A Day of Relaxation
Shadows nose twitched as he was watching the TV. The lovely smell of molten cheese filled his nostrils as he battled the urge to turn about to see what Amy was cooking. He wasn't really watching the TV but the noise did serve as a good background to his thoughts. He had forgiven himself for all that had occurred in his past, but contrary to popular belief he hadn't thrown it away. He still thought about the little snippets he could remember, Maria's face, Gerald's face. Some bits of him training aboard the ark. Despite having found out his past though, he felt like something was missing, a small thing wasn't quite right but he didn't know what it was.
Suddenly he heard clattering as Amy placed the food on top on the table for two that was nearby behind him. Shadow stood up and turned about. He saw that there was a pepperoni pizza on the table and he walked over and pulled out one of the chairs and stood there waiting for Amy to sit. "Oh thank you Shadow. You're such a gentleman." Shadow sat on the other chair and got his fingers ready for digging into his half of the greasy cheesy pizza. Even though he normally liked eating healthily, it was better for his inner Chaos after all, he thought he'd allow himself this treat.
After several minutes of silence, except the sound of chewing, both he and Amy finished eating. It wasn't very often that Shadow had a meal but that was lovely. "So why did you come into the room with me?" Amy asked out of the blue.
"Because I wanted to. The real reason being that I know you and I have some form of trust in you." Amy looked shocked. Shadow? Trust? That was sort of odd.
"Glad to hear it Shadow but why?" Amy questioned the secretive hedgehog.
"Because without you I would have let myself die and I would never have found out my past. So for that I suppose I owe you some gratitude." Shadow said, a sliver of compassion in that deep voice of his. Amy smiled at him, she liked being appreciated. No matter how hard she tried towards Sonic he never returned any appreciation. She still liked him but it was not the crazy out of control fancy it used to be, it was more of an adult attraction. Thought even that was starting to fade considering how long she hadn't seen him for.
"So what do you want to do now then?" Amy asked Shadow sweetly. Shadow looked pensive for a few moments. Then thought of something.
"Want to try out the facilities that are upstairs?" Shadow suggested. Amy's eyes lit up.
"Yeah! I've always wanted to go in a steam room in a spar! Grab some trunks out of the drawer and get changed in the bathroom. I'll get changed in the bedroom!" Amy excitedly spoke, like a school child receiving a large amount of candy. Shadow groaned and instantly regretted his suggestion but he sighed and shrugged it off when Amy gave him a, cute, hurt look. He walked into the bedroom and grabbed some swim shorts. As Shadow walked into the bathroom he saw Amy pull a black bikini out the drawer. He sighed again and got changed into his swim shorts. At least they'd be going swimming after which was what Shadow was hoping for.
"Can I come through yet?" Shadow asked. He heard Amy shout yes through the door so he walked inside. Upon seeing Amy his jaw almost dropped. The bikini was one of the most skimpy things he had ever seen showing just about the most possible. He had never seen a girl so indisposed before as he could see the shapes of her breasts perfectly, the top part of the bikini was strapless. Amy did a twirl about and Shadow saw how tight the bikini looked on her bum. Emphasising her hips too with small bows on either side. If Shadow hadn't heard of them before he would have thought that it was illegal.
"So what do you think? Too skimpy? Look nice?" Amy questioned Shadow who was staring at her in the eyes. His face normally so cool and collective gave away an ever so slight gob smacked impression.
"It's very nice Rose." Shadow finally managed to answer, almost slurring slightly with his speech. 'Damn hormones.' Shadow thought. "Shall we?" He asked, sticking out his arm to bestow a towel for Amy to take. His other hand filled with another towel for himself.
"We shall!" Amy shouted out excitedly rushing towards the door. Shadow was simply wondering what he had let himself in for as he followed behind.
Eric dealt out 2 cards to Lynda, then Rage, then Slayde and finally himself. Turning one of his over to reveal a nine. "Hit" Mutters Lynda. "Bust!" She puts down her cards a queen, a two and a king. Eric moves his gaze over to Rage.
"Hit." He says confidently. He takes a look at the card he is given. "Hit." He takes it and smirks. "Hit." Eric hands him another card and he looked at it smirking evilly. "Stand."
Eric then turns over to Slayde. "Stand." Eric turns over his hidden card to reveal a four. He turns over another card to reveal an eight. Giving him twenty one. Eric smirked and looked up at Rage. Rage smirked.
"21, five card trick." Rage announced laying the cards on the table. He had two two's two three's and an ace. Rage looked rather pleased with himself. Slayde laughed softly when Eric turned to him and laid his cards down on the table. Ace of spades and king of spades. Slayde smiled at the enraged Rage.
"Well I sure am glad we weren't playing for money or I'd have just thrown away my life savings playing with you two." Slayde found his statement quite amusing. Whereas Rage just glares at the back of Slayde's head. Eric looked up at the small clock that was in the room. "Ah crap. My shift starts in ten. It's at 2:00 HT" Eric announced, grabbing his cards and putting them together. Rage and Slayde look at Eric with mild confusion. "We work on a 24 hour based clock and HT stands for 'Home Time' which is the time zone the city is in. People further out a field will tune into the stations that are broadcast here if they have enough time." Eric had his usual 'pleased to be explaining stuff' face on. "Though if you look in enough places, you'll see that, most the residents have kept their home time intact and do not pay much attention to HT. It's good because it allows for more diverse times for jobs etc."
"That's pretty interesting." Slayde commented. Eric exited the door and they followed, all of them saying bye to Lynda.
"Well I get off at 8:00 HT and then sleep in between before going back again at 12:00 HT. Luckily Echidnas don't need much sleep!" He looked proud of himself. "I finish again at 18:00 HT so either of you are welcome to come find me and we can spend some time in the city together." Eric started walking towards the main gates. Which slowly opened slightly.
"Okay shall do!" Rage exclaimed. Eric suddenly turned back and handed to them some rings.
"If you want to do much you'll need money. Here's 50 rings. Go use it at the casinos and gather up some more with your mad skills if you want. Or just spend it on whatever. I don't mind!" Eric started walking towards the gate again, then called something back while he was walking. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention. You've probably noticed by now but Chaos Control is unusable in the city, the radiation from the artificial sun prevents it." Eric made it through the gates and they started to close. Rage and Slayde could see it was raining on the other side. "Bye guys!" Eric shouted to them. They both waved as the last bits of the gate shut, blocking him from view.
"So what do you want to do now?" Rage asked Slayde. Slayde turned to look at him and surveyed him carefully.
"We may as well go to the casino and see how much was can get!" Slayde replied to Rages question. Rage nodded. They both ran off going at a fair speed, they weren't racing so refrained from using their top speed. They made it to the edge of the suburbs and could see the that the crowds of people slowly got thicker and thicker the further in it went. Slayde stopped and Rage stopped just after him to see what was going on.
