A/N: Whoops, I haven't updated in a while. I was so focused on WITb, ahhehe. :3 But this story gets some love too!

Boredom: the Sequel! :: Ch.2; New Guy & Montana Cat

"Hey, look at that. He's silver…"

"Nah, I'd say more like a cloudy, gray-ish steel."

Knuckles threw the soap bar at Sonic's head.

"OW! Grr!" Sonic grabbed a shampoo bottle and chucked it at Knuckles, but the echidna ducked in time and stuck his tongue out.

After Sonic ran away from the dark alley dragging the kid, the four returned to the apartment they shared in (beep)ville, California. They burst in, tossed the kid into the bathtub, then proceeded to wash his stinky rotting fur with some sponges. Sonic and Knuckles sat on the tub's edges as they vigorously scrubbed the dude and Tails was sitting on the toilet seat lid, just eyeing the kid's golden bangles… and Shadow refused to be any part of this so he was standing outside grumbling to himself.

"Grumblegrumblegrumble…"

"Shaddap out there, Shad."

Sonic sighed. "Yanno, it's a good thing Amy had that Bath and Body Works © gift basket. Regular soap wouldn't get the stench offa this guy!"

Tails leaned over and took a whiff of the lathered silver head. "Ooh, warm vanilla sugar! Mmm mm good, hmm?" He shoved the head under Knuckles's nose.

Knuckles shoved it away. "Yeahsmellsgoodwhatever. But dontcha think it's weird how the dude hasn't even woken up yet? We've dragged him from the alleyway, down the street a few blocks, up the stairs, drenched him in hot water, scrubbed him with heavy-freaking-duty sponges, drenched him in more hot water and he's still out cold!?"

"Don't forget smacked his face with a wooden plank," Sonic chimed in.

Knuckles punched him in the face, causing him to fall in the tub too.

"GAHH!—(splash)"

"Maybe he's faking," Shadow grumbled from outside.

"If he's faking all of this, then that's kinda... creepy..." sweatdropped Tails. "I don't know if you'd want to keep him at your place..."

Sonic scrambled out of the tub, grabbing the shower head to rinse the silver hedgie a third time. He looked to Tails and Knuckles, grinning. "Who said he's staying at our place?"

"..."

- x -

Knuckles huffed as he finished wrapping bandages around the hedgehog's head, setting him on the couch all nice and clean and dry and smelling of warm vanilla sugar. "Maaan! How'd we get stuck as babysitters?!"

"Well, the injuries were your fault anyway—"

"OKAY TAILS, I know that by now."

"Then shush already! You'll wake him."

"Wake him?! HAH! Watch this." The echidna grabbed a pan from the kitchen and banged a metal spoon on it repeatedly while screaming crazy things. "AAHH BLAH BLAH BLAHH CHIKICHIKI BOOMSHAKALAMA WAAHHWAAWAWA!"

The silver hedgehog remained fast asleep. Tails smacked Knuckles again.

"OW! The heck was that for, he didn't even wake up—"

"Yeah, but that was for ALMOST BREAKING MY EAR DRUMS!"

"WILL BOTH OF YA'LL SHUT UP!?" Shadow screamed as he burst into their apartment. "I AM TRYING TO MEDITATE! WE CAN HEAR YOU FROM THE THIRD FREAKING FLOOR!"

Sonic popped up from behind him. "YEAH! ESS TEE EFF YOU!"

"Ess tee wha?" Knuckles blinked.

"You know, like the letters. S. T. F, and U. I'm basically telling you to shut up."

"Oh. Okay. Sorry."

Shadow turned to leave but then stepped on a toy near the doorway. It squeaked. "Eh?"

"IBLIS TRIGGER!?" the silver hedgehog cried as he sat up. He yelped and clutched his head. "OWW! Why does my face hurt!?" Then he blinked and sniffed his shoulder. "Ooh, but I smell lovely."

Knuckles, Tails, Sonic and Shadow looked at him, shocked. Now he wakes up!? Sonic turned to Shadow and smacked his arm. "Great job, Smooth Criminal! You woke him up!"

"Me?! No, it was the toy!"

"You stepped on the toy, so you made the sound—"

"HEY FOOLS!"

The two hedgehogs shut up, looking to the voice that screamed at them from behind…

Rouge winked. "Hey boys."

"Ooh, babyface!" Knuckles squealed as he ran towards her with arms open. "Whatcha' doin here?"

"Weeeell, I thought I'd drop by and remind you guys about tonight's dinner so ya'll can meet— … who's that."

"Who's who?"

Rouge pointed to the kitchen. They all looked.

