Chapter 13

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[Time - 2:56 P.M.]

[Date - July 4th, 23XX)

(Location - Central City, Washington International Hub)

.

Tails had been diligently focused on flying as Amy quietly relaxed in the backseat. As estimated, it certainly didn't take as long flying to Central City as it would have by taking a train or taxi there. Peering over the side of the aircraft, Amy beheld the sight of the gigantic megalopolis. Gone were the fields of nature or humble villages, totally replaced by the hundreds of skyscrapers holding such an immense population, the location alone was considered to be a city-state. Unlike Station Square, which is a fairly normal city in the United Federation, one under the control of the UF but governed by its own politicians and police force; Central City on the other hand, was solely regulated by the Guardian Units of Nations. Aside from endless rows of high-rise buildings, as the capital of the country, there were also several monuments in addition to the White House, the official residence of the President of the United Federation. One of the most well-known public roads constantly congested with traffic was the superwide Battle Highway, which wound its way straight through the metropolitan area. Where Tails and Amy were headed, however, was the Washington International Hub, an incredibly busy airport that was a major layover destination.

Tuning his headset to pick up the same frequency as his radio, Tails spoke into the microphone to alert approach control of his arrival. "WIX Approach, this is Miles Prower in The Tornado 761, in-bound ten miles (16km) from the north at 238 miles per hour (383kph), leveling 3000 feet (914m)... Do you copy?"

In a matter of seconds, approach control responded to his request. {Roger that, Tornado 761. Southbound, ten miles to WIX, 238 miles per hour, 3000 feet.} For the pilot's confirmation, a female voice repeated the information told to her. {You have special permission; tune to 288.4 UHF for contact with Washington Tower Six.}

"Copy that." Tails replied as he switched the aviation radio from standard very high frequency, to ultra high frequency commonly reserved for military and state officials. After tuning to the correct frequency, he spoke into the headset again. "Washington Tower Six, this is Miles Prower in The Tornado 761, on my two mile (3km) final for Three-Two Left, requesting permission to land."

Surprisingly, same as before with Approach Control, there was a near instantaneous reply from Air Traffic Control as well. This time it was a man speaking. [This is Washington Tower Six, we read you, Tornado 761. Miles, you have special permission authorized by G.U.N. for premium access. Your clearance is granted and you're set for landing on runway Three-Two Left. Have a good afternoon.]

Upon terminating the communications with Air Traffic Control, Tails did a small fist pump over his luck. "Special clearance?" He spoke to himself. "Sweeeet!"

"Hey…" Amy said rather quietly into the microphone before piping up. "I just realized something. Miles Prower and miles per hour! What's up with that?!"

"Oh God!" Tails said as if he were shocked, but then laughed. "You seriously just noticed that?! You're joking, right!?"

As the yellow kitsune began his approach to the authorized runway of the busy international airport, Amy made a silly face. "You're the one that has to be joking! There's no way your real name is Miles Prower!"

Shrugging, Tails chuckled more. "You're right, it's actually Miles 'Tails' Prower. You can't forget my middle name…" Thinking on the matter, he snorted. "Actually, I guess officially it would be Miles 'Tails' Prower the Fox.

"Ughh!" Amy made another face, playfully wrinkling her nose. "No way! That's too long!"

"So?!" Tails jested. "Your name is Amy Rose the Hedgehog!"

The pink hedgehog pouted. "It is not! It's just Amy Rose!"

Glancing in the mirror, Tails looked a bit surprised. "Wait, really? Sonic's full name is Sonic the Hedgehog, right? I guess I just figured you had your species suffix listed after your first and last name."

For a split second, Amy was about to ask if they were sure Sonic was really his name, that it wasn't just the name he merely assigned to himself. However, she was stopped by Tails holding up his index finger to let her know he had to stop talking and focus for a moment as they began their descent toward the airport. "Hold on! Just a minute! I need to do my checklist before landing!" Looking around him, he made sure he was clear and that no other planes were in the vicinity, none trying to land where he was or still taxiing on the runway. After that, he checked his gauges and kept his speed steady as they flew to a mere five hundred feet (152m) above the ground. "Fuel selector? Fullest tank… Directional gyro? Aligned with the magnetic compass." Checking himself and then Amy, he proceeded onward with "Harness? Secure… Mixture? Still rich… Cowl Flaps?" Turning to quickly look behind him, he said "As required… Propeller? High rpm… Flaps? As required…" Nodding in acknowledgment to everything being right, he relaxed a bit but kept his focus as he gradually pulled up on the yoke, making the plane descend further.

