Chapter 16

"Faker, what are you doing here?" Shadow questioned, secretly happy to see his friend. Not that he would ever admit it.

"Rescuing some dumbasses who decided to barricade themselves inside a cave with a raging psychopath," Sonic snapped, narrowing his eyes at Amy. She glared right back.

"In case you didn't notice, we did just fine without you," she yelled, displaying the Chaos Emerald.

"Yeah, and how are you planning on getting out of there, Rose?" he called back tauntingly.

"Amy, as much as I hate to agree with him, he's right," Rouge whispered, coming up next to her. "And you need to have your shoulder looked at soon."

"It's fine, I told you already," Amy brushed her off, but she knew it definitely wasn't. She could feel that it was dislocated, something she'd done several times before, but she could also feel drips of blood running down her back, leaving a trail behind her.

"And just how were you planning on getting us out?" Amy demanded. "I know you think pretty highly of yourself, but you and I both know you can't climb for shit."

"I may not be able to climb, but I know someone who can fly," Sonic gestured. A pair of golden fox ears peeked into the hole, grinning like mad when he saw his friends.

"Tails," Sticks breathed, a wave of relief going through her entire body.

"You guys are okay!" Tails exclaimed, beginning his descent into the cave using his twin kitsune tails. "Jeez, Blaze is worried out of her mind."

"Is she-" Silver began.

Tails interrupted. "She's fine, Silver. A few more seizures since last night, but nothing we couldn't handle. Knuckles is with her right now, he's been taking great care of her."

Rouge smiled secretly at this, careful not to let anyone else see.

"Okay," Silver breathed. "Thank you, Tails."

Tails reached the ground, and Amy turned to him with panic in her eyes. "You didn't tell him, right?"

"No, I didn't say anything," the fox affirmed, "but he should hear it from you, Amy, and soon. He went nuts when he heard you had already left without warning. Thought you were gone again."

Amy felt a slight pang of guilt, but she brushed aside. "Contrary to what he might have told you, I don't owe him anything."

Tails tilted his head, studying her expression. "That's true. You don't. But…"

"Oh, keep your logical advice crap to yourself," Amy muttered, making Tails chuckle and shake his head.

He turned to Sticks next, grabbing her up into a hug, not caring who saw.

"I'm glad you're okay," he whispered, blushing furiously. Sticks grinned.

"Doing great, thanks," she winked. "I mean, I still can't move my legs, so you're gonna have to be my personal chariot here."

"How did you-" he started, concerned, then shrugged. "Ah, never mind. You can tell me about it later."

He grabbed her around the waist and took off, quickly bringing her up and out of the cave. He put her down gently on the grass outside, and, making sure that Sonic was still distracted looking down into the cave, kissed her quickly but fiercely.

"I'm going to kill you when you get back," he promised, sounding about halfway between amused and furious.

"Bring it on, golden boy," she teased, laughing, before pushing him back towards the cave. "Now go save the rest of your friends."

One by one, Tails managed to bring everyone out of the cave. As he brought Shadow up, the black hedgehog glared towards Sonic. "I could have Chaos Controlled everyone out, you know."

"Oh, please," Sonic snorted. "You couldn't Chaos Control a piece of bread right now. You're exhausted."

Shadow opened his mouth to protest, but knew better. When he'd used up too much of his energy, it was always plainly visible. His red spikes turned dull, almost brown, as did his eyes, and his hands would start to trembling, which was ridiculously embarrassing. "Yeah, all right."

He sulked his way over to where Sticks, and now Rouge and Silver, were all sitting, scanning each other for injuries. Besides Sticks' paralyzed lower half, Silver's exhaustion from all the telekinesis, and a few scratches up and down Rouge's long legs and wings from being tossed around in the chaos, nobody seemed to have any major injuries. Shadow could feel a few of his ribs were broken, but he healed fast. And by fast, he figured a few hours, tops.

Tails, now tired as well, brought Amy up, the final member of the group. She was gripping onto his wrist with her good arm, her injured one held tightly against her body. She was in an enormous amount of pain, but she did her best not to let on. As soon as he put her down, Tails got out his kit and went to work on her shoulder.

Sonic approached her, fuming. "You could have told me where you were going."

"It's none of your business," Amy retorted, wincing. Tails noticed the look of pain on her face.

"Sorry, Amy. Looks like it's dislocated, and you've gashed it down to the bone here. I'm going to have to pop it back in and put in some stitches," he told her.

Amy shrugged with her good shoulder. "Fine. As long as I can still use it for the next fight."

"Next fight, my ass," Sonic snarled, his green eyes flashing. "You're injured, you can't go get the crap beat out of you again."

"As much as I appreciate the vote of confidence, I'm a big girl," Amy snapped, rolling her eyes at him. "You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do."

Sonic looked at Tails, expecting him to talk some sense into her, but the fox just sighed. "As much as I'd rather you rest it for a few weeks, do what you have to do. Just try not to tear the stitches."

"No promises," Amy grinned. Tails looked at her with sympathy, taking hold of her arm and bracing himself.

"Not gonna lie, Amy, this is going to hurt," he sighed.

Amy clenched her good fist. "Done it before. Just get it over with."

Without allowing her time to anticipate it, Tails quickly wrenched her shoulder back into place with an audible 'click.' Sonic grit his teeth, but Amy just set her jaw, hissing a breath out.

"Okay, it feels good," Tails confirmed, smiling comfortingly, his hands gentle on her injury. "I'm going to stitch this up and you'll be good to go."

"Thanks, Tails," Amy smiled sincerely. She caught Sonic staring intently at her and glared.

"If you're not going back, I'm coming with you guys," Sonic stated firmly.

"Over my dead body," Amy snorted.

Silver looked up at Amy. "Actually… it would be nice to have an extra hand."

Rouge nodded in agreement. "Yeah. As much as I can't stand you-" and here she threw an angry look in Sonic's direction, "-any help is good help. Plus, the faster we find the last emerald, the faster we can transfer Iblis and be done with this whole thing."

Amy's eyes widened at the realization that her friend had just given her up by accident.

"'Transfer' Iblis?" Sonic began dubiously. "What are you talking about?"

Rouge clamped her mouth shut, knowing she'd messed up big time. She looked at Amy with apology and panic in her eyes.

"Amy…" Tails sighed. "Maybe you should tell him."

"Maybe you should mind your own business," Amy quipped angrily, just as Tails finished the last stitch and wrapped her shoulder a few times over with a stretch bandage.

"Amy, explain," Sonic demanded.

"It's not important right now," the pink hedgehog hissed. Fed up, Sonic took hold of her good arm and pulled her in the direction of the woods.

"I'll bring her back," he ground out as the two of them disappeared among the trees, Amy looking like she was ready to end him at any second.