Chapter 33: Return to Metropolis
A/N: Well, here it is. I have not had a chapter give me as much trouble as this one had. I apologize to everyone that has been waiting for this so let me explain what happened; I'll try to make this quick. First, I had a good case of writer's block for three or four weeks, which was frustrating. Second, I had to change the letters Sonic wrote for everyone into DVD's. I wanted to use letters, but having a visual medium for the characters to see and react to made expressing their emotions much easier instead of a piece of paper. There were a few other things that kept delaying this, but these were the main reasons. I hope you like this chapter. I went through a lot and I mean a lot of re-writes with this one and this was the best one that I could come up with. I know I've said that many times before, but it's never applied to a chapter so much as this one. Thank you for listening and again, apologies for the long wait. I hope I'll be able to get the next chapter out much sooner. As always, thanks for reading and leave a review and please, be honest. It's not going to hurt my feelings.
"Goodnight Sally." Shadow said as he turned halfway towards Sally, who was standing just inside the doorway.
"Goodnight Shadow." Sally said quietly as she shut the door behind him, leaving him standing alone in the darkness. He stepped off the porch and walked out to the side of the road, the envelope Sally had given him before he left rustling slightly in his pocket. Shadow closed his eyes and with a picture of ARK in his mind, he took a deep breath and said, "Chaos control." There was a quick burst of light and when he opened his eyes, he was on board the space station he called home.
*Nnngh* Shadow shuddered as he opened his eyes to reveal the bridge of ARK, his body tingling from the experience as it always did after every teleportation he did. The bridge, which now only served as a large monitoring station for the major systems onboard were now controlled by a single computer thanks to Tails' computer skills which he looked over as he had done every time he came back onboard.
"Looks good." he muttered, checking over a report on the stations various systems, all of which reported to be working at normal levels. Now that that was out of the way, Shadow reached into his pocket and pulled out the envelope from his pocket. Before he even opened it, he saw the outline of something hard and square making the envelope bulge just slightly. He ran a finger underneath the glue strip and opened it, taking its contents out. It was a slim jewel case containing a DVD. "That's odd." Shadow muttered as he opened the computer's disc drive, inserted it and closed the door.
The drive hummed as it read the disc and when it started, the screen showed a still image of Sonic, sitting on his bed in his house. The black hedgehog knew it more than likely had something to do with Sonic, but when he saw him on the monitor, a sudden tingle ran down his spine. "Hey Shads." Sonic said as the disc suddenly started playing.
Sonic let out a sigh. "Look... I know things haven't always been the best they could've been between us and I know I was an ass on more than one occasion. But, I want you to know, despite all I've said about you and all those times we've had it out, I've always had respect for you even if I didn't show it; I was just too stubborn to admit it." Sonic paused to take a breath, then continued.
"You've been a good friend and I'll always be thankful to you for that. I suppose since I'm gone it'll be up to you and the others to fight off whatever comes your way, Robotnik or otherwise." Sonic's face lit up with that smile he almost always had. "I know you and the others will be able to handle whatever comes your way without me no problem, although, I don't like the fact I'm not gonna be there to get in a few licks myself." Sonic shifted around on the bed and sighed.
"I guess that's about it, but uh... before I wrap this up, I do have a favor to ask you." Sonic's gaze turned to the ground; he licked his lips and looked back at the camera. "Take care of Sally for me. If anyone could, I know it'd be you." Sonic cleared his throat and let out a small laugh. *heh* "Guess I'd better be wrapping this up. I'll see you around... Shadow." Sonic finished speaking, then the screen flickered a couple of times and the computer ejected the DVD.
That night when Knuckles got home, he sat down in his chair and took out the envelope Sally had given him out of his pocket. Earlier that night, she'd pulled him off to the side, away from the others and handed him an envelope with his name on it. "You might want to open this when you get home." That was all she told him before she went back to join the others.
He clicked a lamp on and ran a finger underneath the seal, breaking it. He reached inside and pulled out a slim jewel case containing a DVD. "Huh..." Knuckles mused as he took it out of the case and turned on the DVD player, plopping the disc inside before closing it. The player began whirring and reading the disc and when it started up, it showed a still image of Sonic sitting on his bed, hand reaching out as if grabbing something just off screen. Knuckles felt tears well up inside of him the second the image of his friend popped up on his TV.
