to his comment, then back over to Rouge. He gestured with his head to the woman and Shadow shook his warily, warning the blue hedgehog not to inquire any further. The smirk on his face, proved Sonic was not going to heed Shadow's subtle warning. "Rouge...worried about him?" Rouge jerked her head over to the green-eyed hedgehog.

Her cheeks flushed the same color as her name, "W-worried? I thought you could have figured out by now that I never get worried." The smirk on Sonic's face just widened as he shook his head skeptically.

"Look worried to me." Rouge glared at Shadow, she was not in the mood to be ganged up on by these two at the moment. How come they never teased Knuckles about liking her? Because they were evil! She was convinced both of them were completely evil. She sighed, and turned towards Amy hoping the other female here would come to her defense. Amy did come overt here, but she wasn't any help in the defense category.

Shadow had to give Sonic due credit on the fact that he did get Rouge flustered enough to not ask what they had been doing in the room for so long, he wondered how long they actually had been in there. It felt like forever, but it couldn't have been too long or they would have come in seeing if Sonic and him were still alive. "What makes you morons think I care what happens to that stupid echidna? The only reason I hang around him...is because I think the Master Emerald happens to be really pretty."

"I bet that's the reason." Sonic crossed his arms and smirked at the flustered woman. Amy giggled and patted Rouge on the shoulder, she looked at Sonic and Shadow. She wondered what the two of them were planning to do now. She met Sonic's eyes and gave him a weak smile, he just gave her a curious look. She wanted to knock him across the head, why did guys have to be so...stupid?

"It's all right, Rouge, they're just trying to get on your nerves." Rouge turned to her and nodded her head.

"Yeah, well...it's working wonders..." She turned back to the two males in the room after a few minutes, "Congrats, guys...you did a great job at what you were trying to do, idiots."

"Thanks." Their responses came simultaneously. Rouge just sighed in complete frustration. Males, they were just so damn annoying.

"Rouge, why do you have to be so mean?" Sonic gave her a puppy dog face and then just smirked, he laughed for a second and turned "Well, I think we have some metal ass to kick, don't we?" Shadow nodded his head.

"Yes, we do." Amy nearly tackled Sonic, though all she was doing was hugging the poor hedgehog. He smiled weakly and patted her on the back. He wondered if she was going to say something, didn't look like it. Shadow tried to be patient, but after what felt like a minute, he coaxed her off of Sonic. "Amy..." His voice was a little impatient.

Sonic grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back after a second. He smiled and ruffled her hair after a second, she just looked at him and Shadow for a second. "Just don't go getting yourselves killed, okay, guys?" Shadow nodded his head. Sonic knew Amy needed a little more reassurance than that though.

"Nothing ever happens, you know that, Amy! So don't worry about it." She smiled and took a deep breath, she felt like if she let him leave. She was going to lose him forever. Why in the world was she feeling so dramatic all of a sudden? Maybe it was from lack of Cream or something.

"Just be careful." Her green eyes searched Sonic's for something she might could use, to lift her spirits just a little bit. Nothing but a skeptical look and a forced smile.

"You worry to much, Amy..." Shadow walked towards the door, and opened it. "Hey, Knuckles wouldn't want to come, right?" Sonic turned towards him and thought on this for a second, while he made his way to the door.

"He'll find us if he just has an overpowering urge." That earned him an interesting look from the black and red hedgehog.

---

Knuckles gasped, the robot and the Master Emerald were gone. He had no idea what to do, he stared around for a long time. Hearing a twig snap disturbed him. His eyes scanned the area cautiously, but he didn't detect even the slightest movement. "Damn! How could I have let this happen? I'm supposed to be the protector of the Master Emerald!"

"You're just not very good at what you do then, are you?" Knuckles didn't recognize the voice. It was that of a female, a seductive female by the sound of her voice. His eyes searched and searched but found not a trace of where the voice was emanating from. It seemed to echo off of nothing. He couldn't trace it to save his life.

"Who's there?" Wow, that was stupid. Like they were just going to give him their autobiography. Disembodied voices always answered that question when asked. He thought over the idiocy of his last remark when a black form stuck out to him. It was fast, fast enough so that his eyes lost it again.

"Do you really think I'm going to answer that question for you?" Knuckles snarled under his breath. A smarter person would have ran, but this was Knuckles the Echidna, and last time he had left this location the Master Emerald had been stolen. This person speaking to him might have been the person who took it and he certainly wasn't going to run from them.

"Guess not." He managed to make out another sort of sound, it sounded almost as if it came from behind him. Knuckles immediately spun on his heels and saw nothing once again. He was becoming increasingly frustrated with this situation. The voice didn't speak up for a long time after that, but the noises coming from around him grew far more frequent.

