Visit From The Future
Disclaimer: I don't own the Sonic Crew. Any lyrics to any albums or mix-tape songs released by various artists belong to them and related legal owners. I'm not trying to get sued over here man.
Claimer: These other characters you've never heard of before are mine; I mean specifically the kids and Night.
To Sonamyfan4lyfe: Wow, I can't really say anything to that fact. That's cool…I inspired someone to write…damn…kind of gives me that warm fuzzy feeling…then I play Gears of Way and spilt someone's head in two and then I play F.E.A.R. (Yes I bought it again) and shotgun someone over the ledge as they grabbed the flag, then it goes away…not that I don't like that feeling, just telling the truth; cause that's what really happened ha-ha. The point of this written section; Thank you, I very flattered and I hope you enjoy this.
To e-mailer babyblughost—(I won't add your email extension or the full name on the chance you might get some hate mail or just get spammed out. either way I got feed back I wanted and hope to get more; its nice when you don't just demand public reviews huh, leaves more 'less hated' options): I would've written an e-mail back but this benefits more than just you. My whole position on Knux/Julie-Su is that I dislike them, a lot. I grew up in the video game universe, not the comics. The couple is something I can't see if you catch my drift; my friend Sasha has been pushing this whole Espio/Julie-Su thing on me so that's how that whole thing came to be. I've gone through some of the comic but I think it's kind of messy since they added Shadow, Rouge, etc. and I'm also like what? 70 issues behind and I don't got the time to catch up so I'll work with what I got and know. While I sort of like Julie-Su as a character and her design (Did you know she was to have a sawed-off shot gun originally? Oh man, why Archie? That would've been sweet!), I don't like her with Knuckles; in the comics she is with him and it probably won't change, but there are two different worlds, games and comics so my bases off Rouge and Knuckles is off the video game world; Julie-Su is mixed in for plot reasons but I don't mean to piss off her fans and their relationship preferences. Thanks for not send half an e-mail of cusses. I know and honestly, Sasha said she had a thought and dream about the Espio/Julie-Su thing and she started focusing on it and it grew on her, so now she loves it and it gives Knuckles to Rouge like she wants; (sigh) the "miracles" of A.D.D. huh? Anyway hope that helped some. Hope you like this one.
Look I know I promised faster updates and I know ya'll wanna kill me but you got to understand, this not only takes some time…I get off track VERY easily. Sorry, is all I can say, so…sorry. I was listening to "Two Shots of Henny" while writing this most of the time, so that wasn't helping out much either. I also have to admit I've been looking up so many games that it's got to be unhealthy, Mass Effect, Two Worlds, Eternal Sonata (Dude the demo was funny and fun, a little too anime/cartoonish though), Halo 3 (Duh, who isn't), Haze, Call of Duty 4, Star Craft 2, Assassin's Creed, and Grand Theft Auto 4: which got pushed waaay back to 2008 so they can properly finish it; all amounting into a pissed off Snowman.
The coolest one so far though besides Call of duty 4 and Halo 3 was the next unnamed F.E.A.R. game. And I did vote on the poles for the name, ("Dead Echo" baby, that is a vicious name; come August 10th we'll find out which name won; so long as it's not "Dark Signal", I want "Dead Echo", if not then "Project Origin".) The game F.E.A.R. was tight and well all that changed was the name and the character we control in game, due to legal stuff; the bad part? It's all about Alma: for those that don't know: she's a freaking 8-9 year old who killed delta squad, killed her own father and leveled an entire city. Truth of the matter, I had trouble sleeping alone in night for a while when I played the first game, I'm dead serious. Yes, it was that scary and creepy and yet, so much damn fun that I couldn't tell what to be; little screaming girl scared or go Special Ops Assault with the penetrator (Don't you just love nailing people to walls?) during the game play. I checked the poles, Dead Echo is behind by like 4 percent but they're not done with the counting yet! Here's to the new F.E.A.R.! (AKA Dead Echo! heh-heh)
(Sigh) So many cool games…so little to play 'em all…that is…unless I cut this out of my life for a nice long while, hmm? Who knows? I have to get them first…god damn, I can't wait! Alright that was enough of my random rambling.
Enjoy a nice long chapter; here we go!
Chapter 17 — Daddy!
Same Day; Nighttime;
The moon slowly made its way into the middle of the sky, the brimming glow giving a soft light onto the life of the planet. Forest trees and grass remained still as the wind ceased to blow, the city lights began to dim, street lights turning off in unpopulated area during the night. Once in the hour a car may have sped by silently, rushing home. There were the few kids who could care less about it being close to twelve, others rushed home trying to beat the clock and hopefully sneak back inside the house before the two heads of the house gave them what for.
Seeming as many little sprinkles of light in the sky, the stars were a beautiful sight; they were incased perfectly in the dark blue and purple atmosphere. Admiring this sight were two lovers. Our sarcastic and back-talking and yet serious chameleon and the hardheaded but soft-emotional echidna that we all know and love (at least I think most of us, I know Kal0 doesn't). Espio had his back resting against a tree as he stood up, leaning back on it. His arms locked around Julie-Su's waist, her arms resting on his. Her head fell back on to his chest, the dreadlocks cushioning. While he had a content smirk, she had a beaming smile that would win against his anytime.
"It's so beautiful," The echidna sighed happily, "I've never imagine anything as wonderful as this, not even in my dreams." She felt his chest rise as he breathed deeply. They had left for a more outdoor setting, taking a walk near a quiet street and stopping a small set of trees just before an opening of a park. Right now they over looked a large open field, hold one another. They were at most, twenty feet from the closest sidewalk, but it was so quiet and peaceful in this area right now.
"I'm still wondering why we just decided to come outside out of no where," Espio tightened his hold gently, bringing her even closer to his body. Julie-Su smiled as she felt right for not leaving. Amy had gone home for the night and offered Julie-Su a better place to sleep but for some reason she declined. It all had to do with one look to Espio, and she simply said 'No thanks,'
Suddenly she felt like yelping. The echidna remembered who she was with, "Espio…" Julie-Su turned her head and gave him a soft but playful glare.
"Sorry," He looked back at her with the same expression, "Hey its your fault for putting yourself in that position, and growing thick in the best places," Espio smirked as his hands groped softly up and down the left side of her hip down to her butt.
"We're in public," She said it to shame him, "What if someone sees?" She looked around; hoping no one was around to see.
"Public, private, doesn't really matter,"
She gasped, "Heh, of course it does!"
"Either way they're gonna here you screaming/moaning/groaning/shouting/squealing," He smiled devilishly when she flushed like never before, "Take your pick," He winked at her. Espio leaned to his left more and crouched on his legs slightly, his left arms ran down her leg and lifted her off her feet by lifting underneath her knees; out of shock of the sudden move she gasped. The chameleon smiled as his grip kept her knees to her chest and left her snuggly lifted.
"Oh my!" Julie-Su flushed, "What's gotten into you? Where are we going?"
"Where we're not in public anymore," Espio kissed her once quickly to keep her comments to herself for now. He started using his quick speed, both legs kicked off any surface they landed on launching them forward at a high speed. With every other hop he gained a little more jumping distance and his speed increased. They traveled quickly through the long two hour walk path they had taken. Espio was blazing through the long path, coming closer to his temporary sleeping quarters at Tails' place. This high speed hopping and sprinting were nothing compared to Sonic's but credit is owed, Julie-Su looked at her surroundings, lights smeared into blurry lines and disappeared as they moved too far ahead for visibility.
She looked in awe and tried to make sense of her still surroundings. Never could she imagine that Espio could move like this; she knew so much about him and yet, knew so little. Way before when they had first met she knew he was different, but she never thought she would end up in his arms. Julie-Su let her arm and hand out and let the wind speed around it invisibly. A jingling caught her attention; from the cuff of her globe the bracelet that started everything had jingled down her arm. It was that day that she learned more about Espio than most of his closest friends did. They knew about one another, but never met before; it was at jewelry expo. Vector was looking for some ice for himself and had plans for a ring; the information on that was top secret.
Her current job as front desk worker at hotel was the only thing paying the bills, then barely some extras. A twinkle caught her eyes, a lovely silver bracelet, there were four diamonds tinted pinkish-purple across a small oval silver plate, the finish on the silver was polished and coated with stain and scratch resistant material. At three grand, all she could do was awe and love it from behind glass. Vector came up to the counter in his usual loud and rowdy manner, Espio followed quietly. She and Espio made eye contact and examined one another. While Vector started asking for items and tossing them when it disappointed, Espio moved over and actually asked her the question;
"Is your name Julie-Su?"
She answered and then they talked. Not knowing any common ground, their subject was Vector and his manner for obtaining his desired chain. Julie turned around at the counter, her back to what she was admiring at the subject of jewelry, talking about how she was only here to look around. He asked her choice product if she would buy it, that pink/purple diamond laced silver bracelet. Vector broke a silence they had after response, ordering Espio to follow. They said bye and parted. At the end of her trip through the building, Julie-Su was sick and tired of just admiring and decided to leave before she pulled out a card and charged up something expensive, a deep but smooth voice caught her before she left the automatic doors. It was him, he smirked slightly, and handing her a small blue gift box and understood her strange and confused looked;
"Eh," He shrugged, "I didn't want to see you so down about being here and just looking around," She said thank you while trying to hide her gasps and lifted the box top, she brushed back her dreads and saw the whole set, her gasp came out along with an unbelievable smile. Not only the bracelet but two matching echidna dreadlock braces with purple and pink strands of soft metal strings that hung off loosely like yarn from the cuff part that would go on the thick root of an echidna's dreads. It was too much, she felt bad; she looked up to decline and return it but all she heard was "See ya around Jules," and found no kind of chameleon around.
Her memories faded back to the current as Espio's running hops and jumps slowed into a walk. They arrived at the house; Espio chuckled as he sped walk around the side. He hoped the yard's five-foot wooden fence. She thought that by now he would've let her walk, "Espio, you can let me down you know," He took her pass the glass sliding door.
Espio smirked deviously and closed the door behind him. He walked coolly towards the steps and quietly avoided making creaking sounds while going down the steps. "You're gonna need your energy," She let out a silent yelp; her face was redder then ever. The echidna shivered as she felt his hands rub more sensually down her thighs and stroking more of her sides. She giggled because it made her tickle, the doorknob turned and the hinges creaked as he opened it more and brought her in. His fingers slid down in-between her thighs and until they reached her pleasure spot; he rubbed it lightly making her giggle and kick her legs as she flushed heavily. With his lustful smirk the light stroke turned into a sensual rub that made her moan, and well…you know the rest; simply put…bumping that tang all night long.
It was a pleasant morning and the island was quiet. The night before passed into day, amazingly for once, the guardian and the thief did not bicker or argue or even fight over who slept where. Both managed to sleep in the living room without a problem. It was a seamless transition from the night to this morning. There was beautiful sky with white cotton candy like clouds that speckled the sky. And below on the flying piece of land the grass swayed slowly and trees had their branches and leaves blew with the wind when a strong enough gust managed to push it. On a large plain of grass, two figures stood staring each other off until the blue one began stretching. The red one shook his dreads and took a deep breath and with a chuckle began stretching as well.
"C'mon water boy," Knuckles smirked and clap his hands together once. Bright white gloves covered his hand; they were new and very comfortable. Made from a material that he'd never heard of, they where built to last a lifetime. The fabrics were laced and super-strengthened with a sprayed metallic property. It was made in Japan, the knuckles barb slots; included in every echidna set of gloves, were specifically for hard work or heavy duty. The knuckle barb slots had a metal sheet wrapped around the inside that protected against most heavy impacts.
Time to break them in.
"Let's see what you got red!" Chaos made a deep breath sound and balled his fist as he relaxed his arms to rest on his body on the front. His eyes glowed brightly and his deep blue body lightened in color. "So Knuckles, what's up with the new gloves?"
"Eh they're a gift," Knuckles knew the body of water's fighting styles. So knowing Chaos started out calm and then went nuts, he took a sprint-starting position. Both hands on the ground and both legs in sprinting positions.
