Chapter Two

Angel and Cheese

Angel woke up in the same tree in the same park. This was home. She let her wings disappear, and jumped out of the oak tree. Yawning and stretching, she walked over to a water fountain to wake herself up.

"Good morning, Station Square." Angel said to herself. She splashed some water on her face, and sat on a park bench. She found herself wondering about the thing that happened last night. She woke up to find the police crawling around the park. Angel felt scared as she realized she could have been found. That would have been bad. If the police had caught her and Lilianne, well, it would have been something terrible.

Angel suddenly heard a rustle in the bushes nearby. She grabbed a stick from the ground, and side-stepped to the bush. Were the cops spying on her? Angel didn't want to know.

"I have a big, uh, stick here," Angel shakily yelled. "And I'm not afraid to use it!" All she heard from the bush was a high-pitched "Chao!" Was Lilianne messing with her? Angel decided to find out. She walked over to the bush, parted some leaves and branches, and looked. What she found surprised her.

It was a thing. Angel had no idea what it was. It was blue, with a yellow bauble floating above its head. When Angel picked it up, it was small enough to fit on the palm of her hand.

"Um, hi." Angel began. She didn't know how it would react. The thing just looked up at her with curiosity.

"Chao chao." the thing said. Suddenly, it just started crying, or at least Angel thought it was. There were real tears. She tried to calm down the Chao-thing, but failed. Then, Angel noticed a newspaper near her feet. Picking it up, she noticed two pictures at the bottom of the paper. One was a two-tailed fox, the other, a rabbit. The thing floated other to the newspaper, still crying, and pointed at the rabbit.

"That's your friend," Angel commented. "Isn't it?" The creature nodded. It had stopped crying, but still had tears on it's face.

"Don't be sad." Angel reassured. "I'll help you find your friend." The thing smiled, and tried to hug Angel to no avail. She smiled, giggling at it's humor, until she saw the rest of the cover. Two more pictures were on it. One was of a hedgehog. The other was-

"Lilianne!" Angel yelled. "I'M GOING TO KILL HER!" She felt infuriated by her sister's antics. Now she would get both of them in trouble. Angel put the thing in her backpack, and stomped all the way to Lilianne's home. Now she'd get a piece of her mind!

Lilianne put Bruno in her lap, and looked at the hedgehog sitting on the dumpster. She'd only known Sonic since last night, but felt she knew him far longer. Still, he was a stranger. And she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. Lilianne laughed at herself. That would have been something Angel could have said.

"LILIANNE!" Angel screamed as she stomped into the courtyard. Lilianne fell off the chair she was sitting on.

"What's all the fuss about?" Lilianne asked. All her sister did was shove a newspaper into her face. The headline screamed "Human and Alien Against Station Square"

"I'd expect this from the Enquirer," Lilianne joked. "But this is ridiculous." Angel gave her twin a cold look, went behind the dumpster, and pulled Sonic out.

"I'm telling you," Lilianne continued. "We are NOT in cahoots with each other. That's just ridiculous." Angel could feel herself steaming. She walked over to her sister, still upset.

"If the police find us," Angel said through gritted teeth. "We'll be beyond dead. Understand?" Lilianne nodded. Then, she noticed something in Angel's backpack. It looked like- well, something weird.

"Um, Angel?" Lilianne asked. "What's in your backpack?"

" Oh, that?" Angel answered, no longer angry. "I have no idea. I found it this morning. Isn't it cute?" The thing floated out of the backpack to Sonic. Angel let go of the hedgehog as the thing began crying- again. This time, it seemed to be telling Sonic something.

"This looks bad." Sonic groaned. "Really, really bad." He picked up the newspaper, and pointed to the picture of the rabbit. "Let's hope the cops haven't done anything to her."

"Who?" both girls asked in unison.

"Cream." Sonic stated matter-of-factly. "She's the rabbit. Something must have happened to her." Seeing the sisters confused faces, he continued. "Cream and Cheese are always together, unless something happens to one of them. I wonder how Cheese got out of this mess." Noticing the other picture of the fox, a grim expression spread across his face. "Tails is here too? Oh, no. This looks very, very, bad."

Cream lied down in the cage, and tried to hold back tears. She didn't know what was going on. One minute, she was on that hill, with her friends. Next, she was being taken away by the police. Cream didn't know where she was, but she knew it was top-secret. She looked into the next cage, where Tails, the only friend with her, sat, his knees pulled up to his chest.

"If only Sonic were here," Tails murmured. "He'd know what to do." He wrapped his double tails around himself, and thought about what happened. First, Eggman's machine exploded, then they started to disappear. Tails remembered waking up with Cream on a busy intersection. The police, and a huge crowd, were already there. It didn't take very long to notice the two alien children. As Tails pondered over how all of the hullabaloo got started, only two words came to his mind. Chaos Control.

Tails had never seen Chaos Control before. He had, however, heard a legend about the Chaos Emeralds, which caused the action. Tails had been told that Chaos Emeralds had minds of their own. He'd heard that they were very mischievous, separating whenever all seven joined. But Tails thought about something else that sparked his interest. Legend had it that Chaos Emeralds actually selected who could use them, like Sonic. Sonic…

Tails thoughts were interrupted when he heard voices coming from down the hall. Light flooded into the room, as the door opened. Two men in lab coats opened Tails' cage.

"Subject B," One scientist said, "You're wanted in the lab." Tails began to feel scared. He looked over into the next cage, where Cream sat shaking.

"Be brave, Cream!" Tails shouted as he was being taken away. In a few seconds, the scientists had shut the door behind them.

Tears began to flow down Cream's face. What were they going to do with Tails? She wished Cheese were here. Maybe he was back in the city. Cream slowly cried herself to sleep, lonely and scared.