"What's up?" Rage asked. Slayde looked at him intensely.
"I think that we should building hop." Slayde told him. Immediately leaping up onto the smallest building and gradually jumping towards the middle of the city while going higher and higher. Rage just shrugged and followed in suit. After a few minutes of building hopping, they made it into the centre of the city. They stopped on one of the large 1.5 kilometre buildings. Looking down into the crowd of people a large sign displaying 'Casino Royal' was easily seen on the opposite building to the one that they were on. "Going down!" Slayde said as he jumped off the edge of the building, Rage in direct pursuit. They both landed perfect in front of the casino and dust off their clothes before walking through the door, a fair few people staring at them as they did so.
The second they walked through the casino doors they appreciated how large it was. The base room was larger than the reception and appeared to have multiple stair ways. They looked across and saw too many card tables to count, some playing 21, some playing poker. A woman sitting at the reception waved them over. They walked towards her slowly, still taking in all the surroundings.
"Are you here to visit, buy or play?" The receptionist asked. Slayde and Rage noticed it was a rather attractive rabbit sitting behind the counter. Slayde and Rage just looked at her in confusion. "First time here?" They both nodded simultaneously. "Ah, well the first fifteen floors are covered in multiple gaming areas to allow for plenty of room to allow for more customers. The rest of our floors offer a two floor residential area to people of the most wealthy class. If you happen to know someone who does own one of the rooms upstairs, you may ask for its location so that you can visit them." The receptionist smiled at them, apparently satisfied with her own explanation. "I gather as it's your first time here you shall be wanting chips?"
"Ah. Yes we would. We would both like a 50 rings chip each." Slayde said politely. Suddenly grasping Rages 50 rings while he wasn't paying attention and handing over the total 100.
"You're joking right. No one has ever come here with less than 1000 rings before. Even those people rarely win in the time it takes them to build up something. The only successful people at the casino have asked for 50000 rings minimum!" The receptionist looked at them. Thinking they were just trying to mess her about.
"I think we'll take our chances." Slayde pushed the money forward again. The receptionist just shrugged and handed over the 50 ring chips.
"Your money I guess." She said as she gave them one 50 chip each. "Have fun with your one game. Though I would suggest trying the slots. That's about the only one you'll be able to play on! The higher you get in the building, the higher the stakes shall be. The slot machines on this level are on the left hand side of the room. Good luck."
They both go towards the slots as suggested, Slayde and Rage both going to opposite ends of the slots. The slot machines all had three wheels and a button that allowed you to stop each one individually. It was a typical simple slot machine. Slayde placed his 50 chip into the machine and the machine instantly came up with 'Credit: 50' a little sign by the sign said '1 spin = 2 credits.' Slayde cracked his fingers and started up the reels. The reels started spinning at an incredible rate. Faster than any machine he'd seen before. He guessed it was to stop the faster Mobians being able to see them move. Slayde focused and put himself into the kind of concentration he has while running, the reels looked like they were getting slower and slower until they were moving at a pace no faster than a snail to him. He carefully waited for the seven to come round on the first one and pressed the button. The slot stopped on the seven. He repeated this for the next two reels until his machine read out 777.
The glory theme sounded on the machine played as his credit was upped by 250 giving him a total of 298. Slayde was going to enjoy this.
A few hours later...
Slayde's sitting on the fifteenth floor playing poker with the big shots. There are two kings, two aces and a ten in the community. There are four people in play and the stakes are 1,000,000 each. The first person, a wealthy looking male Echidna places down two tens, a ten of hearts and ten of spades. "Full house." He announces, smiling.
Next, an esteemed and sexy looking Tigress put down the two black kings. "Four of a kind." She said smugly, confident in herself.
Then a wealthy looking playboy Lion placed down two aces, the ace of spades and ace of clubs. "Four of a kind, aces." He told the room. The other two looked gob smacked. They felt for sure they were going to win when it was their turn. The Lion looked expectantly at Slayde, expecting himself to win.
Slayde smiled and put down the queen and jack of diamonds. "Royal Flush." He told the group merrily, organising the cards so they could see he had won. All of the wealthy millionaires threw down their cards in disgust as Slayde scraped over all of his winnings. Slayde smiled at them all. "That's five million all for me. And to think I was bankrupt this morning!" Slayde smiled at them all kindly as he picked up all his chips in a bag. They simply all glared at him. "I think I'll be on my way now. Nice to meet you all!" Slayde made his way downstairs and arrived at the bottom floor. Looking across he noticed Rage still down here. Rage looked up and nodded to Slayde as Rage was sitting on one of the chairs waiting, he made it obvious he'd catch up as he had a small whisky in his hand. Slayde arrived at the entrance and put his bag on the front desk.
"Oh hello!" The receptionist said in surprise. Slayde indicated his winnings and she slowly counted through it all. "My god! Five million?! That's incredible!" The receptionist started handing over 1,000 ring boxes amongst others. She totalled it in front of Slayde so he could see. One hundred and fifty five 10,000's, five hundred 5,000's, five hundred 1,000's, five hundred 500's, five hundred 200's, five hundred 100's, five hundred 50's, five hundred 20's and finally fifteen hundred 10's.
Slayde gabbed it all and opened up the trench coat the he was wearing and just so happened to buy with some of the poker chips. He found the shop on the third floor. Putting each different type of ring box in a different pocket and thanking the fact that the boxes had been somehow refined into a thin slice of paper from like a note he left one of the many 10,000's out and handed it over to the receptionist. "Treat yourself to something for me." He smiled at he and she beamed back at him. The casino paid her about a quarter of that annually and as homes were so cheap compared to what they used to be, though equally pay was dramatically less, she knew she would finally be able to buy a good home for her child, her being an only parent.
"Thank you so much for your generosity Mr. Hedgehog." The receptionist said in glee to him just before he managed to leave. He waved to her and spoke.
"No need to be so formal. Name's Slayde, what's money for someone like me anyway?" Slayde walked back over to the receptionist. He spoke in an infatuating smooth and kind tone. "Here. Have some more." He gave five more of his 10,000's over to the receptionist, who put them in her pocket as she started crying in happiness thanks to the generosity of the hedgehog standing right before her eyes. She had never known anyone to be such a nice person. The receptionist stood up and left her post behind the window and came through the door on the side of the booth. She ran up to him placed her arms round him. Crying into his chest.
"Thank you so much. You've made my life." The Rabbit sobbed into Slayde's fur. She looked up at him and tried to hold back her sobs of happiness. "If you ever need me, for company, a friend. Anything! My name is Eleanor Raina. Come and find me. I won't tell you my address as I live with my parents but with one of these ten thousands I'm getting a home for me and my baby!" She started sobbing into Slayde's fur again, Slayde put his right arm round her shoulders and stroked the back of her head gently with the left.
