Chapter Four

Josh: Hi everyone! The author is a little busy right now, so I'm going to start this chapter off.

What? I'm not busy!

Josh: Be quiet. I read through this chapter. There's one part that I'm not happy with.

...The pajamas?

Josh: Yes. So I get to introduce the chapter.

Fair enough. Take it away.

Josh: Okay guys, this is where we start to see some friendlier faces. And where our little story starts to take off!

Our little story? You mean my little story!

Josh: Go away.

Josh: Hope you guys enjoy!

I awoke this time in a much friendlier looking place. I was lying in a quaint little bed, with blue covers. The room itself was a sky blue, with a window on the right hand wall showing a beautiful day. I got out of bed and saw that I was in a pair of... pink pajamas. The top had a rather cute baby lion, and the bottom had the cute lion doing a variety of cute things, like chasing a butterfly, or picking flowers. Certainly nothing like the pajamas I would wear. I saw a note on the dresser next to my bed.

"Hey! Sorry about the pajamas, but the males around here don't exactly wear clothes. Come downstairs, I'll make you some breakfast! ~Amy" Next to it was a cutesy little heart. My stomach growled for some nourishment. I quickly obeyed the note and hurried downstairs.

True to her word, there was the pink hedgehog, in her trademark red skirt and red headband. Although, she was much taller than the video games made her out to be. She stood to my shoulder. Her face brightened when she saw me.

"Oh good, you're up! What would you like?" She asked cheerfully.

"Uh... eggs are fine." I replied, not entirely sure what to say.

"Coming right up!" She winked and headed towards the fridge. "How do you want them?"

"Scrambled please."

"Want some toast with that?"

"Yes please."

"Well aren't you polite!" She grabbed the egg carton, made her way to the stove, put a pan down, and turned on the heat.

"Thank you. That's very kind of you to say that." I nodded my head a bit. Amy smiled and sat down at the kitchen table. I took a look around the kitchen. It was a creamy yellow, with cabinets of a similar color, although the handles were red. A small window above the sink was covered by some yellow curtains with pictures of apples all across it. The rest of the kitchen was fairly standard, with a stove, fridge, sink, and a table which Amy gestured me to sit at. She pulled the chair out from next to her and patted the seat. I sat down and faced her.

"Okay, introductions," She said. "I'm Amy." She extended her hand a little. We were sitting close enough together that she really only needed to raise her hand up out of her lap.

"Yeah, I know who you are. I'm Josh." I shook her hand.

"How do you know who I am?" She asked, a puzzled look crossing her face. I explained the whole video game, television, and comic book situation to her. "Really? I've been on television?" She asked excitedly.

"Well, yeah." I said. "You're handling this a little better than I thought."

"Are you kidding?" She said, as she stood up to check the stove. "It's been my dream to have millions of people know me. You can't help but wonder how these Sega people know what we're doing though." She added thoughtfully as she cracked two eggs into the pan. "Is two okay?"

"Um..." My stomach rudely butted in as I was about to say yes.

"Three it is." She said, half laughing. She cracked one more and sat back down next to me. "Okay Josh, I hope you don't mind, but I have a few questions for you."

"How I got here?"

"That's one. Another one I'd like to know is why Eggman dropped you out of his base. But first, tell me a little about yourself."

"Well, I live with my little brother on Earth. His name's Jacob by the way."

"Oh, where's he? What's he like?"

"...Ah... well, we'll get to that." She nodded, and I continued on. "I'm 16 years, I'm going into the eleventh grade, and I work at a grocery store."

"What about your parents? What do they do?" I paused for a moment, wondering if I should tell her the truth.

"My parents... my parents are dead."

A silence fell across the room. Amy looked at me with sad eyes. It was a while before she found something to say.

"I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to-"

"Hey, it's okay, I'm over it now. What's done is done. I believe their in a better place now."

"So, who's been taking care of you two?" She asked, full of concern.

"No one. Me and Jacob feared that if someone found out, we could be separated when we went into foster care. So I got a job, and we've managed to scrape by for about a year now. Uh, Amy, the eggs?"

"Oh, right!" She jumped up and quickly tended to the eggs. "So, you've lived by yourself? That must have been hard!"

"We got by." I said with a shrug. "Actually, it brought me and my brother much closer than we ever were before..." I trailed off as my thoughts turned to my little brother.

"Josh... what happened to Jacob?" Amy asked cautiously. I took a deep breath and began to tell her the story.

"I just got off of work, when I get a text from him that said 'help.' I got home as fast as I could, but he was gone. All that was left was a Chaos Emerald."

"A Chaos Emerald?" Amy gasped. "On Earth?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure how it got there, but there it was. Then I looked outside and saw all of these robots. They kidnapped me and took the Emerald. They put me and Jacob in cells. When Eggman took us out, he hooked Jacob into this machine, and put me in a glass box. Eggman said he'd found a way to power up the Emeralds or something by channeling raw emotion into them. He said the only one he needed was fear. With that, he tortured Jacob-" My throat caught as I thought of his screams. I tried to keep the tears from flowing, but they came down anyways. "He tortured Jacob so he could get fear out of me. The only thing I could think of doing was to pray to the Master Emerald for help. And it did. It sent an emerald crashing through the glass. I used it to blow up the place. Me and Jacob gathered the other six and tried to use Chaos Control. Just before Chaos Control, Eggman grabbed me. Jacob and the Emeralds left, but I didn't. Then, he dropped me out of the tower and..." I wasn't quite sure what happened after that. "I guess someone saved me."

Amy put the plate of hot eggs in front of me, as I cried. She scooted her chair close to me and gave me a much needed hug. I cried into her shoulder for a bit. When I had calmed down quite a bit, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Then my stomach growled. I glared at it, then grabbed a fork and started eating.

"Don't worry Josh." Amy said, giving my free hand a reassuring squeeze. "Jacob's fine! If you guys were using Chaos Control to get home, that's where he'll be now."

"Are you sure?" I asked between a mouthful of eggs.

"Positive! Chaos Control isn't random. It takes you where you want to go." Amy said. I breathed a sigh of relief. That was the best news I heard all day.

"Oh, shoot, I forgot the toast!" Amy said, flustered.

"It's fine." I said smiling, and laughing a bit. I was still a little sad, but I felt better now that I knew Jacob was home, safe. "So, now what? How can I get home?" I asked.

"I'm not really sure. But as for your first question, what we need to do now is get you some new clothes." She said.

"New clothes?"

"Your old ones were torn to shreds. Probably from when you blew up Eggman's control room." She said. "Here, I'll get you some temporary clothes, and then, we're going shopping." She added with a wink.

Great...

End of Chapter Four

Josh: Hey, why are your chapters so short?!

Um... One part inspiration, One part laziness.

Josh: Inspiration? From who?

Robert Paterson! The author of the Maximum Ride series? His chapter's are short too!

Josh: You aren't Robert Paterson. Write longer chapters.

Well I already wrote a bunch of them!

Josh: How many?

...Seven.

Josh: ...Seriously?

Yeah.

Josh: Wow. Do the readers even like the short chapters?

I dunno, maybe! What do you guys think? Should I write short chapters, or longer chapters?