"Damn this lift!" Silver cursed as he sprinted down the corridor. Much to his dismay, the doors had shut right before he arrived and chaotically pressing the button didn't have much of an effect. He noticed the sign on the lift indicating upwards.

"Great, it's not coming down for a while." Silver scoffed. His mood had come down miles ever since the sudden announcement of the meeting with the Bailey's.

They were supposed to arrive tomorrow but decided to reschedule since they were that excited about the presentation. It was lucky that Amy and Silver had worked on the presentation overnight, otherwise, their company's status would be on ropes.

"What floor is the meeting on?" Amy asked the duck, who was still trying to catch her breath. The duck fixed her glasses as she panted out the number 14.

In a breath, Silver slammed the door which connected the stairs of the different floors open and began sprinting up. Amy knew she didn't exactly have a choice and grunted before following his footsteps.

.

They had finally made it up. Who even designed this building in the first place? This was a clear fire hazard. Even the lift not functioning would cause multiple inconveniences. But at last, they had arrived!

Silver quickly fixed up his blazer and tie before opening the door to the cabin. Amy, on the other hand, dusted her trousers and tucked away a few strands of hair behind her ear.

Her heart was pounding. This was the first presentation she was to give, ever! She caught Justin's eyes who nodded at her slightly with a small smile on his face, wishing her good luck. He was a middle-aged bear, very tall and had a bit of a tummy, definitely scary looking but still, he was a nice man.

Amy was astounded to see a ginormous table in the middle of the room. Where Justin was sat on the extreme end of the table. To his right was Mr Bailey and to his left, Mrs Bailey.

The Bailey's were a power couple. Despite the husband handling the business terms of things, his wife played a significant role in the legal side. Whatever they invested in would become an overnight success. The people they had previously worked with became an overnight sensation, boosting their sales respectively. They were known to choose perfection.

Seeing them made Amy more nervous. She knew if she got this right, everyone would appreciate her more! The company would have something even brighter going for them. She needed to give her all, this was it, she was going to do her best.

She followed behind Silver, before he sat down two seats from Mr Bailey. He smiled at Amy indicating his best wishes for her presentation. Amy slowly walked to the front of the room, and quickly connected the presentation her and Silver prepared onto the projector screen.

With a deep breath Amy began, "Mr and Mrs Bailey," she paused, now noticing all eyes on her which were previously engrossed in their phone screens.

She breathed deeply once more before continuing, "I'm proud to present to you these jackets, an impressive take on the embroidery jackets that trended 3 years ago!"

.

The rest of the presentation continued well. Amy explained the concepts of the market share of jackets increasing, how the embroidery was specially sewn by village women and this was their USP, alongside explaining that they had celebrities who are willing to advertise their products.

The Bailey's were nonetheless impressed with Amy's presentation. Justin and Silver were left shook, but simply masked it with a large smile on their faces. Claps were awarded to Amy at the end of the presentation causing heat to rush to her cheeks which developed into a blush.

"This is...absolutely wonderful!" Mr Bailey said with excitement as he stood up from his seat. Mrs Bailey nodded in unison.

"I must kiss these hands! Justin this one is definitely something special!" Mr Bailey said as he swiftly approached Amy, taking her right hand into his and planting a peck on her knuckles. She didn't know what reaction to give out, so she remained silent. She hesitated at his peck, it felt odd.

"On second thought, I have a few issues highlighted with this project, I'm afraid we won't be investing." Mrs Bailey mentioned whilst fixing her cardigan. Her change in mood came right after her husband went up to the pink hedgehog. Her tone was harsh.

"Our rivals could accuse us for exploiting the village women. They could leak to the press that we don't pay them enough; I'm hoping this isn't the case." She glared at Amy hoping to leave her dumb folded.

Amy knew deep down that the lady envied the attention she had received from her husband. She smiled sweetly before replying. "Of course not madam, we pay all our workers well, above their minimum wage. Their work is truly one of a kind, not even our rivals could copy this. Hopefully that eases your worries."

Mrs Bailey frowned. "Arie is it? This is still a concern for us, we cannot risk this at all! You make it seem easy, but this could get out of hand if this information is spread to our rivals. Unfortunately, we will not be taking you up on this offer. Have a good day."