Chaos had learned how to mimic others body moments to express. Tikal tried to teach him every single one, the eyebrow raise, the unhappy frown, and she pushed it a little too far with the puppy eyes. The water warrior gave Knuckles a questioning look, "Is that so, from who?"
"Don't worry," Knuckles said coolly. He blinked and heard Chaos' watery sprint. "What no signal this time?" Knuckles bolted forward and charged him; Chaos warped one of his arms into a long whip like weapon.
He stretched it out and cuffed Knuckles' ankle. A quick swift lifted and a punishing smash into the dirt left Knuckles down for a few seconds, he stood up and brushed himself off. Chaos streamed his body and whirled around him. Knuckles smirked and kept his eyes focused on something; he snatched at the watery tornado surrounding him and missed. Growling once he tried at again and had his hand go right through Chaos' body. A deep laugh from Chaos enraged the echidna;
"C'mon, Rouge really has changed you," He chuckled as he noticed Knuckles grit his teeth. Knuckles rammed his hands into the water wall with roar, "Whoa!"
The swirl stopped and Knuckles had Chaos' body by his head. Knuckles started his own whirlwind spin, Chaos may have been water but he knew a way to get a hold of him. After the seven circles, Knuckles let go and in the mix of his tilting sight and spinning brain he saw he threw the water warrior into the trees. His body broke and splashed into pieces as the slammed into the trees with great force and landed in puddles on the ground. The water life form groaned in his voiced thoughts and summoned strength to pull his broken body together. Chaos had ghostly growl, he rushed Knuckles; the echidna only flashed his fangs and readied his arms. Chaos threw a punch to his stomach, Knuckles lowered his left arm and blocked it, the water warrior spun around and tried an uppercut before the blow was struck Knuckles cart wheeled to the side and threw two low punches. Chaos could feel pain, and two blows to his lower side made him grunt, and reminded him that this was Knuckles he was sparing with.
Chaos spun around and used momentum to strengthen his swing. The echidna ran out breath when the strike hit his stomach directly. Chaos didn't let down his guard or his attack. The Lord of Destruction side punched Knuckles on the face, once across with the left hand then his right hand. Knuckles blocked a following uppercut and grabbed Chaos, swinging his right foot across Chaos' legs; he swept the feet from underneath and slammed the water figure into the ground with a crushing blow. Chaos rose up and shook off his physical shock, he punched straight into Knuckles' blocking arms. The arms absorbed the blows but felt the pain, after seven strikes Knuckles had shake it off, his arms were going to bruise terribly if he didn't. Chaos seized the opening arm movement; with in mere seconds he jumped in the air about three feet. Knuckles felt the water foot slam into his face, the blow leaving a burning feeling, then the other foot hit his nose and the force sent him back tumbling. He groaned as he looked up at the sky, he held his nose and whined about the pain.
"God damn, Chaos!" Knuckles looked at his hand; there were red smears and stains on the new white glove, "Aw man! Look what you did!"
"Sorry," Chaos chuckled, "But you kept blocking and at this rate I was going to leave your body in the form of a gigantic beaten pulp," He came up to him and offered his hand to help him up, "It was either first blood now or have Rouge kill me for beating her husband into a swollen sponge." Knuckles brushed the help away, frowning a little.
"Why does everybody try to crack on me about that?" Knuckles held his hand to his nose to keep the blood from dripping everywhere, "Okay, so I like her, wow big deal. Shadow likes Cindy, and Sonic likes Amy; that should be the hot topic of the year!" He began walking to his home. Chaos chuckled and followed behind him, if he could; he would've smiled.
"Yes, and no, the thing is that you denied that you and her liked each other so much. Besides, you two were the most expected couple of all time!" Chaos stopped a second after Knuckles froze. The echidna held his bleeding nose and raised an eyebrow;
"Wait, you rarely ever get out of the emerald how the hell would you know?"
"Me and Tikal talk a lot these days,"
"What? But she doesn't get out much either—"
"—Genius, Tikal can leave that thing when ever she wants," Chaos laughed, "What, you thought she only came out when you needed help or called on her?" Knuckles' jaw dropped.
"You're kidding right?" Chaos' laugh only confirmed his thoughts; Tikal could've been watching them since who knows when! "What the hell! That something you tell people! Since when has she been watching us so closely?"
"Ever since you came back from meeting you-know-who, you know back on Ark? Yeah, way back then," Chaos chuckled a little, "We've seen more than you would ever like to know…" The water guardian's chuckle was deeply evil.
"If my nose wasn't leaking so badly I'd knock your ass out into a puddle!" Knuckles growled as he tried to keep his bleeding down to a minimum. The two continued to exchange threats as they walked back, Knuckles kept holding his nose the entire way.
-------------
Tikal had been with the kids and Rouge the entire morning, getting to know them more. At the only home on Angel Island the four walked around doing chores and doing whatever they saw fit to do or whatever Rouge and Tikal saw fit to do. It was close to noon, and Knuckles was gone, like most expected. Tikal was actually trying to help make food, talking with Crystal as the echidna-bat girl mix helped.
"Knikatu!" Rouge yelled to him, assuming he was upstairs.
"Mom," He made her jump with the calm response, "Yo, right here," He was right behind her.
Rouge turned around, sighed once and rubbed her head, "Stop doing that!" Her son rolled his eyes, "Where's your father?" By now, Tikal had caught on to the ease she spoke with. When they children first arrived, Rouge wouldn't have dared speak like that or even acknowledge that.
"I don't know," Knikatu brought his fingers underneath his dreadlocks. Rouge couldn't tell if he was scratching out of thought or to relieve an inch, "I saw him at the shrine, sleeping of course, but that was in the early morning when you told me to call everyone in for breakfast. Now I may not know dad that well but I sure as hell know not to wake him up—"
"—okay, I get it," Rouge cupped his mouth and silenced his frightened whining. She rolled her eyes, 'Jeez, I wonder when these kids are gonna see past that cold armor that Knuckles puts on for other people?' Rouge turned around, but turned her head back when the door slammed open;
"Keep talking," Knuckles growled at his sparring partner, "Water may not feel pain greatly like us, but I bend the laws of nature just for you…" He ended his sweet threat with a glare.
"Huh," Rouge huffed, "What is it this time?" She pointed to the guardian's nose. Knuckles shifted his look and focused on her, giving a flat stare. "Need help? It's starting to get on the floor just so you know…" She walked closer and moved his hand; the glove was smeared and deep in the color of blood. Her eyes widened as she saw that the nose still bled, "Jeez, what did you do? How long have you been bleeding?" The tip of his muzzle and his lower nose were covered in blood, the old and dried underneath the newly flowing blood. The amazing thing is that it isn't gushing like a geyser like this description makes it out to be.
The crimson echidna shrugged and mumbled, "I don't know, a couple of minutes," Rouge pressed his nose upwards. Tearing the dried blood that had set itself on top of his nose and part of his muzzle, "Ow, watch it!"
"Don't be such a baby, I'm just trying to see why you would bleeding so much out of your nose," She rolled her eyes when his left let a tear form.
Knuckles sniffled, "Hey," His nose went past the blood and picked up a pleasant scent, "What smells so good," He began walking to the kitchen, only to be quickly yanked back, staring into the eyes of the bat.
"Not yet," Rouge continued to look closely at his nose, "It's not done and I don't want you tracking blood all over the floor,"
"You act like it's your house," Knuckles said sarcastically. Rouge took his hand and started pulling him to the steps, "Hold up, jeez!" Knuckles moved his legs quicker in order to catch up She led him up the stairs and towards the bathroom.
A weird silence came upon the room. Knikatu stared at Chaos with a disturbed look. Crystal and Tikal exchanged glances and gave shrugs. Chaos was looking to everybody for explanation. The entire group gave one another shrugs and strange looked filled with confusion. Without the connection of those two, the kids and the two back-up guardians had nothing in common, but right now they all were clear on one thing;
"Okay," The water guardian said with a deep breath, "Anybody else feel that went over too smoothly?" Chaos looked to Knikatu.
Knikatu nodded and looked to his sister, "What's up with them, they've never acted this way before…least not without a big fight."
Tikal let noticeable smile form on her mouth, "Aww, they've finally come to peace with one another!" She clapped her hands and locked them.
"Either that or dad hit a bong really hard before he came in…" Knikatu looked to his side with a flat, wide eyed look to Chaos, "What kind of sparing sessions are you two having lately?" His stare lifted when an upset growl entered his ear, it was Tikal.
"Oh will you guys have a little faith in your parents! Give them a chance, maybe they finally want to get along," Tikal flushed a little, the pink tone faded in just a tiny bit, 'Well last night they seem to get reallyreally…' She shook her head and let the embarrassing thought escape her mind. "I thought that's what you wanted all along…Crystal I mean," Her glare went from Chaos, to Knikatu, "You two couldn't care less even though your existence depends on it!" Knikatu rolled his eyes at her snap.
"Look it's not that I don't want them together," Knikatu made a calming gesture with his hands, "It just seems like this wouldn't happen this soon, know what I mean?"
"Well I am happy about this," Tikal clasped her hands together again, "Oh they've grown so much," Tikal cooed. She let her eyelids fall half way as she stared at the steps they walked up in awe.
Chaos did a fake coughed to grab attention and made his hand into a cylinder. The water lord pointed at the cooing echidna and he pretended to drink whatever was in it. His green eyes went wide and he wobbled and leaned back and forth in his general place like a drunk; the kids could only snicker a little. Silently he stumbled over like an intoxicated hobo out on the streets after a long night. He then did the 'loopy/screwy in the head' gesture by where would have an ear as he pointed again to Tikal. Crystal covered her mouth as she withheld laughter; Knikatu turned around and bit his lower lip to keep a huge burst of laughter in. All this was about her while Tikal had no clue to it as she her head turned to the steps still.
"I know what you're doing Chaos!" Tikal growled with her back still turned to him.
I guess not.
Mac groaned as his eyes opened slowly, his eyes watered as he blinked several times relieving the air burn on his eyes. He moaned like a dead zombie as his senses came to life; he shook his head to think clearly, 'Damn I'm hungry and cold…'
He looked at his blanket, what happened to the thick cream colored warm he had last night? Matter of fact, he noticed he had only one thin white sheet. He growled and decided to attend to his warmth need first. Trying to gather any heat, he picked up his white sheet and wrapped himself in it. A morning burp ran up his throat and came up as nasty morning breath. The young runner walked down the steps and arrived at the main floor. On his left the kitchen and on his right, the living room and directly behind him and to his right the steps to the lower room. His stomach growled, this was a hard dilemma; food or warmth?
A few minutes later he stepped off of the last step, making eerie creaking sound. Right now his toes were freezing due to the cold temperature of the basement level. He went to the second door on his right, the one near the recording room. He opened the door and yawned, his eyes closing a little. Mac looked at his sandwich and took another bite as he walked in more. The chewing in his mouth was one of a few almost silent sounds. He looked for the closet, it was on his right. Subconsciously his foot avoided the corner of the mattress, not disturbing any life by making noise or moving things, he gently kicked a pair of white lower undergarments further up in order to avoid stepping on them, the skimp silk clothing slid near the mattress. Slowly his hand lifted and dropped it heavily on the metal handle. The jingles caused a soft stir and moan behind him, he turned the knob and open the door. There were several shelves, all but one of them were filled with sheets and blankets and covers, and one already was missing sheets.
The chilled hedgehog grabbed a cover from one of the lower shelves. With one swing and droop he let unfold and put it over his shoulders on top of the one sheet he had one already. Mac took another bite and turned around and looked down, he shook his head. A high piano key sounded in a hip-hop rhythm with a bass beat kicking in. He carefully tossed a white bra away form the corner of the bed, away from the sound's source. It was a purple and white cell phone on the floor;
Tell ya people that I'm comin' by, (Yeah, Yeah),
Got that shit that'll get ya high, (Holla at a Pimp),
Talkin shit cuz I'm off tonight,
And you really got me feelin' right,
Mac groaned when no other bodies responded. The hedgehog's knees bent and he crouched and picked it up, he read the caller ID on the front. He raised an eyebrow and flipped it open, pressing talk.
"Julie-Su's phone, talk," He answered;
"Who's this?" The female voice questioned.
