Discovery

"ARGH" Matt cried out.

Sally frowned "Sorry about that, wasn't trying to hurt you".

Matt smiled a bit and simply nodded, knowing in his heart that Sally would never try to hurt him. In only a few short days, Matt felt closer to Sonic and his friends like they were his own family. Everything they did, everywhere they went, things ended up going nuts and craziness started to happen. Matt loved every minute of it. The aching human winced a bit as the bandage cloth was wrapped tighter around his arm; it grew bright red with blood.

The wound that was bleeding so heavily was from the shotgun blast he took from Sirius back at the Dead Plug bar. The human slowly sat up from the brick wall he was resting on, he felt his arm and smiled a little.

Matt grinned "Nice job Sally, regular Dr. Quinn".

Sally smiled but then blinked in confusion at the reference; Matt just laughed and shook his head.

Bunnie frowned "I still don't like this one little bit Matt. You look worse then a mud hog in July, we should have taken you to that hostel place you told us about".

Matt half laughed "Hospital and no, I told you guys we can't do that. The cops are already looking for me after that mess on the highway, chances are there going to be waiting for me at the hospital, just waiting for something like this to happen so I'll go right to them. They probably know about the toy store and the bar too".

Tails blinked "So what do we do?".

The wounded man replied "We lay low for a while, if we stay in this alley for a little bit then we can avoid leading the cops back to my house".

Sonic frowned a bit, his red sneaker tapping rapidly on the ground as he impatiently grunted and groaned. Sally elbowed him lightly.

"Sonic, do you mind? Were all a little on edge here" Sally said.

Sonic sighed "I'm sorry Sal, but I can't dig this twiddling our thumbs scene, it's just not me. I've gotta do something to keep myself busy otherwise I'm gonna go nuts".

Curiously examining the contents of his wallet, Matt grunted a bit as he leaned back a little more towards the wall and spotted a flickering neon sign. The sign was attached to an electronics store which Matt was clearly interested in.

Matt looked to Sonic "You want to pass the time a bit quicker?".

Sonic smirked "That's the plan my man, what'd you have in mind?".

The human lifted up a fistful of dollars and geared Sonic's glance towards the electronic store.

"Well if you still got one of those hoods I gave you, I might have an idea or two" Matt said.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away……

The racing shadows and figures danced across the black like glass of the police car, Rose's dark brown eyes pressed up closely against the window glass as she examined the streets. Frank groaned a bit as he continued to drive. The officer had a bad feeling deep down inside his massive gut, and it was only getting worse with each passing minute.

Rose whispered "Come on, come on, come on where are you, I know I saw you down this way".

Frank had already passed the trashed Dead Plug bar, it was already swarming with officers and they were already talking with several eyewitnesses. Of course, like Rose expected, most of the officers dismissed the witnesses testimony based on their so called "crazy reports". Time passed and as the streets continued to pass by slower and slower, Frank was starting to think he had made a mistake. Rose suddenly gasped out loud.

"STOP THE CAR" Rose screamed.

Frank nearly jumped out of his pants as he jammed on the brakes, the car screeched to a sudden halt. Rose threw the car door open and raced out to the sidewalk.

Frank snarled "Dammit Rose, you're really starting to piss me off".

The officer wobbled his weight stacked legs as he made his way over to the sidewalk, Frank grunted as his bitter and hate filled face glared angrily at Rose. Before Frank could pummel in more of his outraged remarks, Rose's discovery had finally caught the attention of the angry police officer. A thick trail of blood left clearly by Matt was seen directly on the sidewalk. Frank bent down and carefully examined the blood trail.

Rose smirked "It's him, it's him, I know it's him".

Frank groaned "How the hell can you tell if that's Barson blood or not, we haven't even started running tests on it".

Rose continued to grin "I know it's him Frank, I can feel it. This trail probably leads right back to the bar, which makes sense because your colleagues mentioned someone was shot. And I bet you anything if we follow it in the opposite direction, we'll find Barson and my specimens".