She threw her purse onto her right shoulder and walked outside. Her heels indicated anger as she slammed the door to the cabin shut. Her husband gave an apologetic look to Amy, Silver and Justin before following his wife.

It seemed she had unintentionally messed up. And her name was Amy, not Arie.

.

Amy sat at her desk on floor 2. She fidgeted with her pen, unable to complete the paperwork pending on her desk. Her thoughts overtook her.

'Was it me? I messed this up! She must've hated the attention Mr Bailey gave me.'

A knock on the door distracted Amy from overthinking the situation from this morning.

"Come in." Amy said muffled, now with a pen in her mouth as she began typing on her laptop.

"The presentation was great."

The pink hedgehog looked up to see Silver offering her a box of chocolates. She looked up at him, there was no disappointment in his eyes, which she couldn't understand? Was he not mad that she messed up a good opportunity for the company?

"Are you not mad?" Amy asked whilst Silver sat opposite her to continue his response. "Are you kidding? No! You did the best you could, and boss was impressed with your delivering skills." Silver said trying to help Amy feel a sense of achievement.

Amy smiled; she focused her energy on opening the box of chocolates. She hadn't had any food since their clients' sudden appearance this morning. Now was the time to gobble down some sugary treats to give her the energy to make it through the rest of the day!

Silver's phone began ringing, he quickly excused himself to the back of Amy's room.

"Hey boss..." Silver started playing with his quills.

"Uh huh," Silver replied in response to his boss.

"Wait what...no no no, that's not fair!" Silver said as his eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"But, Sir let me finish. Just because the client had a personal problem doesn't mean you can fire her?"

Amy's ears perked at that. 'Fire her?' she thought, a frown soon appearing on her face. She was going to get fired? But..she didn't intend for anything to go wrong. Surely her big Sir would understand that?

Silver breathed deeply into the phone, "I'll send her to your office now," he was annoyed at Justin's rash decision. He walked back to Amy as he slammed his phone on the table.

"He's firing me..?" Amy asked, the pitch of her voice went up and Silver was able to tell she was about to start crying.

"No..he's..called you in his office, just have a chat with him and see what he says. I'll see you on the flip side." Silver said softy, he was confident that Amy would be able to justify whatever queries Justin would bring forward.

"Hopefully I'll make it to the flip side," Amy frowned whilst saying. Silver also exchanged a frown. He enjoyed Amy's company more than he'd like to admit. Her getting fired would cause him so much pain.

These couple of months he had spent with her were special. He couldn't help but flirt with her at times. He admired her energy, her kindness, gosh he liked everything. But he was her boss and that boss-employee relationship is what was expected of them. He wanted to ask her out but was too afraid of the consequences at work.

Amy left her belongings in Silver's presence, who was still occupied in his thoughts, before making her way to her to the bear's office. It was time to see what the bear had to say.

.

Amy pressed the bell of the lift still occupied in her thoughts. Does Mr Bailey act like this around every female he's seen? Were his intentions pure? Or was he just kind and didn't know how to act?

The ding noise of the lift alongside the flood of people coming out awoke Amy from her thoughts. She entered and pressed for the 15th floor; her hands were clammy. She didn't know why Justin was calling her in. If Silver's words were true, if he wanted to have a chat with her, then so be it. She hadn't done anything wrong other than to give the presentation she was told. If anything, this could all stem back to Justin for handing her this project in the first place.

After a couple of minutes, the near full lift became empty. She sighed as the door opened to the 15th floor and quickly rushed over to the CEO's office. She just wanted to get everything off her chest and request to finish up early.

She paused on the sight of glass doors which surrounded her boss' office. She gently knocked twice to alert him of her presence.

"Yes Amy, please come in!" He yelled from inside. He had been waiting for her. Why? She knew better than to keep him waiting and closed her eyes whilst stepping inside.

"Please take a seat." Justin offered, as his hand pointed to the leather chair opposite him. His office was 3 times the size of her own. She turned to her side and was mesmerised by the sight of a large balcony, which was truly wonderful. All the colours of the sunset were visible from this view. Was this how rich people used their money? She shook her head lightly once again annoyed that her thoughts had managed to take over.

Amy proceeded to sit down opposite Justin. Her mouth kept shut to avoid creating further unnecessary tension.