"It's Mac, Sally,"
"Umm, hi," She still felt awkward talking to the kids. Mac was comfortable talking to her, simply because he didn't really pay much attention to what was going on and really didn't know what she into with his dad. He only knew that she was involved with Sonic and now Sonic wasn't planning on getting involved with anyone for the time being. Or so he said.
'Just like Tails…' Mac chuckled, 'Ah, old people problems…' That was his crack about his older generation. In his time, they were all significantly older; and they technically were his elders. So he 'had to obey' the elder rule and his way of doing it was calling every except his mom and dad old. Lately it was simply ridiculous with these two, Julie-Su most of all.
The way he saw it, the relationship between her and his dad wasn't that important, or that strong. A triangle between Amy, Sonic and Sally was mostly one sided; his father refused to try to deal with a complex problem like that. "Uh, is Julie-Su awake? I know she's a heavy sleeper but I was hoping she'd answer,"
Mac chuckled, "Umm I don't think she's going to be awake for a while, I think she had a long night," The young hedgehog smirked emphasizing the 'long' discretely.
"What do you mean?" Sally's voice was confused.
"Eh, you can ask her when she wakes up, unless you want me to wake her up now," Mac looked at the top of the echidna's head which he was starring at right now. Both were completely out, they couldn't even hear the talking of the azure hedgehog crouched above their heads. Mac's quiet laughter was of what he was looking at. Julie was on top of Espio, 'Knocked out,' He said in his mind, she seemed blissfully happy with her arms around Espio's head and neck. Their heads and neck were touching as their sleep made her rest completely against him. Mac noticed when he walked in that one of Espio's hands was down towards her hip and upper legs, 'His hand's always there on her butt…jeez,' Mac thought earlier. From this view he saw the other hand around her back, her left leg was stretched out and her right was up to his hip and waist.
"No, I think they're fine, give me a sec; let me tell her," Mac smirked evilly as he pulled the phone from his ear.
"Wait, what do you mean they're? Mac—" He couldn't hear her.
Mac tapped Julie-Su's head, the second tap set made her stir more. "Julie," Mac called out louder he shook her, she groaned and her head moved. "Phone, Julie, you got a phone call," He frown and finally smacked her lightly.
"Oh," She moaned, still tired, "What?" She looked up, as if to look at something above her and behind due to her head angle. She saw the blue figure holding out her phone, the blue screen lit up brightly showing the name 'Sally' with the call timer underneath. It took a second to notice, but then she did. Julie yelped loudly and moved completely off of Espio, pressing her body as close as she can to the bottom of the mattress. Espio groaned subconsciously and turned his back to both of them, sleeping more. Julie grabbed the insides of the doubled up sheets/cover and pulled it inwards trying to hide her body more but all it did was outline her figure more. The echidna looked at the floor and saw her bra and underwear, she gasped and flushed heavily, one arm speedily coming out and snatching the silk pair of clothing articles and brought them under the blankets hoping to hide it.
"What are you doing here?" She shouted softly, trying to avoid any topic of her and her lover next to her.
"It's Sally," Mac held up the feminine style type phone, "I think you'd better answer, oh yeah I think she's wondering who 'they're' are," He winked.
She caught the slightly confusing comment, "You didn't have to tell her,"
He handed her the phone because she barely stuck her fingers out to receive it, "So, have fun last night?" Mac smirked as he bit his sandwich.
Julie flushed and snapped silently, "Get out!"
"Whatever," Mac stood up, "But you might make sure you clean up good because I smell a little bit of both of you in the air, know what I mean—" He chuckled as he avoided a pillow she threw. She sighed and brushed back her dreadlocks over shoulder after he closed the door. Julie-Su could the burn in her cheeks right now, how the hell do explain this to one of your best friends?
"Hello?" Julie-Su hoped this wouldn't go any further.
"So," Sally's voice was sly, "Julie, care to tell?"
Her head dropped into the pillow she was resting on, "Oh my god," Julie turned her head so she could speak into the phone, "This is so embarrassing!"
"And I want to know," Sally slyly continued, "Who's the guy, matter of fact tell me everything,"
Julie-Su gasped and looked to her right, "What a night," She giggled, "I was worked, I can tell you that right now," She flushed about how she described it herself, but she couldn't put it any other way.
"Julie you didn't!" Sally gasped, she didn't catch on earlier, "Who is he?"
"I…" She was nervous about telling, then again this was one of her best friends, "Um…but don't tell a soul," Sally anxiously agreed, "Espio,"
"What?" Sally yelped, "Why?" Of all people she wasn't expecting this one.
"Well…I'm in love with him…" Julie-Su looked at him and stroked his cheek, scooting closer to him. "I really am…listen; I promise I'll call later, I will talk to you later, okay?" The voice on the line giggled and said, "Fine, go and have another round," Making her blush deeply, "Bye Sally," There was a giggle between both, Julie then closed her phone and tossed on the end of the bed. She wrapped her arms around his body and cuddled up to him, "I really am," She whispered before closing her eyes.
Upstairs;
Sonic snored with his face in the pillow. Someone had to carry him to his bed, and that someone was Mac. The blue blur was content and sleeping like a baby with his thick covers that sheltered him from the chill of leaving anybody part out and exposed in the air. The hedgehog was just short of unconscious, an earthquake could barely wake him. Even with his head face down in the pillow, he tongue still found a way out during his dreams. The result was a large spot of cold from the drool that had dried from the cool air in the room. He was underneath a thin white sheet, the same as Mac's, and then on top of that to aid with a chill that he had felt during the night, he had topped it off with a thick cream colored cover. With a happy smile, Sonic had been asleep peacefully for the first time since this whole ordeal.
As a sun rose through the sky and finally came through into his room. It was noon or close; the intense light began to warm the side of his face that was exposed. He moaned and licked his lips, "Yeah like that," Sonic mumbled, "Put more sugar though; otherwise it's not a…sugar cookie," Sleepily he licked his lips.
His room was a holy place to him, none allowed in without permission. It was all about privacy…that and he had a lot junk that he had to hide.
Down the hall were to other rooms. The closest to Sonic's was Tail's was left to; Amy had taken off for her home for one night and was already back, doing her unfortunate job of caring for every lazy bum excluding Katie. Everyone in the house was a heavy and late sleeper but her. She had woken up early, just after the crack of dawn. The rosy hedgehog had thought of making breakfast for some but realized that only person who would wake up early enough to have breakfast would be Katie. The question was where was she? Frantically she ran up to the rooms and searched each one. Not a sign of her, then she began to remember that she never came to bed late, and with Espio and Julie-Su's late night stroll Mac had taken their room.
In the peace and quiet of the guest room, the son of a hero yawned as he stood up. His stomach was content for the next few minutes, the sandwich was only a snack and it was almost lunchtime. Knowing his mother at her current age, being such an early bird she made a breakfast and left for the store to pick up something for everybody. Sonic and Tails already had a talk with him and his bottomless stomach about ravaging the fridge and robbing it of food. The most he had done all day was shower and grab a bite to eat; he never did any of the chores Sonic and Amy asked of him.
'Well…it'd be easier on mom if I did clean up a little…' His mind paused as he truly began to think the work his mom was doing to take care of them. 'Nah, she'll just get dad or Tails to do it later. Alright, cool, now that's done with. Let's see, he gave me ten for the pack, and about fifteen extra…thirteen fifty plus the change from spending what? Six bucks? Total I got about thirty-two dollars to do whatever I wish —' Wow, the boy actually did some math, in his head and without a calculator! Not only that, it's roughly correct! He tucked his money into the inner pocket of his glove. Without a second to react the door slammed open;
"Mac!" His mother's yell made jump at least four feet in the air, he hit the ceiling.
"I swear it wasn't me!" Mac jumped on the opposite of the guest bed and crouched closely to the ground. "It was Espio! He told me to go buy them, he gave me the money and some extra so I went and bought them! It was all a favor I swear! Besides I don't use magnums—err—if any at all!"
Amy relaxed in posture while her son continued to cower behind the bed. When she barged into the room she startled him out of his mind, "What are you talking about?" The future mother walked closer to the bed and leaned down on it, using her hands to support her body above the bed. Her eyes could only glimpse at his shaking body.
"Wait," Mac's head popped up so she could see his face, "What are you talking about?"
"When the last time you saw your sister?"
"Uh…" Mac hummed as he scratched his head. His mind began the great search through the hollow void that was known as his brain. Mac gasped silently but stopped, "Yes…no…wait…yep got it, that's it! She said something about getting the Chaos emeralds…and then…not to tell ya until she got back because she knew you'd never let her go off and do it…wait…damn I just screwed up didn't I?"
"That depends," Amy's eyes turned into glares, "When you said magnums are we talking pistols or something else?" Right now she preferred the answer 'pistol' over the other possibility.
Mac chuckled nervously, "Yeah…about that—what were we talking about?"
"I'll deal with you later," Amy growled without much lip movement, "And tell your dad I'll be back." His mother pushed off the bed and rushed out the door before he could object to anything she just ordered him to do. Knowing she was gone to a safe distance, Mac let out a huge sigh of relief;
"Damn," The young hedgehog chuckled, "I got to get Espio to cover for me, even though it is true. Still mom's never believed me before and knowing dad now…yeah Espio better help me." Ooooh! Damn is he in for it now; ask Espio for help, ha-ha-ha, good luck.
Back Downstairs - the Lab
The young fox had been working almost around the clock. He was committed to doing this quickly, not only to get Sonic off his back but for his own personal reasons. Cream was very curious as too many things that were said and not said between them and he knew that so long as these kids were hear, anything could leak out of their mouths and that would turn a simple friendship into complex web of who knows what. Having the little information he had to work with, the young genius had made a great deal of progress. The vague details that had been described by the kids all amounted into a few things.
One was the portal generator that opened a wormhole to this timeline. It was his electrical surge conductor, how it had been modified into a timeline disruptor was a whole other deal. Right now he had gutted the invention and was reworking the entire inside. A surge conductor was no where near what he needed for the machine to correctly hone the Chaos Emerald's wavelength properties so a time warp could be released in a wider range and in a controlled area. Not to mention that this author barely has a clue as to what the hell he's talking about right now, but you know, keep that to yourself and I promise an air-chip cookie for all of you guys, its the best flavor ever man.
"Let's see," Tails had bloodshot eyes from a sleepless night, "Seven chambers to channel each emerald," Tails blinked deeply to refresh his dried eyes, when they opened he felt the water drips go down his cheeks, "I got make sure the cords don't get surged…" He yawned, "And gotta make sure this warp is safe…"
'Jeez it burns to look around the room,' Tails let his arms move instinctively, turn the bolts and nuts that he was working on currently. Subconsciously he was working, when something was tightened enough his wrench hand moved on to the next one as another yawn would escape his lips. 'If I can just figure out how to create a time warp like chaos control and sustain it for a few minutes so everyone can just rush through it,' Tails' fingers began to slow down. Slowly they stopped moving, the tired fox began to lean forward and finally closed his eyes. 'But then I have figure out their timeline, but don't have a clue as to their exact time. Even if I could open the warp I don't have a way to direct to their time unless I can get the warp host to known the time…wait,'
"That's it," Tails' eyes snapped open and looked around, "I don't need to use the emeralds," Tails stood up and reach over to his left for his tool box. He grabbed what he wanted and started ripping apart the surge conductor, "All I have to do is change and expand Shadow's warp!" To him, this was much simpler, to the author, well he got lost after the tenth word three paragraphs above. Finally some progress was being made on his end.
"I gotta call Shadow," Tails looked to his left and skimmed for the phone's location. It saw it sticking out under a small stack of paper and tool clutter. "Wake up you lazy bum," He picked up the phone and dialed his number. The fox pressed it to his ears and let the ring echo into his head, "C'mon pick up…pick up…damn it you bum, get off Cindy and pick up the damn phone!" Tails groaned, clicked off the phone and waited a few seconds, he re-dialed.
"Why can't I just meet up guys up there?" Knikatu complained to his mother, "I'm not doing anything here, I'm bored as hell. C'mon just let me go up ahead; I've been around you two all day jeez!"
Knuckles had a straight face while he leaned back on the wall of his kitchen. The left glove held a partly bloody rag; it was used for his nose. At the same time his free hand was flexing in and out of a fist. The echidna stared at the younger one, he was pleading with his mother.
