I promise I'm gonna try and do better than monthly updates.
ooo
Amy tapped her foot erratically on the ground of her cubicle. Stop sweating damn it! Her fingers massaged the space between her eyebrows as she shut her eyes and shook her head. Come on, her job was done! Any minute the machinery will malfunction, and no one will know it was her. With a nervous sigh, her fingers finally started typing at her keyboard again. Gotta just try and get her work done while she still can.
Rouge had been in there for a few minutes, the machines should be shutting off by now... did she mess up? Just when she was getting ready to text Shadow begging to know what was happening, it happened. It was like all the computers reverted to dial-up as they started screeching in agony, as their screens trembled and dropped pixels. Any attempt to interact with them would be pointless, but Amy put on the show of trying to get things to work anyway. The fax machines and printers began spewing out paper, and chaos ensued in the office. Amy's cubicle neighbor, a teal cat named Angeline, jumped up from her desk and started spinning around to try and find the source of the disturbance (little did she know it was sitting right across from her).
"What the hell is going on here?" Angeline shrieked, asking no one in particular as she exited her cubicle.
Amy sucked her teeth and looked up to the cat hesitantly. Angeline was such a scaredy, well, cat... Amy would have felt a bit less sorry for her if she hadn't caused the virus that probably made her lose all her work for the day. "Hey, Angie, calm down, it's okay," Amy tried reassuring her, but it came out poorly as she tried to not slip up and expose any information about her involvement. "Angie, come on, it's probably just a glitch, we'll be okay!"
Angeline shook her head furiously and cried, "But Amy, what kind of virus affects every single machine in an office!? We could be under attack!" As Angeline continued panicking, she saw Mr. Mogul led out by her coworker Ryan, and she could have swore a shadow passed by the office. Mr. Mogul's expression was more stony than normal, naturally, Amy supposed, his entire casino empire might have been disabled right now. Thankfully the virus would only scramble the main office, still a serious issue, but there wouldn't be panic in any of the casinos. No one would get hurt in all of this. "- Or it could be the terrorists that attacked that power plant a couple days ago!" Angeline continued. "I heard no one made it out of that attack, oh Solaris, is that gonna happen to us next!?"
Amy shook her head and sighed, "Angie, I'm sure it's fine. I'm sure we're not-" she felt her watch buzz. That's weird, she was supposed to buzz Rouge and Shadow, not the other way around. What did they want her to notice? She bit her tongue and glanced around, before she noticed what looked like... wheels right above the window. How could there be... ? Amy's eyes widened as it clicked. The buzz was a warning. "Under attack!" Amy shrieked, grabbing Angie by the arm and collapsing to the floor under her desk. A second later, and all Amy could hear was gunfire.
She wrapped her arms around her coworker and buried her head in her own chest as she heard bullets tear through the walls, lights, computers, desks, bodies of her coworkers. She could hear the screams of her coworkers as they were attacked, and the shrieking in her ear from Angie having a full blown panic attack. After a moment of shooting, the gunfire stopped, and Amy was able to lift her head and open her eyes. The office was full of bullet holes, at least the wall opposite the window was. There was someone else who had managed to get under a desk back in the room who was shaking... he was bleeding, and there was a rabbit on the ground near her bleeding coworker on the ground not moving.
Amy poked her head out of the cubicle and squeezed Angeline's arm. "Angie. Angie! Angie, listen to me, you gotta get out of here."
"B- but what about you!?" Angeline demanded between sobs.
"I'm gonna be right behind you, but there's someone injured, and I have to get to them, okay? But you need to get out, please!"
Angeline wiped her tears away and nodded frantically. "Okay, okay! I'll run!"
"Just stay low, and hurry! Don't look back, just head for the door and get out!"
Angeline kept nodding and scrambled for the door out in a sort of running crawl. Amy watched as she got to the door out, and as she swung the door open to pass through it, Amy heard deep, metallic thuds from the window side of the room. She gasped, and started to crawl out from under her desk. This wasn't some random terrorist attack, was it? Had this happened five years ago, Amy would have known right away who was behind it, who else would have been? But now? A Badnik invasion was a distant memory of a nightmare to her. Well, here was the reminder that it wasn't just a nightmare.
