Nope. I don't own anything in this fanfiction.
Since the park was a bust, the gang decided to take Amy to one of their favorite cafes: The Red Emerald. On the side of block, there was a sign of a red emerald tea cup with steam waves above it. Below the sign were staircases that lead to the underground café. Shadow took lead while the others followed behind while describing the café to Amy.
"It's a really mellow café! The food is amazing, the music is awesome and the atmosphere screams a perfect escape!" Mina described.
"And every Saturday night, they have underground bands come and play for free, with the owner's approval of course." Ash mentioned.
"Oh man! You're going to love Erma! She's the coolest person in existence." Sonic said.
They opened the door to reveal a dimly lit building filled with dark music and incense. There were tables with chairs scattered around the café as well as booths along the walls. There were pictures of different artwork around the walls, but one wall had its own section with hundreds of photographs taped on it; it was dubbed "The Wall of Fame". There was a small stage that was across a long countertop with several coffee makers and a register.
There were few people in the café today, which didn't seem like a surprise to the group. Sonic and Knuckles pulled Amy to the countertop to see that there was nobody behind it. Sonic looked around.
"Where is she?"
Tails took the bell on the countertop and dinged it.
Ding!
Nobody showed up. Impatient, Sonic took the bell and dinged it repeatedly.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Ding-Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Ding—"I'M COMING FOR CHAOS SAKE!"
Amy jumped that the startling reply from the back. The back door opened to reveal a light brown and creamed ermine with short red hair and icy blue eyes. She wore a pink sweater with dark colored jeans and pink boots. She glared at Sonic.
"I should have known it was your fucking face, blue boy." She frowned. Tails smiled at her.
"Auntie! It's good to see you." Erma walked out of serving area to give Tails a hug.
"It's good to see all of you. You don't come by as much as you use to." Erma said.
Rouge rolled her eyes. "Trust me, when I say, it's been a pretty stressful few weeks. The only upside we've had was Sonic putting cows at the school."
"That was you?!" Erma glared at the snickering blue hedgehog. "I saw that on the six o'clock news that Monday night. Did the police catch you that quick?"
Sonic scoffed. "As if they could catch me."
"Some student snitched and Sonic gave particle credit to Knuckles and I." Shadow informed.
"Detention is really starting to get old now." Knuckles growled.
Erma rolled her eyes and stared at Amy. "Well stop being rude, all of you and tell who this new girl is."
Juile-Su wrapped her arm around Amy. "This is Amy Rose. She moved from Mercia and we're just showing her the ropes."
Erma smiled. "A new member of the family! Don't be shy." She pushed the others out of the way to give Amy a strong hug. Amy nearly chocked from Erma's strong grip.
"Thank…you…Miss…Erma…." Amy struggled to breathe. Thankfully Erma released her.
"You don't have to be so formal. Call me 'Auntie' so I wouldn't feel so old." Amy laughed at her joke.
Sonic and the others began showing Amy the usual table that sat in. Sonic shouted across the room to Erma. "Hey Auntie! Can we have the usual? All on Shadow!"
"Wait a minute—!"
"Coming right up!"
Shadow slouched in his seat and glared at Sonic. His rival shrugged. "Don't be angry at me. You can afford it, rich boy."
"It's my father's money, not mine. You know I don't want anything to do with him."
"I get that. That's why I'm saying you piss him off by spending all of his money!" Sonic grinned. Knuckles nodded along with Sonic.
"For once, Sonic has a point." He and Sonic shared a high-five.
Shadow sighed. "You all are just looking for a way to get free food, aren't you?"
The entire table started to erupt in agreement to Shadow's accusation; including Rouge and Omega, his so-called "best friends".
"Well, look on the Brightside." Amy suggested. "At least, we're not spending it on something completely stupid."
"Yeah...because they already done that…" Shadow grumbled.
Erma arrived to the table handing everyone in the group their favorite orders of tea, coffee and pastries. Erma gave Amy a cup of raspberry tea and a chocolate croissant on the house. Amy was very grateful for Erma's generosity and mentioned how much she loved raspberry tea.
As Shadow took a sip of his coffee while listening to Knuckles's story about Victor and Mighty, he took a glace that the newcomers who entered the café. His eyes widened in shock as he did a spit-take on the table and crawled under the table scaring the hell out of his friends.
Rouge glared at him from above. "Shadow! What the hell?!"
Shadow shushed his loud friends. "Shut up! Look who walked it."
Amy looked up at the entrance and saw a group of Mobians looking for a place to sit. None of them caught Amy's eye until she saw a hedgehog she automatically assumed was Shadow's twin. The Shadow look-a-like had black fur with pale powder blue streaks and sickly green eyes. He wore a white sleeveless shirt, with a grey jacket, dark green skinny jeans and a dark version of Shadow's shoes.
The rest of the group must have seen him too, because they all started to hide Shadow by pushing him further down under the table. Eventually, they decided to cover Shadow in their school jackets and hope that the dim light will prevent his brother from being noticed.
To everyone's disappointment, Shadow's brother saw them and approached their table with a grin that made a chill run through Amy's spine. "I know all of my little brother's friends, but I've never seen you before…"
It took a minute for Amy to realize that he was talking to her. She gathered her courage and spoke. "A-Amy. My name is…Amy."
Mephiles grinned. "A friend of my brother is a friend of mine."
Shadow, who was hiding on Amy's leg, growled, but Amy and Rouge quickly kicked him before he made too much noise.
"Speaking of which, where is he? I haven't seen him since this morning."
Rouge nervously tapped her nails on the table. "Shadow…had to—"
"Go to Twinkle Park!" Sonic blurted out without thinking.
Mephiles raised an eyebrow. "Twinkle Park? Why would he be caught dead at a place like that?"
"He's on a date!" Tails answered without thinking. Great, now Sonic's habits were rubbing off on him.
"A date? With whom?"
The gang looked at each other nervously until Ash blurted out the first random name that came to his head. "Sally Acorn!"
Sonic nearly jumped across the table to slap Ash's face. "THE HELL HE IS—!" Thankfully, Knuckles and Juile-Su were able to pull Sonic back and calm him down. His irrational jealously nearly got the best of him. Again.
Mephiles smirked. "Did he now?" He turned to Rouge and Omega, Shadow's two best friends who would definitely confirm his whereabouts. "Is this true?"
Rouge glared at her friends for coming up with such a ridiculous story and returned to Shadow's brother. "Yes. Shadow the Hedgehog is, without a doubt in my mind, at Twinkle Park on a date with Sally Acorn." She said robotically.
"I can confirm that it is Shadow's current location." Omega spoke.
Mephiles chuckled and nodded his head. "Good to know. I'm sure father would be pleased of Shadow's disobedience and will have a punishment ready for him when he gets home." Mephiles took a step back before giving the gang one last glance before walking out the café with his friends.
Sonic and the gang sighed in relief once Mephiles was gone. Mina turned to Amy. "That was Shadow's brother."
Amy nodded. "I can understand why Shadow was hiding from him."
Shadow instantly climbed out of his hiding spot and slapped both Ash and Sonic. "A date?! With Sally Acorn?!" He glared at Rouge and Omega. "And you two supported them?!"
Rouge and Omega could only shrug.
Yay update. Yay siblings. You love them when they're not around. Sorry for the extreme delay...even though this is probably unpopular...but good news I've stocked on chapters so yay again.
BunnyKoi says: "I just wanna live in a box at the edge of the world."