If Sonic had been able to see the ground, he would have been able to brace himself for impact.

But he couldn't, so he didn't. He didn't even really have an idea how high up he was. So as he curled up to take the hit, he hit, half-curled, unprepared. He didn't even bounce. The tree limb, which, having greater air resistance, landed soon after, did bounce, and although the initial impact avoided Sonic, the secondary landing pinned the blue hedgehog under the main branch and several layers of twigs and leaves.

Sonic lay on his back, looking up at the windows he'd passed on the way down as the lights came on inside. He'd fallen four stories, and though his head had been cushioned by his quills, the rest of his body wasn't so lucky. At least he had had a handful of rings with him when he'd made impact. The only problem now was the branch across his chest pinning both his arms and restricting his respiration. Speaking of which, his brain was lacking in oxygen at the moment and things were starting to get fuzzy…

Why the hell was the door locked? Shadow tugged at the handle again, trying to figure a way to get out of the room and down to the ground floor as fast as possible. Chaos Control? The thought had occurred to Shadow twice now, but this time she actually considered it. Shadow didn't have a Chaos Emerald with her, but she remembered earlier today at 4:30pm; she had been down in the lobby signing papers. If she could teleport to then, maybe she had a chance.

"Chaos Control!"

Chaos Control without a Chaos Emerald is difficult.

Chaos Control while tired, injured, distressed, overweight, AND without a Chaos Emerald is another thing entirely.

In other words, Shadow felt sick to all of her stomachs as she landed a minute early outside the elevator. She was determined to hold on to her breakfast as she made her way around the hospital's inner loop to reach the doors to the courtyard; the location of the oak tree around which the hospital was built; where Sonic had no doubt landed. Finding the glass doors locked, Shadow picked up a nearby chair and proceeded to do a couple hundred thousand rings worth of damage to make her way through.

Shadow circled the branch, realizing that it was not only Sonic's weight to cause the failure of the branch, but also the fact that it was rotten through; putting the state of the rest of the tree into question, before Shadow recognized that Sonic had not landed independently of the bough. Shadow kneeled down and started digging through the rubbery, pointed leaves and finally found him, unconscious, pinned by the piece of unrefined lumber across his chest.

Removing her sling, Shadow tucked her hands under the branch and stood up, lifting the thing enough to slide Sonic out of the spot with one of her legs. Once Sonic was completely free of the branch, she dropped it; giving her full attention to the unconscious blue hedgehog, making sure he was still breathing.

Rouge sat up in bed and looked out the closest window as several police cruisers drove by, sirens blaring, headed toward the hospital on Tenth Street.
Rouge got dressed.

"Sonic! Wake up! Come on!"
Shadow shook Sonic's shoulders. Though he was breathing fine, Sonic was still unconscious, and this was a very bad position for the both of them. Every light in the hospital was on by now. People crowded every ground floor window. Guards and police officers were picking their way through the broken glass.

History was about to repeat itself.

In a last-ditch effort, Shadow removed her right-hand glove.

A guard had managed to get through the glass and was now yelling at Shadow as he stepped over the tree branch.

Shadow steadied Sonic's head a moment before rearing back and giving Sonic a backhand across the muzzle.
THAT got him moving.

Sonic was awake. He wasn't sure how or why, but he was awake. He was also arm-wrestling a guard for his tazer. And now he and Shadow were surrounded. And now everything was dark, save for the moon in the sky. And now they were wanted men.