As she peered over her desk, she could see Egg Pawns leaping into the room, and in the black helicopter hovering outside the office's window: Omega, and barely visible, seeing as it blended in with the rest of him, it had a yellow Chaos Emerald planted in its chest. She glanced around the room to see her coworkers' statuses. She couldn't see a good number of them, whether or not they were hiding or dead she couldn't tell, but she could see a handful hiding in the room. Mr. Mogul's white dress coat had been stained red, and he had fallen onto the water cooler, which was still pumping out onto the floor. And from the back hallway, she spied Rouge, sprinting through the hall. She vanished to the floor as she entered the room, and after a few seconds, she had appeared at Amy's side.
"Badniks!" Rouge hissed between heavy breaths. "But you already knew that, I'm sure."
"Yeah! What do we do?" Amy squeaked back.
"We gotta get the Emerald, then get the hell out of here," Rouge replied, poking her head out to check how in danger they were. "If I hadn't needed security clearance to enter this place I could have brought a weapon to fight back, but of course..."
"Wait, you don't have the Emerald? Where is it!?" Amy shot back, pulling Rouge back under the desk.
"It's on Mammoth Mogul's body. Which is right out in the open. And they'll be headed for it too."
"Well, Shadow can take them out, can't he? With his sniper rifle?"
"Don't count on it. He only has that gun as a last case scenario. One shot, any evidence of our presence here, and our cover is blown, and all three of us are fucked."
"Omega and a Badnik army isn't a last case scenario!?"
"No. Omega has his hands on the Emerald and is leaving, that's a last case scenario. Both of us have guns to our heads, that's a last case scenario."
"And in that order?" Amy shot back, glaring at the ivory bat.
"Our objective is the Emerald," Rouge (not) answered, poking her head back out. "We might need to fight the robots... I just don't know how we're gonna pull this off in sec-"
"What?" Amy asked, following Rouge out from under the desk. In the time Rouge and Amy had been arguing, Omega had disembarked from the helicopter and was in the office. To the side of the room though, she saw Mr. Mogul grabbing onto a cubicle near him, and slowly lifting himself to his feet. His chest was heaving with each labored breath, and there was blood by his lip. He let out a great roar, and tore his tie off. Omega turned to face him, a bit too slow as Mogul had managed to close the gap between the two. Mogul used the momentum of his charge to grapple Omega and headbutt him, a lethal blow to a mortal as his long tusks rammed into the robot's torso. Mogul backed his head up when he realized he'd somehow not gored the attacker of his office, but didn't let go of Omega, who grabbed Mogul in response to hold him at bay.
Amy was a little... awestruck. Who knew Mr. Mogul was such a brawler!? He fearlessly rushed Omega and began wrestling him while still bleeding out! Those rumors she'd heard when she started working here about Mogul's old life in the criminal underground flashed through her head, but she shook them out. Amy, of all people, would know if her boss was an ex-gangster, especially with her past as a journalist. But she couldn't deny that Mr. Mogul was kind of a badass. As he wrestled Omega, trying to ram the robot into the wall, he failed to see the Egg Pawns advancing on him. Amy gasped, and stood up from behind the cubicle.
"Amy! Get the hell back down here!" Rouge hissed, tugging at Amy's one gold bracelet. Amy tugged her hand away and looked down at Rouge.
"You may only care about your mission, but I can't let my boss be killed by those bastards. I'm not going to let anyone else die from them. I promised that to myself ten years ago, and I'm not going to sit back and fail now!" Amy leapt over her cubicle and charged at the nearest Egg Pawn. She took a deep breath, and outstretched her hand. Just like before, you know how to do this. Sure it's been five years since you've done it, but it's just like riding a bike. You never forget!
Amy's massive Piko Piko Hammer appeared in her hand, and immediately hit the ground behind her. Holy shit that was heavy! How did she carry it around so effortlessly back then? She grabbed it with her other hand and got back up to speed as she managed to lift it a foot or so off the ground, high enough to swing at the Egg Pawn's legs. The blow wasn't enough to damage it, but it sure did knock the thing back. Far enough that it was flung out of the window where it began to plummet towards the ground. Hopefully the area has been evacuated...