"Okay! Here we go, landing… in, 3… 2… 1…" Precisely as he timed, the wheels of The Tornado touched down on the airstrip. The landing wasn't rough at all, but could definitely be felt in comparison to lift-off. As soon as the wheels touched down, he pulled down on throttle to reduce power to the engine, slowing the spin of the propellers since they didn't need to be going fast enough for lift-off anymore. Basically driving the plane down the runway at a decent speed, he was soon contacted by Ground Control to inform him of which hangar to taxi his way toward.

{Tornado 761, this is Ground Control, do you copy?} They asked.

Speaking into the microphone of his headset, he replied "I copy you."

{Your aircraft has been cleared for parking at Hangar 42, spot 7E.}

"Thank you, Ground Control. Hangar 42, Spot 7E confirmed." Ending the transmission, he navigated the plane down the airstrip until he spotted the aforementioned hangar. Veering off the runway, he didn't need a tug or any assistance since The Tornado was small enough to operate at slower speeds, he just taxied into the direction of the open hangar. A human male wearing a neon yellow-green reflective safety vest as well as hardhat and earmuffs directed him into the hangar by using handheld illuminating wands, motioning for Tails to keep going. Reducing the speed he was going even further, the engine slowed and the propellers barely seemed to be going. The noise level was drastically reduced now.

"Well?" Tails continued to speak into the mouthpiece to Amy. "What did you think of The Tornado?"

Amy took the opportunity to remove her headset as well as the aviation goggles, glad to have a chance to straighten her hair and put her headband back on normally. "It was pretty cool. I'm so glad we didn't have to waste the entire afternoon on a train or car ride."

Tails nodded in agreement as he removed his own headset. Navigating over to Spot 7E, he killed the engine and applied the parking brake. "Yeah, no way… I don't really like trains all that much because they're always late."

"We should be able to catch Rouge at her club if she's still there, huh? She probably doesn't leave until like, eight o'clock." Amy pondered. "I bet she gawks at her stolen jewels all day, into the evening."

"Probably…" Tails agreed prior to becoming serious. "Just remember, we need her help. So, don't make her mad… Don't let her make you mad either. You know she's good at pushing buttons… Keep in mind that she's got a good heart, that's what we have to appeal to if she doesn't want to help us."

Letting Tails get out first, Amy waited inside the cockpit until he was on the ground. When he reached his hand up for her, she stood up, reached down and grabbed his hand, holding it as she climbed out of The Tornado. "It's good to be back on solid ground." She joked, making Tails roll his eyes.

"Oh, please… It was a bit over thirty minutes. You haven't even gotten your wings yet." Tails smiled at her shyness toward flying, also hoping to keep her in a good mood for as long as possible.

"Wings?" The pink hedgehog enquired. "What's that, the air equivalent of getting your sea legs?"

Tails laughed as he waggled his finger in her direction. "Good point. I guess so."

.

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[Time - 3:37 P.M.]

[Date - July 4th, 23XX)

(Location - Central City, Neon District, Night Babylon Avenue)

.

"I'm telling you, man-..." A Walrus taxi driver with a hairy chest, corduroys and loafers spat as he sucked on his vape pen, spewing out a cloud of supposedly 'non-cancerous' smoke. "Westopolis is a craphole. That's the second time my cousin had all four of his wheels jacked. I tell him that he shouldn't leave a lowrider in the driveway, but he doesn't listen…" Pulling up to the building colloquially known as Club Rouge in spite of the massive brightly lit 'Casino' sign attached to the front of it, the walrus finished his rant to Tails and Amy who were in the backseat. "Anyway, just stay away from Westopolis, it's as bad as Delta City. For places like that, it seems like crime pays and it pays well."

"Yeah…" Amy nervously rubbed the back of her neck with one hand as her other hand was on the handle of the cab's door.

Tails spoke for her by saying "Well, thanks for the ride. Here's a tip."

As the fox dug around in his belongings for a few dollars to give the guy in gratitude, he was stopped by him. "Is no worries, friend. The tip comes out automatically now. The wonders of technology, huh? Oh! Oh! Speaking of which, I hear over there in Westopolis they actually shut down the co-..."

Tails waved the dude off as he and Amy opened their doors. "Sorry, we got to go. We don't want to be late meeting our friend." Getting out, he closed the door and waited for Amy to do the same. Once she was out and closed her door, the taxi driver waved to them in advance of leaving, driving off to find another fare.