"Wow, you guys have a lot of orange juice!" the silver hedgehog laughed as he took out a pitcher. "Can I have some?"

"…"

"Just a cup. I won't drink it all, promise."

"…"

"Please—"

"Yeah whatever," Tails waved his hand dismissively. He looked to Rouge. "We'll explain later."

"... Well, okay. Bring him to dinner!"

The silver hedgehog squealed in excitement. "Dinner!? Oh boy, that sounds grea—"

Shadow went over and shoved a bread roll in the kid's mouth. Rouge coughed. "Yeeaahh… so like I said. Girls' apartment tonight. We're having Italian, meaning, FOOD! But most importantly, our new roommate's excited to meet you all!"

With all the excitement of the dark alley and the unconscious silver hedgehog, they'd forgotten that Amy, Tikal and Rouge had just welcomed a new roommate into their apartment earlier. They kinda needed some more money for the rent, and the new chick was a college student that needed somewhere to stay, so it seemed like a pretty sweet deal…

So the boys just nodded. Rouge grinned. "Great. See you all at 7, then." She turned to leave.

Knuckles started waving insanely. "Okay, 'til then, muffin! I love you, babe! Take care! Be careful! Don't talk to strangers, call me if you get lost—"

"I LIVE JUST ONE FLOOR BELOW YOU, SHEESH!" The bat's eye twitched.

"... Oh yeah. Okay bye."

"Bye." And so Rouge disappeared down the staircase.

Sileeeeence.

"Ooh, ham!" the silver hedgehog squealed.

"... Well good luck," Shadow mumbled before leaving too. Sonic waved and followed.

Knuckles sighed. Why did he feel a huge food trip was in his near future...?

- x -

Meanwhile, at the girls' apartment...

"Hey Blaze, how's the unpacking going?"

A purple cat with white patches on the tips of her limbs looked up from her suitcase. "Huh? Oh, it's okay... I didn't bring a lot of clothes so I should be done in another hour or so."

Amy looked around the cat's room. Other than a bed and a desk with a small shelf, that was all. "... Wanna go to the mall tomorrow?"

"... Yeah, that'd be great."

"Cool! Well anyways, don't forget our dinner is at 7," Amy grinned. "You're gonna meet all our cool guy friieeends, and if you're lucky maybe even find a looove intereeeest... but hands off the blue hedgie, he's mine."

"Blue hedgie? You have a boyfriend, Amy?"

"You bet!"

"YOU WISH!" Sonic yelled from Blaze's open window.

Blaze eyed him in horror. Who's that?! But more importantly, how'd he get there?! Wasn't their room on the 2nd floor—

"SONIC, BABY! COME TO MOMMA!" Amy squealed and dove out the window after him. Sonic screamed and scrambled away.

Blaze stared.

"... They told me in Charleslist that this place was kinda weird, buuut..." she sighed and shook her head, just continuing to unpack.

She'd ask... later.

... Maybe...

- x -

Back at Knuckles and Tails's apartment, the two boys were deciding what to do with the silver hedgehog, who had conveniently fallen asleep again after consuming the ham he found in the fridge.

"Police?" Tails suggested.

"Yeaahh, but what if Shadow's right and he's a murderer or something."

"So? Then we would've put him in jail already."

"But if he gets out, he already knows where we live! Then he'll come and hunt us down, so then we'd have to move away to Canada and change our identities and go under that Witness Protection Program, then we'll never see our friends again and we'll have to eat crappy government food since we can't go out by ourselves then they'll probably make us dye our fur and wear cheap sunglasses and we'll be so miserable having to push through every day under this large blanket of lies and deception—"

"YEAHOKAY I GET IT!" Tails twitched and shoved him off the couch.

"Owch."

"Spazz."

"Nerd."

"Jerk!"

"LOSER!"

"GRAHHH!"

"YARR!—"

"Hey guys!" Sonic greeted cheerfully as he entered, Shadow in tow. "Ya ready?! If so, let's go to the girls' place no—OWW!" he was silenced when Knuckles accidentally punched him instead of Tails.

The echidna flinched. "Whoops! Sorry Sonic, guess my aim was a little off..."

"..."

"Uh. Sonic?"

"Oh no, you killed him!" Tails sobbed.

Beside them, Shadow turned around and cheered silently.

But then Sonic sat up. "JUST KIDDING!"

Shadow put his arms down. "Dammit..."

"Oh yeah, I was gonna ask you guys something," Knuckles came by carrying the sleeping silver hedgie over his shoulder. "So what're we gonna do with this? Are we really bringing him to the girls' apartment tonight?"