"Hey Red," Sonic said suddenly as if someone had hit the play button.
Knuckles chuckled. He didn't feel the usual irritation as he used to when Sonic called him that; the echidna swallowed the lump in his throat. "You're watching this, so I guess you guys found this and that means I'm dead. Sucks I know, but what can you do, huh?" Sonic said, shrugging his shoulders.
"I know what you're thinking. 'Boy, he's gonna start getting all mushy on me.' Well, you're wrong. I'm not gonna to that. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you what having you as a friend meant. Not gonna... thank you for everything you've done for me, how you've been there for me through the ups and downs. *heh* I know you don't like that kind of thing."
Knuckles felt a tear roll down his face and he wiped it away. "But what I will say is this... you were like- no, are... a brother to me. Yeah, we got into it on occasion and yeah, we had some rough times. But I know," Sonic held up a hand, his fore and middle finger crossed. "we were like this. You always had my back and I had yours *heh* even when we were so pissed at each other that we wanted to rip each others throats out." *heh* Sonic laughed again, his eyes glancing up at the ceiling. When he was facing the camera again, Sonic reached up to scratch his nose, but Knuckles saw him slyly wipe a tear away.
"I guess that's about it. I'm not going to say goodbye, so I'll just say..." Sonic smiled; his eyes were starting to tear up and the hedgehog's voice was beginning to shake; Knuckles wiped a few of his own away. "I'll see you around... Knuckles." Sonic leaned toward the camera and the image stopped; Knuckles put his head in his hands as tears rolled down his face.
As Cream pulled the car into the driveway and shut the engine off, she breathed out a sigh of relief. They were both wiped out mentally and physically, both yawning at the same time. "I think I'm gonna get this make-up off and head to bed." Cream said as she picked her purse up from the center console.
"Me too." he said, his voice still a little weak from the crying he'd been doing that day, which surprisingly had been far less than he had done the last few days leading up to the funeral. But the funeral had taken a massive toll on him and during the wake at Sally's, he'd had another breakdown, but fortunately it hadn't been as bad as most had been. The big surprise though was when they gathered around to share stories about Sonic.
Everyone told at least one, some causing the group to laugh and others to get misty eyed. When it came around to Tails' turn, he stood up and shared his own story. Toward the end he got a little misty-eyed, but all in all managed to keep things together.
Cream and Tails walked in the house and headed straight back to the bedroom. Cream set her purse down on the dresser. "I'm gonna get this make-up off. You want anything while I'm up?" she asked.
Tails shook his head no, but didn't say anything. "Alright." she said and headed to the bathroom. While she opened the bottle of remover, she thought about the envelope Sally had given her the other day. She was surprised that it wasn't a letter, but a DVD. Cream kicked herself for not remembering to tell him about it when Sally had given it to her, but that day they had to go pick up his suit for the funeral and she stuck it in her purse and forgotten about it. When she walked back into the bedroom, Tails had his back turned toward the door and he turned over when he heard her walk in. "You feeling any better?" Cream asked as she flicked the light off and climbed in next to him; once she was settled down, she flicked a lamp beside the bedroom on.
"A little." Tails said; there was a pause. "It was a nice service."
"Sally did a good job." Cream nodded agreement. "You know, the other day when me and her were both out, she gave me something."
"What's that?" he asked.
She shifted, butterflies in her stomach fluttering around. "When she dropped me off, she handed me this envelope and when I opened it, there was a DVD inside. I... think it's from Sonic."
Tails bolted upright, his eyes growing large when he heard his friend's name. "I was going to tell you, but I forgot about it." Cream said.
Tails glanced down at the bed but didn't reply. She waited for him to speak and when he did, he looked back at her and asked "Where is it?".
"It's in my purse." she replied, pointing over to the dresser. Tails tossed the blanket that was over his legs off to the side, got up and walked over to the dresser and rummaged through her purse. He pulled it out and written on the front of the case it said 'For Cream and Tails', but the DVD he could see sitting inside said 'For Cream.' written in permanent marker. Tails opened the case and grabbed it and felt another one underneath; when he picked the top one up, he saw the other one had 'For Tails' written on it.