He jerked his head at last to see that black figure emerge, only to force him to realize that it wasn't black at all. It was almost Tails' color, it was a vixen! Knuckles jolted back, he didn't trust anyone. No matter how harmless they looked, he eyed her up and down though. She had Tails' color fur and just one simple tail, her eyes were a midnight blue and her ears were tipped back, as was her tail. As she gave him a slight grin, he could make out her two canines immediately. They were sharp, looking a lot like Sonic and Shadow's. "Who're...you?"

She smirked, "My name's Faye!" He blinked, the seductive tone had left. He didn't see how it had escaped such a childish looking mouth. Little Ms. Faye looked like nothing more than a female version of Tails. He felt immediately prone to keep her from ever meeting Tails, surely they would fall madly in love and have six or seven kids, and that mental image was just too much.

"Yeah...why are you bothering me?" Even Knuckles slacked off on the paranoia, I mean, she didn't look like she was capable of hurting a fly. She blew the two random streaks of hair that hung in her eyes out of her face.

"I saw who took the Master Emerald!" Knuckles seemed interested enough.

"Yeah, so who?"

She smirked at him, "I can't tell you that, silly...that would take all the fun out of everything!" Knuckles eyed her immediately, purple eyes looking slightly perturbed. That robot, isn't that what the Eggman robot had said? Could this vixen really be someone to fear? If he ever told Sonic of this suspicion he would surely get laughed out of existence.

"Oh...I think you better tell me." He got into a position ready to fight now, she just shook her head playfully.

"I'm not going to fight you, mister...but you can try and catch me." She ran off, the little...wench ran off. He growled and started after her. He was very much not in the mood to play games, the master emerald was missing, and little miss pris wanted to play tag.

---

"She really likes you." Sonic winced, he just shook his head slightly after a moment. He looked over at Shadow. "But, I guess that's not big news to you, hm?" Not at all, she only used to chase him at every possible moment of every possible hour of every possible day. He smiled slightly at Shadow.

"I know she likes me...and I like her too." Shadow looked at him now, slightly confused, Sonic didn't even have to get the look to know he was going to get to explain things. He hated explaining things.

"I told you I liked you before." Shadow nodded, did Sonic expect him to have forgotten that? "I don't think I phrased it right, though...because I like Amy...she's a good friend." Now, Shadow was very interested in what the blue hedgehog had to say. Maybe Sonic could help him figure out what he meant when he said that he liked Sonic, he knew he liked him a lot more than a friend.

"Sonic..."

"I don't even know what you are, though...I don't like Amy like I like you." Sonic gritted his teeth and stared furiously at the ground, "You're annoying, Shadow...I tried so hard...and so long to like Amy like that, the same way I like you...and then, it just hit me when I was with you. I don't want to hurt Amy..." Shadow quirked an eyebrow at his struggling partner, he could tell now that he was tongue-tied as he fought with himself over the right words.

"Faker, I know you wanna be the hero...but if you...you can't lie to her, I told you before, she'll live." Sonic gave him a look. "...maybe...well, can we set her up with someone else? Wow! I am annoying!" His green-eyed rival grinned at him and nodded his head.

He shook his head, "I can't worry about her, now...I have to save her physical life, before I go worrying about her love life!" This jerked Shadow back to reality too, "What...the...hell?" Shadow's face proved he was thinking along those same lines. It was where Eggman's ship had been, it wasn't Eggman's ship anymore...it was a wormhole.

"...that looks like a lot of fun." Sonic's eye twitched slightly as he stared at it. "I know you want to run stupidly into it, yelling some idiotic battle cry...but I think we really ought to tell everyone about this."

Sonic looked extremely annoyed after that, "And be like Tails, yay!" Shadow shook his head, he didn't like that idea very much at all. He made fun of Tails, thus he could not be like Tails.

"Not yay! I like your plan better, lets run into it." Sonic grabbed him by the arm, stopping him, he wasn't sure if Shadow was seriously planning on that or not, but he didn't feel like taking any chances. Shadow closed his eyes in irritation and whirled to see Sonic looking innocently at him.

"I know you don't like being like the little 'kid', but that would just be completely retarded." Shadow nodded his head, he was fully aware of that fact. He looked at Sonic for a moment, wouldn't it be fun to just have little walkie-talkies where the could contact everyone. But, no, they didn't, they had to go individually find all the morons before they could do anything.

"Fine, be a loser, Faker!" Since Sonic was already holding on to his arm to keep him from sprinting into the wormhole, he decided to go ahead and warp. Since Tails had been their topic on conversation, he smirked as they appeared directly into the busted Tornado.

"Uh-oh...Tails, not taking proper care of your planes." Sonic smirked at Miles Prower who was just happy as anything to see him.

"Wow, you two are a sight for sore eyes." He gestured, annoyed, to Cream who sat in the back crying because they weren't getting to do anything. Shadow moaned and turned to walk away, again, Sonic grabbed him and pulled him back. Tails smiled, "So what's up, guys?"