The blue hedgehog shook his head. "Nah, just let him rest for now. We'll figure it out when he's awake."

"... Well okay." Knuckles went over to the couch and tossed the hedgehog there. "All right! I'm starving, let's go."

Tails cheered as the four left the apartment. "Party, party, we're having a big partyyyy—"

"Shaddap Tails, your singing sucks."

"... Maria."

Shadow halted and clutched his chest in pain. "D:"

Tails snickered. Knuckles smacked Tails for being insensitive and Sonic grabbed the other hedgehog, dragging him along.

- x -

"All righty, everything set?"

Tikal put down some flowers on top of the table. "Yep—"

BOOM!

"Oh NOOO!"

Rouge and Tikal rushed to the kitchen. Covered in ashes was Amy and Blaze, and the oven was on fire.

Tikal started giggling. "Haha, lookit that! Blaze set the kitchen ablaze."

Rouge giggled too. Blaze gaped, shaking her head. "I-I didn't do anything! I was just washing the dishes!"

"Aw it's okay, we know," Tikal sweatdropped, eyeing Amy who was going crazy on the oven with the fire extinguisher.

"DIE FLAMES, DDIIIIEEE!"

"So I guess the lasagna's toast?" Rouge held back a snicker. Tikal burst out laughing.

Blaze STARED.

Amy was screaming like a banshee, their oven was on fire, the kitchen was covered in ash and falling apart and they were just making jokes? Was this a normal occurrence around here?! "Uh..."

Sonic popped up in the doorway. "Hey girls! We're here—whoa, fireworks!"

"I'll go call a delivery place," Tails sighed as he took out his cell phone.

Meanwhile, the microwave beside the oven started glowing. Blaze gaped at it. "Shouldn't we be calling the fire department instead, or, or—!"

Tikal shoved her towards the bathroom. "Nahh, it's coo'. Just go clean up!"

Hesitantly the cat headed to the bathroom to take a shower, ignoring the exploding noise from the kitchen...

- x -

"Pizza? I thought we were having Italian."

"Pizza is Italian, dummy!" Rouge scolded Knuckles as she opened another Larry's Pizza box. "'Kay, dig in!"

Blaze watched as everyone rabidly attacked the boxes. Then she looked to the four boys, finally getting a good look at them all.

One: a blue hedgehog with a silly, trouble-making grin. Two: a threatening-looking echidna with sharp teeth. Three: A cute two-tailed fox munching on a bread stick. And four: a black hedgehog with red stripes watching the blue and red one fight over the last Hawaiian slice.

'Oh wow,' she thought, doing a double take at Shadow. 'What a handsome hedgehog... he kinda reminds me of—'

"Would you two learn some freaking manners!?" Tikal shrieked, shoving Knuckles and Sonic's faces apart. Then she took the pizza they were fighting over and downed it herself.

Sonic gasped. "Noo...! Come back...!"

Knuckles sobbed but was promptly shut up when Rouge shoved a bread stick in his mouth. "Oh, and by the way," the bat called to Blaze, catching her attention. "This is my boyfriend, Knuckles."

"Hai, nash to meechoo," Knuckles mumbled, holding a hand out.

Blaze shook it. "Same here."

"Do you remember the rest of the boys' names?"

"I remember Shadow, and then Tails, but..." She gave Sonic a sheepish look.

"Aw, no worries!" Sonic jumped up on the coffee table everyone was sitting around. "So again, I am Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing alive!"

"YOU'RE SO COOL!" Amy squealed and glomped him off.

"Go away Amy, you're ruining mah GROOOVE!"

"Are they together?" Blaze asked as she turned to Tikal.

"Of course we are!" Amy answered for her. "He's my sexy blue speedy wonder and I love him sooo much—"

"EW GET OFF!" Sonic tried shoving her face away. "Seriously, cannot breeatthhee...!"

Tails shoved them off their seats ("DENGIT, TAILS!") and turned to Blaze. "SO! Sorry about them, let's talk about you. What brought ya to Cali?"

"Well, I'm a first year college student... I needed to find a place to stay since the dorms were full, then I found these girls on Charleslist and so here I am."

"Noiicee. What college?"

"The University of—" Blaze was drowned out as a siren passed by their window.

"Ooh. That's a good college." Tails nodded in approval.

"Where ya from?" Knuckles threw out.

"Where? Uh... M... Montana."

"Montana?!" the other seven yelled in surprise.

Blaze looked around nervously. "Y... yeah... is there something wrong with Montana...?"

"Well no, but good job on comin' to California!" Sonic grinned as he got back up. "Welcome! You're gonna have an awesome time here."