First to bust out into a fit of giggles was Amy, making Tails look at her with a stunned look as she asked. "Did that guy seriously complain about Westopolis for the entire ride here?"

Taking a deep breath, Tails made a popping sound by gently smacking his hand to his open mouth. "Yep."

Amy shook her head as they started waking toward the entrance of Club Rouge. "Some people, huh?"

A rather big black human male looking sharp in a tuxedo stopped them at the door by standing in the way and holding up his hand. "And, just where do you two think you are going? I'm gonna need to see some I.D. before I can let you in here."

Looking over at Tails, Amy seemed a tad taken aback. "Umm… I don't have a driver's license. Will a gym card work? It's got my name and birthdate on it."

Tails, on the other hand, swiftly removed his pilot's license, showing it to the bouncer as Amy dug around in her purse, searching for her boxercise club card. The bouncer took the pilot's license from Tails and briefly stared at it prior to eyeing the young fox. Shaking his head, he handed the card back to the yellow adolescent. Not even bothering to wait for Amy to look for any form of identification, the human rejected them. "Let me save you some time." Pointing at Tails, he said. "You're way too young to come in here." Returning to the pink hedgehog, he eyed her before proceeding. "I have a feeling you're not much older. How about you two beat it and come back in five to ten years?"

Amy pouted right away, offended by the human's behavior as well as his assumption that she was nothing more than a little kid. It also frustrated her that people thought Tails was immature just because of his age. "Hey!"

"It's okay, it's okay!" Tails waved both hands at Amy to make her look at him. "Let me handle this." Staring up at the tall and large bouncer who had his arms crossed, the fox tried to talk a bit of sense into the human by explaining who he was. "I'm Miles Prower and this is Amy Rose. We're friends of Rouge and we're here on important business to see her."

"You two are friends of the boss?" The human questioned them in a deep voice. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. "Wait a second… Did you just say your name is Miles Per Hour? What, are you two some sort of pranksters? Am I being punked or something? Get out of here!"

{Lloyd...} Rouge's voice came through an intercom attached to the wall near where a stool for the bouncer was. {It's okay, let them in. They're not pranking you, they really do know me.} Following a second, she also informed the human, Lloyd, apparently that {By the way, that is his real name. You should probably apologize.}

Staring at the two, Amy and Tails, the bouncer abruptly broke a sweat before gulping. "Oh… Uhh… Sorry about making fun of your name. Go right in." Ceasing his toughness by relaxing his shoulders and lowering his arms, he motioned for them to pass him and enter the casino.

As Tails walked with Amy, he looked up to see several security cameras mounted to the ceiling of the entrance, allowing him to figure out how Rouge knew they were there as well as what was going on with her bouncer. Passing by the bouncer and going into the Casino, the first thing they both noticed was the smell. It didn't smell horrible, just like a mixture of booze, metallic coins, sweat and perfume. Uniquely themed, the interior of Club Rouge was a casino that resembled a pinball table with lots of pinball decor. Just inside the doors were massive flippers that were easy to move, but made you feel like a pinball as you entered. Dozens of people were occupied playing slots and video poker on the outskirts while actual poker, blackjack and craps tables were situated around walls closer inward. In the direct center was a special giant roulette table designed to look like a pinball bumper. For icing on the cake, the roulette table also had a stripper pole on the top of it where a redheaded busty human girl was dancing in a g-string and tiny bra as men of all species threw money at her. Music in the background seemed to pump to the beat of the flashing string lights overhead as well as various lit up decorations. Looking up, there was also a huge pinball table constructed into the ceiling, allowing people to view it from beneath by having a clear bottom.

"Whoa…" Amy spoke her mind in response to her surroundings.

"Whoa…." Tails repeated as he noticed the scantily-clad women walking around serving drinks and entertaining patrons. For a younger dude, he was both embarrassed but interested in the sight, especially when he spotted a fox woman with pure white fur, violet eyes, blue body paint and bigger boobs than the human pole dancing. "Holy mackerel!" He tried looking away in spite of his eyes nearly bulging out of his skull. "Those are bigger than my head!"

"Tails!" Amy blushed, grabbed him and pushed him forward so he wouldn't simply stand around gawking. "You get moving!" Grumbling to herself, she quietly berated Rouge in her own thoughts. 'She remodeled the place and decided on this? Ughh! She's such a degenerate!' With her mind and heart solely for Sonic, she ignored all the handsome men walking around with plates of hors d'oeuvres and a six pack of abs, instead choosing to lead Tails across the casino floor towards where Rouge's office was. Although she kept her eyes off the staff and stayed away from the gambling, she heard a loud repetitive ding accompanied by a jingle. All the lights in the room flashed. The pink hedgehog found herself temporarily stopping to look up at the giant translucent pinball table embedded in the ceiling as a slot machine jackpot caused an oversized pinball to be released. Suddenly, the decoration turned into an active game. Several patrons stared upward, clapping or placing bets on how many times the ball would hit the flippers. "Alright…" Amy admitted. "That's pretty neat."

