Chapter 16: Restless Relaxation

Amy and Nebula returned to their apartment downtrodden. It was around nine o'clock in the evening so the sun had already set long ago and both of the girls were exhausted from all of their fruitless investigation. They had gone on to the mall just as they planned; some of the shopkeepers recognized the two girls they were looking for from earlier that day but nobody seemed to know anything about them. There was also no luck in finding Sonic or Shadow, nor were there any other clues linking them to the two girls. Apart from them looking alike, there was hardly any basis to connect the two pairs, aside from looking somewhat similar. Nebula thought for a moment that maybe they were related, but this didn't quite explain their boyfriends disappearance. She then thought back to Shadow's journal entry and grimaced at it's implications.

Amy had been the one who proposed that they ask about the power outage, however, when they had asked the maintenance staff about it, they couldn't quite explain to them how exactly it had happened. Apparently the circuit boards had been kept untouched and functioning. One maintenance person stated that "it was as if the power had just been sucked out," but neither investigator could connect this information to the girls or even if it was relevant.

They continued their investigation for a few hours before Nebula finally decide to call it a day. Amy tried her best to keep up Nebula's morale, but quite honestly, with all the confusion that had ensued today, Nebula couldn't quite find anything to be optimistic about.

They were both exhausted as they entered their living room. Amy simply stood still by the entrance while Nebula walked to the couch and plopped onto it. Figuring that she try her best to not disturb her tired friend, Amy quietly walked over to a chair on the side and sat herself down. She sat like this for a few minutes before she saw a figure walking up to the doorway.

Selene saw that the light in the living room was on and quietly approached to see if her friend and sister were there. Looking in she saw Amy sitting down with her legs crossed while Nebula was flopped down on the couch and asleep. Nebula only ever slept like this when she was exhausted or stressed over something, so Selene carefully walked over to Amy and spoke as tactfully as she possibly could.

"Hey Amy. How was the day for you guys?" she asked.

"Not so good." Amy looked over at Nebula and stood up to walk into the kitchen with Selene curiously following behind her. The two sisters were her best friends and Amy figured that it wouldn't really do any good if she just kept her problems hidden from one of them.

She reached the table and turned back to look at Selene. "We couldn't contact Sonic or Shadow after the whole robot incident. We didn't see the fight but we know for a fact that they were the only ones who could have taken them down. But whenever we called them, they wouldn't pick up the phone, almost as if they couldn't or didn't want to. After an event like that, it really got us kinda worried."

Selene listened with a troubled look on her face. "That sounds kinda serious. No wonder Nebula looked so worn out."

"She'd never admit it," Amy said, "but she really does worry about Shadow, maybe more than she should."

"I could probably say the same about you and Sonic," Selene replied. "I know that the situation you were talking about sounds dangerous, but from what you told me, I don't think whatever's happening is anything they can't handle. Whenever they do say their going somewhere, it's always something that's at least ten times more dangerous than what's happened in the city. I'm sure that they'll get back with you in no time and fumble around for some half baked excuse for why they couldn't tell you about it."

This little speech seemed to bring back Amy's upbeat personality. "You're totally right! It's not like I have anything to worry about when it comes to my Sonic. Shadow's a pretty tough guy too, so he'd make some good back-up. Maybe we're just overreacting."

However, the more Amy thought about it, the more she questioned the cause of Nebula's stress. When she had looked up from reading Shadow's journal, she didn't seem to show any signs of overprotective worry. The look on her face seemed more…. pissed, with a mixture of confusion. It was as if she had uncovered some sort of dark secret but she wasn't exactly sure what it was, but that it might have had something to do with their disappearance. These thoughts had circled in Amy's head and once again put a slight shadow of doubt.

She looked up and saw that Selene had already started walking towards her bedroom. She looked back and told Amy one last piece of advice. "You should probably get some rest. Maybe it'll help clear your head in the morning."

Amy looked down and started walking to her bedroom as Selene closed her door. As she got ready for bed, she still couldn't help her gut feeling that said that all was not quite well. 'I'm sure Sonic's doing just fine.'

(Meanwhile)

Nikki and Nights had entered their apartment exhausted. They had just gotten back from delivering the last ingredient for the day. Earlier that night Nikki had teleported Nights and herself to the lake and watched as Nights handed the bag of black blood over to Zorra. Zorra squinted in surprised delight as she saw the black blood bag. "so they put it in LIttle bags now. how conVEnient."

Zorra ripped the bag open and dumped it's contents into the river, slowly spreading it's dark color across the lake. As the water and it's reflections became more murky, Nikki spoke up. "So we helped you get started. Is there anymore weird magic stuff you need us to get?"

"now would NOT be the best TIME. the next few things are rather TRICKy to get. it's best if you save your REST for toMORRow. i'll just let the BLOOD settle in for a while."

Now here they were, just about ready to fall flat into bed. Nikki flopped down onto the couch while Nights sat at a chair close to the entrance. "Our first day as girls and it already sucks!" Nikki remarked.

"At least Zorra's considerate enough to let us rest a bit after this whole fiasco," Nights stated. "For a witch, she's not really all that bad."