"There's two in here." Tails said, holding both of them up for Cream to see. She tossed the blanket off her legs and went over to where he was standing.
There was a short silence before Cream spoke. "Tell you what. I'll go in there and watch the one for me," she said, gesturing toward the living room, "and you can watch yours in here."
"Alright." Tails said and reached over and turned the small TV they had in their bedroom on and Cream stepped over and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, as if to say 'it'll be alright'. He gave her a smile and she turned and walked out. Tails pulled the disc out of the case and held it in his hand, finger through the hole in the center. His eyes were already starting to tear up at the thought he was about the see something with Sonic on it and he choked them back. You can do this.
Cream flicked the ceiling light on and walked over to the TV, grabbing the remote and turning the set on along with the DVD player. When the tray opened, she set the disc inside and closed it, sitting down on the couch as the disc whirred and the player started up. After a few seconds, the frozen image of Sonic popped up on the screen, the hedgehog leaning forward as if he were fiddling with something. Suddenly, the image started up and he sat back.
"Hi Cream." Sonic said to the camera. His smile he was known for shining brightly. "I guess... well, you're watching this so I guess you know what this is about." *heh* "I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I want you to know... you were one of the most wonderful people I've ever met. You always had this... glow about you, this... enthusiasm surrounding you; I know you could make a fortune if you could bottle that and sell it."
Cream smiled and laughed slightly. "The only other person I know that can even match that is Tails. If someone was feeling down or angry, he'd cheer them up like that." Sonic said, snapping his fingers. "Always knew what to say or do to make someone feel better."
Sonic turned his gaze toward the ground, cleared his throat then looked back at the camera. "I know he's gonna need that from you to help him get through this. I can't imagine what he's going through right now; I'm not even sure I want to, but I know if anyone can help get him through this, it's you." Sonic looked away from the camera again for a few seconds, then turned back.
"You've got something special kiddo." he said, that smile of his getting brighter. "Take care." With that, Sonic leaned forward, reached for something off-screen and the picture went dark.
Meanwhile
Tails stood in front of the small TV, DVD in hand; his limbs were shaking slightly at the thought of putting it in the player. He took a deep shaky breath and moved his hand over to the player and ejected the tray, eyes brimming with tears as he placed the disc on the tray and closed it. As he turned around and sat on the bed, the disc started and the TV displayed the still image of Sonic like the others before him, reaching just beyond the screen. Tails gasped and swallowed the lump in his throat as the image of Sonic popped up and a tear rolled down his cheek and the image came to life.
"Hi Tails." Sonic said as the still image started playing. A smile came to Tails' lips, then quickly dissolved down into small sobs. On the video, Sonic was showing signs of tears as well and he tried to cover everything with a smile, but he couldn't completely control the quivering of his chin; Sonic reached up with his hand and covered his mouth as if he was pondering a deep question.
"Um... I know we've been through a lot together and... well..." Sonic paused and breathed a long sigh. "Dammit." Sonic whispered, his voice barely audible through the TV. "I just never thought I'd be doing this so soon, ya know?" Tails body jerked from a sob he tried to hold inside and wiped his eyes on his arm.
"Anyway... you and I, we've been through a lot together. I know some of it wasn't easy, like when we were in Mystic Caves when you pushed me away from that falling stalactite. Remember that?"
Tails mind immediately went back to that moment, him pushing Sonic out of the way of some kind of drilling machine Robotnik was using inside Mystic Caves trying to locate a new source of power he thought he had discovered, when it had been a simple miscalculation. The drilling caused the cave to shake and the sharp stalactites to fall from the cave's ceiling which caused them to rain down on the pair and Sonic, forced to keep his eye on Robotnik, failed to notice the sharp rock falling toward him.
Tails, who kept an eye out for whatever Sonic couldn't, rushed to push his friend out of the way. Luckily for Sonic, Tails managed to shove him out of danger, but the falling rock struck Tails in one of his namesakes, leaving a scar. Tails had actually forgotten about the incident until Sonic had brought it up again.
"Or when we were over at Oil Ocean and I slipped on that platform and fell into one of the oil reserves? I never saw you fly as quickly as you did to pull me out. *heh*" Sonic said with a small laugh, taking yet another pause, wiping his eyes, the fur around them now visibly damp.