Of course, attacking an Egg Pawn would certainly draw the attention of the other Egg Pawns to Amy. She hadn't exactly thought about that, but it wasn't... necessarily bad, as Mr. Mogul was now safe from them. The nearest one lunged at her, a bit halfheartedly as she tried to swing her hammer at him. It used the distance between them to thrust out both of its arms to block the hammer, and tug it away from her. Amy gasped and stepped back as it drew her hammer back and swung, only to discover it had left its hand. It looked down at its empty claws, then looked up to find the hammer had reappeared in Amy's hands. She smirked at its confusion and raised the hammer over her shoulder, feeling her muscles strain to flip it forward, but she succeeded, sending the full weight of her hammer into the face of the Badnik, slamming it halfway into the floor.
She kicked off the top of its head to drop attack another Egg Pawn as the rest began shooting at her, and she was able to catch a few glimpses of Mr. Mogul's clash with Omega as she battled the Pawns and avoided their gunfire. She saw her boss get slammed into a cubicle, then he drove his fist against Omega's torso to minimal damage. Amy dove into the hallway that led to her boss' office and flattened herself against the wall. The bullets chipped away at the wall beside her, but none managed to get to her. Yet. When she heard the gunfire stop, Amy didn't give them a chance to move in on her. She sprinted out of the hallway through the office to reach the other side. She rolled around a cubicle and came face to face with another Egg Pawn. She pulled back and swung, knocking another one out of the window.
Mr. Mogul, unfortunately, wasn't doing as well as she was. He and Omega were locked together by their arms, pushing against each other, with Mr. Mogul's back to the blasted open window. And he was being pushed back. Amy tried to assist him, but there were three Egg Pawns blocking her way, and their guns were being trained on her. She stared in horror as Mr. Mogul fell to one knee, still being shoved back slowly across the office floor. He was drenched in sweat, baring his teeth at the robot, but it didn't matter, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hold Omega back.
Suddenly, Omega's head turned to face something out of the window. Mr. Mogul stopped moving backwards as Omega seemed to be trying to see something, and then Omega let go. The hulk of a machine released Mr. Mogul from its oppressive grasp and rocketed out of the window, past the helicopter and into the city. Amy didn't need to look at what direction it was flying to know where he was headed: Shadow. Hopefully he'll be able to handle it. In the meantime, they had to handle the last three Egg Pawns.
They'd been distracted alongside Omega, but once their leader had left, they returned their focus to Amy. She raised her hammer, not ready to go without a fight, when Rouge leapt over Amy's cubicle to land on top of one of the Egg Pawns. The bat landed on the Pawn's shoulders, and began driving punches into its head to little effect. At the very least, that Pawn an one of its companions were distracted by her. As the nearby Pawn turned to aim at Rouge, Amy rushed the one closest to her, ducking under its laser fire to strike it on its side. It was launched away, and she wasted no time going for the next one ready to shoot Rouge. It fell, and she turned to face the one Rouge was riding. It had backed up to a wall and began ramming its back against it, bashing Rouge into it. Amy could see Rouge's grip weakening as blood began smearing the wall where Rouge's head was hitting it.
Amy prepared her hammer to somehow only damage the Badnik, when Mr. Mogul had a burst of energy. He rose up, charged the final Egg Pawn, and grabbed it by its shoulders. Rouge let go, choosing to fall off to the side to find safety on the floor. Mr. Mogul hoisted the Badnik into the air and threw it at the helicopter, where it bashed against. Even that couldn't destroy these new Badniks? How powerful were they? The helicopter began spiraling out of control as it tried to gain more altitude, and it disappeared from the line of sight of anyone in the office.
Mr. Mogul let out a shaky huff and grabbed a nearby desk for support. He let out a low growl, and hit the floor. Amy didn't turn to face Rouge, but her eyes glanced over at her partner. The bat was staring at Mogul's unconscious body with a reluctant hunger. Amy understood what was going through Rouge's head- they had to get the Emerald from him, but the living coworkers were emerging from their hiding spots to see the damage. The only way to grab the Emerald would be in full view of the office. By the time the medics got up here, there'd be no way to recover it. If Rouge was identified robbing Mr. Mogul... what would the consequences from GUN be?