The seven grinned widely and creepily at her. She laughed a little nervously as she uttered her thanks.

"Oh hey, by the way, since we're all here..." Knuckles started. He looked to the girls. "Yanno how we went out earlier?" They nodded. "Rouge, you saw him already but yeah, we found a—"

Then the door suddenly burst open. Everyone looked; in the doorway was a shadow...

"I'm right here," Shadow raised an eyebrow.

NOT YOU!

"Oh."

"Heeey, it's the guy!" Tails explained, pointing at the silver hedgehog who finally came into view. Rouge, Tikal and Amy looked confused. Blaze gaped. Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles made weird faces for no reason.

"Ah, I... finally found you guys...!" the hedgehog sobbed in happiness upon seeing the boys. "Can you... get me... food... anything..." then he passed out on the floor.

It was quiet.

Rouge looked at the boys. "..."

"... Okaaay!" Sonic sweatdropped as he stood. "Follow us!"

- x -

Later, at Sonic and Shadow's apartment...

Everyone had thrown themselves all over the living room. Sonic was pacing in front of them and the silver hedgehog sat in a beanbag, stuffing his face with leftover pizza and breadsticks. Blaze sat on the couch, pillow in her arms as she stared suspiciously at him...

"... So we dragged him away and dumped him here."

"Why didn't you dump him at a hospital or something? Or a shelter, or a..."

"Well cuz, he had injuries..." Tails looked over at Knuckles.

The red echidna was grumbling to himself though. "I can't believe he ate everything in the fridge... I had a month's worth of beef jerky in there...!"

Tikal's eye twitched. "If he had injuries, then more reason to have brought him to a hospital!"

"But look at hiiiiim...!"

Everyone looked to the silver hedgehog. Upon feeling their glances he looked up, staring back with big golden eyes as breadcrumbs littered his muzzle. "Mmph...?"

Rouge, Amy and Tikal jumped him. "HOW CUUUUTE!"

Blaze just made a face. Knuckles cleared his throat loudly and Rouge 'oh'-ed as she realized that was directed at her, climbing off the hedgehog. And Tikal climbed off too when she realized the age difference.

Amy kept her grip on the newbie, yelling over in Sonic's direction. "Uh ohhh, Sonic! I think you may have some competitiooon~!"

"So what's your name anyway, kid?" Sonic paid no attention to Amy. She pouted.

The new hedgehog wiped his mouth. "Oh. It's Silver."

"That's original."

Silver almost fell over.

"Anyways, how'd you know where to find us?"

"Your neighbor Esteban told me."

Shadow growled, clenching his fist as his eyes narrowed. "Esteban...!"

Sonic ignored him. "Ah. I see." Then the blue hedgehog climbed atop the coffee table again, making the rest of the Sonic Crew looked up at him. "Okay! So for our next course of action, as leader, I suggest—"

"Who said you're leader?" Knuckles grumbled.

"Hello? We're not called the Sonic Crew for nothing! Plus I'm the star of every game." ("Game?" Blaze murmured in the background.)

"Except mine," Shadow had to interrupt. (Blaze raised an eyebrow, still confused.)

"Uh, well, yours sucked!"

"Tch, so do the rest of yours after Sonic Heroes!"

"HEY!" Knuckles slammed his hands on the coffee table. "I've been around longer than Shadow! Why don't I have my own game!?"

Sonic eyed him. "You do have your own game. Remember Knuckles' Chaotix?"

"... See! It's so unpopular that even I forgot!" Knuckles shook his fist at him.

"Or maybe it's just cuz you suck," Shadow cackled. Sonic cackled too.

"GRR!" Knuckles jumped the two hedgehogs.

Rouge gave an exasperated sigh. Silver looked troubled. Tikal held a gun to the side of her head. Tails cheered, and Amy, horrified, snatched the gun away from the echidna and tossed it out the window.

After a moment Blaze got up and shoved the three apart. "I know I've only known you guys for about an hour but WOULD YOU CALM DOWN PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF EGGMAN?!"

Knuckles, Sonic and Shadow froze.

"(ahem) Thank you." She sat back down. So did the boys.

Rouge grinned and pat Blaze's arm. "Yep. You're gonna fit in juuust fine."

"Yeahokaymovingon," Sonic grumbled. He cleared his throat. "As LEADER," he eyed Knuckles sharply. "I propose returning him to his homeland!"

"Hail, Sonic!" everyone cheered. Knuckles boredly waved a Sonic flag.

"Mwahaha! Oh! I remembered something else." Sonic turned to the new hedgehog. "What were you doing in that alley?"