"We found a wormhole."

"Ew, worms..." The three of them knew Cream was going to say that.

"A wormhole? ...what?" Shadow nodded his head, agreeing with Sonic's previous statement. He thought about it for a minute though, maybe there was a different name for it that wouldn't have confused Tails so severely.

"Well...it was a shining light, that looked like if we touched it we weren't gonna be here anymore." Sonic nodded his head, Tails thought about it for a second.

"Where was it?" Tails looked at either of them for an answer. Cream was all up in frenzy, she jumped out the Tornado. As if this was going to allow her to listen better or something. Shadow wanted so badly to kick her, but he suppressed the urge and snarled at her.

"Where Eggman's ship crashed earlier." Cream gave Sonic a big-eyed look, he tried to force a smile but it didn't work so he shooed at her with his foot. Shadow found that vaguely amusing, but everything ceased to be funny when he saw the new bane of his existence, that...CHEESE. He just shut his eyes in irritation and kept his eyes focused on Tails.

"I guess we need to go through it then, but...I didn't think Eggman mattered? What about Mecha?" He looked Sonic up and down, the blue hedgehog just shook his head.

"I think this is bigger than just Mecha, Tails...it's just a feeling I got earlier." Tails smiled and nodded his head. He looked mournfully at the Tornado and shook his head.

"You're the boss, Sonic...but, I guess...I'm not going to be able to use this anymore, not right now anyway." He gave the Tornado a weak smile and hopped out of it, "But what about...?" He was looking in the direction of the bunny, who was expecting to come along now. Why had they said all of this where she could hear?

"I'm coming, too! Right?" Sonic and Shadow both looked at Tails for some help. They both sucked when it came to letting people down easy. So, Tails slowly lowered his head and just sighed.

---

After managing to gather all of "Faker's incompetent friends" as Shadow so bluntly put it, and several failed attempts to find Knuckles. Shadow looked at the remaining four of them, thank God they had managed to get Cream to go away via her own mother. "So, are we all going to go through there? Because you guys can't let Faker do anything by himself." Rouge glared at Shadow and nodded her head firmly.

"Yes, Shadow! We're all going, because we all have helped out before, and we'll all help out, now." Sonic stood behind her and mocked her the whole time she spoke, this drew a smile from Shadow's lips. Amy shook her head at the three of them, then looked at Tails and nodded her head.

"We won't be any trouble, Shadow! We promise!" She smiled and shook her head, Shadow wondered why she never used that hammer he had seen her use before. It had to at least hurt somewhat when she hit someone with it, it was huge!

He simply nodded his head, "I'll hold you to that, Amy." She smiled weakly at him and saluted, Sonic just gave her a look and shook his head. It didn't take long at all for them to get through the stupid golden flashing hole, the moment the touched them they were transported. It was the ARK! That wormhole led straight to the ARK.

"The...ARK?" Shadow snarled and glared around for a moment, everything was the exact same as it always was. Why, why did everything lead him back to the ARK? Why was he always here? He hated this place! It brought back so many haunting memories.

"Shadow, I think the ARK has a serious crush on you, buddy." Sonic smirked at him and he just sulked. It probably did, just toadd to his problems. He could have a giant space colony following him around with holographic hearts flying up from it. But, knowing the citizens of Earth they'd probably find it completely and totally normal.

"Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Rouge and Amy Rose!" Everyone's head jerked at their own names, they didn't even have to look to recognize that annoying voice. That gravelly, overly optimistic voice. That voice that was probably the reason for over twenty-five percent of all suicides.

"Vector..." Sonic hissed, the large neon green gator stepped out of the shadows. So, now Team Chaotix was on the ARK too? This day just kept getting better and better!

Tails smiled and walked over to him, "What exactly are you doing on the ARK, Vector?" Shadow raised an eyebrow in his direction as well, as he wanted the answer to that too.

A cheerful voice also came out of the shadows, yep, the entire little squad must have been here. "Espio and Vector can't seem to find the escape pods to get off here, and Shadow left us here last time without helping his down via chaos control!" That hadn't been an accident on Shadow's part, he didn't think he'd be back up on the ARK to answer for it though.

"Aha...well, if it isn't the whole gang! All gathered back on the ARK again."

"Doctor...what's going on here!" Rouge snarled, and Charmy and Vector looked around in a very confused manner. They hadn't heard him up here before.

Shadow put his hand on his forehead, "This is really beginning to give me a headache." His green eyed mate just nodded, exasperated.

...hi and BYE. I'm almost finished with this story...well, two more chapters. Isn't that awesome? SURE IT IS. You're just a loser who no one likes. Or I'm a loser that no one likes, regardless...damn, who reads the stupid author's notes anyway?