"Totally!" Tails watched as the pinball bounced off bumpers, racking up points on a screen built into the wall. "It almost makes me interested in placing a few bets…" Catching his words, he reiterated what he meant. "Y-You know… for science and such."

Amy eyed him, not liking the thought of him being in this place since it was rather suggestive for a young mind like his. Thankfully, both of them were once again rescued by Rouge, who appeared coming out of the doorway from her office near the back of the building. Waving to them, the white haired bat motioned for them to come closer. "Oy!" She shouted across the room so Tails and Amy would hear her. "This way!" It was easy to spot her from amongst the crowd of people as she was shorter than the humans and donned her usual attire of a skin tight, black and strapless unitard, a pink heart-shaped chestplate that had white trim, long white gloves and high-heeled boots with pink cuffs.

Quickly making their way over toward Rouge, they saw that there was another human serving as a bouncer for the club. This one was a tall lanky asian guy who also donned a tuxedo. Rouge was in the process of telling the man to buzz off for the time being as Tails and Amy approached her. Standing in front of her, Tails greeted her with his usual pep. "Hey there, Rouge. You've really turned this place around from the dingy club it was when you first took over."

"Hey there, fox boy." Rouge teased in a sultry voice, fluttering her long eyelashes accented by her teal eyeshadow. "It's been a while since I've seen you." Smirking, she continued to eye him until a light blush formed upon his white-furred muzzle. It wasn't unusual for her to intimately taunt people and Tails being a pre-teen made him particularly vulnerable to her tricks in that area. "You've grown a lot since then, definitely taller. You're really turning into a handsome young man."

"Oh… Uhh…" Tails stuttered bashfully as she made a kissy face at him. "T-Thanks, you look good too."

"You think so?" She struck a pose, shifting her weight onto one leg, placing her left hand on her hip and her right hand behind her head.

"O-Of course…" Tails' face reddened further as he stared at the bat's large breasts.

"That's enough, Rouge." Amy spoke up, butting into the conversation. "We're not here for games or a friendly visit."

Rouge ceased her posing, but pouted, scoffing with annoyance towards Amy's interruption. "What's your problem, pinky?"

"It's important." Tails spoke for Amy, knowing that the hedgehog was already rivals with the bat and he didn't want the two of them to have a chance to get into it. "It's about Sonic."

Raising an eyebrow, Rouge crossed her arms before looking back and forth between Tails and Amy. She thought about it for a moment. It started making sense that it did indeed have to be something important they wanted to talk about. They had never made a visit to her like this beforehand. Part of her wished to know what was going on, to figure out if everyone was okay, however, there was another part that wondered if there was some possible gain to be had. After all, every adventure she'd ever been on with Sonic and the crew turned out making her filthy rich. Because of that, she decided to hear them out. Sighing, she opened the door leading into her office and waved them in. "Alright, come on in."

Going inside of Rouge's office, following behind the sexy bat, Tails and Amy both saw what she chose as her decor. Unlike in the casino portion of the club, instead of a pinball theme, her office was far more à la mode, with chic paintings, vouge marble pillars, real hardwood floor and numerous statues. A gorgeous red mahogany neo-classical curved desk sat in the back of the room, in front of a leather executive chair. Aside from the paintings, there was also a large 4K HD Television on the wall displaying ten different alternating surveillance feeds from around the casino. The chandelier dead center on the ceiling, while antique looking, actually had neon bulbs to represent the neon district they were in. An expensive sheep fur rug stretched out underneath the chandelier where a couple of vintage couches sat. Walking further inside the room, she had a strange mix of music she was listening to, coffee jazz Lo-Fi with muffled vocals from her favourite pop songs. Sure enough, there happened to also be a pile of jewels laying on her big desk. There was also a jeweler's lupe in addition to a cleaning solution, providing evidence to what she had been doing before they arrived.

Once the door closed behind them, Rouge walked over to her desk and sat in her comfy executive chair, propping her legs up as her wings flapped out behind her. "So, what's this about?" She asked as she pulled open one of the drawers on her desk, rooting around in it prior to removing a mostly empty bottle of tequila as well as a shot glass.