"I'll cut to the point. I can't keep you in this company Amy," he paused and looked up at her. Amy still sat there quiet, not uttering a single word. Her gaze was fixed on his.

Justin coughed before continuing. "Mrs Bailey has threatened to tarnish my company to bits. She says her rivals have found out about this project and since they haven't taken interest, her rivals want to invest instead." He took a deep breath before continuing further.

"She knows you know what you're doing. That's exactly why she doesn't want you here. If you leave this project, this company, her rivals will not benefit from anything." He said closing his eyes with a heavy heart.

"This company is everything to me, and I know you're a good employee. You're one of our best! But I can't let her bring me down. Please understand my situation."

"I understand," Amy said suddenly. Justin had been worried about how silent she was when she had got here, but the sudden change in her behaviour was far more disturbing to him.

"I'll go pick up my things, send my termination letter to my office please."

With that Amy stood up and dashed quickly outside of the office, escaping Justin's eyes. She sunk down on her knees and cried without limit.

She had been fired from the job she had wanted for years.

.

4 weeks had gone by. Each passing day proved to be another financial challenge.

No other company was willing to hire Amy. Justin's termination news had spread to other businesses in the same field, who had a suspicion something was wrong with her. Despite Amy telling them that was not at all the case, they refused to hire her.

8 job interviews later, she still didn't have financial security. The banks proved handy by lending her a loan due to her good credit score, but she was far in debt. There was no way she could repay them back anytime soon.

It came to a point where she struggled with budgeting. Cooking, cleaning, travelling had even become an issue. Within the spam of these weeks, Amy had received multiple messages from Silver.

He had asked her to give him a call at first. But when she chose to leave him on read, he gave multiple calls, which she answered none. He left multiple voicemails. He even transferred money into her account, which she was thankful for at first.

But much to Silver's dismay, Amy didn't want any more help from him. She had sent him a text telling him to stop transferring money into her account.

He had done enough for her; she couldn't depend on him for the rest of her life. She was determined that she would be fine sooner or later. This was her own fight.

She had no savings left. She had no family to borrow money from, all the money had gone in pursuing her degree. She had never let herself fall in a situation like this before. She knew she needed to come up with something soon, or else she'd struggle to pay her rent. She already had issues with paying bills, but the last thing Amy wanted was to be homeless.

.

Any slouched on her couch. Remote in hand as she watched her favourite soap opera. It was the one thing that could take her mind off of things. Her pj's were stained with ice cream, but she couldn't afford to use her washing machine more than once in 10 days. Her eyes gleamed at the television, fixated on her show.

"Darling, but I love you, only you! What you saw between me and Jean was to make you jealous, so you realise your true feelings for me, and it worked!" The male character spoke.

"I don't like you." The female lied as she faced the floor fidgeting with her posh dress. "The status between you and me can never allow me to like you."

The male frowned at her response but questioned it further, "Really? Not even this?" He pulled the female into a loving kiss, one that she couldn't resist.

POW

"Oh come on! Just when they were going to confess to each other!" Amy whined loudly as her television switched off, along with her lights. She now sat in darkness. Her electricity had gone out.

"I hate everything." She mumbled to herself before deciding it was best she slept the night away instead of making her mood worse. This was the first time her electricity had gone out. The money left over from her budgeting was not enough to pay her monthly bill.

.

"What do you mean I haven't paid the bill? Yes I have!" Amy said sternly to the male on the other end of the line.

She had woken up early that morning, hoping she could fool the electricity company into thinking she had paid for this month. She slouched onto her bed before hearing the male's voice.

"Madam, it says you haven't paid yet, the payment is due. Would you like to pay now? It's 315 rings."

"But I've paid! Why is it not on the system?" Amy took a deep breath, she would never do this but her situation was becoming extreme.

"Are you trying to scam your customers? Where is your manager, I need to file a complaint against you!?"

The male on the other end of the line fell silent for a few moments before continuing, "Miss I'll get the electricity running up for you, it must be a system problem on our part, I apologise for the inconvenience."

And with that, Amy had free electricity for a month! Oh how she looked forward to watching her soap opera each night! She felt guilty for lying. She hated that she nearly had to complain about an employee in order to get what she wanted.