*Enngh* Tails let a muffled whimper out and wiped away even more tears, snot starting to run down his nose; Sonic wiped away more of his own. "You've been there for me through so much and I want to say thank you Tails. You've been my closest friend and I know I could count on you for anything, and... no matter what, you'd always be there for me." Sonic paused to take another deep breath and let it out.
"I guess I can't do the same for you now. But, someone once told me," Sonic said, holding his hand up to his chest, a quivering smile on his face, "that if you always hold the memory of a person in your heart and think of them, they will never truly be gone." Sonic tapped his chest lightly with his finger, his voice breaking down quickly, smile wavering and tears flowing from his eyes. "Take care, Tails. I love you brother."
As Sonic reached over to turn the camera off, just before the camera stopped rolling video, Tails saw him break down completely as Sonic let out a loud sob before the video stopped. When it did, Tails slowly laid face down on the bed and cried into the thick mattress which muffled his sobs.
Five days later
*BEEP BEEP BEEP* The alarm rang from Sally's phone, announcing the arrival of a new day with an almost unusually ear-splitting sound that by all logic shouldn't have been able to come forth from the device's small speaker. The noise woke Sally abruptly from her slumber and without rolling over, she reached out with one hand and blindly tapped around until she came upon the offending chunk of plastic and turned the alarm off.
As she sat up and began to shake off sleep, she tried to forget the dream she had. It was the same one she'd been having the last few days, although this time there was something different. It would start when her and Sonic sitting outside of the house. They were talking when Scourge would drive up in a beat up, rusted out car. "What's he doing here?" Sally would ask Sonic as the green hedgehog smiled at her.
"We're just gonna hang out for a little while." Sonic would say, then get up and start walking over to the car. "No." she'd say sternly. "I don't want you going with him." Sonic would turn around and chuckle at her. "Nah. It's alright. He's cool." he'd say as he got in the car. Then Scourge, without saying a word would wave at Sally, an evil grin on his face. The past few times she'd had this same dream it would end there and she'd wake up but this time, it took a weird turn. Before they drove off, Sally saw the green hedgehog pull out a needle out of nowhere and hold it up for her to see. She screamed to try to warn Sonic, but no sound came out as he simply looked at her with a calm, pleasant smile on his face.
Sally watched as Scourge injected Sonic with whatever was in the needle and tossed it out the window. A few seconds later, Sonic slumped over the open window and Scourge drove off, leaving Sally standing on the porch in tears.
Sally tried to shake it off as best she could and wiped away the tears. "It's just a dream." She told herself and once she was awake enough where she could think straight, she reached over and grabbed her phone that had woken her up without so much as a warning and scrolled through her messages. There was one from Cream that read, 'We'll be there around 11. Bring your appetite. See you there :)'
Two days ago, after a little convincing on their part, she agreed to have lunch with Tails and Cream. She wanted to do something like that with them beforehand, but every time she went to reach for the phone, she'd get that 'you're being needy' feeling which would kill the idea. But today was going to be different. Today was going to be a normal day. No bringing up any problems or something that was bothering her. It was just three friends getting together to have lunch and personal problems wouldn't be allowed. I still have an hour; just enough time to take a shower. Sally thought as she went over to the closet and grabbed a clean change of clothes and headed for the shower.
Later
Sally pulled the car into the parking lot of the cafe where they agreed to meet and shut the engine off. Her dream from earlier was still fresh in her mind and she took a deep breath and reminded herself that she wasn't going to let something as simple as that get to her. But it did strike her odd that even though it wasn't the worst dream about Sonic she ever had, it worried her that it was still on her mind this long.
Sally walked through the door and a waitress greeted her. "Just one?" she asked Sally.
"No, I'm meeting a couple here." Sally said, giving the waitress a brief description of Tails and Cream. "Ah, she's over here." the waitress said, leading Sally over to a booth where Cream was sitting alone.
"Hey." Cream said, a smile on her face when she noticed Sally standing next to the table.
"Hey." Sally replied as she got comfortable. The waitress pulled out her order pad and a pen. "Can I get you something to drink?" she asked.
"Tea." Cream said.
"The same." Sally said. The waitress nodded and jotted their order down and headed off. "Where's Tails?" Sally asked, setting her purse down on the seat next to her.