"I shall make sure I take up that offer." Slayde said compassionately to her while looking her in the eyes. Eleanor blushed slightly. Suddenly two armed security guards came round the corner. Eleanor looked up at them slightly confused but then thought about what had happened. With the money she had just gained she would never have to work again. The interest alone off the 50,000 she'd have in the bank would be enough for food and water for the rest of her life if she played it correctly.
"I'm quitting my job, I have no further use for it. Could you tell Derrick?" Eleanor addressed the security guards in a sweet voice. They were both Echidnas, one was red and the other was blue. The red Echidna pulled out his gun and pointed it at Eleanor. She looked petrified. Her life had finally took a turn for the better and all of her dreams have come true, now they were going to shatter in one single gunshot leaving her poor child parentless. The Echidna pulled the trigger and released the bullet right towards her, her eyes closing as it came near her, too fast for her to duck or do anything.
She heard the gunshot while her eyes were closed waiting for the excruciating pain before the inevitable end. It didn't come. She slowly opened her eyes to see Slayde closed fist, in front of her face, emanating a slight white/yellow aura. Eleanor looked up at Slayde who was heavily glaring at the guard responsible. His breathing was heavy and his eyes glowed with passionate hatred.
"Eleanor." Slayde said as she looked up to his head, he didn't look away from the guards. "Run." Eleanor quickly turned round and ran away as fast as she could. The guard raised his gun again. Slayde growled at him. He shot it straight at the running female as she exited the door. Slayde caught it in his other hand, once again appearing in front of the bullets path. Eleanor made it out of the door as the door slammed behind her.
"Never go near her." The guards looked at him oddly. Then they both laughed at him.
"And what are you going to do to stop us?" The one that shot blurted out, attempting to hold down his laughter. Slayde held out his hands so that they could see, dropping the bullets right in front of them, he showed he had caught them. They both had a hint of worry in their face as they came to a stop with their laughter. "Our boss says that you're to be took down for cheating and getting away with it. He also mentioned to take out anyone who was helping you."
"Really? Well tell your boss this. If he does anything, as much as lays a finger on her or hires anyone for the same thing. I shall hunt both the person who did it down and your boss down and personally cause them more pain than anything that they've had in their worst nightmares." Slayde spoke in a sinister creepy voice that bestowed a chill upon the spines of everyone in the area. The Echidna with his gun out just shook it off. He immediately started firing at Slayde who just simply dodged the bullets as if they were hand thrown stones. The Echidna eventually ran out of ammo and exclaimed very loudly.
"Ah shit!" As Slayde just walked up to him calmly. The guard who hadn't done anything start backing away as Slayde approached them both. The Echidna with the gun was desperately attempting to reload. He just managed to reload and pointed it upwards to shoot Slayde. Slayde quickly grabbed the gun, pointed it up and emptied the clip into the ceiling.
"Anything."
Slayde whispered it quietly in the body guards ear. The guards quickly backed away then ran up the stairs. Rage looked at Slayde oddly and Slayde shrugged. "You sure are one weird guy you know." Slayde laughed.
"Says you. None of us know your real name and I know why." Slayde said looking at him as they walked out. Rage gave him an incredibly odd look and seemed slightly freaked out as he let the door close behind him, making their way into the busy street.
"Worked it out already huh? Fair enough. Just don't tell anyone. I'll tell them when they're ready." Rage asked Slayde nicely. Slayde looked at Rage and gave him a thumbs up. Smiling as he did it. "Shall we head back then?" Slayde nodded as they waded their way through the masses of people.
In a white thick foggy room sat Shadow and Amy. They were in a steam room because Amy wanted to sweat off some pounds, Shadow rolled his eyes within his mind at the mere thought, as if she had anything to burn off. Shadow was sitting there with his arms crossed, frown upon his face, thoroughly regretting his decision to spend time with Amy. Amy on the other hand had a massive grin upon her muzzle. She was really happy that Shadow wanted to spend time with her because no guys ever did. She sat in the steam room with glee, Shadow to her left. Suddenly Amy spoke.
"Want to go to the pool?" She looked round at him as he quickly changed his frown into a smile so that she wouldn't notice the annoyed look on his face.
"Yes sure Rose. That would be lovely." Shadow answered, looking into her eyes as she looked at him and smiled. He tried his best not to look miserable and managed to keep his usual unreadable face on. They both got up and head outside the steam room, grabbing their towels out of a small cupboard to the left of the door to the steam room. They both headed towards the elevators on the end of the hallway. There wasn't much on this floor, just a large steam room on the side they came from and a room with multiple Jacuzzis on the other. Shadow pressed the button for the elevator as Amy stood there waiting next to him. She decided to talk again and break the silence.
"So what do you think about the earlier news report? Think that they'll march upon the city soon?" Amy asked him. Shadow looked round at her as the door opened and paused to think as Amy walked into the open elevator.
"I think that if the Doctor plans on attacking here, they won't know when until it hits. He's good at keeping that sort of thing hidden. Or at least he was when I knew him." Shadow replied to Amy as he walked onto the elevators floor. Amy then pressed the button for the top floor. The doors closed slowly as Amy spoke again.
"Think that the army could be really massive? What if it gets in here? Think of all the poor people." Amy said, looking concerned at what she had just talked of.
"It is likely that this army would be enough to rival with the population within these walls, although I doubt the Doctor would even know how much it is, so it'll probably be far less. Although it would most likely rival the army force they have here." Shadow looked at Amy who was looking at the closed doors, thinking. The doors opened up to a bright sun kissed scene. Unlike at the steam room this room had a fair few people, the majority being teenagers or wealthy looking young adults, but there were no children. The people on the roof constituted more of women than of men. The pool was massive, covering most of the roof, it was about half a meter off the ground, presumably to make it deeper, it had pale blue tiling the whole way round and there were plenty of sun bathing loungers round the edge.
Shadow looked to his left to see Amy had disappeared, quickly looking round he spotted her near two empty loungers that were a fair bit away from the others. Shadow smirked, thinking that Amy must have considered his hate of large numbers of people. As Shadow approached her Amy opened her mouth to talk. She spoke too gently for a normal person to hear but luckily Shadow wasn't a normal person. "Want to go and swim?" Shadow's eyes alight with amusement. This was one of the few things he could do that faker never would dare. Shadow threw his towel onto the lounger perfectly and walked off towards the pool as Amy smiled at his back. She was enjoying herself for once.
Amy watched Shadow as he climbed up onto the side of the swimming pool and she immediately followed him up. As soon as she got up she looked round and saw Shadow was already at the diving board. "He sure does move fast" Thought Amy. Shadow jumped on the diving board pretty high and went soaring down, entering the water perfectly and barely causing a ripple. Shadow remerged further up the pool and started swimming a perfect front crawl. Amy admired him for a few minutes before she snapped out of her trance and jumped in herself. The water was lovely and warm and she loved the way she felt in it. Her fur and body felt weightless.