"Sonic's missing." Amy blurted out, not caring to procrastinate.

Rouge narrowed her eyes and cocked her head. "What do you mean, he's missing?"

Tails said "Long story short, he's missing and we need your help finding out what's going on with him."

Pouring herself a shot of tequila, she drank the whole thing in one go before wondering aloud "What's the long story?"

Tails sighed, upset over the fact that he wasn't there to help Sonic. 'A lot of stuff I could have helped with had I not been gone.' He idled while mentally reprimanding himself. Taking a moment to shove those thoughts down, that allowed Amy the opportunity to take charge of explaining everything that occurred in Station Square last month.

"In the middle of last month, Eggman attempted one of his usual takeovers of Station Square by using a giant mecha. I think he called it a 'Death Egg Robot'. Sonic was there, as he always is. I couldn't be there, I couldn't get there in time…" The pink hedgehog admitted. "Tails was offered an advanced engineering course by G.U.N. as a reward for all his accomplishments, so he was unavailable too since he was out of town." Coming closer to Rouge and her elegant desk, Amy said "What I'm getting at, is that he was on his own. It was just him fighting Eggman. That's not usually a problem for him, he'd done it numerous times before then. But, this time things were different. Eggman must have made a seriously wicked plot. As soon as Sonic got the upper hand, that fat bastard abandoned the fight, leaving the Death Egg Robot to rampage its way out of control, destroying an overpass."

Rouge frowned as she let them know "Yeah, I heard about that from the news."

Amy narrowed her eyes at the revelation, grumbling at the bat's coldheartedness. "Wait… You knew about that, but didn't bother to give him a call?"

Pursing her lips with narrowed eyes of her own, Rouge stated "I don't think I like your tone."

"I don't care!" Amy made sure the busty bat understood. "You could have still called him to check on him!"

"We're getting off track here." Tails tried talking sense into them so the bat and hedgehog wouldn't enter into an argument. "The main point is that Eggman turned the populace against Sonic after they saw his failure."

"First of all…" Rouge interjected, intending to respond to Amy's accusatory statement. "I sent him a text and he never responded to it. Second, even if I did call, what would you like me to say? You know that I'm not very good at cheering people up and stuff like that." Grunting, she roughly threw her shot glass down on the desk prior to putting her feet down on the ground. "I heard about the accident and how people had been treating him, but that was it. I'm not really big on keeping up with current events."

"Not unless those current events have to do with jewels you can steal, huh?" Amy snapped at the bat, pointing out her thieving behaviour.

Rouge suddenly stood up, her executive chair slid back as she slammed her hands on the desk. "Screw you, Amy!" She sneered at the petty jab while bearing her fangs. "You don't know me like you think you do! You know what, why don't you just get the hell out of here!?"

Tails waved his hands in advance of pulling the angered hedgehog back, seeing that her tail was stiff and eyes burning with fire as she got ready to claw Rouge's eyes out. "That's enough! Both of you… We're not here to start a fight." Seeing that he would have to talk for Amy since she was too on-edge, the fox stepped up to the desk where he decided to personally fill the bat in on what happened. "If you saw the news broadcasts about how people were treating Sonic at the time, then you'll know that he was also beat up by a human superiority gang that call themselves the Concrete Junkies. They're not all that powerful really, just a bunch of lowlives that run drugs around Station Square."

Closing her eyes, she let out another sigh, relaxing her demeanor. "I… I didn't know that, no."

"It's true." Tails replied.

"How did it happen?" The sultry bat asked.

Making a face of uncertainty, the yellow fox informed Rouge of the event that occurred in the park. "As far as I'm aware, they gave him a surprise attack, then beat him with baseball bats."

Rouge blinked a few times, her eyes clearly filled with sorrow upon hearing Sonic's demise. "I don't understand. Why didn't he flip the tables on them? Sure, he basically got sucker-punched, but I've seen him get out of some immensely tight situations…"

"I get what you're saying." Tails admitted, continuing to explain things to Rouge in Amy's place. "When it first happened, I actually found myself thinking the same thing. However, I've come to understand that he was incredibly depressed and even a bit drunk."

"Drunk?" Rouge was taken aback by hearing that. "Sonic was drunk?"

"Yeah, vodka apparently." Tails told her.

Rouge's mouth fell open, still shocked. "Wait… He's still underage, right? How did he get vodka?"

Amy stepped forward, having finally calmed down a bit. Without being steaming mad, she said. "He stole it."

