STH © SEGA

Sarah belongs to me, BlackPetals23. Flame and Sunny belong to Phantomask. Alicia belongs to aliciathewolf45.

Enjoy!

Chapter Five:

Busted

"This is what I call fun," Knuckles stated while playing a video game.

Sonic leaned against another arcade game. "The red ghost is kicking my ass," he moaned.

"Yeah, but at least we aren't out watching the girl's put on clothes just to try on other clothes and hardly any of the clothes are ever bought," Shadow was sitting down on a bench in the only other store that every single guy was in.

The Arcade Rally was the only place a guy was in while walking through the mall. They'd make a shortcut just to get there in that small and cramped room to avoid all the other stores. Though there was one other store some guys were found in, not a lot, but a few. Mainly with their girlfriends or wives (of course) but only because of what they were looking at.

But that's not important since we're not talking about that store. We're talking about the Arcade Rally.

"Dig Dug is my favorite," Knuckles said while moving to the side a bit.

Shadow shrugged. "Pac Man or Dig Dug are fine with me. Galaga is my first pick though."

"Here, here," a voice behind the game of Galaga.

Shadow tipped his body back to see Scourge and Tails.

"He's coming up on the left!" Tails warned.

"I got him," Scourge waved the fox off.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you played."

"Please, I have the highest score in West Mobius."

Shadow snorted and stood up, walking over to him. "I'd like to see you try and beat my score."

Scourge stopped while the game paused. "You're on."

Shadow went to the second player station and put the coins in from his pockets. Scourge restarted and the two were off. Tails went to keep Sonic and Knuckles company, although he probably didn't want to admit that he didn't want to hang out with a badass hedgehog and another badass hedgehog when they were competing.

Fiona stared at herself.

I hate Liam. I'll kill him. Where's my beautiful long hair gone? What is this?

Rouge smiled at her purple toenails while Sonia got her quills done. The ivory bat noticed the fox and walked over to her. "What's up?"

"What's up?" Fiona hissed. "Where's my hair gone?"

"It's still on your head, don't worry," Rouge patted her shoulder.

"MY HAIR!" she squealed.

"It's the same exact style only to your chin," Rouge stated. "Relax, would you?"

"I want Scourge," Fiona tapped her green nails on the chair. "I want him now and I want him to fix this."

"He can't make you grow out your hair," Rouge said.

"Then what can?"

~~~.~~~

"Thanks," Rouge sat down next to Sonia while they sat in the seats, massing their feet again while two brown cats sat on their knees in front of them, massaging the feet.

"No problem."

"You think it'll last?" Rouge asked, staring at Fiona who was in the waiting area next to the TV and eating Jell-O.

"I actually did read that on the internet and a few magazines that it makes your hair grow faster so it must work twenty-five percent of the time," Sonia shrugged with a laugh.

Rouge giggled. "Maybe ten."

Silver was soaked from head to toe while staring at the manager of the golf and tennis club.

"Hi," Silver waved slightly at the raccoon.

The raccoon on the other hand, wasn't happy at all. He grumbled something while walking away. Silver sniffed and wiped his nose before turning around and walking out the door and into the sun.

Now, to find his girlfriend.

"BAM!" Scourge cheered. "Beat ya!" he walked to the door with Tails and Sonic.

Knuckles walked beside Shadow who mumbled, "By one point. One damn point. How is that even possible?"

"We should probably go get Sarah and Amy," Sonic stood near the door.

"Yeah, I've ran out of quarters," Shadow stated.

"Can't we just switch in dollar bills for quarters over at that machine?" Knuckles pointed to the small box with a long line.

"Hell no," Shadow walked past him. "You know how long we were in that line just to exchange a five dollar bill Sonic found in his wallet?"

"Yeah," Scourge leaned on the door. "We should get them and eat lunch somewhere."

"Like where? We'll have so many choices," Tails moaned.

Scourge shook his head and tsked at the young fox. "This is East Mobius. The fancy shit just like in Center Mobius. Our choices will be cut down—hell, I'll be lucky to even have lunch here for some cheap money."

"Why?"

"I haven't seen that many biker looking Mobians around—just fancy and rich Mobians," Sonic said.

Scourge narrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I look like a biker?"

"That's my best idea of what you are besides a pain in my ass from time to time," Sonic tapped the window of the arcade.

"Let's just go get the girls," Scourge sighed, turning around and walking out of the arcade with Tails and Sonic.

Knuckles walked past Shadow before twisting back to glance at his ebony friend, "You comin'?"

Shadow's hand automatically went to his back pocket of his blue jeans at the sound of lunch and money in the same sentence.

"Damn it…"

"What?" Sonic turned around.

"My wallet's gone," Shadow turned around and walked back in the arcade. "I must've dropped it."

"Let's help him," Sonic decided after two Mississippi's.

Silver sighed while he stood in front of the beach. Blaze casually looked at him, "Nice to see you around."

"Yeah, isn't it?" Silver smirked in a thin line.

"No, I was talking about that dog behind you that's jogging," the cat pointed.

Silver twisted around while his girlfriend moved out from the white chair. There was no dog jogging. He guessed that was a good sign, until he turned back around. Alicia, Espio, Vector, Charmy and Blaze were all gone. He scratched his head.

"I'm really getting tired of this..."

"They're so gorgeous," Amy cooed.

Sarah nodded, "Definitely."

Sitting on the expensive, white couches while trying on shoe pair after shoe pair, Amy had found her true soul mate. Well, ones that would go on her feet. Red high heels with the rhinestones on the two straps that held the shoe on her foot. Next to her were a similar pair (don't tell Amy I said that) that were purple.

"Are you gonna get them?" Sarah inquired, trying on the purple high heels.

"No," Amy sighed, lonesome, with her ears down.

"Well, why not?"

"Because it's Shadow's money, I would never spend it."

"Even if he gave you it?"

"But he didn't," Amy stated, taking off the high heels in the very bright store. "I took it out of his back pocket."

"I'm just wondering, how you did it," Sarah leaned back professionally on the couches.