In a flash, the distance between thief and victim was closed, Mr. Mogul's coat jacket was flung open, and the yellow Chaos Emerald was revealed. Feminine fingers snatched the Emerald, and the thief was sprinting out of the office. Amy looked down at the Emerald in her hand and whimpered as she flung the office door open. She saved Rouge from blowing her cover, great, but now Amy was the one who stole from her boss in plain view of damn near everyone she worked with! As she turned the corner to enter the stairwell she struck her forehead with her palm. "Amy, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?" she mumbled.
ooo
Rouge watched Mammoth Mogul's body crumple to the ground after rescuing her from that Egg Pawn. She rubbed the back of her head and felt a little blood rub onto her hands. Well, robbing this guy wasn't the kindest way of saying thanks, but if he didn't have the Emerald in the first place Omega probably wouldn't have come here. She glanced at the direction Omega took off and shook her head. Hopefully Shadow will be able to take him on. Rouge turned back to Mogul, flicking her eyes to the emerging employees. Shit. She didn't have Shadow to cause a distraction... if there was any hope of getting that Emerald she'd have to rob Mogul in plain view of everyone here.
She scratched her palms with her sharp, dagger-like nails as she could feel them itch. They always felt like this before she placed something beautiful in her them, and there were few things more beautiful than a Chaos Emerald. She squatted down low, ready to pounce, snatch her dear Emerald, and dive through the window for her escape, but a flash of pink interrupted her. She gasped as she saw Amy grab the Chaos Emerald from her boss and run for the exit. She stood up slowly as the employees began to panic, screaming that Amy had robbed Mogul, their coworkers were dead, Mogul was injured. Rouge ran her tongue across her teeth, and once it was caught on one of her fangs, she spoke up. "S- someone call 911! I'll try and stop that thief, but Mammoth needs medical attention asap!"
The employees heard her, and immediately began withdrawing their cell phones. She leapt for the door and let her wings take her at a speed much faster than she could run out to the elevator. No, that'd be disabled with the rest of the tech shut down, so Amy must have taken... She soared to the stairwell and turned back. Thankfully, no one followed her. Good, she wouldn't look suspicious leaving, and she could meet back up with Amy. Peering down the staircase she could hear Amy's hurried footsteps a few floors below. Splendid. Rouge stepped onto the railing and dove headfirst down the center of the stairwell, only stopping when she saw her pass Amy, who jumped from Rouge's sudden appearance.
"Oh my Chaos, Rouge! Don't do that!" Amy shrieked, grabbing the rail so she didn't fall.
"Sorry, girl, just can't waste anytime considering you blew your cover!" she swatted Amy's shoulder, not enough to hurt her, but enough to show Amy she was pissed.
"I know but... but you didn't! I was just, I was thinking about what you were telling me the other day, how you guys were in trouble with your superiors at GUN, and I just... I didn't want you to get in trouble."
Rouge sighed, and took Amy's hand. "Well... Thanks. Now hold on tight, we're gonna-"
Amy stared at the bat who fell silent and asked, "Gonna what?"
"Shh! Did you hear that?" Rouge asked, looking back up the stairwell.
"No? What was it?" Amy asked, stepping away from Rouge.
Rouge looked back down and circled the empty middle to try and spy anyone down below. "Probably just the door closing behind me. Anyway, grab on, because I'll fly you down."
"Wait, how are we gonna get out of here? I doubt the police will let anyone just... leave!" Amy asked, as she climbed over the rail to latch onto Rouge.
"Come on, you think my car can't turn invisible? GUN gets the best toys, from invisible cars to company crippling computer viruses. Now make sure your palms aren't sweaty because I'm goin' down fast!" Rouge explained, before going back into a headfirst plummet to the bottom.
"But what about my car?" Amy asked, tightening her grip on the bat.
"They'll identify it. Consider it property of the state now." Rouge shot back.
"Aw..."
ooo
Shadow watched as Omega wrestled with Mammoth Mogul through the scope of his sniper rifle. He wet his lips and dug a fang into the bottom as he spectated their clash. His eye twitched as it pressed against the scope; he couldn't take the shot, not just because it'd be a trace of his and Rouge's involvement, but because Mogul and Omega were moving around too much. One second, he'd be aiming at Omega, but in the next, Mogul could be in the line of his fire. Uselessness filled him as he could do nothing to prevent Omega from acquiring the Emerald they were trying to get. If the two in the office even could get the Emerald now, he hadn't seen either since the shooting started- for all he knew, Rouge and Amy were dead. But that didn't mean he had to just let Omega kill Mogul and steal the Emerald!