"Damn…" Rouge cursed, amazed that the blue blur would do such a thing. "Things must've been bad if he resorted to stealing and drinking alcohol." Shaking her head, the hedgehog and fox could both tell that the bat was becoming increasingly concerned by the things she was hearing. "Is that why you came to me? Do you need dirt on any of these Concrete Junkies? If you know any names, I can try and find where they live."

Tails shook his head as did Amy. "No, no… It's not that." Tails told her. "The strange part is, Eggman came to his rescue."

"What?" Rouge furrowed her brow.

Nodding, Tails carried on. "It's true; Sonic said so himself. He told us that Eggman swooped out of the sky in his Egg Mobile, killed the gang members who attacked him, then brought him back to the Egg Carrier to be nursed back to health."

"That's crazy!" Rouge continued to interrupt.

"I know…" Tails confirmed as he removed the baggie containing the unknown pill from his satchel, proceeding to toss it down, where it slid across the surface of Rouge's desk. "But, it gets worse, because it turns out Eggman has been giving an unknown substance to Sonic, claiming it to be a pain killer mixed with antibiotics. I have high doubts that's what it is." Watching as the bat grabbed the baggie from off of her desk and examined it, her pink fingernails gently scraping against the plastic ziploc, the fox kept talking. "I think Eggman has been using Sonic, using the violence those gangbangers inflicted as a chance to dose him with drugs." Nervously chewing on his lower lip, he shared more of his speculation. "After he woke up, when Sonic escaped the Egg Carrier and came back to Station Square, he was different…"

"Different how?" Rouge asked.

Amy took over for Tails by saying "He started becoming almost… well… almost misanthropic."

"Well, he was hurt by them, humans I mean. You can't blame him for losing trust in them." Rouge reasoned.

"Except that's not how Sonic is." Amy presented her own logic to the conversation. "He's a hero of the people, not a specter of vengeance just because one group of jerks showed their ass to him."

Tails joined in by confirming Amy's point of view. "She's right. Some of the things Sonic said to her, me even, it wasn't like him at all. He's never looked for revenge like that or thought humanity was an evil inferior plague on the surface of the planet!" He started getting a bit excited toward the end, yet for good reason as he grew increasingly concerned for the wellbeing of his best friend/adoptive brother. "Sonic doesn't justify killing, no matter what." He ended with.

Before Rouge could say anything else, Amy revealed more of what happened. "He told me he thought he killed a human in an alleyway, a guy that was trying to rape a woman." Thinking of what she said, she had trouble understanding her own feelings on the matter. "It's not that I want to protect a scumbag who goes out doing that to women, I just know it isn't like Sonic to…" Stopping, she whimpered, seemingly scared to say her next thought. Nonetheless, she told them everything that could help figure out what's going on with her beloved hedgehog. "It isn't like Sonic to want to kill bad people. Stop them? Sure, but not literally kill people."

"It was just one person, right? A rapist?" Rouge wanted to confirm, knowing that something was likely up with Sonic, yet not disagreeing with what he did. "It sounds like he took out all of his stress on a guy that pissed him off. The guy doesn't sound like a saint either, so maybe we should just overlook it, especially if it has only happened once." Tapping her lips, she contemplated all that she heard. "Maybe this was just a fluke."

"Except it wasn't." Amy responded to Rouge's hope. "He did it again during my date with him at Twinkle Park. Granted, we were practically ambushed by the remaining members of the Concrete Junkies, all of which were pissed off about what happened to the ones Eggman killed. There were several of them and they were going to kill the both of us for retribution." As Rouge opened the baggie containing the strange pill, Amy kept talking. "He went absolutely crazy on them. The last guy, the leader of them, had his gun pointed at me when Sonic literally tore through him, running so fast the guy's body exploded."

"Jesus!" Rouge stopped what she was doing to exclaim.

Clearing his throat, Tails chuckled semi-sarcastically. "Which brings me to my next point. Not only has Sonic been thinking differently, he's also been acting differently. His body seems to be supercharged by Chaos Emerald's in spite of him having not been near them recently."

"He's healing way faster than normal and definitely seems stronger." Amy made it clear. "He's never been able to travel so fast he could literally obliterate a living being by running straight through their bodies at the velocity of a speeding cannon ball. Plus, there's this weird aura that encompasses him... I don't really know how to explain it. When he was fighting those jerks at Twinkle Park, in the middle of combat, I saw his fur darken and electricity emanating from him."

Flourishing his left hand, Tails said "Which makes me wonder even more as to what's in that pill there."