Rouge put her hands on her hips and stared back, "I don't know Knikatu,"
Knikatu growled, he knew why, "C'mon let it go! So I screwed up!" The young bat-echidna punched the nearest, his adolescent barbs cracking the dry wall.
"Chill boy," Knuckles said calmly, "You ain't getting anywhere by doing that," He closed his eyes and let his head rest back on the wall entirely, "Unless you wanna pay 600 hundred in damages for that too."
"See!" Knikatu was overzealous, "That's what I mean! You guys won't cut me a damn break," Knikatu crossed his arms and growled, "Such bull—"
"Settle down," The older echidna's bark cut off Knikatu, "Your mother doesn't want you to go off alone because she can't trust you completely. As for me, I don't trust you at all; just wait till we all go. Tails says that we all need to be there; speaking on that, I'm going to ask you once more; just answer the damn question. What are your skills so far with the Master Emerald?"
The young guardian sighed, "Mom, please!" His bat mother just tilted her head to her crimson guardian.
"Just answer!" Knuckles' snapped open, "Damn! Either way, you're not going anywhere,"
Knikatu frowned, "So—rrr—" His father was waiting on his answer, "I can't do much; I suck with the damn thing. The most I can do with it is summon Chaos and heal a few wounds, happy?"
"Wow, you can summon Chaos?" Rouge gasped, "How'd you learn to heal wounds?" Rouge couldn't believe that such a young guardian with no mentor or teacher could do these things.
"Tikal has been teaching us some stuff but she can't do much she said," Knikatu sighed, "I learned how summon Chaos on my own; Tikal taught me and Crystal how to channel the Master Emerald's energy to heal." He looked down and stared at his symbol of honor. His body was more of silver-white while his guardian symbol was pure white, standing out on his body. "I hoping that maybe I could learn something here too—"
Knuckles scoffed, "Don't give me that crap,"
Rouge covered her gasp with her left hand, "Knuckles!" She smacked him with her right hand, "He's your son!"
"Dad, that's real fucked up," Knikatu mumbled, "I said I'm sorry!"
His father stood up straight, "Sorry is just a word, and personally I don't believe you!"
"God damn," Knikatu growled, "What do I have to do? Do I have to fight you for some damn respect?" He shouted aloud.
"Yeah," Knuckles responded. "Right now," He looked his son dead in the eyes, "The plains near the Emerald's shrine, you beat me; I'll forget this thing ever happened."
"What?" Rouge yelped, she knew her son didn't have a chance.
Knikatu and Knuckles took a few steps forwards. The height difference wasn't much but Knikatu still had to look up; the two echidnas glared at one another. Face to face Knuckles saw some fear in his son's eyes. "Fine," Knikatu said in a low voice, "Let's go," He backed away, his dreadlocks swayed as he spun around. His first step was a hop; it suddenly turned into a jog as he opened the door. He walked out two feet and jumped out of sight just before the doors closed.
Knuckles sided stepped about three feet and quickly passed her, "Knuckles don't!" Rouge shouted as she ran after them both. Crystal slowly came down the last stet of steps; the door slamming brought her attention and called her downstairs. The young bat caught her mother jogging towards the door;
"What's going on?" Crystal ran after her mother.
Rouge groaned as her daughter followed her outside, "You brother and father are being stupid! They're looking to fight!" Rouge ran her fastest, hopping onto a few branches and leaping to the ground and sprinting after Knuckles. Crystal gasped as she heard the news, immediately she jumped her highest, taking to the sky. She flapped her wings and looked for her brother who was ahead of everyone. From above she saw all, an orange figure caught up with Rouge, it began running by her. Crystal raised an eyebrow a flowing snake like thing began to move toward her father; it was blue and safe to assume it was Chaos.
"I'm telling you right now, both of you stop!" Rouge tried to scream her message across to these morons, "You two are such hard-headed idiots!" She groaned as she ran out to them, both had blazed from branch to branch, hopping a lot quicker then she could run. Crystal continue to follow by soaring above them all, from there she could track her father and her stupid brother who was asking to get a broken nose with easy. Chaos was going to enjoy this one while Tikal was about to have a panic attack like Rouge.
Knikatu made a huge leap onto a clearing; Knuckles followed his trail and landed a good fifteen feet behind him. Knikatu flashed his baby fangs that he had; his father calmly cracked his knuckles and relaxed. Knikatu bounced on his toes and tried to keep from smiling, he seemed excited about fighting his father. (Hell, I'd be running if I was sparring with my dad.)
Knuckles brought up his fists, jabbing with his left quickly and then twice with his right. He hopped back and forth on his toes for a couple and seconds and then smirked. "I ain't holding back on this one,"
"Just don't cry when the son surpasses the father," Knikatu flexed his shoulder. He struck the air twice quickly, his arms moving swiftly.
"Yeah," Knuckles scoffed, "Whatever, let's go!" The echidna father skipped forward ten feet in mere milliseconds; he flashed his fangs, smirking evilly.
"You asked for it Knikatu," Crystal mocked, "Even I know better than to test dad like this," Knikatu growled at her once, his sister wasn't bothered. The girl huffed and crossed her arms and observed.
"One!" Knuckles appeared behind Knikatu and spun backwards with his legs in the air, "Two!" Knikatu reacted with a duck and tried to trip where he thought his father was still. The young bat-echidna's leg and ankle swiped the grass and the air. "Heads up!" Knuckles appeared quickly and grabbed his son's ankle, "C'mon, your sister moves faster!" Knuckles yanked the leg and drag-toss Knikatu a good five feet.
"Knuckles stop!" Tikal pleaded, hoping the family violence would cease.
Rouge growled, "You know he's not as fast as you!"
"I got this!" Knikatu growled at the two 'mothers' he had. His head snapped to his left and he ducked and spun side ways, Knuckles barely missed him, the punch he threw landed into the ground. The older echidna growled as his strike broke the dirt and cracked the pebbles in the ground it hit. Knuckles spun in 180 and blocked as kick he was assuming Knikatu would try. Well it was guessing game, Knikatu won with his low kick attack, the blow cause his father to trip over and fall onto his face. Knuckles growled and scurried to get up, on his two feet he rushed his son; a powerful tackle sending the body flying about ten feet. Knikatu groaned as he got up, but then he leaned forward and moaned and spit at the ground, the shade of red in the liquid enraging someone.
Knuckles walked over, smiling in victory, as he approached the young echidna he smirked. Suddenly a white blur spun around him quickly, before he knew it, the figure hook his arm and spun him around before he could react. The force slammed him face forward into he ground;
She yelled, her death glare switching from the sight of both of them, "I can't believe you both!" Knuckles got all fours; he moaned and let all of the figures harden into still grass. He groaning as he straightened his back upward, on his knees he moaned and held his head and hoped the ringing would stop. "The hell is wrong with you two? We're a family, at least fake it!"
"Wow…" Crystal stared at the space were her mom was half a second ago standing. "I never knew you could move that fast mom…"
Knikatu wiped his mouth with his arm and let the fur soak up blood, "I didn't need help. I was fine,"
"So was he, but I'm not going to let your dumb manly minds get so warp in egos that your gonna fight one another when you are father and son! What kind of father drags his son in the dirt," She glared at Knuckles, who was just now starting to stand up, wobbling a bit. "What kind of son picks a fight with his father over stupid event that we're all trying to forget?"
"Well he started it…" Knuckles mumbled as he let his head calm down.
Knikatu huffed back holding his arm, "Well you brought it up," The father and son glared at one another with half-closed eye looks.
"Well both of get your butts in the house," Rouge pointed into the general direction of their home.
Knuckles scoffed at her, "You can't—"
"—inside now!" Rouge yelled making him flinched and stumble back, falling onto his bottom.
Tikal leaned to her side and whispered quietly to Crystal, "Is this is what she is like in your time?"
Crystal looked at her and stuck her tongue out during her answer. She made a 'sort of' gesture, tilting the hand she held up back and forth a little, her left eye was mostly closed, "Eh," She whispered, "Mom only yells when we do something really idiotic. The thing is, when she does get mad, there's nothing to calm or relieve her; here I've noticed that like a while after her and my dad start an argument and get all angry but then…they get all nice and cute and then she's calmer."
"So…" Tikal began, "She is, but it takes a longer time for her to forget or forgive?"
"Yeah, sort of," Crystal looked at her mother who was already dragging her bother and father inside. "If she chooses to forget…"
"I blame you," Knuckles growled and glared at his son. His left eye was tearing because she was dragging them by the only possible thing, the dreadlocks.
"Heh, you're the one who tackled me at full-force—" Knikatu felt his mom's heel kick up and hit his elbow.
"—both of you drop it!" Rouge yelled as she heel kicked the father as well.
"Ow…" Knikatu and Knuckles both flinched, "Damn woman…" Knuckles pouted as had to obey, right now his dreadlocks were hurting too much to fight back. All he could do was wipe his left eye of a tear.
"Ah," Chaos sighed contently, "Just like old times…by which I mean a week ago,"
'Thank you'
'Thank you'
'Thank you god!'
Night stared at her. Her hips moved smoothly as she walked over to her blade, without a lean her hand gripped the black handle. The grass were the sword was rammed into swayed a wind blew in with a fearsome silence. The only sound the came for anyone was an echoing metal clank, it was one her men; the bolt from the side of his gun cocked back and loaded the shell. Night walked over to her, the height difference was only about four inches. Katie looked up as she came closer and gulped.
"It's you," Night whispered, "You're the hedgehog who was running ammo back and forth at the base…"
The infantrymen who were in battle-mode lessened in tone. They relaxed with Night's words, "Ma'am," Night turned her head, "She doesn't seem to be of harm, so what now?"
Night nodded and quickly withdrew her sword, "You didn't see anything," Night turned her attention back to the pink haired hedgehog, "Alright?"
When Katie nodded, Night left her as began walking back, "You sure about just leaving her like that?"
"She's just a kid," Night responded to her soldier, "I doubt that she has a clue as to what's going on, that idiot Eggman kidnapped some of these guys and planned to imprison them; really, my only worries are the military and Russia's Black Ops; Sonic and the others…I don't care, I doubt there's much they can do and even then, we can handle them easy; no need to kill or harm innocent children while we're trying to keep low." Night walked with her soldier, after her words she began hopping. Katie fell to her knees with a deep sigh, too good to be true but she'll take it.
She blazed down the road, her quick steps leaving hazes of heat on the tar of the pavement. The azure and rose hedgehog had the biggest grin as she flamed down the streets of her dad's section of the city. While she was happy; commuters were honking horns and cursing at blue blur that cut in front of them and even with occasional jump off the hood of car or the roof. But nothing could ruin this, she knew the secret, and she had collected the emeralds, by herself too!
'Thank you god!' She rejoiced again mentally. Her foot hit a cars fender as she launched herself over twenty feet into the air by kicking off of the car's hood. The young hedgehog ran slowly in the air, speed was something she was glad she got from her dad. Carefully she landed in-between a light post and a Corvette, she was being the rudest she had ever been in her life but she needed to get home. Katie kicked the car's rim and kick jumped a rolling momentum her speed gained as she went from the black steel window bars of an apartment building to another car, a Cobalt SS. At this high speed she was gaining attention as she hit the roof and once again kicked off. This time she landed on the road, she did a run landing; her feet never letting her go too slow. The trafficked streets with a game of dodge ball right now, her quick reflexes let her dodge mirrors of cars just before they hit her body.
Finally she was out of the streets and running towards her dad's home, leaving behind a confused and very angry main-street…
"Damn!" Shadow II covered his eyes a huge wind vortex swirled and gusted by. He leaned and closed his eyes as dust cloud followed, he coughed and looked around. The boy whistled, that wasn't Sonic he knew but he'd never seen Katie or Mac run like that before, "Wonder what has them so hyped up,"
"Shadow lets go!" The teal and black quill youth turned his attention to the left. Near the corner of the street his mother called, waving and jumping to get all the attention to notice her, "C'mon, your dad's probably getting worked up, it's almost lunch time and I'm hungry!"
