Close together in a cramped space, two bodies clad in leather and denim rub together sensually, ground up against a wall, slowly removing items of clothing, piece-by-piece, until fur rubs against sweat-dripped fur, as hot with passion as with the heat from the two bodies in the tiny cupboard. He runs his fingers down her back, so smooth, so perfect. She moans softly, almost inaudibly, and briefly utters a name…
"Oh… Bla…" She stopped. Some cluttering came from outside. Both of them swivelled round. He peered through the door, ajar, to see what was going on.
"Goddamit, where the hell did they go? BLADE! ROUGE!" A female voice called out. A scarlet blur rushed past the door. He looked back inside.
"I think we better resume this later," Rouge said, zipping her clothes back on. Blade simply nodded, pulling his trousers up.
"Looking for someone?" Rouge called after Amy, while checking that all her weapons and tools were still in place. Amy looked round, a menacing look on her face, splattered with blood. Rouge stopped and observed her new form. Her scaly wings took up most of the narrow hallway, dwarfing Rouge's, and looking infinitely more powerful, and her blood-stained face peered from behind them, shaded from the light. Rouge stepped back a little and gulped. Amy carried on forward. Espio rushed past her.
"Come on. We need to get out of here."
"Why so hurried?"
"Just come on! We've got no time to lose!"
"What's going on?" Blade asked, stepping out into the hallway.
"I don't know, but apparently we gotta go, hun."
Amy was storming away at a frightening pace. The others were severely struggling to keep pace. Rouge eventually caught up and began pestering.
"What happened back there?"
"I got this," Amy held up the glowing emerald shard. "Took care of Vector, made sure he wasn't coming back. Got a comm from Shadow, he's in trouble. He's got his shard but he's got Naugus too."
"So what's our plan?"
"Regroup with him and help him get the hell out of there."
"How long do we have?"
"Not long. He's on foot and Naugus is gaining fast. Jet and Wave are trying to distract him while he and Nack make a break for it. Maybe only a few minutes."
"A few what?!" Rouge jumped.
"We're the closest to him. And besides, I have a plan…"
Emerging into the deserted club, the group crossed it quickly and headed outside. Amy stepped forward a little and surveyed the scene. No vehicles in sight, they had all long since been dismantled by scavengers. She ran forward a few paces, then leapt into the air, and with a mighty swoop of her scaled wings, she took to the skies, and with speed, she disappeared over the mangled skyline.
"What?! Is she just gonna leave us here?" Blade yelled.
"I think she's got a trick up her sleeve…" Espio replied. A few moments passed. Nothing happened. A few faint clanks and bangs of metal against metal were heard. Then an engine started, but it sounded somewhere between that of a car and a jumbo jet. The sound grew louder, and bursting through some rubble, the car they had arrived in stormed through the central park, and in a fraction of a second, slid to a halt in front of them. Amy sat in the driver's seat, the emerald shard lodged in a makeshift crevice in the dashboard, where it was against a vital part of the engine, appearing to add energy to the vehicle.
"Come on! I haven't got all day!" She jeered. Hurriedly, Espio jumped in the front seat, and Blade and Rouge in the back. She hit the gas, and they were out of the city in no time flat.
"How the hell did you figure this out?" Espio tried to ask, shouting to be heard over the engine and wind, and hanging on to the dashboard for dear life.
"Emerald equals energy. Engine plus energy equals faster engine. Super engine!" She quipped casually. "We should be there in about…" She peered at the clock in the car. "…ninety seconds." Espio gawped. He looked to the side at the scenery flying by, at something approaching thirty thousand miles per hour. Amy just looked casually ahead as landscapes changed with astounding speed. After roughly two minutes, Babylon Garden loomed on the horizon. "Damn. So close."
She brought the car into a slide, slowing it down while still approaching their destination. She could see four, near insignificant dots slowly moving across the land, and as these dots grew closer, their features became more apparent, and they appeared to be running. She slowed the car down to a normal speed and parked up next to them.
"You could use a ride," She laughed, leaping out over the side. "Espio, take the wheel. Nack and the birds will need to squeeze in somewhere. You guys scram while Shadow and I hold Iggy off."
"Right," All the others agreed. The car sped away, but not at the ludicrous speeds it had arrived at; Amy had removed the emerald shard to keep her own form going.
"Shads. What happens to you when you use the emerald?"
"Oh… this." He mumbled, and grabbed his own shard of the emerald, starting his transformation instantly. Amy watched as the two black feathery wings sprouted again, and the chain extended from his arm, kicking a torrent of sand up in the process. The yellow aura returned, but was somehow different this time, it didn't seem quite so… dark. Not in a literal sense, more that it was less menacing, nobler. The dust settled, and he returned to the ground, opening his eyes. "Let's roll."
The pair took flight with their enormous, nearly over-proportioned wings, towards the disintegrating Babylon Garden, where a furious mastermind awaited them.