Amy swam up and down the pool, she used breaststroke to manoeuvre her way back and forth the length of the pool. The pool must have been about 50 meters long and the same wide. The smallest depth of the pool was about a meter at one corner and at all the other corners was about two and a half meters deep. After several minutes of swimming up and down she finally looked over to see what Shadow was doing. Amy saw that he is also still swimming lengths, but was moving at a far faster pace, the same pace he was going at to start with. Amy looked up to the side of the pool to see a fair few girls staring at him, ages varying from eighteen to twenty seven. Seemed he caught a fair bit of attention. As he was swimming he saw Amy looking at him and waved to follow him, he then continued to the shallow end of the pool. Amy instinctively followed Shadow and Shadow ended up standing at the shallow end. Shadow spoke as Amy approached.
"Those girls keep staring at me." Shadow pointed at the largest group of them. "It's really quite annoying." Amy looked over at all of the girls, quite amazed at just how many of them were staring. She couldn't really think of a way of stopping them.
"I don't really know what I could do. Sorry Shadow." Amy looked sympathetic. Shadow just glared at the girls as they started to wave at him.
"Surely you know something to make at least a few of them stop?" Shadow questioned exasperatedly. It was true, Amy did know of a way that would make a few of them, if not a fair few of them stop. People in general stopped eyeing people up if it looked like that person was with someone already. Amy took a deep breath and hooked her arm round Shadow's slightly, placing her hand in his she grasped his hand in hers. Shadow instinctively grasped back. "Think this will work?" Shadow asked, Amy nodded and pulled their hands up slightly so that everyone watching could see, but without making it look like they were just doing it for the sake of it. True to her word, a fair few of the girls turned away and stopped looking. "There's still a bunch of them staring." Shadow whispered without looking round. His peripheral vision picking them all up without any problem. Shadow turned to look at Amy who had suddenly leant in closer, Shadow was not expecting it and suddenly found Amy kissing him. Without noticing he closed his eyes and felt his cheeks burn slightly, but before he knew it Amy pulled away. Despite the fact that he knew it was just to stop the girls from staring he could not help but feel disappointment as she pulled away, much to his surprise.
"They stopped now?" Amy asked him quietly as she continued to look at him, a slight tinge of red on her own muzzle. They had all stopped but a few who were being as discrete as they could, yet now they were also glaring at Amy. Shadow nodded.
"Thank you Rose." Shadow said, relaxing slightly. He was still able to feel the slight blush on his cheeks, yet he knew his black fur was likely hiding it.
"Why don't we go and sunbath!" Amy said to Shadow extremely merrily. Shadow looked gone out. He didn't see a point in lazing round in the sun for hours to get a 'tan' that was something he couldn't get anyway due to his black fur. Shadow was about to decline but then looked over to one of the girls that was looking at him discretely and realised they'd likely start staring again if he was not with Rose.
"Fine. I'll sunbath with you." Shadow announced. Amy looked like she was about to bounce out of the pool. Shadow started pulling Amy along with the hand he had to the side of the pool. He quickly pulled himself out with just the one hand and them picked Amy up out of the pool by taking her other hand. Picking Amy up bridal style he jumped down to the floor and placed her back on her feet. Amy held her hand out for holding again and Shadow took it without question. They walked over to the loungers with their towels on and they both laid down gently, careful not to let go of each other's hands until they were both fully laying down. Amy immediately turned onto her side so she could face Shadow. Amy then noticed just how well defined Shadow muscles were, but his fur usually hid it she didn't normally see it, because he was wet from the pool she could see how muscular he really was. Amy thought that there was no wonder that those girls were staring at him and that she was glad she didn't notice earlier. Amy then remembered what she was about to say.
"This whole thing is terrible Shadow. We've been gone for five years and Eggman's pretty much took over the world!" Amy said to Shadow panicked. Some of the largeness of what was happening hitting her in the face.
"Don't worry Rose. We'll find a way to do something. Faker shall come up with something and I'll be able to help." Shadow said in a comforting way. Turning to her and placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah. I guess it'll be fine." Amy whispered. Both disbelievement and for some reason disappointment in her tone. Shadow looked up over Amy's head.
"Oh fucking hell. No!" Shadow exclaimed looking towards the entrance. Amy started to turn to look to see who was there.
"I can't believe they had amour piercing bullets!" Slayde stated loudly to Rage as they waited for the hotel elevator.
"Yes Slayde, you've said that three times now." Rage said slightly irritated and slightly bemused at the same time. The elevator doors opened and both hedgehogs stepped inside. "I'm simply surprised that they would go to such methods towards someone who had been tipped. But I suppose they see it as dirty money. Still shooting their employee?" Rage stressed the word shooting as much as he possibly could while Slayde pressed the appropriate button on the elevator wall.
"I know, it's just terrible." Slayde announced. They stood in silence for the remainder of the elevator journey and exited once the doors opened on their floor. They both make their way to the room and Slayde opens the door. Rage immediately followed him inside. Slayde makes his way directly to the kitchen whereas Rage flung himself onto the sofa, sending the remote that was on the other end flying into the air but he caught it perfectly. Rage pressed the standby button to switch it off standby.
"Hey I'm cooking some steak. I'm guessing you don't want any?" Slayde popped out of the kitchen and addressed Rage with the question.
"I'd rather not thanks." Rage said, staring at the television that was talking about the destroyed base. They had located a small chip and were investigating it. "Looks like they found my old locator chip." Slayde who had already gone back in the kitchen stuck his back out.
"Eh?" Slayde questioned. Look of confusion on his face. His head looking very funny just hovering there.
"The old locator chip I took out my arm! Oh wait you was asleep." Rage replied. Almost laughing at Slayde's comical face. Slayde headed back in the kitchen.
"Yeah I remember you taking that out. Also I wasn't asleep." Slayde announced from the other room loud enough for Rage to hear.
"Mmhmm." Rage hummed back, watching the television with interest as the Mobian team continued to look round the destroyed base. Soon the smell of cooking beef could be smelt within the living room. A few minutes later Slayde walked out with a large plate containing a large steak and a lot of chips. Rage looked up as he went past then went back to the television. Slayde came and sat next to Rage instead of sitting at the table and proceeded to eat.
"Well this appears to be a locator chip of some kind. I guess it belonged to a more important robot of Eggman's and it got caught up in the blast of the base. We're still searching for why the base blew up, but it seems that the base had sustained heavy damage before exploding. This leads us to believe it was some sort of defence mechanism..." Rage turned back from the television to see that Slayde had already eaten.
"Wow, that was fast. I'm off to go check out what these facilities look like. Want to come?" Rage questioned Slayde.
"Well I'd rather not. I think I'm going to stay in for a bit longer." Slayde replied. "Got things to do." Slayde stood up and took his plate into the kitchen.