"Pfft," Her son rolled his eyes, "That's the only reason he'd be up, I bet he's knocked out and dead asleep,"
-----------------
Shadow panted, the sweat pouring down his forehead. He grabbed the quills of his head spikes and tugged on them again, his teeth grounded to one another and he grinded them side to side. The protective case shard was on the floor, some of the liquid near that kept it alive inside the thing. Now the stupid thing had a hole on it as well as crack design that wasn't natural. In addition to this terrible event, they were due home soon; ten minutes tops. What the hell was going to do? This can't be fixed, it was precious to her and there was no way she was going to forgive him for the pre-mature and unnatural escape from its normal place.
He was a dead hedgehog, might as well start walking with a sniper's target mark on his head.
Cindy was going to take his head for this one.
"Chao…" Two little round tips of blue with very faded yellow tops touched the tip of the crack opening. The chao egg shook as the little hatchling inside began to move more. The shell cracks at the tip spread down more, suddenly the egg shell began to pull apart. Shadow gagged and made a disgusted face as the fluid that kept the newborn inside alive within the egg leaked out from the opening crack.
"Oh shit…" Shadow let his quills go and mumbled fearfully, "Oh crap…it hatched…damn it. WHY did I hit it?" The black hedgehog shouted. The flash back of his time in Cindy's room made him angry and very unpleasant. He hated the stupid eggs and keeping watch over both was not a job suited to him. The Ultimate Life Form had no need for keeping guard over some eggs he couldn't care less for. But he did care for the girl they made happy and well…life sucks doesn't it?
"Chao!" It cried, "Chao!" A whimper came from within the shell, Shadow came closer to it. The eggshell pulled apart again but then closed, Shadow saw the young one inside it. It had been trying to push the shell apart since it couldn't pop the top off because someone hit the top before it was fully developed and ready with enough strength to leave its birth home.
'Oh man…oh man…oh man…' Shadow lifted his arms and placed his finger tips and the opening of the shell, "C'mon…" Shadow gently pulled the shell apart, more cracking sounded as the bottom split as well and let the shell split in half easily. With big blue orbs, a raindrop like head and body part the tiny creature stopped its quiet tears and stared up at him. "H-hey little guy?" Shadow as hoping this thing wouldn't know it was him who opened the shell by accident. Every tip of the small baby had faded yellow; mostly likely due to his…let us say 'hasty' way of opening the shell.
Shadow stared at the tears the stop flowing, it was scared. Covered in the reflective solution that the egg provided it seemed so shiny, but it was normal one, even Shadow knew it. The tense and nervous look he had once before calmed at seeing the curious Chao. He huffed laughably, "C'mon little guy," Shadow placed his hands around its tiny and fragile body and gently picked it up.
"Lets clean this up and think of something tell Cindy…" Shadow pondered many excuses to save his hide right now, "You know…I think she'll believe this one—first I gotta kill a wolf and then we got find a chicken with red eyes—"
"We're home!" The happy voice echoed through the halls, bouncing off of the wall and sliding under the door. It crawled up his body and froze him in place, the Chao still cuddle in his arms, "Shadow?" She called again.
"Oh…" Shadow mouth moved slowly, "Fucking…son of a bit—" Shadow spun around with great speed and kicked the shells and its shards into the closet. The entire set of egg shell hit the back of the closet and broke more but Shadow didn't care. He rushed over and slammed the sliding door shut; suddenly a rattling sound followed the slam, "Oh crap," He stared at the child Chao in his hands, "Uh…here!" The gloved hand of the hedgehog ripped the door open with a great speed and he dropped the Chao in the dark room.
"Shadow?" Cindy opened the door and poked her head in, "You alright? I heard a loud bang,"
"That? Oh that? That wasn't anything," Cindy gave the suspicious glare, "What? I didn't do anything! I swear," He did his best to keep a straight face.
"Okay…" She raised an eyebrow. The door opened all the way and she walked in and looked around, "Um…where's our egg?" She looked to her bed, only Shadow II's egg was there. "Shadow…" Her man whimpered silently, "Where's our egg?"
"That? Yeah…about that—"
"Alright," Cindy crossed her arms and let her hips cocked to the left. Shadow went pale with her diabolically hatful glare, "Who'd you sell it to? Or should I be asking what'd you kill it with?"
"Wait, now hear me out—" He nervously backed away and held his arm to defend against anything she could get her hands on.
Stomping slowly she made her way to his face, "Shadow the hedgehog, you did not just get rid our baby did you?" Her scream pierced his ear drums. "Because if you did—"
"No! I didn't—Ow son of a bitch!" Shadow's eyes watered as he grabbed his tail. "That hurt! Wait, how'd it get out?" Shadow growled as his quills were tugged back on lightly and he felt a light weight object grasp onto his head. "Oh…" Shadow said flatly, the little one spit out what little fur it had taken off of Shadow's tail. It yawned and laid down coolly on top of Shadow's head. Quickly it cooed and closed its eyes. "Damn thing bit me!
Cindy flushed and gasped, "He's out!" She squealed, "He's so cute! Shadow why didn't you—wait…" Her excitement died down, "Why is it so pale…Shadow," Her voiced gritted his name; the glare he received with it didn't help either.
"I didn't mean to!" The eyes didn't change, "Look when I hit the egg, it cracked but I didn't even hit it that hard!" Shadow mentally slapped himself for those last details.
"You hit the defenseless egg?" She growled, her lime green eyes flaring up in anger. Shadow felt an impact on his cheek, the slap tilted his head slightly and then it's after effect was burning feel left by her enraged hand. "But…" Her voice softened, "You kept watch over it you didn't sell or get rid of it and this is for that," He felt her lips touch his, this time the burning feeling was all over and felt good…not painful like the one on his left cheek. His brow cocked as she kissed him just after she slapped him.
When they parted Shadow only had one question, "Um…are you sure you're not pregnant?" A soft growl and flat stared stopped him from going on about any further into mood swings. "Did you really think I was going to get rid of it?"
"Well," Cindy hugged him, "Yes I did, but thanks for not doing it," With her tightening hug she pecked her lips on his cheek.
Shadow stared upward, trying to see if he could see it, "Well, I was about to," Cindy raised an eyebrow as he continued, "Then I started to realize that it meant so much to you…" Cindy's looked dropped in any emotion, a dry and unbelieving face stared back at Shadow, "Besides…you might be right about being good practice…" There was something about his smirk. She could tell it wasn't his smug or slick smirk that he always had, when it twitched she knew it. He may have been able to hide from others but she knew him, inside and out.
'You are such a terrible liar,' Cindy's serious and flat look did not change, 'Cut the bull,'
The look showed him that she wasn't buying it. After a few seconds he exhaled and sighed heavily, "Okay fine…no one would give me my money's worth…the most offered was 200, and I spent more than double that on it…"
Cindy rolled her eyes when the truth finally came out, 'I should've known…' Something caught her attention. The little hatchling cooed and grunted quietly as it shifted position on top of Shadow's head. It yawned as the eye closed tightly; the Chao began napping after such a tiresome seven minutes, fourteen seconds in the real world outside of its egg.
"Aw," She looked to the top of his head, "He's so cute! You two look nice together you know that?" Cindy smiled at her boyfriend, "See, you know you like him on your head like that, don't you?"
Shadow stared at her flatly and replied with a tone, dripping in sarcasm, "Yeah right," The Chao shifted in place and turned so its stomach was facing up as it slept, "Can we clean it up? Cause I'm not gonna use this thing's fluids as gel I'll tell you that right now,"
She nodded and giggled, "Kay, but I'll need some towels from the closet, hold up."
Shadow stared big eyed at the air as she left his view, 'Oh fuck…' Slowly he made his way to the door;
"Shadow!," With the echoing roar he took his leave, bolting out the door with the sleeping Chao on his head still. Cindy groaned as began to pull out the wet shell and pieces, she gagged a little at the gel like fluids from the egg. "I am going to kill you!" The female yelled as she dropped the towels on her closet floor and ran after him.
"Sonic!" The scream echoed into his dreams as a roaring blare of anger. Heavy eyelids opened slightly as he vision let him see a pink figure staring down at him. The hero's dreamy smile faded as he came to his senses. He had been resting for quiet a while, he sat up and moved his leg more with ease, it didn't require much assistant anymore; mostly walking needed help but he could stand for a short time and even take baby steps.
"And we're yelling why?" He said groggily, "It was sexy dream too…man that's never coming back," Sonic rubbed his eyes and even felt like shedding a tear for his never-to-come-back dream. "So many women…man…what a waste…all those chili dogs…" Sonic whimpered as he had his few seconds of silence for the wasted food. "Beautiful women in skimp bikinis and chili dogs everywhere! C'mon what is it now?" He asked flatly annoyed. Sonic stared around with his eyes half closed, looking for the pink source of anger.
"Katie's been gone, since yesterday; why didn't anyone notice?" Sonic felt a hard smack hit his head. "Sonic! I left them to your care; the least you could do is try!" Amy snapped.
"Ow…" Sonic rubbed the back of his head and looked to his right, "Jeez, man; where is she?"
"She just got back!" Amy's teeth formed an angry bite, "Sonic do you have any idea of what she's been up to?" She yelled as her arm jerked to her left, point at their daughter.
"This is bullshit!" Amy raised an eyebrow as the muffled yell echoed upstairs. She stared at the ceiling, wondering what the hell that kid was doing.
Sonic yawned, he looked at the couch to is left, "She looks fine to me…" The hedgehog yawned again.
The rose looked back down, "She went out for all the emeralds!" Amy yelped, "Katie just went out and got them all!"
Sonic woke up, he couldn't believe it. He stared at her wide eyed, "Dude, no way! You did?" She nodded at her father's question, "That's amazing!" Katie looked up, she wasn't expecting that. She felt a smile wanting to grow; somehow she just impressed her father. That was something hard to do when he was this age.
"Sonic!" Amy gasped that he was impressed, "She could've died! You know how hard those emeralds were placed?" Sonic rubbed his eyes and stared down at the violent glow at the bottom of his sight.
"Whoa, all seven!" Sonic leaned over and grabbed one; the group jewels' bright glow lessened when the purple crystal's energy was removed from the mix, "Katie, this one was in Nicaragua!"
"Well," Katie couldn't help but smirk, "Los locales son muy amables," She couldn't help but show off the nice foreign accent. It was pleasing to not here Sonic complain about their presence in this timeline for once.
"God damn it!" Amy hand's fell to her hips as she stared at the ceiling again, "I shot him like ten times in the face! He's still running around!" Ah, the things Xbox Live bring out of someone's character.
"Dude, she knows Spanish too!" Sonic couldn't believe it; his daughter found all of them on her own. It took Shadow, him and knuckles to hide them all well, and now, his fifteen year old found them, "Oh man, this is cool—"
"Sonic!" Amy groaned, for once she thought Sonic would do a fatherly duty and demand and explanation for the dangerous leave, "How can you be impressed? Your daughter could've been killed; the white one was in Alaska!"
Sonic shook his head, "No way, she's my kid," Amy moaned as found nothing breaking through his head. Now the sapphire hedgehog admitted it with pride, he smirked, "Shadow ain't got anything on me, my kid so kicks his kid's ass!" Katie smiled as she blew a few quill strands that dropped in front of her green eyes back up. The girl giggled, she couldn't help it.
Amy grabbed her quills and tugged, "Dang it Sonic! Don't you care at all that she could've been killed and the fact that she snuck out last night?"
Sonic chuckled, "But don't you see that she got all seven in one night? It took us two days to hide them! And she knows how to swim, that yellow one was hard as hell to hide!" He spun the purple jewel on his finger tip like a professional basket ball player with a ball, "Ames, I've finally found something to be proud of! Don't get me wrong, Mac is 'alright'," Sonic looked at her with a flat look as he added his air quotes, "But he's not the first thing I'd brag to the world about—"
"Oh f—k you swizzkiller!" Mac's consistent yelling only confirmed Sonic's point, "It's lagging like a motherf—ker…this bull! The game cheatin'!" The child's growl roared upstairs.
"Shut up Mac! It's a damn game!" The annoyed seventeen year old yelled while looking up to his own ceiling, "See what I mean? But man; Katie? How come I now found about this?" His thumb pointed to the shyly chuckling girl on the sofa near him.