~~~.~~~

"She what?"

Shadow was in front of the arcade again, only this time with his arms folded and his eyes narrowed. "She took my wallet."

Sonic was about to tell him that Amy couldn't possibly do such a thing but ended up saying, "Seems just like her."

"How'd she get your wallet?" Knuckles asked while they walked down through the stores in the large hallway.

"No wonder she touched my butt," Shadow mumbled. "She never does that."

Sonic stopped and raised an eyebrow with a blank stare. "Shadow…have you two ever…"

"Nope."

Scourge and Knuckles stopped while Tails kept walking, ignoring the awkward conversation. Sonic hummed, "Why not?"

Shadow sighed, rolling his eyes. "I don't know, Sonic, maybe because we don't want to."

Sonic looked at Scourge and Knuckles before the three went into a laughing fit. Scourge hit Shadow's back roughly. "Nice one!"

"Yeah, right!" Knuckles snorted while laughing.

"Good one, Shadow," Sonic chuckled.

Shadow stared after them while they went behind Tails. "I'm not kidding."

The three glanced at one another before looking back at Shadow. "Uhh, Shadow, buddy," Sonic turned around and walked to the ebony hedgehog. "Are you sure?"

"I think I would know when something like that would happen to me—wouldn't you?" Shadow kept his arms crossed.

"Well, not unless she drugged me," Sonic scratched the back of his head.

Shadow shook his head slowly and sighed. "Just call Sarah."

"Why can't you call Amy?" Sonic sneered.

"Because Amy might not talk to him," Scourge stated and they started off again while Sonic took out his phone.

"Yo, Sarah, where are you?"

~~~.~~~

Red eyes glared at the…thing in front of him, flirting with his girl who happened to like it.

Sonic had the same look while Knuckles, Scourge and Tails watched somewhat closely. The red mongoose had loose black hair in a ponytail while his green eyes went between Amy and Sarah.

Finally 22 was the name of the store, but they weren't concerned about that at the moment. This guy, whoever he was, was flirting with Amy and Sarah, though mainly Amy.

Amy smiled at Shadow nervously before walking over there to the ebony hedgehog who still had his arms folded. "Hi…"

He held out his hand while she placed the wallet in it. Shadow put the wallet back while Sarah said goodbye to the mongoose and hurried over to Sonic—much to the mongoose's dismay when he saw the two leave.

"Busted," Knuckles and Scourge muttered under their breath with a chuckle before fist pumping each other.

Tails was quite confused. Amy watched as they turned around and walked back out of the mall. Before they even got out of the shoe store though, Shadow made sure the mongoose got the message that Amy was taken one hundred percent. His gloveless hand entwined her pink hand and he swayed them a bit, bumping shoulders with her.

Amy didn't dare object but she did wave to the mongoose when she thought Shadow wasn't looking.

All throughout lunch at a restaurant, Shadow had his hands near Amy. She had to stop him from getting too grabby while at the salad bar.

They sat back down with their friends in their own little room from having such a big group. Fiona sighed as the sight of the tomato on the salad Scourge had. She didn't want a salad. But she did want a tomato.

She gasped and shook his shoulder. "Look!" she pointed behind them, pretending to look.

Everyone looked. It was long enough for Fiona to grab the slice of tomato and eat it. But not fast enough to beat the green hand (Yes, they are gloveless, and Knuckles actually does have fingers. I just learned that…) that clasped around her wrist. She smiled innocently. "Hi."

Her friends didn't pay attention much after that. Scourge slowly released his grip and let her take the tomato. She bit into it and sighed contently while chewing.

"Stop!"

They looked up from either their phones or salads to look at Shadow and Amy. Shadow put his hands up and continued eating his salad. Amy glared at him, "Stop."

"I'm not doing anything," Shadow said.

Once the red eyes noticed no one looking, his hand reached down to Amy's hand in her lap. Amy growled at him but Shadow scooted closer to her with his dark chair and his salad bowl. The rose hedgehog sighed and gave in. She let him move their entwined hands in his lap. She let their legs touch. She even let him steal a bite of her brownie that she had for dessert.

But…

Once they stepped out of that restaurant, Amy was a pink flash while leaving Shadow in the dust.

"What time is it?" Sonic asked, watching Shadow sigh and follow his girlfriend, wherever she was going.

Sarah looked at her watch and smirked, "Just in time for swimming class when we get back."

Sonic's eyes were wide as he squeaked, "WHAT!?"