How would Omega know that Mogul had an emerald anyway? Specifically, how would Omega know that Mogul had the Emerald at his office? Shadow lifted his head from the scope, everything made sense. How did he know Mogul had the Emerald with him? Green energy surrounded Shadow's hand as he thrust his open palm out, expending a pulse of Chaos power from within him. It wasn't as powerful as a Chaos Emerald, but it might draw Omega's attention. After the energy faded, Shadow leaned back in to look at the scope to find Omega's eyes locked on him. He smirked, and released another pulse. Come on you big stupid robot, take the bait!
Thankfully, Omega released Mogul and leapt out of the window towards Shadow. Wait, Omega was headed towards Shadow! The black hedgehog jumped back several feet and withdrew the handle of a Chaos Conduit and activated it, giving it a sword blade made of green, flaming energy. If Omega had upgrades like Metal Sonic had, there was no way he could singlehandedly defeat him, but maybe he could give some time to... whoever he was working with that was still alive.
In only a minute, Omega had crossed the city to reach Shadow's rooftop. Black, red, and yellow metal came crashing onto the roof, leaving a crater where Omega's hulking frame landed. "SHADOW, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU DIDN'T REALLY HAVE A CHAOS EMERALD," it boomed, with a slightly garbled voice.
"Sorry, Omega, looks like your scanners are a bit faulty!" Shadow called back with an air of smug mockery. That Chaos Emerald in its chest, that wasn't one GUN had a lock on. How many Emeralds did Metal Sonic have at this point!?
"ADORABLE. YOU THINK TAUNTING ME WILL CONVINCE ME YOU'RE A THREAT."
Shadow's smirk dropped into a snarl as he gripped his sword with both hands. "I don't want to fight you, Omega," he began.
"UNDERSTANDABLE. I WOULDN'T WANT TO DO BATTLE WITH ME EITHER." Omega retorted.
Shadow rolled his eyes and continued, "But I will. And I won't lose."
"YOU'RE RIGHT, YOU WON'T LOSE. YOU WILL SUCCEED IN COMMITTING SUICIDE BY MURDER." Without giving Shadow a chance to reply, Omega's thrusters activated and launched the two ton arsenal at the hedgehog half its size. Even with its jets, Shadow was able to easily dodge Omega, making sure he overshot it by several yards. Might make him look like a bitch, but he knows Omega can jet to the side instantaneously, he's not letting Omega use its usual tricks. As Shadow leapt to the side, he threw out two Chaos Spears (he'd have sent five at once if he had a damn Emerald), but they burst as they collided with Omega's metal frame. Get your head in the game Shadow, you've sparred with Omega before, you know Chaos Spear won't work!
"Omega, please! I don't know what they did to reprogram you but I'm sure you're still in there! If you were gone, you wouldn't recognize me, you wouldn't have your personality, so come on man, you gotta beat this!"
"SILLY MEATPUPPET," Omega said, raising a minigun at Shadow. "NO ONE CAN BEAT ME. NOT EVEN MYSELF." It unloaded on Shadow, spraying bullets at the nimble hedgehog. Shadow rolled to the side and pushed himself up into the air. There was no landing as his rocket boots suspended him a few inches above the rooftop, allowing him to skate just barely ahead of Omega's assault. Shadow growled, and clenched his fist as he began channeling all the Chaos power in him. Knowing he'd regret this later, Shadow Chaos Controlled behind Omega, and thrust his sword at him. While Metal Sonic was susceptible to his axe, it seemed Omega had been upgraded to resist his Chaos Weaponry. Fantastic.
Omega wasted no time spinning around to face Shadow, who raised his sword defensively. Both miniguns were shoved into Shadow's face, but he swiped up with his sword to lift their line of fire above him. The robot pulled his right arm away from the sword and tried to stick it in Shadow's side, but the hedgehog used his foot to keep the gun at bay. Next, two rocket launchers emerged from Omega's shoulders, and it released four miniature missiles each. Shadow jumped back and flung out as many Chaos Spears as he could muster without an Emerald to intercept the rockets. Each one exploded in midair between them, and out of the smoke Omega pursued Shadow, leading with its flamethrower as it broke through the sulfuric cloud that separated them. Shadow once again opted to dodge, leaping above Omega to kick off its head and reach the other side of the roof. Although Shadow could withstand a lot of pressure... Omega was powerful.