Nikki turned over from her usual resting place and gave one final remark. "Yep. Things will get better once we're all good and relaxed." Closing her eyes, she couldn't help but feel as if they had ignored an important aspect of back, her eyes darted open as she shouted what they were forgetting, stopping Nights from entering her room. "Holy crap! Weleft all of our new clothes at the mall!"

(Back with Amy)

Amy woke up uncharacteristically late today. As she walked to the kitchen she saw that Nebula was still laying on the couch and Selene was already at the kitchen table eating a typical bowl of cereal. The pink hedgehog grabbed a bowl and sat down as she served herself.

Selene looked up from her bowl. "So, I trust you slept well?"

"Yeah, I guess I really needed it." Amy said as the extra beauty sleep brought back a sparkle in her eye. They continued to eat in silence, Nebula not waking up yet to join them. When they were both done Amy had picked up their bowls and put them in the sink to clean them. While Amy took up the morning chores as usual, Selene decided to look through her text messages. There was one message that sent a shock throughout her body. She stood up abruptly, causing Amy to sense her distress.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked.

"I got a message from Adam. He says he's in the hospital!"

….

The news had sent the girls toward the hospital in a worried frenzy. Even Nebula woke up and got ready in haste out of concern for her sister's feelings. Hearing the news from the kitchen practically sent her eyes flying open.

Once again Nebula held Amy as she flew at a quick speed, letting Selene take the lead. Once they had entered the door and asked the lady at the desk about a purple hedgehog, she immediately told them the directions to Adam's room. The trio wasted no time in rushing down the hall and opening the door to his room. In front of them they saw an average sized magenta hedgehog sitting in what seemed to be a king sized bed. He had a surprised look on his face, but when he saw Selene, he couldn't help but smile.

He stretched his arms out as Selene ran to to give him a hug. As they embraced, Amy couldn't help but admit to herself that they looked adorable sitting at the edge of that oversized bed. They separated and Selene looked directly into Adam's eyes.

"Adam, how exactly did you get here?"

Adam grimaced and looked down. "I was jumped by two girls. I have to admit they were way stronger and faster than I expected."

A chill ran between both Nebula and Amy. Nebula stepped forward with an incredulous look on her face. "Do you remember what these girls looked like?"

"They were both hedgehogs. One had red and black fur while the other was a light shade of blue. I've never seen them before though."

Nebula tried to process this while Amy stepped up to ask her own question. "Do you have any idea why they attacked you?"

"Well… the answer to that might weird you out, but… they kept going on about how they needed my blood and when I woke up in the hospital I heard that one of my earlier blood samples went missing." This answer caused all of the girls' eyes to widen in surprise. Neither Amy nor Nebula could begin to comprehend why the girls they were tracking would need something so strange and Selene was just downright horrified by what her boyfriend told her.

"What are they, some kind of witches?" Amy thought aloud. By this point Nebula was definitely considering this to be a possibility.

"Hey, you girls don't have to worry," Adam said. "They didn't so much as leave a scratch on me. But I do have this annoying back pain."

Selene continued to look into his eyes. "Well, I guess I can help with that." She then reached her arm around his neck and placed her hand on his back. Her hand began to glow with bright purple energy as Adam's back pain slowly went away. Once he had had enough of her energy, she backed away from her embrace and gave a soft smile. "I gotta wonder what the doctors here would think if they saw me heal you like nothing."

Adam smiled. "If you think that would be interesting, you should have seen their reaction when they walked in and saw that their gigantic monster was replaced with a scrawny hedgehog. They looked at me for about five minutes and expected me to change back." They both laughed while Adam stood back up. Before they could exit through the open door, someone in a wheelchair with a cast on his leg rolled by and glanced at the couple.

"Hey! You're the two freaks that sent me and my bros here yesterday!" he said.

Adam looked at the guy with a dark stare that really fit well with his gothic attire. "If you want we can send you to the morgue too." This shut the guy up and he quickly strolled down the hall and around the corner. The couple then laughed a few seconds after this and walked out the door with their arms wrapped around each other. Nebula and Amy were still standing in the room with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

(Back with Nikki)

Both of the girls woke up uncharacteristically early, apparently anxious to get their next task out of the ran with unmatchable speed towards the lake in what they considered to be a warm-up jog. They reached the lake during the early sunrise and were surprised to find that the water wasn't quite as murky as they had expected. It was still a bit darker than they remembered but it now held a surreal dark glow to it. Not long after, Zorra had formed above the water in her misty, ghost-like visage.

"you're here EARLier than i expected. EXcellent. TRUly the mark of dedicated WARRiors."

"We're flattered that you think so highly of us," Nights said, "but if you don't mind, maybe you can tell us what else to do so we can get this done sooner."

"why of COURse. now you imPLY that you are up to any chaLLenge to regain your true forms.

"Well yeah," Nikki said. "Just say the word and we'll be on the case."

"EXcellent. now, how GOOD is your swimming."

AN: Yet another transitional chapter. Next time, we'll see Sonic and Shadow face probably their strangest challenge yet. Nebula, Adam, and Selene are owned by Nebula the Hedgehog and Selene the Hedgehog.