The middle of the night consisted of more storm weather and lightning. Cream lay awake in bed, whimpering as the lightning flashed and thunder rolled after it. Cheese pulled the rabbit's ears over his eyes and shivered, frightened just as much as Cream.

"Oh, Cheese, I'm so scared!"

"Chao, chao!"

"I'm going to find Mrs.-"

Lightning illuminated the room, causing the rabbit to utter a cry of fear. She pulled the covers over her face.

Crack.

"Mrs. Charis!" Cream wailed, too afraid to move from her bed. A few moments later, she heard footsteps hurrying down the hallway. The door opened with a creak.

"Cream, what's wrong?" asked a soft voice. The little rabbit recognized it not as Mrs. Charis' voice, but as Agatha's.

"Oh, Agatha, Cheese and I can't sleep! The thunder and lightning are too loud and bright!"

Agatha hushed her and pulled the covers away from her face.

"Shh, it's all right, Cream. I'll stay here for a few more minutes. Okay?"

Cream nodded, whimpering.

For the next fifteen minutes or so, Agatha remained in the room where all of the girl Mobians slept and rubbed Cream's back. It was a technique that Mrs. Charis used whenever Agatha had trouble sleeping as a kid. Cream started to nod off, and eventually she mumbled,

"Thank you, Miss . . . Agatha . . ."

With that, the rabbit and the chao fell right asleep.

Agatha jumped at the sound of a very loud thunderclap. The sound was enough to wake up the entire house, but miraculously, it didn't. It did, however, wake up the twins. The two children started crying from their room, helplessly wailing, but not because of the thunder. Everyone knows that babies cry when they are hungry, tired, or are woken up. Agatha stood up and looked through the slightly open doorway crack. She could see the silhouette of her mother scurrying down the hallway to hush the twins. Agatha chuckled at the sight. She could distinctly hear her mother attempting to quiet the kids down. Another voice, from the same room, muttered behind her.

"No sleep for anyone tonight, I see."

Agatha turned to see a Mobian figure silhouette in front of the window. The large ears and wings made it obvious enough who it was.

"Rouge, how long have you been up?"

"I was just about to fall asleep when the little rat screamed. Now I'm wide awake."

"I'm sorry. You know Cream, she's just a kid. Kids get scared, you know."

Rouge fluttered off the bed and walked towards Agatha as another flash of lightning outlined her silhouette.

"Yeah, well . . . I was up anyway. Couldn't sleep," mumbled the bat.

Agatha invited Rouge to go to the living room with her. They tiptoed their way through the TV room and flinched as a loud thunderclap played its horrible song.

"Geez, this storm seems to be going on forever," Rouge muttered under her breath, annoyed by the weather. Agatha whispered in response.

"Yeah, it's pretty long," she replied quietly.

"Well, Mother Nature needs to hurry it up."

"Are you one of those cranky-when-I'm-tired people?"

"Gee, what made you think that?" the bat retorted. Agatha chuckled.

"Fine, you win. Do you want something to drink, Rouge?" asked Agatha as she moseyed her way into the kitchen.

Boooom.

"I'll have a bit of cola. Maybe some caffeine ought to do me some good."

With a nod, Agatha poured the drink without hesitation and slid the glass across the counter. Rouge caught it perfectly with her past experiences at pubs in Night Babylon. "Thanks, kid."

Lightning continued to flash and thunder continued to follow. Agatha shivered.

"This isn't really natural for this time of year," she said with a trembling voice, becoming worried, "it's never so stormy."

"You know, this probably means something bad is going to happen," Rouge announced after gulping down a few sips of her drink.

Agatha didn't reply, because deep down she knew that Rouge was probably right no matter how much she wanted to argue the matter.

Boom.

"What the heck?"

Rouge's startled cry worried and alarmed Agatha even more.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Don't you see that weird light?" Rouge asked, jumping from the stool. Agatha began to quake all over, feeling the internal tremble that one gets when one is extremely cold.

"What is it?"

Rouge looked up at the sky from the glass of the window.