"Back at the lab." Cream said with a small laugh.
"He finally started going back down there again?" Sally asked with a smile.
Cream nodded. "Yeah. Been going down there the past three days actually. You remember that body armor he's been working on for GUN?" she asked. Sally nodded. "He finally got around that problem with the fabric being flexible enough with the titanium inserts. Turns out he just needed to change it to an over-lapping plate style." she said, holding one hand just over the other.
"You still helping him out?" Sally asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, but not when he gets to anything really technical. But I am learning a lot." The waitress came back carrying two glasses and set them down on the table. "Thank you." Sally said, taking her glass and reaching for the plastic box on the table that held packets of artificial sweetener. Cream nodded her thanks and the waitress handed them a couple of menus. "I'll give you both a few minutes." she said and walked away to check on the other customers.
"So how've you been?" Cream asked, grabbing a couple packets of sugar. "Better. I've finally started getting more than a few minutes of sleep a night now." Sally said, taking a sip of her tea to test the sugar levels.
As their little get-together went on, Sally had to fight herself from bringing up that dream. She tried to hide the fact something was bothering her and as far as she could tell, Cream was none the wiser although the rabbit did have an uncanny knack for reading people. If she did sense something she said nothing and acted like nothing was wrong.
They finished and promised to have lunch again soon, but the next time it would be with everyone; Sally laid her share of the bill on the table, although Cream tried to argue that she had invited her out so it was her responsibility to pay and after a little friendly arguing, they split the bill and Sally headed back to her car. Cream waived as she climbed into her car and Sally returned it and watched Cream drive off.
She reached into her pocket and grabbed her keys and stuck them in the ignition but didn't turn it. The thought of going back to an empty house wasn't exactly a pleasant thought, and after sitting and staring at the wall of the cafe, she begrudgingly reached over and started the engine.
The drive back was lonely and as she drove on, she began to feel that familiar loneliness creeping back up on her again and any feelings of normalcy she had achieved during lunch with Cream had been thrown out the window. When she finally reached her place, she didn't pull into the driveway but instead parked in front and shut the engine off.
She just sat in the car and stared at the house, her mind continuing to focus on that silly dream she had, and the longer she sat and stared at the dark, empty house, the more she thought about Sonic in her dream as Scourge injected him with that needle and he slumped forward on the car door as he drove off with that smile on his face. And the more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She hated Scourge ever since she found out about his involvement with Sonic, but had let it go when Sonic had come to his senses. Or at least she thought. Now, something as simple as a dream had raised those thoughts of anger once again and soon, she was shaking with anger as she went back to that one moment in Metropolis when she saw Sonic sitting in his house, too high on who knew what to recognize any of them, the stories Sonic had told her, the way he manipulated Sonic in his own way and toyed with the blue hedgehog for his own sick enjoyment.
She hated the fact that she couldn't stop thinking about something that had no real meaning and had no basis in logic but she just couldn't shake this one off. Her blood began to boil at the mere thought of Scourge's name now. "It's all his fault." Sally muttered angrily. "If it weren't for him, Sonic would still be here." she said through clenched teeth. Her hands were gripping the steering wheel so tight she could see her knuckles turn a bright white as she gripped the steering wheel. "And he doesn't even know what happened to him." she said, continuing to talk to herself.
Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped in her mind, she reached over and started the engine and it fired up as she pressed the gas to the floor and put it in gear. "That's about to change." she said as the car's tires spun in the dirt and she tore down the road.
Sally sped down the road with her foot laying heavy on the gas. It was a good two-hour drive to Metropolis, but at the speed she was driving it wouldn't take nearly as long. The longer she drove, she thought of the possible outcomes of her confronting the green hedgehog and they ranged from her simply yelling to a few becoming very dark. Those scenarios she ran in her head kept stoking the fires of her rage well and Sally knew when she finally let her anger vent on him, it wasn't going to be pretty.
An hour later, she finally reached Metropolis and her destination. She had no problems finding his house again and parked the car right in front and shut the engine off; her knuckles turning white once again as she looked at the dilapidated house, hands gripping the steering wheel in anger. She took a deep breath, reached over, unlocked the doors and climbed out slowly.