"Okay, suit yourself. I'll see you later!" Rage walked out of the door and headed towards the elevator. 'Bet he's off to sleep.' Rage thought as he entered the elevator. It hadn't moved from earlier so it opened up straight away. Rage decided he'll go to the top first, so he pressed the button for the pool floor. Several minutes later Rage made it to the top of the building and looked across to see Shadow and Amy starting to lay down while holding hands. Rage smirked and leaned against the wall of the elevator door frame. Rage could see that they were clearly taking about something and saw Shadow placing his hand on Amy's shoulder. Then he looked up and finally saw him. A look of great displeasure lit up his features.
Rage heads directly towards them as Amy looks round to see him. She smiles at him and waves gently. "Don't wave at him. He doesn't need waving at." Shadow told Amy. Rage glared at Shadow and Shadow simply glared back. Tension could be felt in the air between the two as a few nearby people looked over and moved further away.
"So yeah. Saw that you two were holding hands. You two into each other now then?" Rage asked teasingly to Shadow. Shadow simply kept up his glare at Rage and ignored him. Amy started to go red. "Haha. I thought Sonic was the only one for you Amy, I'll have to tell him that you're betraying him!" Amy's redness stayed as she shouted at Rage, standing up.
"He is the only one for me! He's going to realise just how amazing I am and we'll get married!" Amy shouted at Rage as she clicked her fingers to bring out her piko piko hammer. As she was running after Rage over the rooftop she realised just how little she herself believed those words. She didn't really like Sonic anywhere near as much as she used to. Truth be told she saw him a lot more as a best friend than anything else now. The only problem is Sonic was the only guy she had ever chased, so every guy was disinterested in her because they all thought of her as a fan girl.
Rage continued to laugh and ended up running into the pool while he was trying to get away. Amy managed to deliver a heavy blow to his head and goes back to where Shadow is laying. Shadow noticed that Rage wasn't coming out. Shadow quickly jumped up onto the edge of the pool and noticed Rage was in there unconscious. Shadow's hidden heroic instincts suddenly kicked in and he jumped in to save Rage. Pulling him out of the edge and carrying him in a fireman lift drops him to the ground in front of the loungers, startling him into waking up.
"You saved me?" Rage asks Shadow looking at him. Shadow nodded at him. "Thanks." Rage expressed to Shadow. "I'm going to go and check on Tails and Sonic. See you two some other time." Amy looked up at Rage again despite being irritated at him for bringing up her own doubts. Rage started walking away much to Shadow's pleasure.
"Hey, could you tell me how they're doing if we see you later?" Amy asked him before he left. Rage stuck his thumb up Sonic style at Amy and she had an odd flash of him being Sonic.
Rage headed through the open elevator door as an Echidna came out of it. He waved towards the two as the doors close.
"Finally. The dick's left." Shadow stated. Amy looked at him sternly.
"Come on Shadow. He isn't that bad." Amy says in her usual cheery optimistic attitude. Shadow frowns to himself.
"Maybe. He might not be that bad." Shadow half mumbled.
"What do you think Eggman thinks when he kills so many people?" Amy asked Shadow out of the blue. Staring into space with a blank look on her face.
"Probably just about how violently he can do it. Some people just have no conscious at all." Shadow replied in a serious and deeply troubled way. He knew he used to be like that.
"It's disgusting." Amy sat up and walked up towards the edge of the roof. Shadow stood up and followed. Amy peered over the edge of the meter tall fence to see a massively long drop. Looking round the city looked quite nice while it was bathed in the sunlight. Shadow looked over with her, her hand found its way to Shadow's and latched on. Shadow hand clasped back.
"Are they looking again?" Shadow asked, peering over his shoulder. Seeing nothing he looked at Amy slightly confused.
"No, I just wanted to." Amy smiled at Shadow in a kind way and then continued to look over the edge. "Just wanted someone to share the moment with." Shadow muzzle gave away a slight smile for a split second before sinking back to his normal unreadable expression. Both hedgehogs just stared into the distance for a few short moments. As Shadow peers over the edge he notices a large building with a clock on it that was barely readable to anyone who wasn't standing right next to the building. Shadow's keen eyes could pick it up though. The display read 8:12 HT. Shadow turned to Amy in surprise.
"It's 8:12 already!" Shadow exclaimed to her. Amy let go of his hand and looked at him full on.
"Wow. That's quite a long time since we last saw the clock!" Amy stated in surprise. Shadow nodded his head. "I was starting to get bored of being up here. Let's go back downstairs."
"Okay, after you." Shadow said to Amy. He himself was getting bored with being up there. They both passed the recliners and picked up their towels and started to head towards the elevator door. Shadow looked to the side and immediately looked back forwards. "They're looking again." Amy wordlessly puts her free hand in Shadow's who grasps the hand as they continue to walk across the roof. When they get to the elevator door Shadow presses the button while keeping hold of Amy's hand. A few seconds later the doors opened to allowed them inside. They immediately walked in and Amy pressed the button with her other hand. As soon as the door close Shadow let go of her hand. "Thank you for that Rose. It was much appreciated. Maybe I should have you round me more often." It wasn't much but it was the closest thing Amy had been given to a compliment from Shadow.
"Haha. Yeah maybe you should." Amy replied to him. Amy smiled to herself. The dark hedgehog wasn't anywhere near as horrible as everyone used to make him out to be. She quite enjoyed his company if she was honest to herself.
They both stood in the elevator, silent, for a while before it made it to the floor they were looking for. Amy stepped off first and Shadow immediately followed. The elevator doors closed behind them as they walked down the hallway to their room. Amy opened up the door and gestured Shadow in Shadow walked in with a thanks and Amy immediately follows, closing their door behind her. "So who's showering first?" Amy asked Shadow. Shadow looked at her confused. "You know what one is right?"
"I have heard the term yes. I have never used one nor seen one in action." Shadow replied to Amy's question.
"Don't you have one at your home?" Amy asked Shadow. Shadow looked as if he was close to laughing but he managed to keep his usual cool demeanour.
"I've never owned a home. Even on ARK I used a bath." Shadow told her. Amy looked surprised from his mention of ARK. He normally kept quiet to everyone who asked him about it. Shadow took her surprise the wrong way. "I do groom myself you know. I wash in clean streams and waterfalls. Anything I can find nearby where I settle, if I settle." Amy smiled at him, his confusion over her look was understandable.
"Of course you do. Whenever I've seen you you've always been well groomed. I remember at prison island your fur was softer than Sonic's ever was." Amy told him. "Well I'll show you how it works." Amy walked into the bathroom and gestured Shadow to follow her. Shadow immediately went inside the room. There were dark green tiles covering the room and pale cream tiles on the floor. A large shower was in one of the corners and a toilet was on the far wall. The sink was near the door. Amy walked up to the shower and fiddled with some knobs and buttons. "Luckily it's an electronic one. So I can set it up and all you have to do is press that button." She pointed to a button with the words 'on/off' underneath it.
