Chapter 2: Eyes

Nack drove his Marvelous Queen faster than the wind, or at least to Amy he did. She had her eyes clenched shut and was still trembling from the cold air rushing by her fragile body, and was holding onto Nack's waist for dear life. The hedgehog still felt nervous and suspicious of why Nack was doing this, since the two were mortal enemies, but since it didn't seem like he was trying to kill her at the moment, she would accept any hospitality that was shown to her. After all, she was still feeling suicidal and worthless after what happened an hour or two ago.

The purple weasel drove onwards, concentrated on the road ahead of him and mostly ignoring the hedgehog sitting behind him. He honestly had no idea why he hadn't just killed her when he could've, and he wasn't 100% sure where he was going, either. The hands on his waist felt strong, yet also firm and a bit soft, and he couldn't help but glance down at them for a split-second now and then while still concentrating on maneuvering his beautiful motorbike. It felt so awkward for each of the two to be doing what they were doing, but they continued to say nothing to each other while the Marvelous Queen sped along down the dimly-lit road.

After driving for a while, Nack parked his bike in the shadows of an alley and got off. Amy blinked a bit, still a bit stunned from the whole turn of events involving her. She nervously got off the bike as well, staring at Nack's glaring blue eyes, which easily pierced through the darkness of the alley. Being alone with the homicidal weasel in a dark alley late at night certainly wasn't something that anyone wanted, and Amy was no different. She tried to find her voice, but it wouldn't come to her. Nack, instead, spoke first to her.

"If you're trying to ask where we are, just shut up and wait and see for yourself," Nack growled, beckoning for Amy to follow him. He turned and walked down the alley, trusting Amy to follow him. The hedgehog stared at his back, hesitating for a moment. She certainly didn't trust him for a moment, but since he has a speedy bike and two sniper rifles, running away would probably prove to be futile and deadly. With a little sign, Amy trudged after Nack, still hugging her body and being able to see her breath, due to the cold.

Nack led Amy to a rusty ladder that was hanging on the side of the building on the left, and he started to climb up it, expecting Amy to do the same. Having no idea what this was all about, but still not wanting to get in trouble, Amy quietly followed after the weasel. For a moment, she glanced upward and, thanks to the light from the moon, she was able to see Nack's butt for a split second, which caused her to blush like crazy and quickly look down. The weasel didn't say a word or even glance down at the blushing female; he just kept climbing up the creaking ladder.

A minute later, Nack leaped onto the roof of the building and vanished, leaving Amy to hurry up and follow him so she wouldn't be alone. Groaning at how quick he was, this brought up thoughts of Sonic, which made her whimper again and nearly start to cry once more. Sonic was always hurrying along and forgetting about her, too; it seemed that Nack was doing the same thing. However, upon reaching the top of the ladder and pulling herself onto the roof of the unknown building, Amy saw the outline of Nack standing a few yards away outside a small hole in the top of the building.

"This way, Pinky," he growled, lifting the top off the hole and letting light pour out into the night, "You go first." Hearing this, Amy once again hesitated and, for a moment, thought about sliding down the ladder and quickly escaping. For all she knew, the hatch led to some of Nack's weasel friends and she was being led into a trap that would once again make her a hostage or a victim that would have to be rescued and scorned upon by Sally, Sonic and everyone else. But once again, she found herself doing what Nack told her.

Walking over to the hatch, she glanced down and couldn't really see what was awaiting her, although she heard faint noises. There was a rope leading from the hatch to the lower level, so Amy grasped it and started to slide downwards, her body easily fitting through the small hatch. Soon, her cold body was met with warmth, and she couldn't help but smile a bit. Wherever she was, at least she was starting to get warm. By the time she reached the bottom, which honestly was only about ten seconds later, her body was no longer cold.

Landing down with a soft thud, Amy immediately started to look around at where she was. There were props that belonged in plays everywhere, including masks, blankets, costumes and other things. There was also a dusty sofa in the corner, not to mention discarded papers littering the floors and empty bottles of drinks and dirty containers of old food here and there. The floor was made of a type of dark wood, and straight ahead of her was an opening with wooden bars surrounding it. Outside of the opening was where the noise was coming from.