Sally approached the house slowly, her eyes locked on the front door; her heart was racing in anticipation as she stepped up on the porch and knocked. She waited but didn't hear any noise coming from inside so she knocked again. Nothing. This time she pounded on the door which a second after she stopped she heard a friendly "Yeah Godamit! Hold on!" and the sound of something hitting the floor. "Three in the afternoon! Fuckin' hell- you know what time it is?" Sally heard Scourge yell as he reached the door and she took a step back as she heard the sound of locks being undone.
"Wha..." he trailed off, then once he recognized who she was, gave her that cocky grin of his. She chose to remain silent and just stared at him. When she finally saw him, it took everything she had not to take a swing at him.
"I'll be damned. Never thought I'd see you again." he said, his eyes running down her body. "You gonna stare or you gonna say something?" he asked with that cocky grin on his face. One look told her he was loaded on something which didn't surprise her.
"I see you're doing well." Sally finally said, getting her anger and urge to hit him under control.
"I'm doing aces, baby." he said as he took a step back. "But I can see you're... fine." he sneered, his glassed over eyes continuing to run up and down her frame. He was so high she was surprised he even knew who she was at the moment.
Sally felt a chill run down her spine and she gave him a glare that could melt ice. "So what can I do you for? I guess you're not here for a friendly talk." he said, leaning against the doorframe.
"No. It's about Sonic." she said, not wasting any time.
"Ah, how is ol' blue doing?" Scourge asked with that ever-present smile on his face.
Sally folded her arms. "He died. Two weeks ago. I just thought you'd like to know." she said.
"Shit." he murmured, looking down at the ground. The expression on his face went from that sneer of his to a surprised sadness. "Guess I'm not getting that twenty back I lent him, huh?" he said to Sally.
Sally stepped forward quickly. "You son of a bitch! Don't you even care?" she yelled, her fist clenched and body shaking out of anger.
"Of course I do!" he snapped back. "You're not the one out twenty bucks."
*POP* "Ah!" Scourge yelled as Sally's fist slammed into his face; he stumbled and hit the back of the couch and fell to the floor on his butt, blood dripping from his nose. "What the hell'd you do that for?!" he demanded, pulling himself up with one hand and holding his nose with the other. He grabbed a shirt from a pile of clothes off the couch and held it to his nose, wincing as he did.
Sally took a step forward, her body shaking with rage. "You deserve a hell of a lot more than that for what you did to him." she hissed through clenched teeth. For a second, the idea of slugging him again crossed her mind, but she knew better than to give into that urge. But oh how good it felt to hit him, even if it was just once. That one punch had released so much of the pent up anger she'd held inside of herself for so long and, as badly as she wanted to jump on him and continue, she knew it wasn't worth going to jail. Instead, she turned around and pulled the door open, then looked back at the green hedgehog. "You're a real class act, you know that?" she said before she stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
Climbing back in her car, she stuck the key in the ignition and started it, gunning the engine as Scourge came out onto the porch of the house, still holding the shirt to his nose. She put the car in gear, gave him a one-fingered salute and tore down the road.
She tore through two stop signs before she realized what she was doing and slowed down, making sure she came to a stop at the next one. As she made her way through the almost deserted streets of Metropolis, she felt her stomach beginning to act up and began looking for a place to get something to eat. She hadn't had any problems with it acting up for a few days and the last time it had, she found it usually calmed down when she ate something.
Unfortunately, for Sally, finding a place to eat in Metropolis proved to be a little difficult. Most of the places she saw had closed down due to the dwindling population, but after a little searching, she found a place. It looked nice compared to most of Metropolis and she could actually see a couple customers inside through the windows, surprising since she had seen no more than ten people within Metropolis since she arrived which meant the food must not have been all that terrible; the only thing that struck her as odd was it had no name. There was no sign out front or anything to give anyone an indication that it was a place to eat if they just happened to drive by. She had found the place by accident when she noticed a waitress walking around inside when she pulled up to the stop sign.
Sally turned the corner and parked in front of the cafe, shut the engine off and headed inside. *ding ding* A pair of bells above the door signaled to the staff that there was a customer waiting and the waitress Sally saw from her car a minute earlier looked over at the door and smiled as she excused herself and walked away from the table and toward Sally. "Hi!" she said to Sally with a big smile. "Just yourself?"