Amy growled at him, "Because you're an ignorant jerk who was too worried about his reputation and the world finding out to know that he has two great kids," To Katie this was great; at first it seemed like Sonic was going to yell at her and agree with her mother but this came out. To Amy this was bittersweet, while Sonic was finally realizing see the kids as a good thing and not a risk, but man was he was failing the whole fatherly thing. Katie was supposed to be punished for her dangerous take off.
A sudden violent metal jiggle caught everyone's attention. Amy raised an eyebrow as she looked at the source, it was the door. Was it a break in? At this time of day? Well, most normal people were not home on a week day in the summer around noon; people have real jobs to attend to. There was a thumping bang and the door pressed inward. A growled grunt came from outside. Katie stood up and inched closer until Sonic put his hand out to stop her. Another thump hit the door and this time the metal pieces of door creaked, they were bending.
"What the hell—" Sonic flinched when the wooden door cracked at the door knob and the metal knob hit the floor. A chunk of the door fell right by the entrance and the first thing everyone saw was a foot, a white shoe. A white shoe with a metallic red lining, quickly without care the black leg recoiled and led the body to rush in. Instantly the azure hedgehog growled, "Yo, what the hell—"
"Here, catch—I was never here, remember that!" Amy blinked once and suddenly he was gone.
Sonic saw a lightly toned blur squeal. The baby blue colored creature hit his lap and he quickly felt the slippery substance. "Ugh!" The hedgehog gagged and lifted the newborn dripping in its shell nutrients, "What the? A chao? Shadow—where'd he go?" Sonic blinked as he scanned the room. The broken door slowly creaked shut. Amy's brow furrowed as she was shocked at what just happened.
Their daughter stood nervously still, "There's only one person who can make him run like that," Katie let out an uneasy grunt.
"She's coming," The voice yelled from upstairs. Her brother knew what was going on, "Everyone hit the deck!" Mac made loud thump as he slammed his body to the upstairs floor. Sonic and Amy exchanged confused glances.
"Shadow!" The roaring growl echoed through the living room, "Don't you dare run from me!" A black shoe broke off another chunk of the door, quickly the foot receded. Suddenly a growling hedgehog came in. Her baby blue hair was combed back but her teeth clenched so tightly that all she was missing were fangs. Sonic could've sworn her once light sea green eyes were blood red now. Cindy's blue hair flew around her neck as she swiftly moved toward the steps. Her eyes squinted as she took a closer look, Amy noticed her ears twitch.
'Okay…I'm holding a dripping baby chao,' Sonic began to sweat nervously as the little chao whimper in his grasp. Suddenly he groaned quietly and suddenly glared at it. The egg's substance still dripped onto his lap, 'Cindy's pissed and Shadow's hiding like a wuss, just what the hell is going on? I got chao juices on me for god sakes!'
Sonic's attention went back to the enraged teal hedgehog. Her short frame ran downstairs and he heard a quick slap. It was a slap; the hedgehog could've sworn he felt its strength. The world hero made mental note; never tick her off.
"Shadow!" She barked. Sonic smirked as he saw his so called rival being yanked upstairs by his quills. "It's all over the floor and not only that, you blazed over here! Do know the danger you put our baby through?" She yelled. Shadow groaned as he kept his left eye half closed from the pain. He felt the back of his head on the left side start to numb.
"Ow!" Shadow grunted as she gripped tighter on his quills, "The thing's only been out of the damn shell for twelve minutes!"
Cindy smacked his head, "Yeah and its shell liquids are all over my closet floor!" Cindy yanked harder again before shoving him away harshly, "And that thing is ours! You treat it like one of our own, understand?"
Shadow groaned in pain as he rubbed the sore spot on his head, "That thing is not mine, you made me pay for it; I never agreed to care for it,"
"Whoa," Sonic held the infant chao in one hand now, "Back up a sec," The hedgehog surprised everyone with his strength to stand up. "First of all, who the hell is going to fix my door?" He yelled, Shadow flinched as he rubbed a very sensitive spot on the back of his head. Sonic growled when no one responded, "Second, what…the…hell…is…going on?" He stressed his question. Katie quickly took the chao from her father's careless grasp;
"Oh," Katie flushed as her eyes met the tiny newborn's, "It's so cute and…pale…?" The fourteen year old raised an eyebrow, "Pre-mature hatching…?" She looked up and saw the two hedgehogs. Cindy glared at him as she brought up the early birth fact. Shadow… she'd put all of her money on it, "Aww, he broke your shell didn't he?" Katie began to pet the newborn in her arms.
Shadow huffed his point, "It was an accident!" Soon the baby chao began to whine and turn in Katie's grasp.
"Here," Cindy had a short smile as she took the turning chao out of Katie's arms, "Poor baby…" The chao refused to calm down, "You're just scared,"
Katie petted the newborn in Cindy's arms to calm it. It began to cry, "Aw, its okay. You'll never have to go through this again, I promise." Nothing changed, the hatchling continued to cry, its whines louder.
"When did you guys get a chao?" Amy asked as she tried to catch up on this whole situation. The rosy hedgehog came to Sonic's aid, he tried to not to show it, she could tell. Shadow was here, so he wasn't going to ask for help. Sonic flinched quietly; his leg was numb now, Amy noticed and shook her head with a soft groan, 'Men…' None caught sight of her eye rolling.
"Well we…got it…" Cindy kept pausing because of the restless chao. The young one would not stop trying to wiggle out of her grasp, "What's…wrong?" Cindy gasped as the baby chao slip out of her grasp. Quickly she caught it, a sigh escaped her lungs. She could feel the newborn's heartbeat racing, "Hmm?" Her eyes caught a sight she herself could not believe.
The infant chao's eyes were pouring with tears; whimpers came in squeals as it cried. It to looked Cindy's left, her mouth hung open as the blue hatchling reached out. It whimpered as it tried to grasp for its want;
"What's it…" Sonic's jaw dropped, "No way…"
"Wow…" Amy's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Huh?" Shadow chin tucked in to his chest as his head backed in shock, "Uh…" His brow rose and let his red orbs look around nervously. He looked at it and grunted with uncertainty.
"It," Cindy held it up more. The chao confirmed everyone's disbelief, it climbed up the arm and clutched tightly to him. "It wants you…?" Cindy coughed, "Shadow…?"
The embarrassed hedgehog felt it latch onto his arm and swiftly climb on to him. It clutched tightly to his shoulder and lay on him as so. It sniffled and whimpered quietly as it rested its big head on his shoulder and body to his chest. It closed its eyes and let out a soft sigh. Happily its tears stopped, it nuzzled its head to his body. Cooing once it made him flush at the cheeks. He felt it slip just slightly, he quickly put a hand to its back. The chao's frown changed into a small smile as it felt a safe hand hold it securely to the chest it was resting on.
"Aww," Cindy giggled, "You look just like a daddy!" Shadow felt a warmth of red hit his cheeks. "It likes you; it thinks you're its papa!" His hedgehog clasped her hands. Her giggle was uncontrollable because of the sight before her eyes.
"Dude," Sonic's face was twisted from holding in a laughter, "That thing has to be nuts…you of all people!" Nothing and he meant nothing Shadow did to him from this point on could ever let this go. It was a scar Shadow had that Sonic would never let him hide, not ever.
Shadow's blush deepened as he felt all of the strange and laughing stares hit him. He couldn't glare; his deadly stare that had turned off so many stares was useless. Right now Death's Apprentice wasn't going to help him; he needed the reaper himself dressed in the black cloak to help shake off these looks. A snore entered his right ear, slowly the bold red orbs lowered to the corner of his eyes to a better look. The infant was fast asleep on his shoulder. Cutely the chao's mouth was opened as it snored softly. A feeling ordered Shadow to move, he began to walk towards the sofa where Katie sat at earlier. A snicker made him glare to his left, Sonic wasn't fazed. Everyone saw it, with the greatest care he had ever displayed for anything besides Cindy he lowered the baby chao and laid it to rest. Shadow then slid his left hand across the right side of his chest and shoulder.
Suddenly he walked over to his rival. Sonic flinched and froze with shock as he felt Shadow's hand rub across his shoulder and arm. "What the—" Again he was cut off as he felt a cold draft hit his bare blue hand. Shadow snatched the fabric cover so quickly that the owner felt it seconds later. The whole room watched as Shadow took Sonic's white glove and began to softly brush it to the sleeping chao's body. His fingers carefully lifted the chao to get the underside; Shadow was cleaning it of the birth liquids. Not a word came from him as he leaned back up and turned around.
The hedgehog walked back to the azure rival, "Here," Shadow smacked the glove onto Sonic's shoulder.
"…" Sonic's voice refused to leave his throat as he gagged. He lifted the glove with his finger tips and saw the dark spots where the substance soaked into, "Amy," He looked at his shoulder and back to his pink friend, "Tell me that didn't happen…" Sonic stuck his tongue out to gag but more voices interrupted. "Jesus Christ no…" Sonic groaned and fell back onto his sofa. He knew who it was, "Well at least the Xbox's free for me to use now," Katie rolled her eyes; she knew what her father was talking about.
"Hey, hey!" The happy shout came from Mac upstairs. Quickly he slid down the guard rails of the upper steps and ran down the last couple steps.
Sonic rolled his eyes and let them look to what Mac was so excited about.
"Uh…" A white fingered glove touch the door and jumped back, "That wasn't me," Crystal defended herself as she walked in. The aqua eyed bat-echidna had not even stepped twice into the home before her blue blur was all over her. Suddenly he stopped inches away from her, in a frozen running pose. Crystal's brow furrowed as she noticed he was sweating a little, his jade orbs died down into a low and drained olive.
"Hands off," The most feared voice barked. Knuckles pushed the door open more to let himself through, breaking off a few more chunks as it hit the wall gently.
"My door!" Sonic groaned, "Oh c'mon, she was just a baby! We just got it a day ago, I clearly said to everybody after the two idiots downstairs broke it down that no one but me or Tails were supposed touch it!" The hedgehog lifted his legs alternately and kicked the floor. He paused, the seconds flew as everyone stared, then it hit him, he flinched and the hedgehog's face turned hard, "Owww! Deeamn that hurts!" Carefully he gripped the weakened cast groaned loudly as he gripped the wound.
"Hey it was like that when we got here," Knuckles turned back and saw the full damage. Shadow had kicked so hard the cracks had stretched across all over. The wooden door looked like it could literally fall apart from the next few hits, even the hinges were loose.
"Whoa, damn!" Sonic rolled his eyes as his door's condition was still being noticed by the newcomers, "Espio and Julie at it again?" Knikatu walked up to the open door. His mother passed him and walked in and joined the rest, while Knikatu was letting his attention focus on the door. He knocked on it once, it jerked down making him jump back. The top hinge snapped off and hit the floor. It bounced on the ground, ringing into a hedgehog's ears.
Sonic smacked his face and held his hand there, "I hate you people…what are you doing here anyway?" He yelled, "Did you just up and say "Hey, let's go and bust Sonic's door open and bug the hell out of him!" I just got rid of you people yesterday!" Sonic whined, "I was supposed to be focusing on how to get rid the chameleon and the echidna downstairs!"
"First of all," Shadow held his index finger over his mouth, "Shut up, otherwise it's gonna wake up!" He said softly, before Sonic could say something he continued, "Second, I was hoping you could've help me out with the…issue…—" His head tilted as he was talking about the hedgehog next him. The ultimate life form felt a smack hit him, "Ow…you know what—"
"No I don't," Cindy quickly cut him off, "And honestly I don't care," She shot him a mean glare.
"Tails called us over…" Knuckles mumbled as he kept glaring a certain younger blue hedgehog that was much short than him, "I see where your eyes are boy,"
Mac nervously smiled, "Uh…no I wasn't?" The emerald orbs drifted discreetly back up to the bat-girl's eye. Crystal's eyes formed a glare, "Hey you chose to wear that skirt! You know I can't help it!" The echidna's glare would not lift, boyfriend or not, he had no right to be looking at her like that.
"Again?" Sonic broke the tension before Knuckles or Crystal strangled Mac, "What is it now?"