"Okay, thank you Amy. You can go first with this showering thing." Shadow said. He walked out of the door and closed it. Standing on the side of the door. Some soft noises were heard by Shadow, presumably the bikini she was wearing, and the sound of running water soon followed. Shadow stood there waiting while Amy showered. He could hear various noises including some he couldn't quite place. The majority were the sound of different bottles opening but after all of that had been done there was just the sound of foam hitting the plastic floor and water hitting soft flesh. A slight squelching noise could be heard that Shadow had never heard before. He could hear her breathing elevate as the gentle squelching noise continued getting slightly faster in sound. He could hear a slight moaning sound from the other side just before the odd noise stopped and a few moments later the water stopped and he heard her getting out the shower. A minutes later the door opened, Amy was just in a towel and she noticed that Shadow was standing just next to the door. She went red as she walked past.
"The small bottles are full of soaps. Make sure your use them." She called back as he closed the door leading to the room behind him. Once the door was closed she called in. "Don't come back through for at least a few minutes. I'll be putting some lunch together in a couple minutes and I'll make you some." Shadow looked round the bathroom again. There was a towel that had been left for him nearby the shower and the bottles had been left in shelves in the shower.
"Okay. Thank you Rose." Shadow called out of the bathroom so Amy could hear him. He walked up to the shower and his nose picked up on the smell of something he hadn't smelt before. He knew it wasn't the cleaning agents as it was a completely different smell to those emanating out of the bottle. Shadow quickly gave up on trying to work out where the smell was coming from and stepped into the shower. Pressing the on button warm water ran out of the shower head, coating Shadow's body in a nice warm film of liquid. Shadow grabbed the nearest shower gel bottle and got to work.
Meanwhile outside Amy had finished putting on some underwear. Matching red bra and panties. She looked in the drawers for some trousers and located some black jeans. She quickly pulled them on and looked for a top. Inside the top drawer there were a lot of tops but most of them weren't her style. She then noticed a black top. She pulled it out and it had a cartoon green dinosaur painted on it eating a cartoon car. There was a little speech bubble that said 'Rawr!' Amy thought it looked quite different so she put it on.
Amy then left the bed room, passing the bathroom door and hearing running water she continued to the kitchen to whip up some food. She entered the kitchen and stuck her head in the fridge. Amy noticed some bacon on the top shelf and grabbed it. Pulling a frying pan out of the third cupboard she tried she poured a small amount of oil in it and switched on the hob to warm up the oil. As soon as the oil was ready she placed 4 rashers in and searched for some bread while they were sizzling.
As Amy finds the bread and places it upon the table Shadow walks out the room wearing some combat print jeans and a pain black t-shirt. "Think this looks okay?" Shadow questioned her. Amy looked at him and smiled.
"It looks fine." Amy continued to prepare the food as she tried to take two plates out of a cupboard located above the oven that she could barely reach. Shadow quickly came over and used his hover shoes to give himself a boost, allowing himself to grab the plates off the self with ease and passed them to Amy. "Thanks Shadow! What would I do without you hey?" Amy joked to him. Shadow just let off one of his rare amused grins as he went back into the room to wait for the food to be prepared.
Mere moments later Amy came through into the room carrying two plates of bacon sandwiches. Both had been smothered in ketchup within the shells of bread. She placed one down in each place and sat down as Shadow stood up to come towards the table. "Looks nice." Shadow complimented Amy. Amy smiled at him. "Smells better!" Amy laughed at the way he put it. Shadow sat down and started to dig into the sandwich, within seconds it was gone. Amy had only took tow bites out of hers.
"You should eat more often you know. Even if you don't have to you seem to like it." Amy told Shadow in a motherly way. Shadow just rolled his eyes, his eyes giving away the happiness his face never betrayed. Shadow looked up at her.
"Maybe I should. I know how to cook very little though, so it seems I shall be visiting you more often for your delectable pieces of food." Shadow said to Amy, complimenting her again. Amy giggled slightly.
"I've only cooked you a couple of things Shadow. You might not like my normal cooking!" Amy told him. He looked slightly disappointed then straightened himself up.
"All the more reason to try it." He said to her. Amy smiled back at him. Shadow could be sweet when he wanted to be. Amy then remembered something that she had been considering the whole time since she awoke earlier.
"Can you teach me how to use Chaos powers?" Amy asked Shadow. Shadow paused and looked up to her shocked. He could see that she was not joking. "Also I'd like to learn how to fight in general, like hand to hand combat? Would you please be able to teach me?" Shadow stared at her and analysed her. She had never really struck Shadow as that kind of person before but he could really see potential in her, especially after seeing her heal some rather serious wounds. Truth be told he had wanted to take on some sort of apprentice and teach someone his skills. As much as he loved being alone it was starting to drag on a little bit and he sometimes felt the need for company. Usually he wouldn't approach someone to ask them if they would be interested though as he never had managed to get close enough to someone.
"I think I could probably help you with that. All of it. Though I must warn you, if you wanted to be taught by me it won't be all sunshine and daisies. It's nothing like anything you'll have done before." Amy looked at him with a keen attitude and nodded at him. "Also going down this path could end up making your life very complicated. I have a lot of enemies and I mean a lot. Many want me dead and they would not hesitate to do the same for you. You will not be able to see your friends anywhere near as much either. Once all this is over, anyway" Amy's face wavered slightly. She looked like she was struggling to take it all in. Eventually she nodded.
"I think I can cope. I'll do my best at being your disciple!" Amy looked very pleased at the fact that she would now have someone to be teaching her. In Amy's opinion the fact it was Shadow, a hedgehog who was so adept at the things she wanted to learn about, made it all the better. Amy thought 'He's not bad looking either. Wait what am I thinking?'
"Okay. So Chaos theory. Now in order to get in touch with the deepest of Chaos energies you must try and connect yourself with nature more. We'll do more on that when we're out of this city. Now before you go to bed every night you should hold your hands like this..." Shadow put his hands together in a sort of spherical shape with all of his fingers touching and thumbs on the opposite side of the hand sphere. "And concentrate your energies into it to create a small ball of energy." Shadow closed his eyes for a second and breathed deeply. A large ball of energy filling about three quarters of his hand space appeared. The ball was a pale yellow colour and sparkled with life energy. "Someone on the ARK taught me how to do this. Though I can't seem to remember whom. You should be able to do this. Depending on strength of your energies will dictate it's colour. The more powerful you are the paler it shall be. Although there are some special circumstances. If you're too consumed by a particular emotion it can cause it to become one unchanging colour. The typical example being black if you're evil. Which is unattainable through normal means."