"Yes." Sally replied, nodding of the head.
"You want a counter or table, hon?"
"Oh, table's fine with me." Sally said as the waitress began walking toward a cluster of tables and booths.
The waitress nodded and led Sally to a table close to where the other customers were sitting at a booth, a pair of Mobians and a group of three humans along with a human and another Mobian sitting just off to their right at a table. "My name's Sarah. You want anything to drink?"
"Tea if you have it." Sally replied. "Lemon?" Sarah asked.
"Please." Sally replied.
"Alright. I'll be back in a minute with that for ya." Sarah said as she turned around to get Sally her drink. When she came back to the table, she set the glass of tea down on the table along with a menu. "I'll give you a minute to decide. Yell if you need anything." Sarah said before heading off again. Sally opened the menu and looked over what they had to offer. The menu didn't have very much to offer like most places of it's kind so she choose a toasted ham and cheese on wheat bread with broccoli cheddar soup.
Sarah came back a couple minutes later and took her order, then took the ticket back to the kitchen; less than six minutes later, she came back with Sally's order. "Here ya go, hon." Sarah said as she set the plate and bowl on the table in front of Sally; her stomach still acting up but now beginning to calm down now that she had spotted the food. "Thanks." Sally said. Sarah gave her a nod and headed off to check the two remaining customers.
Sally prepared herself for the worst but to her surprise, the food was actually good. The sandwich was decent and had enough meat and cheese to satisfy hunger without being piled on in excess and the soup, while definitely not made from scratch, was actually better than she expected from a cafe in a town that looked like it had been deserted for fifty years. Sarah came back, the bill in her hand. "How was it?" she asked as she cleared the empty bowl and plate off the table, then set the bill face down.
"Good. Complements to the chef on the sandwich" Sally said.
"I'll let him know." Sarah said with a smile. "When you're ready, head over to the register and I'll ring you up."
"Thank you." Sally said with a nod as Sarah walked away, dishes in hand. She grabbed the glass and swallowed the last of the tea and let out a satisfied sigh. Maybe this day won't be so bad after all. she thought as she reached into her purse and took out four one dollar bills and laid them on the table then picked the check up and looked at it; everything came to a mere 5.78. How do they make any money in this place with those prices? she thought as she picked up the check and headed for the register.
Sarah was already there to greet her and Sally handed her the check and Sarah looked it over, tapping a few keys on the register. "With tax it's $6.19." Sally took a ten out and handed it to her.
"Out of ten..." Sarah said, tapping a couple more buttons on the register. "3.81." she said as she took Sally 's change and handed it to her. "You got a long drive ahead of you?" Sarah asked as she handed Sally her change.
"Not really. Just a few hours to Station Square." Sally said as she put her money away. "Is it that obvious I'm not from here?" she asked with a laugh.
"Nah." Sarah said with a smile. "It's just you're not one of the regulars we have in here everyday is all. No offense." she said. Sally smiled and shook her head that it wasn't. "We had a fella used to come in that was from there. Used to come in here every night. Last I heard he was living over in a house on Wilson, but I haven't seen him for a while now. I guess he must've went back or moved on. Nice guy too; Sonic I think was his name." Sarah said as she shut the register's cash drawer.
Sally's heart skipped a beat when she said Sonic's name. She looked at Sarah, eyes wide. "You knew him? Mobian," she said holding a hand up almost even with her ear. "about this tall? Blue hair? Always talked kind of fast?"
"Yeah. You know him?" Sarah asked, a curious look on her face.
Sally nodded. "I'm his wife."
Sarah's eyes went wide. "So you're Sally." she said with a smile.
"You know me?" Sally asked, wondering how a complete stranger knew who she was.
"Oh yeah. Every time he came in here, he'd always mention you in some way. So how's he doing?" she asked.
Sally swallowed the lump that had appeared in her throat. "He's fine." she said quickly with a small smile.
Sarah nodded and her smile faded slightly. Years of being in her line of work and working around people every day gave her a sixth sense when it came to reading their emotions. She had seen this look before and nodded. "Glad to hear it." she said; there was a short pause before Sarah spoke again. "Drive safe, hon."
"Thanks." Sally said and turned and walked out the doors and back to her car. Sally started the engine and began to head home. As she made her way through Metropolis, she could still hear Sarah in her mind saying, "Last I heard he was living over in a house on Wilson."