Technically that's what Mrs Bailey had done. She had complained about Amy, which had her fired. If she complained about that poor employee, she would be no better. A frown soon formed on her face as she slammed her head on her pillow.

"That was really good!" Amy opened her eyes to see an elegant white bat stood in front of her.

"Rouge? What are you doing here? How did you get inside?" Amy asked. Too many questions were forming in her mind relating to Rouge's entry. She knew Rouge was sneaky, but she didn't need to snoop inside her house like that, they were friends.

"I took a spare key the last time I came over," Rouge began. 'So that's where my key went.' Amy thought to herself. She had been in worry that the key had ended up on the streets on her way to interviews.

The bat stared at Amy, noticing her messy quills and her stained pj's. She looked unhealthy in general. The bat couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She had known Amy for many years, and not once did she look like the way she did now.

"Hun, you've really let yourself go," Rouge paused once more. "I can help with your financial crisis, I have a job for you. If you accept we start today."

Amy raised an eyebrow at Rouge, "What is it?"

"Come to the living room, me and Sally will explain everything, then YOU can decide." Rouge pointed as she walked away from Amy's bed and started checking out her room.

"Sally's here too? Oh for the love of my life, why do I not know when people are entering my household!?" Amy complained as she tugged her quills.

"Maybe because you were screaming at whoever was on the other end of the phone?" Rouge suggested after she applied pink lipstick, which she found on Amy's dressing table. Amy groaned at her response, causing Rouge to smile.

The two proceeded to make their way to the living Room, where a chipmunk with luscious hair sat on Amy's coach nibbling away her crisps.

"Amy, it's good to see you!" The chipmunk said happily. "These are SOO good!" She said whilst shoving the bag of crisps up in Amy's face.

Amy rolled her eyes. She had lost her job, yes! Everyone knew at that point. But her friends breaking into her house? That was something that crossed the boundary, and now they were basically eating the remainder of the food she had left? 'Life goes on,' Amy reminded herself as she sat opposite Rouge and Sally.

"We'll pay you 50,000 rings, and an additional 10,000 upfront, to help support you." Rouge stated as Sally nodded her head with agreement. Amy's eyes widened. That was a lot of money. She wouldn't need to work for years if she got that much money. Not the mention working under Justin, didn't match the payment she was offered here.

"You're making me do something illegal, aren't you?" Amy complained once more. "I'm sorry but I do not want to end up in jail."

"You're going to con a con." Rouge swiftly answered, stopping Amy from saying muttering anything further.

Amy looked up at Rouge, confusion written all over her face. How does that even work? Why did Rouge need her to do this? She was rich, she had everything she needed, so why waste energy on some lousy scam-ster?

"Why though? It seems like a waste of time." Amy asked causing both Rouge and Sally to frown. Amy realised that what she had said hurt them both and remained silent. Her ego refused to apologise, they had after all, broken into HER house.

"Me and Sally were conned, months ago." Rouge paused and looked at Sally, who was still munching on Amy's crisps, she took one last bite before finishing off Rouge's sentence.

"By the same person. He sold Rouge a fake chaos emerald statue for 75,000 rings." Sally stopped, her breathing became heavy and her eyes became glossy as she continued.

"And...he...pre-tended to be my boyfriend," Sally shed a tear, causing the rest of the girls to frown.

When Sally got attached to someone, she would do anything for them. Whenever she would get into anxious situations, she would comfort eat, and that's exactly what she had been doing before Amy had come to the living room.

Amy mentally slapped herself for her selfish thoughts earlier. She was annoyed that Sally was gobbling the only snacks she had. But it was evident that whatever her and her 'boyfriend' had gone through, left her mentally scarred for life. She shouldn't have judged her so quickly, after all the chipmunk was a friend.

"I even introduced him to my family, he said he needed money to start a business. Once he finished setting up he promised he would come back and ask me...to marry him!" The last bit of her sentence caused Sally to start crying, which alerted Rouge to give her a hug. Amy's eyes widened in anger. He emotionally manipulated Sally. It was awful to go stealing money, but to play with her emotions and the concept of marriage? Oh he had it coming!

Once Sally regained composure, she continued her story. "My father saw how happy I was with him, and he offered to pay for his business setup. My father gave him 100,000 rings. He said that once his business started profiting, he could pay him back."