"That's why we're here." Amy ended.

"That and because he's gone missing again." Tails specificed. "I thought that if we could identify what that pill is, it might provide some insight on where he is and what's going on with him."

"And you brought it to me because I'm a party girl who knows about drugs?" Rouge asked curiously, not realizing she practically repeated what Amy had said about her earlier.

Shaking his head, Tails tried to make her feel as though they thought a bit more highly of her than that. "No, we don't mean it that way! We just thou-..."

Cutting the young fox off, Rouge chortled. "Relax, I get it." Picking up her jeweler's lupe, she tapped the unknown pill out into her hand, feeling it in her palm as she used her other hand to place the jeweler's lupe up to her eye. Scrutinizing the oblong pill, the first thing she noticed was the Eggman Empire logo stamped onto the top of the pill. Flipping it over, she made a face of confusion when she saw that there wasn't a number on the back. Lifting it up to her nose, she gave the medication a gentle sniff, recoiling at the oddly metallic smell. "Hmm… That's not right." Holding it up higher, she adjusted the lupe to get as much magnification as possible. "Wait… What's this…" Keeping it still, she spotted irregularities on the surface of the pill. Staring at it, she saw it shimmer in the light as she moved her head. "That's weird. It looks like there's glitter, or glass in it."

"Glass!?" Amy freaked out. "There's glass in it!? Oh my god! He took so many of them!"

"Hold on, hold on." Rouge slowed the pink hedgehog's roll. "I'm not sure if that's what it is. I can see something shimmering, almost shiny." Stopping, gradually looking up as if she was realizing something, her eye that wasn't covered by the jeweler's lupe zoned in on the gemstones on her desk. 'Wait a second…' She pondered 'Could this be-...?' Blinking a few times at the possible realization, she soon shook her head to rid herself of the thought, not wanting to jump the gun. Sighing, she told them "If I had a microscope, I could look at it with more magnification. Unfortunately, without any identification marks, no bottle or receipt, there's not really a way for me to tell you what it is. Have you thought about bringing it to a lab? They have equipment they can use to figure out what unknown substances are."

Tails shook his head before explaining. "We did think about it, but we thought it would take too much time."

"We need to figure out what Eggman's been giving him as soon as possible." Amy took over. "We can't wait several months for a public lab to get to our request, then another week to run and process their tests. If Sonic's in trouble, we can't wait that long, we need to help him now."

Taking the jeweler's lupe away from her eye, Rouge peered up at Amy and Tails, seeing the stoic look on their faces. She could tell rather easily that the two were upset. It bothered her too knowing that Sonic was missing, worrying her further since he was taking a weird medication given to him by Eggman. "What do you want me to do?"

"We-…" Grumbling, Amy held her head in her hand and looked away. "We don't know… Look, I'm sorry I was being a jerk. I'm just… I'm really worried about him." Feeling tears beginning to work their way out of her eyes, she sniffled to clear her sinuses, making sure snot wouldn't come dripping out of her nose.

Gulping from the stress suddenly being brought upon her, Rouge pointed to an end table that was over by the door. "There's some tissues over there."

As Amy walked to the end table, Tails took the moment while she was looking away to whisper something into Rouge's ear. When Amy turned back around with a tissue in her hand, she noticed Tails hunched over speaking softly, then Rouge's surprised look accompanied by a nod in response to what she heard him say. Right when the fox and hedgehog locked eyes, Tails jumped back a bit, embarrassed from being caught sharing something secretive. Returning to the conversation, before she blew her nose into the tissue she asked "What?"

"Nothing!" Tails fearfully complained with flattened ears.

Narrowing her eyes, she wondered what Tails said. There wasn't any way she could pretend like she hadn't just seen him muttering into Rouge's ear. "No, you said something. I want to know what it was."

"It wasn't anything important, Amy." The fox calmed down, understanding that acting embarrassed about what he told Rouge would only continue to make Amy more suspicious of what that entailed.

"I wanna know!" She refused to give up.

Rouge, seeing the awkwardness between the duo, piped up with her own answer to the situation. "There's a chance that I might be able to use the laboratory at G.U.N. Headquarters here in Central City, or at least convince someone there to run the tests for me." Pulling her executive chair back over to the fancy desk, she sat down in it. "I'd have to be extra careful. If I got caught, I'd lose my job as a secret agent. I'd even be risking jail time." Wiggling her lips side to side, she continued to admit. "I'd be putting my life on the line."

"You'd do that for us?!" Amy brightened up, ecstatic to hear her own rival would assist her.