The idea of finding where Sonic had called home for his final couple months in this hellhole did intrigue her. He had talked about the house he had been living in and she'd be lying to herself if there wasn't a part of her that wanted to see how he managed to live in a place that had no heat, light, blankets or hot water, if not to get a better idea on what he had went through; the only clues she had to go on was that the house had blue chipping paint and the only way in was through the backdoor. Not much to go on but she was going to try.
Sally pulled the car into a gas station to fill up and pulled up next to the pump and went inside. "You wouldn't happen to know where Wilson street is, would you?" she asked the clerk as she paid for her gas.
"Wilson street?" she said as she glanced out the window to check the pump number Sally had parked next to. "Yeah. Go down the street here," the cashier said pointing out the window, "make a right, straight for three blocks and make a left." She took Sally's change out of the drawer and handed it to her. "Thank you." Sally said and walked back out to her car.
She grabbed the fuel nozzle and pumped the gas as quickly as she could and got back in the car, locking the doors and starting the engine. As she pulled out to the curb, she was surprised to see a car puttering along. "Huh." she mused as pulled out onto the street and made her right turn. She had been in Metropolis for a couple of hours and that had been the first car she saw since she arrived.
She followed the directions given to her by the gas stations cashier and within a few minutes, she was driving down Wilson street, looking for the house Sonic had lived in. Most of the houses on this street, much like the rest of Metropolis had been abandoned and only had one or two families still living on any given block.
Once she was finally on Wilson, she began looking for the blue house with chipping paint. As she made her way down the street at a slow pace, the few people living there watched her from their windows with caution. Even this long after the war and these people still haven't gotten over everything. she thought as she scanned for houses while trying not to make herself look too suspicious. Finally, about three houses away from the next block, she saw two houses just like Sonic had described. One was to her immediate right and she pulled over and shut the engine off, on the opposite side of the street sat the other one, only one house over. Both had boarded up windows and grass that was in severe need of mowing and watering.
Sally reached into her purse and grabbed her phone, which had one of those little built-in flashlights on it and checked the battery. Three bars. she thought as she opened the glove compartment and set her purse inside, locking the compartment's door and getting out of the car, taking a quick look around to make sure no one was watching her. In a place like this where everyone more than likely knew everyone, it wasn't surprising that she had been watched and given funny looks by the residents of Metropolis.
Satisfied that no one was watching, she walked up to the front door of the house and laid a hand on the knob and turned it; nothing. Worth a shot. she thought as she headed around toward the back. She tried that door as well and came up with the same result, nothing. She walked back around to the front and crossed over to the other side of the street.
As she approached the other house, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach; almost as if something inside her was telling her not to go in. She ignored it and walked onto the front lawn of the house and around the back, ignoring the front door completely. As she walked around the side of the house, she noticed something different. The three windows on the front of the house had been boarded up except for this one on the side. The board in this window had been moved slightly to the right and the window opened a few inches. This has to be it. she thought as she tried to take a look inside, but couldn't see anything other than the opposite wall.
When she rounded the corner of the house, she noticed the back door was ajar. Sally stopped and listened for any sounds coming from inside the house but didn't hear any. Carefully tiptoeing up to the door, she stopped just in front of it and listened again but heard nothing. When she reached up with her hand and tried to open the door but the bottom half dragged against the ground leaving a six-inch gap for her to squeeze through. She tried again, this time with a little force and managed to open it another half inch, but it wasn't going to open any wider than that. Thanks to the boards covering the windows, there wasn't much light inside, making it hard to see and the smell of old wood, mildew and stale air filled her nose. Sally reached inside her pocket and pulled out her phone, turning the small flashlight on and illuminating the darkness as she stepped inside.
A/N: I felt odd about naming this one Return to Metropolis since it only describes the second half of the story, but it was the best I could come up with. Also, as I finish this, I almost lost this chapter and my computer. It decided to act up, but when you're running one that's still on Windows 98 you take your chances. I really need to save up for another one and I think I'm going to do that. It's been acting wonky on me the past couple of months and I hope it holds out until I finish this story. Thanks for reading and if you want updates, I usually post what's going on in my profile with this story. See you next chapter!