Sally once again started munching down, she couldn't bear to accept the fact that she was betrayed. "He..never came back, I waited for months, I called, I texted, but he never came back." Amy frowned; she had never seen her friend in such a vulnerable state.

"I HATE YOU STEVE!" She yelled at no one before sobbing again.

Amy sighed, she couldn't bear the sight of her two friends hurt, this lousy con artist chose to mess with the wrong people.

Rouge then went on to explain how she needed a chaos emerald statue for her business dinner at home, something her boss ordered his employees to obtain in need for their upcoming client. It was all to impress everyone who was invited to her business dinner along with her boss.

The morning before the dinner, she saw a blue hedgehog carrying the statue down the street in attempt to lock it away in his van. Rouge was able to tell that it was the statue she was looking for as it radiated the sunlight to all the windows of the street.

She had stopped the delivery guy, who happened to be the same man that robbed Sally, and agreed to give him 75,000 rings if he could convince whoever he was delivering the statue to, to not buy it.

Unbeknownst to Rouge, it had been a fake. She had given her number to him, so when he called the next day, she was delighted. She explained how he had brought the statue over in his van to her house, before shaking hands and thanking her for her payment. She proudly placed the statue near her dining table, in hopes for gaining a praise from her boss.

At the business dinner, her boss had been appalled to see a fake. Needless to say, he left the dinner early and the other employees followed him out. Rouge had never been this humiliated in her life. Yes, her money was gone, but alongside this, her respect was taken too.

Her boss had even gone to the lengths in saying, he didn't want to have another business dinner at her house. He strictly told her to never engage in the buying process ever again. The lack of trust he had in her was appalling. She called several times to reach the man that sold her the statue.

But little did Rouge know; the delivery guy was untraceable.

.

"But how do you two know that you've been conned by the same man? And if he's untraceable, how are we going to find him?" Amy questioned.

"Does this mean you're in?" Rouge answered Amy's question with a question, lifting one eyebrow and forming a slight smirk on her face.

Amy pondered for a moment. What this menace had done with her friends was not okay whatsoever. Neither was it okay to con a con. But with the pay she was getting and the desire to crunch this guy into bits, she came to a decision that she was willing to take on the job.

"You can count me in! But...why me?" Amy was happy her friends could confide in her with their personal matters. But she was confused why this job had to be done by her of all people?

"First, he already knows me and Sally. If he sees us he'll run, we won't get our money back. Second, if we hire a professional it won't feel natural to him and chances are he'll run, we get no money. Third, you have no social media. So, we could pretend you're rich to bait him in. Plus, you have good acting skills judging from your phone call earlier and you have a natural charm. He'll stick to you, you get the money and we escape, easy as pie." Rouge said in a breath, pleased Amy was willing to avenge them.

"Also, you need money, if you say yes, you basically get a fortune," Rouge chuckled. She knew Amy's financial crisis would come in handy to help persuade her into saying yes.

Amy shoved Rouge onto her couch as she brought up her situation, the bat laughed hysterically as the pink hedgehog tickled her. In that time, Sally quickly unlocked her phone and showed a picture of her and Steve in a funfair to Amy, where she tightly held onto a giant teddy while Steve held his arm around her.

"This is how we know that we both got conned by the same guy." Sally spoke, still upset about Steve not being genuine.

Amy got off the couch and took the phone from Sally's hand. She zoomed in on the picture of Steve. It was a blue hedgehog, who had eyes, similar to her own, yet of a slight darker shade. He was tall and had slight biceps. Amy couldn't lie, he was very good looking. His quills were slicked nicely, and his muzzle was tanned.

Amy looked up to face Sally and Rouge. A smirk appeared on her face. "It's time we teach this Steve who's boss!"

"No hun, not just yet, we need to identify his location, set up a fake account, plan our heist and YOU first and foremost, need a makeover!" Rouge said as she pointed to Amy's stained pj's and scruffy quills. Amy blushed slightly, realising she was still in her disgusting state.

But her smile reformed. "After all of that, this hog will get what's coming for him."

A/N: That's Chapter 2! Unfortunately, we won't be seeing Silver as much. I really enjoyed making Silver's character cheeky. Let me know your thoughts on what you expect will happen next, I'm curious to know. Thanks for reading!