"SURRENDER SHADOW, YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T DEFEAT ME, EVEN WITH A CHAOS EMERALD, EVEN WITHOUT MY UPGRADES." Omega roared, spinning around to face its opponent.
"Shadow!" Rouge called through Shadow's headset. "We got it! Amy and I are safe, we're headed to the safe house!"
Shadow's breath was heavy, but he'd feigned superiority through worse. Although, was he really feigning it when he'd won? Sure Omega was kicking his ass, but it didn't have a Chaos Emerald! He managed to laugh, and when he looked up he made sure to give Omega a big, shit-eating grin. "Eh, doesn't matter. I don't really need to beat you. After all, by now the Emerald you wanted is long gone. You didn't forget why you came out to Casinopolis, did you? 'Cause it sure as hell wasn't to fight me!"
Omega took a step back and glanced back at the office it had departed from. The helicopter was gone? Somehow that mammoth, or that pink pest had gotten rid of it! While Omega faced away from Shadow, lunged at his former partner and tried to grab its Chaos Emerald, only to find the electrocuting of a lifetime. He was flung back from Omega and landed against the half-wall around the roof's perimeter.
"CLEVER, BUT FUTILE. MY TIME IS WASTED ON YOU. ATTEMPT TO IMPEDE ME AGAIN AND I'LL REPLACE MY OLD RED PAINT WITH YOUR BLOOD." Omega threatened, placing its claws on the Emerald in its chest. "CHAOS CONTROL!" It roared, before teleporting away.
Shadow panted as he felt his extremities tingle from the electricity still in his body, but he was able to pull himself to his feet. "Chaos, that was brutal," he growled, turning back to the office. Thank Chaos Amy and Rouge were able to get the Emerald, at the very least.
ooo
Only when the door to the safehouse was shut did Amy and Rouge grab each other and squeal. "We got a fucking Chaos Emerald!" Amy shrieked excitedly.
"Yes!" Rouge screamed, jumping up and down. "Give it to me, give it to me, lemme see it!"
Amy withdrew the beautiful, cyan Emerald and handed it to Rouge, whose face contorted into what can only be described as an o-face as her fingers wrapped around the glowing gem. "Gosh, it's been years since I've actually touched one of these things," Amy whispered, tracing the top of it with her finger. "I forgot how powerful they make you feel. I mean, I can't use the things, but lord it's invigorating!"
"Why do you think I'm so obsessed with them, hon?" Rouge replied, licking her lips. "I'm a simple girl, I'm attracted to power~"
"Pssh, yeah, and me apparently."
"Whaat?" Rouge replied with a laugh.
"Oh come on, changing in front of me yesterday? Making me hold you on the way down the stairwell? Over the past two days you haven't stopped coming onto me!"
Rouge swatted Amy again, far more playfully this time though. "Oh please, you're reading into things too much. Trust me, if I was into you, we'd be celebrating in my bedroom!" Rouge winked and turned away. "Well, at the very least we have an Emerald. We're hopefully caught up with Sonic now, and even more hopefully closing in on the Badniks. Metal has two and Omega has one... Hopefully that's all they have. And GUN is going after another, so as long as they succeed in acquiring it, the good guys'll be tied with the bad guys!"
"And then the good guys kick the bad guys' asses and we go back to normal, right?"
Rouge laughed and lowered the Chaos Emerald. "Maybe for you, Big Blue and the kid, but Shadow and I aren't exactly normal."
Amy managed to reply with a halfhearted laugh, but was saved from thinking up a verbal response as the door opened. Shadow stormed past the door, slammed it shut behind him, and approached Rouge. He looked down at the Emerald in her hands, nodded, and marched into the hallway, all the while ignoring Amy and Rouge's stares. He flung his bedroom door open and slammed it shut behind him.
"What's..." Amy slowly began to ask, before he emerged from his room and turned to them.
"Those fucks have Omega," he snarled, walking back out to the living room and grabbing the molding around the doorframe. He pulled himself up and grit his teeth as he began to aggressively do pull-ups. Amy's eyes widened in shock, she can honestly say she wasn't expecting him to start working out, although it could have been like how Sonic would run whenever anything got bad. Exercise was probably a great way to relieve stress. And a great way to show off his muscles, what the hell?
"Yeah, Shad, we know," Rouge replied with a sigh.