"It's a low-flying helicopter," she gasped, "I haven't seen one so close before."

"Frankly, I don't want to," Agatha pleaded, backing away in fright, "Rouge, it's a helicopter from the government! They're looking for Mobians!"

"How do you know that, sunshine? For crying out loud, shut up!"

"There's a logo on it! Get away from there!"

Agatha desperately attempted to pull Rouge away from the window. Rouge jerked her arm away from the window and startled the girl as she glared at her. The white bat peered up at the searchlight and squinted at it, looking as fearless as she could. The spotlight fell directly in the window, much to the girls' horror. Agatha yelped in terror while Rouge jumped back as though a small animal had been scurrying around her feet. She pulled the curtain string to release the curtains to block the window.

"Look kid, they couldn't have seen me from out there."

"It's still out there!" Agatha screamed, with panicked tears streaming down her face. "They could have spotted you!"

"No, they didn't. I guarantee it."

"Get upstairs!"

Rouge became infuriated by the girl's horrified begging. The bat whipped around and took Agatha's collar and throttled her by it.

"Get a grip, you little coward!" she commanded, scaring the girl even more. "Stop your annoying whining! I can handle myself, thank you very much!"

Agatha sank to the floor.

"I'm . . . I'm sorry, I just . . . I don't want anyone being taken away . . ."

Rouge planted her hands on her hips and watched the girl cry.

"Really, now, you're sixteen. When I was your age, I was going into pubs with gamblers and winning myself a living."

More lightning flashed. Rouge stared into the kitchen, where the outline of a figure could be seen from the doorway. Rouge cursed very loudly and immediately ran up to give the figure a powerful kick in the gut.

"Oof!"

The figure fell backwards and groaned. Rouge held a fighting stance as she threateningly advanced towards the potential enemy.

"I'm not goin' with you, punk! You'd better not be here to take me away, 'cause that ain't happening!"

A dark chuckle followed Rouge's little speech.

"Paranoid much, Rouge?"

Agatha switched on the kitchen light to reveal a black and red hedgehog sprawled out on the ground. The bat crossed her arms.

"No, just cautious."

"Well, you'll have to look harder next time, then," Shadow said, shakily standing up. "Agatha, you look like you've been through a lot."

"Emotionally, she has," Rouge interjected. "The government people are looking for us, Shadow."

"Well, what a surprise," remarked Shadow sarcastically, "You really caught me off-guard with that one."

"Seriously, this is nothing to joke about!"

"You know I don't joke around, Rouge. I know that they're out there. We'll just need to stay hidden here."

"What if they find you?" Agatha asked timidly. Shadow always seemed to intimidate her for some reason; he was just so dark and could lash out if the wrong words were said.

"We'll be ready for a good brawl," Shadow told the nervous girl. He quietly walked over to her and extended his hand to her. "Now you need to sleep. I can't possibly understand why you humans get so worked up over these things."

"Thank you, Shadow!" Rouge said, articulating her point. "I knew you'd understand!"

"Oh, shut it," he snapped. Shadow helped Agatha rise to her feet. "Go to bed, kid."

"Thanks, Shadow. I'll do my best."

Shadow and Rouge watched as the black-haired girl disappeared into the dark stairway. The white bat shook her head and peered at the closed curtain.

"Shadow, why do you suppose humans are so over-reactive?"

"Because humans are weak," Shadow stated bluntly, "emotions are too much for them to handle; that's all they seem to act on."

"What about the leader guy?"

"He's acting on his own opinions. Humans are so annoyingly petty; they think they rule everything once you give them power."

Rouge thought it would be wise not to answer to that. She knew that the humans were put under pressure, but heaven forbid she should upset Shadow in the middle of the night.

"All right. Well, I'm off to bed, Shadow. You ought to go to bed, too."

"Perhaps I will."

"Don't you dare leave this house," Rouge warned. Shadow smiled a rare smile.

"You have my word."

Rouge left to go back to her own bed as thunder rumbled outside. Shadow stood alone, staring out the window at the rain.

Boooom.