A huff left someone's lungs. The group looked at one another while Rogue looked to her left, the step in particular. Soon quick and light thumps led up the lower set of steps, "Well I had to scrap the old plan," It was Tails. Everyone noticed it right away, his eyes were pink, "And I decide on a new way; this actually the help of the kids and you guys…as in cooperation…"
"Okay," Shadow cleared his throat, "I'm out!" He spun around quickly. He took two steps before another stinging pain pulled at the back of his head. "Jeez, alright!" He was pulled back head first until he met someone's flat and annoyed eyes. "I was kidding!" Shadow sighed, relieved as she let go of his quills, "I'll work with the little demon from below—ow!" Cindy crossed her arms and huffed, "Damn it, that was a joke, for a pacifist you smack people a lot!" She remained silent, Shadow's left eye narrowed as he never felt this nervous before. Why wasn't she talking?
"Listen bud," Sonic shot at his friend with a sharp tone, "These people come here, break my door, and wiped chao juices on me; this had better be good." Tails ignored his friend's glare.
Instead he looked around and did a head count, "But we're still missing one aren't we?"
"Nope," Shadow held a content smirk.
"Shadow…" Cindy finally growled.
"What? This is for productive people or people who have something to contribute, excluding Mac," The young hedgehog gave him a glare, "Everyone is here," He shut his eyes tightly and sucked up the pain. He sucked his teeth as he felt the pressure on his foot. He bit his lower lip as he spoke, "Fine…Mac I think he's online, go get him," Cindy lifted her foot and turned her back to him, huffing once.
"I don't know why I ever try with you," She spat, "You can be such a jerk sometimes, with your own son even," That comment earned Knuckles some attention from Rouge and Amy to Sonic.
"Don't even look at me like that," Knuckles mumbled as he shook off her glare mentally. The white bat simply crossed her arms and huffed quietly.
"What? He's kinda right, but don't tell him I said that," Sonic shrugged nervously when Amy's glare did not lift.
"Kay..." Mac quickly disappeared in a blue gust. "God damn it! We lost 24 to 100!" The group on the floor below him rolled their eyes as he yelled a little more; less louder though, "Yo, Shadow, get your butt over here; Tails got somethin' important to say…I don't know I'm not the dude! Yeah…so's your dad," A blue blur zoomed down the steps and stopped quickly in the middle of them all, "Yeah he's gonna be here in like what? Ten second's cause—"
"Daaaannng…" Sonic closed his eyes slowly and sighed, "What the hell ya'll do to the door? Did it bite someone or something?" It wasn't the fact that the door was broken; it was just that everyone kept renewing the whole situation with it and making him feel the great loss again. The legendary blue blur let his eyelids drop half way as Shadow II came inside, "This whole group has control issues,"
"Quiet boy," Shadow quickly responded, "Sit down and shut up," The older hedgehog quickly ducked and evaded a swift smack, "Ha! Saw that—(Smack) Ow! Crap, should've seen that one coming," He simply groaned. Cindy had first swung with her left and missed but caught him seconds later with her right,"
"Jerk,"
"And you still love me," Shadow smirked slyly as his comment made her flush a little in front of everybody.
"Any way…" Tails cut in before any more hold backs, "Like I was saying; instead of me working my mind to the core and stressing so much until my fur falls off, I've found a much simpler way."
"Really?" Sonic seemed intrigued, "Cause last time I asked you about this; you lost me after the seven word."
"Yeah, to an extent." Tails' looked to the different face. He received several questioning looks, "All we have to do is up the level of Chaos Control…"
Knuckles brow furrowed, "Huh?"
"What the hell does that mean?" Mac raised an eyebrow to accompany his look
"Stay with me here," Tails sighed, "Look, Shadow can freeze current time around him to make it seem like he's blazing around from point A to point B in half seconds."
"Yep, it's all the jewel, told ya." Sonic smirked to his so-called rival.
Shadow flashed his short fangs, "Faker, I don't need a jewel to run circles around you and still end up kicking your ass,"
"Alright enough!" Katie yelled, "Jeez dad, stop picking fights,"
Tails crossed his arm, "Now?" Sonic nodded, Tails looked to his right. Shadow bowed his head once, "Thank you. Like I was saying; Shadow's current control can hold him and maybe another person or object, maybe even something like a car," Cindy glared at Shadow, finding her neon up on the top of the Mystic Ruin's tallest mountain on her birthday was not funny. "But the thing is, he can't do more than freeze or slow time. If we use all of the Chaos' Emeralds…wait; what are they doing here anyway?"
"Don't ask," Amy huffed.
"Fine," He sighed. It was useless with these people, "As I was saying. If we use the Chaos Emeralds, and the Master Emerald; we could open a warp to their time line."
Sonic nodded, for once he understood, "Well, isn't that how they came over?"
"Yes but they used something beyond me currently to come over. According to them, he managed to safely control the emerald's power in a machine open a warp and open it to this timeline." He kept the reference to his own son discreet.
Sonic scratched his head. "Now you lost me,"
"Don't worry about that," Tails couldn't figure a simpler way to put it, "Thing is, I can't do that—"
"—Aww, the little genius can't live up to his own son!" Shadow chuckled.
"Yes, fine, drop it! I'm only twelve!" The young one's growl didn't bother him.
"Brian's only eight Tails…" Mac added innocently.
"Okay! I don't care! So what?" Tails flushed shyly, "So he's smarter than me at a younger age, I don't care! Like I wanted to say: if we use all of the emeralds, it should more than strong enough open a warp to their time, the Master Emerald could hold the power so we could hold it so long as we need to get them back home."
"Yeah one problem Tails," Shadow crossed his arms, "I don't know where these kids were exactly. Even you should know what kind of damage we can do to any time line should they end up in the wrong place." Tails nodded to him.
The fox smiled, "That's where they come in," He point with both hands randomly at the kids, "If we can get them to use the emeralds correctly, the time warp should make a fix to their exact time,"
"Wait, none of these kids know—"
"I do," Katie raised her hand, "Sort of, I'm a little sketchy on it but I know how."
"I'm not allowed to use it anymore, mom said so," Mac frowned and crossed his arms.
"I did not!" Amy gasped, "I didn't even know you knew!"
"No, not you, the other mom!" Mac groaned, "Back in our time," The young hedgehog chuckled as he remembered. "That was awesome…"
"Womanizer," Crystal glared as Mac reminisced in his happier memory.
"Mac…" Amy carefully asked, "Just what did you do?"
"He used Chaos Control to walk around the girl's locker room while they were changing. Since it slowed time for him, he got a full show of slow-mo for his eyes," Katie joined Crystal in the glare game.
"You know," Sonic hummed, "I always thought about that possibility," Amy gasped and glared at him. Sonic was rubbing his chin in such deep thought so he didn't notice, "But I wondered if I would lose focus or control and ended up exiting the time slow and then got caught. So I never went ahead tried it."
"Yeah," Mac whined, "I wish some had told me that you need to focus that hard to hold the time control!" He groaned, "Those girls were pissed."
"So Knuckles," The yellow fox approached his echidna friend. Amy was too busy telling Mac off so the fox decided to move on, "Did you find out?"
"Yeah," The red guardian sighed, "He can't do much; I'll have to help him do it."
"Well, it should still work so long as he's focusing with you,"
"Knuckles? Focus?" Sonic snickered, "Ha! Yea right!" His laughter sub-sided when Knuckles growled. The hedgehog sighed disappointingly, "Man…you guys are no fun anymore."
"What about you?" Tails looked to the black and teal striped hedgehog.
Shadow II nodded once, "Yeah," The young hedgehog smiled, "I know how to use it. The thing is I don't like using it, it makes me nauseous,"
"What about Crystal?"
The shorter echidna-bat nodded happily, "I know how to use the Master Emerald's energy and even some Chaos Control, though Knikatu knows a lot more with the Master Emerald, he absorb it once!"
"Don't tell!" Knikatu shushed her right away, "I still can't get it right!"
"How the hell can you…" Knuckles looked to his son, "If you can go into the Chaos mode, why didn't you say?" In a way he thought it was impressive. And in the other, he was jealous; Knuckles couldn't even control anything from the Master Emerald at his age, "That's more than enough to pull off what we need!" Why was he hiding this? Knikatu was amount to a lot more than what Knuckles expected from him.
"Well…I pass out after a minute or two…" Knikatu gave him an uneasy glance.
"So? I barely can on hold for two hours." They had a stare off, "Knikatu," His voice was almost hard, "Are lying to me about anything else?" The white echidna shook his head, "Do you really want to learn something?"
"Dad?" Knikatu raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you haven't hit a spliff in past twenty minutes?" It was so strange, Knuckles was way beyond his normal self to him right now.
"Tails," Sonic dragged the fox away from the echidnas, "Is this all you told these people to come here for?"
"Uh, yeah?" His fox friend began to sweat.
He grabbed the young child by his fur, "You mean to tell me that I lost a new door just so you could tell us," Sonic glare hardened, "Work together with the kids to get ready for a big Chaos Control?"
"Well when you put it like—"
"—Dude," Sonic hissed angrily, "I swear I'm gonna shove my foot so far up—"
"Hey!" Mac smiled mischievously, "You're awake! Oh," The youngest hedgehog chuckled softly, "Can't walk?" The sneaky grin turned into a devil's smile. Everyone looked to the steps. He was referring to the couple walking up to their level. They reached and suddenly stopped as they received too many stares for comfort.
Rouge finally spoke up, "Why are you holding—"
"—She's really…uh, her back still hurts and she can't walk much," Espio hid a flush as Mac gave him a specific look. The chameleon knew that, that little blue kid knew it all. Mac was his only friend in this room right now; so he had to please it no matter what. How could he explain as to why he was holding Julie-Su on his back? It seemed like giving her a piggy back ride.
"Or maybe she's overworked," Espio flushed heavily. Even he heard the sarcastic comment from Sonic's son.
"So you're finally leaving?" Sonic smirked for a sudden reason, "You guys have fun last night?"
'Oh my god…' Julie-Su turned her head and reviled her full blush. This wasn't happening, "I-I don't get w-what you mean, excuse me?" Her stutter did not help. She clear her throat, her voice was almost faint.
"Sure…" Sonic gave a sarcastic look.
"Julie, you okay?" Amy questioned sweetly, "You sound like you have a sore throat," Mac withheld a powerful snicker; he literally had to bite his lower lip in order to keep from busting out in laughter.
"Uh no," Her weak voice was muffled as she rested her head on the chameleon's shoulder, "I'm fine, ruff night is all." Mac couldn't hold it anymore. He fell back and rolled around the floor, tears of laughter in his eyes. Julie-Su flushed as she caught on. "No that's not what I mean, I couldn't sleep is all!" Her faint voice tried to yell. Mac laughed even more because of her comment.
"Hey," Julie-Su did not like the sound of his voice, "You positive?" Sonic smiled evilly, "Sounded like you were being split in two last night." She yelped and felt the blood rush to her face again. "Nightmare? You were screaming and yelping a lot,"
"Nice." Mac clasped hands with his dad and join in the joker's laughter.
"I don't believe it," Shadow looked at the couple with a flat expression. Both their faces were blood red, Shadow wasn't surprised. "You two were humping all last night weren't you?" Espio looked away, "Julie," Shadow simply asked, "Do your dreadlocks hurt?" Her embarrassed gasp told it all, "That explains why she's not walking…though it is surprising knowing you're a chode purple boy," Espio suddenly growled at his insult.
Julie-Su gulped along with her lover, "So," Rouge joined the sly father and son hedgehogs in this conversation, "Espio," The chameleon refuse to look at her, "Julie," The echidna lifted her head slightly, "Where are you two heading?"
"Well," Espio nervously stuttered, "She's got to uh, shower and change. So-o we're going to her shower—nuh—room—home, we're going to her home—" Nobody bought it. "—I mean I'm taking her home! Not going with her…" The chameleon looked around embarrassed and nervously.
"More alone time?" Rouge giggled, "Julie, was he that pleasing?" The echidna hid her already deep blush by hiding her face.