With nothing left to lose and no other cops in sight, Frank reluctantly went along with this and started to follow the blood trail. Both Frank and Rose stayed close as they traced the blood as Matt and the others were getting closer and closer. A strange sound started to become noticeable, Frank curiously lifted an eyebrow and cleaned out his ears just to make sure.

"Is it me or do you hear music?" Frank asked.

This is my life
Its not what it was before
All these feelings I've shared
And these are my dreams
That I've never lived before
Somebody shake me
Cause I, I must be sleeping

And now that we're here,
So far away
All the struggle we thought was in vain
And all the mistakes,
One life contained
They all finally start to go away
And now that we're here its so far away
And I feel like I can face the day
I can forgive, and I'm not ashamed to be the person that I am today

These are my words
That I've never said before
I think I'm doing ok
And this is the smile
That I've never shown before

Somebody shake me
Cause I, I must be sleeping

And now that were here
So far away
All the struggle we thought was in vain
And all mistakes one life contains
They all finally start to go away
And now that were here
So far away
And I feel like I can face the day
I can forgive, and I'm not ashamed to be the person that I am today

I'm so afraid of waking
Please don't shake me
Afraid of waking
Please don't shake me

And now that were here
So far away
All the struggle we thought was in vain
And all the mistakes one life contains
They all finally start to go away
And now that were here
So far away
And I feel like I can face the day
I can forgive, and I'm not ashamed to be the person that I am today

(Lyrics for "So Far away" by Staind)

Sonic, Tails, Sally and Bunnie cheered and laughed, eagerly voicing their praise and delight towards the delightful sound that emanated from the small, red metal box.

Sonic laughed "Wow man that sounded awesome, I never heard music like that before Matt".

Bunnie giggled as she examined the metal box "Golly, what the heck do y'all call this thing again?".

Matt replied "It's called a radio, it's a device that picks up signals from things called stations that broadcast different kinds of music. Each frequency contains a different station and each station plays a different genre of music".

The furry creatures smiled and were obviously thrilled with the wondrous sounds that the radio played, another beautiful part of this strange new world. Sally seemed particularly pleased by the song. The furry princess's soft, chestnut colored cheeks lit up like twinkling lights in the midnight sky.

Sally smiled "That song was beautiful Matt, I really enjoyed it. We've got nothing like this back on Mobius. Tell me, does the song have a name?".

Matt chuckled a bit "Ironically the song is titled "so far away" and it's played by a band called Staind".

Sally blinked "A stain? The band names itself after dirt?".

"No, no, the band is called Staind but it doesn't mean they like dirty spots or anything. It's just what musicians do here. They create odd and unique names for their bands, to represent the diversity in their brand of music when compared to other music bands" Matt said.

The princess nodded and smiled, understanding what Matt had meant. As Sonic rubbed his white gloved fingers across the radio knob, Matt's face started to sweat, a look of concern and nervousness plastering his face with worried wrinkles.

Matt nervously asked "U-u-u-u-uh Sally?".

"Yes, what is it Matt?" Sally replied, smiling.

Matt gulped "I was t-t-thinking about……well you guys and your home and I uh I w-w-w-wanted to know that maybe, just maybe when you guys leave. Y-y-you wouldn't mind if I".

Tails butted in "Hey, can we hear more music from these Staind guys? Please Matt?".

BANG! BOOM!

The radio clattered to the ground and spewed forth a vast assortment of broken wiring, circuitry and other metallic objects. Tails screamed and jumped back from the busted radio. Sonic and the others quickly jumped back and stayed close to Matt's side, staying far away from the fallen radio. The radio had been shot, shot by a bullet belonging to a gun. The gun barrel smoked in Frank's nervous shaking hands, his eyes bulging with horror.

"Jesus Mary and Joseph" Frank gasped.

Rose grinned "I knew it, I absolutely knew it, Nobel Prize here I come".

Matt gasped "Oh no, they've found us".

To be continued……