"I'm on a mission, sir!"

"What kinda mission?"

"Well, I'm supposed to—..." Silver suddenly drifted off. Everyone watched as he rubbed his head, expression growing more confused by the second. "Um... I... I'm supposed to..."

"..."

"... It... seems I have forgotten."

"It seems so," Rouge sighed. "Okay... then where are you from, at least?" Silver gave her a helpless look. "... Oh wow. You don't remember that either?"

A silence came over the room. Now, what were they going to do with a hedgehog who couldn't remember anything except his own name...?

Knuckles spoke up. "Maybe if we call the police..."

"But he's not a criminal!" Amy cried, latching onto Silver's arm.

"Yeah, plus don't forget we have a bad rep with them," added Tails.

"We do?"

"Uh... yeah, don't we? Or was it GUN..."

Sonic gave a big sigh. "Hmm. Let me ponder this over with some chips." Though he frowned when he saw the bowl at the other side of the coffee table. "Aw, it's far."

"Oh, let me help with that." Silver pointed at the bowl. Suddenly he and the bowl both glowed a soft turquoise, and before anyone could comprehend what was happening the bowl flew into Sonic's face and knocked him over.

Silence part two.

"WITCH!" Tikal cried, standing and pointing at Silver.

"Speak for yourself," Knuckles muttered. Tikal blinked, then giggled and sat back down.

"Oh yeeeah, I just remembered." Silver grinned. "I have telekinesis."

"Clearly."

"See, now we can't call the police!" Amy cried, tightening her hold on Silver's arm. "When they find out about his powers they're gonna send him to the government and experiment on him like some kind of animal!" Everyone looked at each other then stared at her. "... You know what I mean."

Shadow nodded, recalling his time spent locked up. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I concur with the sordid cherry thing. Notwithstanding the actuality that I am a cool and badass sonuva (beep), I still do not make allowances for the administration and their base procedures."

Everybody stared.

"... Basically we're not giving the kid to GUN."

Sonic sat up and took a chip from his quills, munching on it. "Hmpfh, well then what else are we gonna do with him?"

"..."

"Keep him!" Amy grinned. Everyone looked to her. "Why not?"

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Why not!? Well where's he gonna sleep? Who's gonna feed him?"

Silver fidgeted at the conversation; they made it sound like he was some kind of unwanted pet...

Slowly he put the pizza box down and stood up, shaking his head. "Uh, y'know, it's okay!" Everyone looked at him. "I... I didn't mean to cause you guys so much trouble. So hey, don't worry about it! I'll figure something out on my own somehow, maybe find a job and get some money together, or wait maybe I should visit a doctor first, or maybe a therapist—"

Rouge stood up all of sudden. "Nonono! SIT BACK DOWN!"

Silver 'eep!'-ed and fell back on his beanbag.

The bat turned to everyone. "C'mon, guys! We may be a couple of crazy kids, but we aren't so cruel to kick out somebody who lost their freaking memory!"

"We could be," Tails mumbled.

"Yeah, what's wrong with you?" Tikal raised an eyebrow.

Rouge almost fell over. "S-Seriously!"

"... No really, what's wrong."

Silence part three.

"... Listen. I have an idea."

Everyone huddled together. Silver sweatdropped heavily in the background.

"Yeah, so like you all saw, this guy has freaking telekinesis," Rouge whispered, jerking a thumb the kid's direction. "I really think he could be really useful to us one day... like especially if we're ever in a pinch, or if we're just being lazy, I mean he could even get us free food and stuff...!"

"That's a little unfair, taking advantage of his powers like that," Blaze had to say.

The bat sighed. "Fine, we won't do it..." She grinned a fang-y grin. "Not all the time."

"True dat, true dat," Tails nodded. Amy, Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and Tikal nodded in agreement.

"Plus he's adowable," Amy giggled.

Sonic eyed her hopefully. "More adorable than me?"

"Of course not!" Amy jumped him.

"LIKE, NOOOO!"

Rouge ignored them and nodded. "Awesome, then it's settled!"

Blaze just sweatdropped heavily at them all... Either way, they all turned to Silver. The white bat grinned and gave a thumbs up. "So yeah, you can stay with us 'til you recover your memory! Don't you worry, we'll help ya!"

The silver hedgehog's expression melted into a relieved one. He looked at everyone, smiling widely. "Really? Wow... thanks so much! You guys are so kind!"

"Yes. We are." Rouge nodded. Everyone else grinned stupidly and nodded with her.

Blaze gave a heavy sigh.

Something told her it was only going to get weirder...

A/N: Woohoo!

- nagami c.