Espio began walking towards the door, "Have fun!" Mac shouted as they walked out. Espio picked up his pace when everybody in the house began to laugh. "I'll let you know when the DVD comes out!" Luckily for him, Espio was already too busy and uncomfortable to hear him.
"Mac you didn't!" Amy yelped.
"Hell no," Mac gagged, "Watch two old people; especially that echidna and chameleon love for a whole night? You couldn't pay me enough! Let alone record it," Knikatu chuckled a little, he had the same thoughts.
"So what now?" Sonic sighed, "You people have ruined my day and yet it has gone only too well because tonight, I'll be able to sleep without hearing a bunch of moaning and screaming," The hero stood up. He scratched his wounded leg, reaching into the cast, "Damn I hate this thing,"
The rose hedgehog grabbed his left arm, "Sonic stop, the doctors said you need to keep it on for about three more weeks," Amy reached out to stop his scratching hands.
"Screw…that," Sonic began to pull on his cast, "I can't even run in this damn thing," He started pulling it sideways. When it ripped, he drew everyone's attention. Shadow raised an eyebrow as he saw Sonic pull the fabric apart. Before he knew, Amy was rolling her eyes and Sonic was holding a leg cast with a large rip down the middle.
"You're such a—" Amy groaned, "—Sonic, it's a bullet wound; what if it gets infected?"
"Yea, yea, yea, " The hedgehog sarcastically replied, "You told me a million times; just get me the cleaning medicine," Sonic's face was uneasy as he stared at the blood stained bandages, "It not that bad anymore," A lot of the group gagged as he pulled the old bandages off, "See? It healed up a lot; I can walk, maybe even run; no problem," Sonic smiled as he looked around, and stood up, his left eye twitched from a numbing pain, "Okay, it's not anything I can't walk off," Amy huffed and rushed upstairs. She wasn't listening to him, she didn't want him screaming his head off later when the wound was contaminated.
Amy returned as Knuckles began to speak, "Well this was another nice hour wasted,"
"Not yet," Mac cut Knuckles off, "If you're all going home this soon that I need to ask you, you," He pointed at Knuckles and Tails, "You, you, you and you something," His lips moved so quickly it all sounded like a big slur. Sonic and Shadow exchanged strange looks as Mac was calling them out in addition to Shadow II and Knikatu. Already all six of them weren't liking this, Mac wasn't kid they were all very trusting of. With a couple flinches and grunts Sonic made his way over, Shadow walked over coolly and Knikatu and Shadow II had to nod on it before moving.
His mother began to hand Sonic the bottles of cleaner and medicine, "And what are we up to?" Amy question as she heard Mac begin to whisper, "Sonic what's he saying?"
"I don't know," Sonic dragged on, "Now, if you don't mind; let the damn thing speak!"
Amy's baby fangs let out a growl, "Sonic…"
The sapphire hedgehog sighed, "Let 'Mac' speak…jeez," He turned his head to face his son, "What is it boy? I need to clean my wound and I want to do it before today ends so I can go order a new door!" His glare aimed to his left, at Shadow.
"Okay but first," He leaned out a little more. He was observing the room closely, "We need to be alone and in private,"
"Whatever you can say to them you can say to us," Rouge quickly cut in before anyone moved.
Mac sighed, "C'mon," He groaned, "This is a father-son thing!"
"—N' I'm out," Shadow turned around, "I swear if you hit me—" No matter how hard he was trying, he couldn't form a glare at her.
"Then turn around," Cindy growled as her ultimate life form flinched when she raised her open palm.
"So c'mon," Rouge gestured with her left hand for him to go ahead, "Spit it out,"
"I will," Mac looked around, "When the girls leave,"
Sonic groaned, "Mac," His father shook him, "You had better not be coming out of the closest,"
"What? Hell no, that disgusting!"
His father sighed, "Fine, so I can get you people out of my house sooner; everyone downstairs," He turned around and stopped Amy and Crystal who were quick to follow, "Except you guys; any of you guys," He turned his head and made sure Rouge and Cindy heard.
"What?" Amy gasped, "Oh now you want to go along with him," She glared.
Cindy nodded along with Rouge, "Yeah what's he so intent on hiding,"
"Look, lady," Sonic looked to Cindy and Rouge, "And Amy," She crossed her arms, "Does it look like I actually care what he wants?" He pointed with his thumb to the empty space behind him. They all had already left, "Oh…any way, I'm doing this just to get these people outta my house, so I can clean my cut and order me a new door."
"Fine go," The rest of the girls gasp when Rouge let him go.
"Ha, I got you!" Sonic smirked and pointed his finger in her face, "We're going into the sound proof room! Bam, suck on that!" Sonic laughed as he started forcing his legs down steps. He yelped every time he landed his foot on the next lower step. "Peeeeze—Zout!" He mocked as he left their sight.
Everyone saw Rouge's hanging jaw. She couldn't believe it. That did not just happen. She ran it through her mind fifty times and it still made no sense. The bat's eyes were still in a shock state. Amy ran a hand across her friend's view and got no response.
"Wow," Crystal popped her comment in, "He really caught you mom, bet you didn't see that one coming," Katie giggled in agreement with her friend.
"Sonic just…" She mumbled, "Amy…"
"Yes?"
"Please tell me he didn't just out do me…"
The pink hedgehog shrugged uncomfortably, "Um…sorry?"
"I need to go home and lie down…" Rouge the bat held her head and told herself that it was all a nightmare. "I'll be at home…" The trauma was really getting to her.
"Yours or dad's—"
She sighed her daughter's question, "Do you even need to ask?—"
"—See that's not fair," Amy huffed and folded her arms, "How come you Knuckles are together, she's with Shadow and I am over here trying to get his attention?"
"Oh Amy," Cindy waved the worry down, "Your thinking too much on it, how about we go out for dinner, just us and the girls?" Amy looked around the room for a clock. The DVD player above the TV said 4:30. "I know it's early but I'm starving,"
Rouge let go of her head as she heard deeper talk of food, "Yeah, same here. I tried making lunch with Tikal but it didn't turn out too well cause some one burned the chicken…"
"I lost the time and forgot it was still cooking at 500!" Crystal defended herself, "All you wanted out of that lunch was to feed dad. You didn't cook for us!"
Rouge blushed as Crystal brought this up in front of everyone, "Shush!" She whispered with a nervous look.
"Please," Cindy moaned, "I'm hungry! You two can argue over dinner!"
"I saw this neat looking restaurant while I was running through the city. It's across the D.T.L.R., wanna try it?" Katie pitched in.
"Oh I know the greatest Italian place not to far from here!" Cindy squealed as the confirmation of food was made.
Amy sighed softly and smiled a little, "Why not? Its not like they're doing anything evil downstairs, besides it'd be nice to go out without the stress of keeping Mac toned down," The pink hedgehog smiled and ran some fingers through here quills, "It'd be good for those two to spend some time together."
"Okay c'mon let's go!" Cindy's stomach growled quietly, "If I have to wait any longer I'll end up eating my hair!" The teal hedgehog pulled her keys and then frowned, "Wait, Katie can you bring the chao along?" The fourteen year old nodded happily and zipped over to pick up the snoring chao. Crystal's eyes instantly lit up and she followed Katie's lead in the cooing of the infant.
The mixed child gasped, "So cute!" Crystal yelped quietly, "Is it yours?"
"Yes…and no." Cindy sighed when Crystal cocked an eyebrow, "It doesn't like me…" Crystal's mouth opened, "Before you ask…Shadow…let's go before it wakes up and starts crying for him because knowing him; he'll leave the poor thing here." Cindy held out her arms to take the sleeping baby.
"Poor Chao," Rouge made tisk sounds as sounds as she shook her head, "…Shadow of all people…"
Cindy began walking ahead of everyone. Impatiently she kept looking back to make sure she out of the house alone, "C'mon hurry up!"
"You act like you haven't eaten in a year sheesh!" Rouge sped up her walk.
"I don't know okay?" Cindy flushed as she rushed to her car, "I've been so hungry lately. Honestly I think my stomach has gone nuts. This morning I woke up and the first thing that came to my mind was that I love 'ma-mone-nes' and I finished the last box I have at home! And I just bought it," She opened it and quickly started the car making the lagging Katie and Crystal rush into the car. Cindy handed the Chao Amy in the passenger seat.
Carefully the rose hedgehog put her seatbelt on and balanced the infant on her laps, "Oh ma-mone-nes?" Cindy nodded at Amy's question, "I remember those, they were so good."
Rouge leaned in to add her comments, "And you bought and ate a whole box of them?" The lime eyed hedgehog nervously giggled as a silence came over them. Everyone did a mental count of how many grape-sized ma-mone-nes could fit into a box about the size of a shoe box. Everyone finished and gave wide eyed looks.
She looked away and shifted into reverse, "I've been hungry!" She tried keep down the deeply embarrassing flush.
The blue hero opened the door and instantly had all eyes on him. "Okay," Sonic grunted and held his leg wound, "Talk boy, my leg is killing me!" He groaned from some pain as he sat down on the only sofa in the room.
Mac sighed, "Okay, I need help…"
"I could've told you that," Shadow huffed as he crossed his arms.
The young azure hedgehog glared at his father's dark rival. "Actually…" His voice dragged on. Mac zipped over to his companions Shadow II and Knikatu. He put his arms around their necks and smirked, "We need help with something,"
Knuckles sniffled before speaking, "You want help with a mix-tape don't you?"
"You knew?" Mac's head tilted as he held the most confused look of all.
"Yeah," Knuckles cleared his throat, "Knikatu's done nothing but blame you and it for the whole island thing."
The young hedgehog rolled his eyes, "Dude…let it go, damn!" He glared to his right, at his white echidna friend. He stopped after a few second when Knikatu did respond in anyway, "So you can help us?"
"Hell no!" Sonic groaned with a rag towel in his mouth. The injured hedgehog took off his stained wrap and tossed them aside. He had started unrolling the new bandages, "First of all—ow crap!" He flinched as he let the bottle of medicine dribble a few drops onto his wound. The reaction was an instant sting, "Do you know how long it take to make one? Ow!" He rubbed the medicine in with the towel.
"We're not asking for a whole thing; we just want some help!" Mac pleaded.
"I dunno," His face twisted with pain as he tended his wound, "What do you guys think? Ouch! Tails, you're the instrumentalist here,"
The fox shrugged, "I don't have much to do anymore now that we got the way home solved." He walked past all of them and walked over to large computer mixing board, "It's fine with me but don't expect to get more than a few songs; don't even get your hopes up for two tracks."
Sonic sucked his teeth, "Ow damn it this crap burns!" He moaned as he began wrapping the new bandages around it, "Shadow?"
"Honestly," The dark hedgehog huffed, "I don't care…so long as it gets them home sooner. Life is already enough with things as they are, I don't need a kid adding fuel to the fire," He glared down at his teal and black colored offspring.
"Knux?"
The crimson echidna looked around. He stared at everyone for a few seconds, "Well…" Knikatu knew that tone already, "I don't see why not," Mac sighed with relief and threw his hands in the air, "So long I don't have to do another 'Mirror'," Shadow and Sonic shrugged in agreement, Sonic more though.
Sonic relaxed as he finished up the last wrapping. The blue blur laid down on the sofa sideways, "Alright, if Shadow's on, then let's talk,"
"Really?" Mac couldn't believe it, "Sweet!"
Knikatu smiled slightly, "Cool," He himself couldn't believe his own dad agreed.
Tails cleared his through as he entered the center of the group's attention, "So what are we aiming for on these tracks? C'mon talk to me guys, show me what you got." He waved for the kids to follow him as he walked toward the booth with the mic.
Well, what are they going to do for the mix-tape? Will they even do it or will Shadow say screw it five minutes into it? And are what Espio and Julie-Su doing besides showering together? Will they ever learn to cooperate to open the warp home? Will they even get home? Will Sonic's door ever be fixed? Will the new one last? Where are the girls gonna eat? Will I even continue it from this ending point or just start a whole new day with a summary in the next chapter? Did Night really let Katie off the hook? Why am I asking you these questions? Why am I even typing if this is the ending of the chapter?
I don't know. I'm just the author.
Well Till 18 (Hey, it'll be a legal story!……I know that was retarded but I had to call it. Heh-heh)
I'm out.