"So what colour will mine be?" Amy asked Shadow. Looking up at him. Shadow indicated her hands so she did what he had done and arranged her hands in that specific way. Amy closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Shadow voice came through her thoughts.
"Don't force it, just let it come." Shadow said kindly. She relaxed and suddenly felt a slight tugging towards her hands. She opened her eyes to see a light purple sphere, it was about half the amount of her hand space. Amy got excited and the ball got snuffed out. Amy looked up disappointed. "That's quite good. Especially for a beginner. It goes blue purple red pink orange yellow white. The level changes when the ball reaches the maximum space in your hand and it reverts to a smaller ball. There are ten levels on each colour and the strength of one shade to another is about ten times more. This means that the jump from one colour to another, e.g. stage one blue to stage one purple, is about one hundred times stronger. Judging by the shade you're showing me there I'd say you're about a stage seven purple. I'm currently a stage two yellow, so I've made it up one level since you first met me." Shadow looked over to Amy to check that she was getting all of what he was saying.
"So if someone with a stage seven purple like myself fought someone who was a stage two yellow like yourself, you'd be almost a million times stronger than me?" Amy looked slightly scared as well as amazed.
"That is essentially correct Amy, however, in smaller gaps of energy like a stage five red against a stage six red the five could win. Techniques and physical abilities can make a difference. For example; anyone with Chaos energies about the level of red can run as fast as Sonic or I but as we seem to have been gifted these abilities naturally we don't have to think about them to use them. Whereas people without the natural ability would have to train to use them. As far as I know there has been no known limit to the amount of Chaos energy you can train yourself to. Of course most people die before they reach any stage higher than orange unless they work especially hard or have had help from someone who has already surpassed them. There have been very few documented white levels and none have made it past level one white. So it's unknown if white is the peak or if there's something after it.
"From documentation I have read. There have been few that made it up to the yellow mark. I have found a few record of possibilities of going into a super form independent of Chaos Emeralds once the person has reached level five yellow. There was also a single documented case of someone attaining a hyper form in stage one of white. The only person who almost made it to level two. They had some of his DNA at GUN last I heard. Though I think they destroyed it a week or two before we got trapped, or was it stolen..."
"It's pretty incredible you know so much Shadow! I guess you've read up a lot on GUN documentation?" Amy asked. Shadow nodded to her. "Wow." Shadow looked up at her amazed face. Everything she just told him seemed second nature to him now.
"Okay. I think we should go to the gym or some kind of fighting club and see what I can teach you." Shadow announced standing up. Amy stood up as he walked out of the door and popped on her shoes to follow him. They walked down to the end of the corridor swiftly. Shadow now seemed quite happy he had a good reason for being in the city. Shadow pressed the button and waited for the elevator with Amy beside him. The second the doors opened he pounced inside and Amy swiftly followed her way in. Shadow pressed the ground floor button. Amy suddenly spoke.
"Shouldn't we get changed into something that's better for fighting?" Amy asked, looking down at her jeans. Shadow smirked slightly and rolled his eyes.
"I know that typical clubs will do that, but do you really think that if someone attacked you on the street that you could ask for time to change into better gear? You wouldn't. It's simply best to learn how to fight in normal clothing." Shadow told her. It seemed like a good point to Amy. They stood in silence for the rest of the elevator journey.
"God being in the elevator is boring!" Amy said as soon as the doors opened. Shadow grunted in agreement, staring off towards the entrance of the hotel. Amy looked over to see Slayde leaning against one of the columns holding up the building. He waved as they both looked at him. Amy waved back and Shadow just stayed silent as they approached him.
"Hey guys, where you headed?" Slayde asked as they got near. Shadow looked like he was about to talk but Amy spoke up in a cheery voice.
"We're off to a fighting club!" Amy looked extraordinarily pleased with herself. Slayde smiled at her.
"Got any money to get in anywhere?" Shadow paused and then realised Slayde had a good point as Amy stared at Shadow expectantly.
"Not any at all actually." Shadow stated. Slayde laughed a short haughty laugh. He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a bundle of notes. Obviously a lot of ring money.
"Well then it's your lucky day. Here's 500 rings each." He held out two 500 ring notes.
"Ah." Shadow said as they both took their respective note.
"Thank you Slayde!" Amy said happily. Slayde smiled back at her.
"You're welcome Amy. Have a nice time together!" Slayde looked at both of them and then turned to walk towards the elevator. He waved over his shoulder before disappearing into the elevator and out of view. Amy stared at where he left for a few moments then looked to her side to see where Shadow was and saw him talking to a receptionist. Shadow walked back after a small conversation
"Come on." Shadow said in an instructive tone. Amy turned round and walked out the doors with him. "I've found out where somewhere we can go. It has a couple of training rooms at it and an underground fighting club attached to it where you can bet on things. I think it'll be a good place to rain and test you." Shadow looked at all of the hordes of people walking round. In one swift movement he picked up Amy bridal style. "I think this'll be faster." Amy nodded to him and put her arms round his neck before Shadow ran and jumped between the buildings to get to his destination.
Rage looked up at one of the four 9 KM skyscrapers. It had a large green cross on it and was obviously the hospital for the city. Walking inside he finds that the reception is very small and he can see various people darting round the place for many different reasons. Rage walks up to the reception desk and addresses someone sitting on the computer. "Hey, I'm here to see Sonic and Tails." Rage told the receptionist.
"Okay if you could just take a seat." She said pressing a button on the side without looking up. Rage goes and sits down on the nearest seat and twiddles his thumbs while waiting. After about ten minutes someone comes into the reception and talks to the receptionist who points at Rage. The person approaches Rage.
"Hey, hear you're here to see Sonic and Tails?" The Wolf said. Rage nodded at him. "Come this way then" The Wolf waved him in the direction of the corridor, there were many other corridors coming off the corridor and each one had many rooms. Most seemed full by the way the doors were closed. They eventually made it into the middle of the complex and were greeted by four elevators in a square. Each one was at least four times larger than a conventional elevator. The elevator door opened and a few doctors rushed out as they walked in with one other doctor. The person with Rage pressed the needed button on the elevator and they shot up. The doors occasionally opening and closing to allow more people on or off. After 3 minutes they reached the floor that they needed. "This way." The wolf stated. Walking down one of the four long corridors coming off the elevators. He took the second left and then the first right to come to an area with two rooms on either side and a window on the end. "Sonic is in the one next to the window on the left. Tails is this one." He pointed at the closer door to the right.
Rage went into Sonic's room to find him laying peacefully on the bed. The male nurse that brought him up came in behind him. Rage notices a clock next to Sonic that reads 10:00 HT. It switches a minute as he's looking at it. Rage is amazed how much of the day had gone already. He walks up to Sonic's bed and places his left hand on his forehead. "How's he doing?" Rage asked.