Rouge shook her head in response to Amy's phrasing, shaking her finger as she said. "I'll do it for Sonic."

Amy rolled her eyes, yet managed to force a smile. "Still… Thank you."

"You're welcome." Rouge replied before waving them off. "Now, unless there's anything you're here for, get out. I've got a lot of work to do. Besides, this isn't the most kid-friendly place, especially after dark."

Still trying to not be insulted, Amy ignored the implication that she wasn't mature enough to be in an adult district, no matter how technically right Rouge was. "Okay. Here, let me give you my number."

Rouge waved Amy off as she proceeded to put the strange pill back in the plastic baggie, intending to store it somewhere safe. "Don't worry, I already have it."

Confused, Amy stared at the bat prior to her ears lowering a bit as she contemplated what to say. Unfortunately, all she could think of was trying to remember when she ever gave her number to Rouge. "Umm… Okay?"

"I have everyone's number." Rouge admitted. "It's part of the job; knowing people."

Tails shrugged it off, not surprised that Rouge knew all their phone numbers. "Thank you, Rouge. We both really appreciate it and know Sonic will too, whenever we find him that is."

"I'll text or call when I figure out the pill's composition." Rouge ended on.

"Good." Tails acknowledged in advance of turning around, walking away with Amy.

Opening the office door, they left, returning to the pinball themed casino floor. Closing the door behind them, they noticed the tall bouncer from earlier standing a few feet away, continuing to stand guard over Rouge's office while also watching for miscreants trying to rip her off with phony gambling. Ambling their way to the exit, they ignored the patrons placing bets as well as enjoying themselves. Although Amy was thinking about what their next move would be for rescuing Sonic, Tails was busy on his phone, already looking up what the weather would be for their flight back to the Mystic Ruins. There wasn't any real reason to stay in Central City now; they only came to get assistance from Rouge. Nonetheless, Amy's brain couldn't stop wondering about one thing in particular.

Coming to the exit, passing through the decor shaped like massive pinball flippers, Amy cleared her throat, gently taking hold of Tails' shoulder in order to stop him. "So… What did you say to Rouge?"

Gritting his teeth while bopping his hand to his forehead, Tails grunted, having hoped that the pink hedgehog would have forgotten about that after getting what she wanted from Rouge. "Seriously?"

"Yes!" Amy pouted. "I hate it when I get left out of things! I wanna know what you said!"

Tails groaned again. "I wasn't leaving you out."

"Then tell me!" Amy exclaimed, planning on bugging him until he relented. Thankfully, it didn't take long.

"Alright, alright!" He alright gave up, knowing that she'd pester him the entire way back to the Mystic Ruins. "All I did was tell her that you and Sonic had become intimate."

"WHAT!?" Amy shouted in shock, stunned that Tails would do such a thing. She didn't even care that people from the casino were looking at her due to her yelling. "WHY!? Why would you do such a thing!?" Feeling a blush creep upon her cheeks, she pouted further by staring the two tailed kitsune down with flaming daggers in her eyes. Bearing her fangs, she continued taking out her frustration. "She didn't need to know that!"

He tried calming Amy down, yet also shrugged off her concerns seeing as how he succeeded in convincing Rouge to join their search party. "I thought she did." Getting serious, he explained his point of view. "Like I told you, Rouge has a good heart. I figured that, if she knew you two were together as a couple, that she'd be more willing to assist us."

Relaxing as the embarrassment slowly faded from her, she still wondered how Rouge knowing about her and Sonic being a couple now would make the bat more willing to help. "Huh?"

Facing her, staring straight in the pink hedgehog's green eyes, Tails said. "If I know Rouge, the real Rouge, she won't stand in the way of true love, and she would do anything to help the people she truly cares about. Put two and two together, I guess I thought she'd be willing to help two individuals that care about each other as much as you and Sonic do. Sure, Sonic and I are practically brothers, but… You..." Stopping, he anxiously scratched the back of his head as he talked about her and Sonic being in love. "It's different with you. You're a girl, Rouge is a girl; I had a feeling she'd relate on some level."

Frowning, she hung her head. Tails thought she was sad, but she forced a half-smile to let him know she wasn't mad at him anymore. In a way, she understood his reasoning and was merely glad that he thought of ways to help. "You really think so?"

"I do." Tails responded to her question. "Just give her some time and she'll have answers for us. Maybe she'll solve this entire mystery and we can put it all behind us."

"I hope so." Amy said as she opened the door leading out of the casino, preparing to hunt down a taxi cab for the ride back to the airport.