Chapter 41
She winced at the light. After a few seconds, she squinted to see that it was daylight. The sun was much further across the sky than she last remembered it; she must have been out for a few hours. She shook herself fully awake and looked around. She was still in the abandoned playground, lying on the dusty ground. Next to her, and looking rather concerned, were Rouge and Espio. They said nothing, only watched. Blade was nowhere to be seen.
"Wha… how long has it been?" She asked.
"You've been out for three hours." Rouge replied, sounding slightly timid still.
"Wh… how did it happen?"
"You don't remember?" Espio laughed in disbelief.
"Remember what?" Amy started to panic. She pulled her hand up to her mouth. There had been a funny taste in it waking up, and when she felt it, it was encrusted with something. She looked for something with a reflection. A puddle a few metres away did nicely. She held herself over it and gasped at the dried blood on her face.
"What the… what the fuck happened?" She asked, slightly panicked. Espio pointed to the corpse of the guard whom she had savaged earlier. She stared at length, inspecting the mess she had made of his neck, and also amazed at how clean the wound was… then it came back to her. The wound was clean because she had licked every last drop of blood from it. She stood in thought for a few moments, and then smiled maniacally. "Let's roll." She broke into a run, seeming to instinctively know where to go. Rouge tried to fly to keep up, but Amy was getting too fast. Espio decided to do what he did best: stay out of the light, cut corners and reach the destination before she did. Blade, who had been hiding in the tree, began to fly aswell. His wings, at least a foot more in wingspan and much more powerful, carried him a little faster than Amy was running, for a while. As he gained ground on her, he grabbed Rouge by the hand and gave her a tow. He looked back and smiled cheekily. Rouge simply glared comically, but then smiled and blushed a little.
Amy kept running for almost an hour without tiring, at least not greatly. Heh… maybe the effects haven't worn off after all… she thought. She skidded to a halt outside a building. She looked up at it intently. She stood there for a good fifteen minutes, waiting for everyone to show up. Espio was the last to arrive. It was beginning to get dark, the sun was low on the horizon and the sky was a dark crimson. Rouge put her ear to the ground, as if checking something.
"I hear something… it's not too far down, but it's definitely loud…"
"What is it?"
"I can't make out from this distance. We should check it out."
Amy walked forward and kicked down the doors. There was a broken elevator, and stairs going up and down. The ones going up were old and broken, and were of no use. The ones going down were obviously put in place after the fall of the city, the entrance was carved out of the floor crudely. They took the stairs down hastily. The way was lit by a few candles, and here and there the odd halogen lamp. As they descended through the cavernous walkways, the sound became louder. After a good twenty minutes of walking, the stairway opened out into a large room. At the opposite entrance stood two large lions, obviously bouncers. They were fitted with suits obviously three sizes too small for them and sunglasses through which they must have been completely unable to see in this poor light. They didn't move as Amy approached them fearlessly. She looked up at them sternly. They didn't even flinch, it was as if she wasn't there. Then she went to open the door. The one to her right grabbed her by the throat and threw her across the floor. She leapt to her feet, sword drawn, an irate look on her face.
"What the fuck? What was that for?!"
The one to her left spoke.
"You're not coming in. You're not on the list."
"What list?"
"Vector's list." The bouncers continued to stand there on duty. Amy simply smiled.
"Then I must be in the right place…" She ran forward and leapt in the air. She rammed the sword into the neck of the bouncer that spoke, and springboarded off him to slice the throat of the other one. The blood splattered on her already encrusted clothes.
"I believe I might a change of clothing." She opened the door slowly to find a large storeroom containing all sorts of weapons, coats and other items belonging to guests. A small hedgehog at the desk wasn't really paying attention when he said,
"May I take your coats, please…" Then he noticed Amy's blood-drenched attire. He screamed and ducked under the desk. Amy ran forth and leapt up on the desk. She rummaged in the coat rack until she found a long, black leather coat with a belt.
"This oughtta do nicely…" She wrapped it round her and did up the belt. She noticed a pair of dark sunglasses sitting in the coat pocket. She put them on just for kicks, and smiled as she continued. The others followed a little more warily. She opened the next door calmly and saw what the sound was. She was taken aback a little by what engulfed her – thundering drum'n'bass from speakers the size of helicopters. There was a massive throng of people in front of her, dancing wildly to the music. As she entered the club, the few lines of lyrics played over her not inconspicuous entrance.
You're no good for me, I don't need nobody
Don't need no-one, that's no good for me…
They played a few times as she made her way round the crowd. The others proceeded cautiously. Espio decided to blend into the shadows and keep a birds-eye view of things, crawling onto the ceiling. Rouge and Blade kept within arm's length of Amy, making sure to bail her out if she got into trouble. On the far side of the stone-walled enclosure, she could spy a familiar face; sitting in a sofa on the balcony above was the sly smirk of Vector. He hadn't changed an awful lot since their last encounter, other than that Vector was rather more alive this time. He stood up and leant over the balcony. Espio was poised on the ceiling ready to take him out should anything get out of hand. The song came to a close, and the DJ knew instinctively not to put on another one just yet. He knew what had happened to his predecessor…
"Well, well, well… it seems I have some rather esteemed guests…" He announced from his position. "If everyone would take a good long look at the pink hedgehog in the black leather coat and say hi!" Everyone in the club turned towards Amy, who stared back at them.
"Howdy, fellas…" She whipped out the katana and hammer that she had stashed inside the coat. Blade and Rouge had taken a few steps back to avoid attention. At the sight of the weapons, the smirk disappeared from Vector's face, and sat back down on the sofa. Everything was quiet. Unbeknownst to the DJ, he had left the sound system on. He panicked and ducked under the table, accidentally flipped the volume back up. Nobody moved. It served only to heighten the tension. All that was heard was the music for a few seconds. Everyone steeled themselves. Vector inspected the scenario, before issuing the command:
"Kill her." At this, the drums roared out and all hell broke loose. Amy turned and dashed up the wall, the coat trailing behind her and weapons in hand. She leapt backwards off it, into the crowd of people. Some, those who had come unarmed, had fled to the edges, not wanting to fight. But most pulled out a gun of some description and readied themselves for a fight. They weren't particularly well co-ordinated, and a few accidentally shot each other in the madness. Amy was much better prepared, and began to hack whoever came into her reach to pieces. The stray bullets whipped past her hitting nothing but air, and eventually the faces of those behind her, such was the energy of her combat. After a significant pile of bodies had mounted, she escaped the crowd using one as a springboard. She stuck the sword into her neck and lifted herself off the ground, bouncing on it before her victim had the chance to fall. With a mighty leap, she grabbed onto the edge of the balcony. She left Blade and Rouge to deal with a confused horde of people as she vaulted over the barrier. Espio joined her as he landed next to her. Vector was thoroughly bemused.
"How are you alive?" She asked, ready to slice him open again at a moment's notice.
"Thought you might ask. It was a little favour from a friend of mine, in return for doing odd jobs and a bit of safe-keeping…"
"Where's the emerald piece?" Espio cut straight to the chase.
"Well someone's a little impatient. Not willing to… stick around?" He hit a button and two massive cannons flipped down from the wall, and fired two large, green, globular shells. Both Amy and Espio dodged them nimbly, but in doing so, Vector had enough time to vault the sofa and run for it. He left his bodyguards to deal with his two uninvited guests. Amy simply smiled… these bozos are no match…