"He's doing well! But we doubt he'll be up for a few more days regrettably. And that will only be for simple things." The nurse told him. Rage looks at Sonic as if he's disappointed.
"Can we go to Tails' room now please?" Rage asked the man. The nurse turned out of the door and Rage followed. They headed almost straight across the hall and inter one of the rooms opposite. Tails was laying there fully conscious.
"Oh hello! Are you one of the people who helped save me?" Tails asked. Rage looked at Tails keenly. He looked a lot different than when he was injured.
"I am. I was the one who located you in the rubble of the base." Rage said to Tails, sitting down on a chair by the bedside. Tails indicated the nurse to go outside and he did so.
"So was you one of the ones that was stuck inside the room with the others?" Tails asked Rage. Rage shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"No. I joined the rest of the group a little later." Rage replied. Tails noticed he was on an awkward subject. So Tails decided to change it.
"Been anywhere in the city yet? There's a lot to do." Tails asked Rage. Rage looked a little brighter after the question.
"Yeah, went to the casino with 50 rings that a guy at the door, Eric, gave us. Managed to win about two thousand. My mate won about five million with the same start point." Tails looked amazed at that statement. "I know. It's a proper impressive amount of money. Wish it was me winning it!" They both chuckled slightly. Suddenly a red Echidna came in.
"Oh. Hello Knuckles." Tails said looking at the Echidna. He looked exhausted as if he had ran to this floor rather than took the elevator. He was wearing a military uniform adored with many badges, he looked like he was important. "This is the head of the military, Knuckles." Knuckles looked quite stern. The nurse walked back in the room.
"Tails I need to speak with you immediately." Rage didn't move as Knuckles glared at him. "Privately." He said bluntly as he looked at Rage.
"Well it was nice talking to you. I hope to see you again." Tails addressed Rage and smiled at him. The nurse came and took Rage out the second the nurse closed the door Rage couldn't hear inside, it was like it was soundproof. The nurse took him back to the elevator.
"Anyone else you want to see?" The nurse asked while waiting for the elevator. Rage shook his head. "Okay." The elevator arrived and they went down with people coming on and off at random like last time. When the elevator finally reached the bottom floor. The nurse simply left Rage to find his own way out. Rage headed back out of the reception to see the receptionist still hooked on the computer. He stepped outside of the door and decided on a leisurely walk home. Then to go to the arcade with his hard earned betting.
He was on his last ring on a game called "Long Walk of the Dead" Where you was living on a planet covered in zombies. He managed to get to the final level and was facing off with the final boss. He carried on shooting it perfectly in the head as it attacked him. Dodging randomly he managed to avoid the beast and finally kill it. A score sheet came up and he had managed to bag first place. The game only allowed three letters so he put 'RGE' as his name. Smiling to himself he heads back for the elevators.
After getting into the room he found Slayde watching the television. They were still exploring the base that had blown up. "Anything interesting happened?" Rage questioned as he sat down next to Slayde.
"Not really to be honest. Though it seems that some robots came along looking for your locator chip." Slayde laughed at this and Rage joined in with the laughter.
"So what you been doing while I've been out?" Rage asked.
"Well I stayed here for a while. Then waiting in the reception to see if I could catch Shadow and Amy. Then I went off to find Eleanor and spent most my time with her. I ran back here and got back about ten minutes ago." Slayde Replied. Rage laughed and winked at him suggestively, then suddenly turned serious and stiffened up.
"Hey what time is it?" Rage asked standing up. Slayde peered at the clock on the television.
"17:34 HT." Slayde replied. Rage looked surprised.
"It's almost time to go and meet Eric! Do you want to come?" Rage asked Slayde. Slayde turned round and looked at him. Then paused as if thinking.
"I don't think I shall. I'd rather stay here thanks." Slayde replied turning back to the television. Rage looked quite surprised at his response but then realised he doesn't actually know him very well.
"Okay suit yourself!" Rage said, heading out the door.
"Hey Rage!" Rage turned round to find himself catching a note of rings. "Give that to Eric for me." Rage looked at the note and saw it was a 100 ring note.
"Shall do! See ya!" Rage turned out the door and let it close behind him. Walking up to the window on the opposite end of the hallway to the elevators he jumped straight out. "This is fucking awesome!" Rage shouted as he fell. As he was falling he altered his path so that he was right next to the building. When he was mere meters away from the ground he kicked off the edge of the building and soared in the air across to the building on the other side. By triangle jumping and running on the buildings he managed to worm his way out of the city quickly. Going in the correct direction this time. When he got the rural area he simply jogged to the edge. About twenty minutes after he left the hotel he had arrived at the gates to be greeted by Lynda.
"Hello Rage. Eric's shift doesn't finish for another five minutes." Lynda said as he got close. "I'd suggest just wait here." Rage nodded at her as she headed back inside. It was like she expected him to be there. Rage sits down with his back to the gate and stares at the roof, amazed at the sun still. A few minutes after watching the sky, the gates are heard opening in the background, Eric came through a gap in the gates quite breathless as the gates started to shut again, barely opening in the first place. Once the gates had closed Rage turned round to look at his friend. Who looked worn out.
"Hey you okay?" Rage asked Eric. Eric then notices him and suddenly perks up again.
"You know. Boring job and everything." Eric told Rage. A Jeep showed up to pick the both of them up. They hopped into the vehicle and it drove towards the city "Anyway! Been up to much?" Eric asked him questionably.
"Well I went to the casino, won two thousand, visited the hospitalised and blew my money in the arcade!" Rage fished round in his pocket. "Slayde did well, won five million. He told me to give you this." Rage handed the 100 ring note to Eric. Eric took it off him. "I guess Slayde knew I would blow my half!"
"Haha, thanks. So how's Sonic doing?" Eric asked.
"Well he's okay. But they say he won't be up for a few days." Rage replied. They stay silent for the rest of the journey and the Jeep stops in the sub urban are just before the urban area. They both hop off and it drives away. The two of them start heading into the city, Rage simply followed Eric unsure as to where they're going. While they're walking Eric bumps into Rage left hand slightly. Suddenly he stops as his eyes widen.
"Oh god!" Eric suddenly said. He started pushing his way through all of the crowd forcibly. Luckily he was a strong Echidna so he could do this and people wouldn't be able to fight back. "I've got to get to Sonic right now!" Eric shouted to Rage. Eric pushes his way through the crowds and half runs to the hospital, most people not moving out of his way as he ran. They make it to the hospital and Eric goes straight through and to the elevator. Pressing the correct button Rage barely makes it in on time.
"What's going on?" Rage said. Eric just stood there silent. Rage decided instead of asking now he's just wait until they got to Sonic. They make it to the appropriate floor after a long wait as the hospital was apparently far busier than when rage was there last time. Eric went straight out of the elevator and took the second left then first right. Turning into the second door on the right he burst into Sonic's ward to see a female nurse in the room.
The bed was empty.