Nack slid down the rope a moment later, the hatch closing after he gave the rope a hard tug. Amy instantly looked at him, since she still did not trust him, and it wasn't smart to turn your back on a deadly weasel. She tried to ask him where they were, but yet again, the words failed to escape her lips. With Sonic, she found that she could always speak her mind and say whatever she wanted; in fact, she was like that with almost everybody. However, with Nack, she found that she felt too nervous to really talk. It wasn't clear if this was because he was a murderous person or some other hidden reason. Regardless, Nack read her like a book and rolled his eyes.

"Stupid girl; you don't even know where we are, do you?" he muttered, putting his hands on his hips and flashing his fang at her. When Amy glared at him from being insulted yet again, but shook her head to answer him, Nack snickered. "Well, to be honest, I'm not too surprised; this place isn't known by too many people. They kinda went down the drain years ago when Robotnik ransacked the city the first time, and they never really recovered. But, it was always a good place for laughs; this little hideaway was one of my places to crash when I was running from the law."

He walked over to the opening with the wooden bars and motioned for Amy to come with him. The hedgehog curiously followed him, and when they both got to the opening, the weasel pointed and showed what was happening. There was a mini-theater in the gloomy-looking building, and there was actually a decent number of Mobians sitting in seats while a goofy performance was going on. The performance on the stage was mainly slapstick comedy, with a few performers doing "painful" jokes on one another and causing the sparse crowd to chuckle.

Amy watched in awe, shocked to see something so simple, yet so nice in such a weird location. She wasn't expecting to see something like this, and she was pleasantly surprised. She then felt something being pushed into her backside, so she glanced back and saw that Nack had shoved a dusty pillow into her butt. He then placed one down under his own rump and sat down on it, indicating to Amy to do the same. Muttering something, the hedgehog nimbly sat down on the pillow and watched the performance going on. She had so many questions, but the words continued to refuse to be spoken.

"Thanks to Robotnik, not too many happy places like this still go on," Nack said, once again reading Amy's mind, "You're probably wondering why these fools even bother to do this, and I have to agree. If I had to guess, I'd say that they want to bring joy to the people in whatever way they can; reminds me of you lousy Freedom Fighters and the other do-gooders. It makes me wanna barf, but…eh, I always enjoy coming here; don't really know why. Maybe seeing the fools hurt each other for kicks makes me amused or something."

"Humph…I think this is lovely," Amy said, crossing her arms and giggling when she saw one of the performers fall flat on his face and a lamp fell onto his head, "I doubt someone like you could understand how delightful seeing something like this is."

"Touché, Pinky," Nack sneered, glancing sideways at the hedgehog. The two stared at each other for a moment, they eyes interlocking. Amy's eyes fought with Nack's for dominance, but Nack's eyes kept hers pinned down; no matter how hard Amy looked, she couldn't find any solace in them. It was like she was defenseless and she was looking into Sonic's eyes. It was all too familiar with her, but she couldn't look away; Nack was too strong, in more ways than one.

An awkward silence followed, Nack frowning and staring at Amy while Amy wore her usual pouty face while staring back at the weasel. The only sounds that followed were the performers hitting one another in the head with hammers and the laughter of the tiny crowd. Then, just like that, Nack stood up and walked over to a corner of the tiny hideaway. He reached behind a backdrop and groped around for something, then grinning as he pulled out a fishing pole.

"Glad it's still here!" he laughed, walking back over to Amy and dangling the fishing pole in front of her face, "You want a snack, Pinky? Whether you do or not, I'm getting one for myself!" Confused, Amy watched as Nack leaned forward towards the wooden bars of the opening in front of them and peered down. Grinning, he moved the fishing pole out and started to lower the line. Amy leaned forward to watch what Nack was doing, and she saw a food vendor directly below their hideaway.

Concentrating on what he was doing, Nack managed to hook his fishing pole onto a box of popcorn and he easily reeled it up and into the hideaway. Gasping, Amy stared at him while he set the popcorn down and went for seconds. This time, he managed to pull up a sealed bottle of pop, and he was satisfied. He set the fishing pole down beside him and eagerly opened up the carton of popcorn, while Amy continued to look at the weasel in an appalled way. The food vendor didn't seem to notice.