It took a moment for Shadow to reply, the only noise that came from him for a few pull-ups were sharp exhales from his nose with each time he lowered himself. He hadn't even broken a sweat yet! If Amy tried doing pull ups right now she'd be out of it in a rep or two! The pink hedgehog bit her tongue and turned to face Rouge when she noticed she was staring at Shadow's body. When Shadow finally did reply, it was short. "We failed."
"Shadow, it's okay!" Amy said, turning back to him. "We got the Chaos Emerald, we succeeded!"
"Shut up!" Shadow snapped at her, hanging from the frame to look down at her. "We still need you, to me, that's a failure."
"Well damn, sorry for losing my job just to get the damn Emerald for you!"
Shadow stopped, put didn't let go of the molding. "Losing your job? What?"
"Yeah. When Omega left, Mr. Mogul was knocked out, and I ran in and stole the Emerald before Rouge could!"
Shadow stared at her, speechless for a moment, before finding the perfect words to say: "What the hell is wrong with you, you idiot!?"
Amy stepped back and scoffed at Shadow's venomous words. Forget it, that dick head wasn't attractive in the slightest. She went to scream back but Rouge put her hand on Amy's shoulders to stop her. She shook her head, and gestured to the kitchen. "Come on, the first aid kit is in the kitchen. I need you to bandage up the cut on my head."
ooo
Rouge stood bent over the balcony of their apartment watching the sun descending over the horizon. Luckily she wasn't concussed, even though she had received quite the beating, and her head would heal up in a couple days. Small wins, she wouldn't need serious medical attention, they got a Chaos Emerald, this safehouse was insulated and would hide the Emerald from Omega and the Badniks. Sure, Omega was in those bastards' possession still, but at the same time that meant he wasn't gone forever. Hopefully.
The ivory bat sighed and found her pack of cigarettes on one of the two chairs on the balcony and withdrew a cigarette. She put the thin, white tube in her mouth and ignited it, took a deep breath, and removed it from her lips as she blew the smoke out into the cool, evening air. They got the fucking Chaos Emerald, why wasn't she happier!? Her entire life was dedicated to plucking beautiful, rare treasures from the undeserving, the small-dicked losers who needed symbols of status to showcase how totally not insecure they were! And she got the mother of all treasures! A jewel of unlimited power, formerly owned by an absolute pig who made his riches off of preying on the addictions of his casinos' patrons! She should be thief heaven right now!
Her misery was interrupted by the balcony sliding door opening, and Amy slipping out to join her. "Hey! How ya feelin'?" the hedgehog asked, pointing to the back of Rouge's head.
"Like a million rings!" Rouge groaned.
"Well ya certainly don't sound like it!" Amy said, bumping Rouge with her elbow.
"Well, I'm getting there. Wanna smoke?" Rouge asked, offering Amy the pack of cigarettes.
"Oh, no, I'm okay!" Amy replied. Last time she had to smoke one of those things she nearly vomited, after all.
"Come ooon, it's bad luck to let someone smoke by them self, you know!" Rouge insisted, waving the box.
"Ok, ok, fine, just one!"
Rouge snickered, and handed a cigarette to Amy. "Now inhale," she ordered, holding her cigarette steady in her mouth and bringing it up to Amy's. She puffed her cigarette as Amy inhaled hers, and the fire from Rouge's slowly spread to Amy's.
"Damn, that was pretty cool!" Amy managed to say amidst a coughing fit.
"Yeah, I know."
Amy withdrew the cigarette from her mouth and held it the same way Rouge, with just two fingers pinching it by the filter. "So what the hell was up with Shadow earlier?" she asked, looking down at the sidewalk under the balcony.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Again, like I said... work stress." Rouge hung her upper half over the balcony railing too, but kept her head up to watch the pink and orange sky. "That doesn't mean you should have to deal with his pissiness though."
"It's alright. I feel bad for him because he's missing his friend, but at the same time... Maybe don't be the Ultimate Dick, huh?"
Rouge laughed, and replied "Don't call him that, he'll twist it into being a compliment, Ultimate Cunt is something he can't make into a positive."
This time it was Amy's turn to laugh. "No way, I cannot imagine Shadow talking about his dick, ever."
"You're lucky, I wish I couldn't imagine Shadow talking about his dick."
"Really? What's it sound like?"
"As narcissistic as everything else he says."