"Nack, that's stealing!" she scolded, glaring at him. Nack slowly looked at her and raised an eyebrow; his expression said it all. It was clear that his look said: "Uh, Earth to Amy, I'm a weasel." Realizing this, Amy rubbed her head and rolled her eyes, looking away from him. "Fine, but don't get me involved with your stealing ways!"

"Suits me just fine, Pinky! More for me!" Nack laughed, stuffing his face with fresh popcorn and taking a long swig of the pop while watching the performance. Amy watched him for a while, rubbing her stomach and realizing that she was feeling hungry and thirsty. Noticing the looks, Nack greedily stuffed even larger bites of popcorn into his mouth and even chewed with his mouth open, just to tease her.

"You are a disgusting, rude, undignified and horrible weasel!" Amy snapped, getting to her feet and glaring down at Nack, "I hate you so much! You're so selfish and despicable that I can't even stand looking at you! Why did you even bring me here?" Almost at once, Nack leaped up onto his feet via his springy tail and glared back at Amy, letting his popcorn spill onto the floor.

"You're asking for death, Pinky!" he growled, pulling out his gun again and pointing it at her face, "Go ahead and insult me again. I dare you to." As quick as a wink, Amy then pulled out her Piko-Piko hammer and held it like a baseball bat, staring down the barrel of the gun without flinching at all.

"Make my day, weasel!" Amy growled back, "You think I'm scared of you? I can kick your rear-end without even flinching. I've done it before, and I can easily do it again!"

"I'm holding a gun, idiot," Nack hissed, "I'll shoot you dead in less than a second before you can even wield that piece of junk over your shoulder!"

"Just try it, moron," Amy hissed back, feeling a bit stupid at her weak insult, "I'm just as quick as Sonic! I'll dodge your bullet and smash you into a weasel pancake before you can let out as squeak!"

The two glared at each other, standing as still as statues. Amy's eyes glared into Nack's, which was level with his gun. The hedgehog's shivering eyes stared down the barrel of the deadly weapon and right into those icy-blue eyes of the sadistic weasel. Despite being frail, they didn't back down. They just kept staring with fierce determination, darling the other eyes to make a move first. The weasel's eyes just kept glaring back with the same expression.

For a long time, the two just stood in the same position: hedgehog with hammer and weasel with gun. Neither one moved; they both kept their angry glares and frowns plastered on their faces. However, a moment later, Nack sniffed and stuck his nose in the air, putting his gun away in his belt and turning away from Amy, his arms crossing in a stubborn and annoyed way.

"Stupid hedgehog; you're still not worth it!" Nack snapped, shaking his head and tilting his hat over his eyes, "I wouldn't waste a bullet on you in a heartbeat!"

"Well, that's fine with me! I wouldn't want to waste my energy smashing you flat, either!" Amy snapped back, putting away her hammer and putting her hands on her hips while turning in the opposite direction, too. The twosome stood with their backs to each other for awhile before Nack sat back down on his pillow and went back to watching the show. Amy glanced back at him, then casually sat down on her own pillow and went back to watching, too.

The two sat in silence, just staring out past the wooden bars and at the tomfoolery going on with the show. The hedgehog's eyes moved to the right a few times, examining the rude weasel next to her. The weasel's eyes moved to the left simultaneously, examining the stupid hedgehog next to him. Both sets of eyes regarded their target with distain and viewed said target as useless, but both sets of eyes were also strong enough to know just how determined the other was. There was more than the eyes could see, but neither owner would admit it.

"Hey, Nack…any of that popcorn left?" Amy spoke up, glancing over at him. Nack lifted up the box of popcorn and tossed it over to her. It was still about half-full.

"Help yourself, Pinky," he said, still not having called her by her real name at all. Nodding, Amy started to eat, the popcorn instantly causing her relief in her stomach. It wasn't much, but it was enough to whet her appetite. A moment later, Nack glanced at her and smirked in a snide way once again. "Want a drink of my pop, too?"

"After your grimy lips have been all over it? I think not!" Amy laughed, smirking back at Nack with the same snide expression. Rolling his eyes, Nack just shook his head and watched the show some more, while Amy giggled to herself and continued eating the rest of the popcorn.