"Okay yeah, I think I can start to imagine it now. Something like, 'Sonic, your dick is pitiful!'" she said in a mocking, raspy voice. "'I, the Ultimate Lifeform, have the world's greatest penis! Only fakers run with two legs, true hedgehogs run with three! Although my penis may burn from the cement, that feeling is just a part of the training any real hedgehog must undergo to master the Chaos Spear!'"
Although Rouge was crying with laughter, she managed to reply, "Pffft, yeah, a real Chaos 'Spear' with that one! I can just imagine him with his dick out and he's still trying to argue why he's faster and stronger than Sonic!"
"Ha! I'm trying not to imagine Shadow with his dick out, thanks! Bad enough... Well, anyway..."
"What were you gonna say?" Rouge asked, turning to Amy and taking another drag of her cigarette, which Amy did once she noticed Rouge smoking.
"Oh, what? Nothing!" Amy insisted, not looking up from the sidewalk below.
"No come on, tell me!"
"It's seriously nothing-"
"Well I'm gonna have to keep asking you what you were gonna say, maybe in front of Shadow, and if he thinks you're hiding something he'll make you admit it-"
"Okay! It's just... Earlier when Shadow was doing those pull ups I was just thinking his body wasn't... The worst thing ever. So it's bad enough trying to not think about that, but now you're trying to make me imagine his dick!"
Rouge was silent for a moment, but cracked up once she'd processed what Amy had said a third time. "Ohhh, I see, bad enough you gotta stop yourself from fantasizing about him, thinking about that might set you over the edge?"
"What? No, believe me, I'm not fantasizing about him! I admit, I thought he was attractive, but after he snapped at me... Fuck him, I say. No, it's not that it's just... I don't know, seeing his muscles while he's working out, and you... always showing your body off, it kinda made me..."
"What? Self-conscious?"
"Yeah..."
"Pssh, what of? You have a great body."
"And you continue to come onto me," Amy huffed. Rouge gasped and swatted at Amy's shoulder again.
"You said I had a good body first, dumbass, so I don't wanna hear it! Complaining about me "coming onto you" when you're hitting on me, the nerve of some people!"
"Anyway, yeah, I used to have a great body. Did you see me struggle to swing my own Piko Piko Hammer earlier? I'm way out of shape."
Rouge nodded, but waited to reply after she took another hit of her cigarette (again, Amy followed her lead on when to smoke). "Well, everyone can stand to work out a bit more. Hey, I'd be happy to give you our workout regimen. Or, well, an abridged version, it's pretty intense."
"Aw, thanks! I have to thank you for bringing me in on this, by the way."
"Yeah, thank me for getting you wanted by the police..."
"Well, being a criminal kinda sucks now, but honestly... This is the first time I've felt alive for, gosh, five years? Last time I felt this... Like I had a purpose, like I was exhilarated was when those Black Arm creeps invaded Earth. And I know we were all in danger then, but I felt like I was real, it felt natural. I've always felt that whenever we went out on an adventure. It feels good to be saving the world sometimes!"
Rouge smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I think I know what you mean. It's definitely exciting, just... don't get too attached to it. Trust me, saving the world once a year is probably a healthy amount, but when you're like Shadow and I... Let's just say making a living out of fighting evil is pretty draining. You form stupid habits like these and... ya know," Rouge said, gesturing to her cigarette.
"I don't know, what?" Amy asked, just as Rouge had asked moments before.
"Ohh, no, you're not getting it outta me. Trust me, you don't wanna know. Now come on, I think the Ultimate Cunt is done with his little workout. The couch in the main room turns into a futon, sorry, but it's the best we have. We can get your stuff tomorrow morning. I'm assuming GUN will be handling your case, and I'm confident I can get assigned to it to buy you a little time."
Amy smiled, and without stopping to think about what she was doing, pulled Rouge in for a hug. "Thank you. Really, for everything. I feel so lucky to have you as a friend. And Shadow... as an acquaintance."
Rouge laughed and hugged back, but when her face was finally out of Amy's line of sight, her smile fell. Yeah, she was more than happy to help Amy now that the poor girl was an outcast (partially thanks to Rouge), but how long could they keep her safe? How long could they keep the Chaos Emerald safe? Just because they were hidden wouldn't mean Omega would just give up looking for the cyan Emerald. No doubt, he'd be looking for it. They'd just need to come up with some kind of plan to stop him before it was too late...
ooo
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