Chapter 2- And You Are?
Setting- Tails’ House
Time- Night (Fall)

Tails, Sonic, Amy, Rouge and Cream were at Tails’ house playing Scrabble to see who’d end up having to pay for and ‘all you can eat’ buffet. Tails and Sonic were on Team Blue while Amy and Rouge were on Team Red and Cream was scorekeeper. Team Red was leading 3 to 2 and this was the last game.

It was currently Sonic’s turn, “Okay let’s see…B-l-u-e. Blue!”

Tails followed, “F-l-y. Fly! Your turn Amy.”

Amy studied her tiles for a second before spelling, “P-a-s-s-i-o-n-a-t-e. Passionate!” she smiled at Sonic who gulped in fear.

“Alright, enough flirting lets finish this- Rouge said before being cut off by a loud crash coming from the entrance area.

BAM!

Knuckles came busting into the room yelling incoherently. The sound of things (expensive things) could be heard breaking in his wake. Tails flinched with each item and looked to on the verge of tears, “M…my stuff…”, he whimpered before passing out on the floor.

Sonic looked over at the unconscious fox before poking him curiously with some random stick he’d found. He stopped and looked up at Knuckles who was still running around crazily and cringed when Rouge hit him across the head which seemed to calm him down, “Know, stay still and speak in sentences we can understand!”, she snapped.

“Dang! You didn’t have to hit me so hard, ya know.” He complained while rubbing the back of his head. “Blaze sent a message. She said she was coming to visit for a while in a couple of weeks.”

“Really!” Sonic exclaimed in the hopes of having another sparing match.

“Great.” Amy mumbled sarcastically, “We’re sure to have lot’s of fun.”

“Cheese, did you hear that Miss Blaze is coming to visit us soon!” Cream said happily to the small blue and yellow Chao.

“Chao chao chao chao!” it said while waving its small arms.

“Oh yeah, one more thing!” Knuckles said, getting everyone’s attention, “Blaze said that she’d like to meet all of our friends, so Sonic you go and tell Big; Cream, you go tell your mom; Amy and Rouge, you go tell Shadow and I’ll go tell the Chaotix. Alright!”

There was a chorus of agreement from everyone but Amy and Tails. The latter awoke during the cheer and asked what was happening. Sonic explained what Knuckles had said and helped him to his feet.

Everyone went out the door said their goodbyes and split into their separate groups, going in different directions to their destinations.

{At Shadow's House}
Time- Morning (Early)

Shadow yawned tiredly as he closed the door to his room to an inch and went down the hall to the bathroom. He turned on the shower to fairly hot, took off his shoes and gloves and got in. He stepped in to the spray and let the water rinse most of the blood from his fur. Next he grabbed a bar of soap and rubbed it all over himself, then he began to scrub his arms, legs, stomach, as much of his back as he could reach and especially the white patch of fur on his chest with his nails to get any extra dirt and blood. When he finished he looked like a big soap bubble. As he was about to rinse himself off the doorbell rang interrupting his shower.

Ding Dong!

"Oh God dammit!" Shadow cursed aloud as he turned off the shower and stepped out. He grabbed a towel off a rack, wrapped it around his waist as he stepped out of the bathroom and went downstairs.

He couldn’t believe this. He'd spent the entire night cleaning and bandaging that girl's wounds, not to mention he was blushing half the time because he had to remove her shirt to get at them. He was tired and all he wanted to do was take a shower and go to sleep, "What the hell kind of fucked up person comes knocking on someone's door at 2am?" he grumbled to himself.

He walked into the front room, up to the door and called out angrily, "Who's there!"

A familiar female voice answered "Its us Amy and Rouge! We have something to tell you!"

Shadow made sure the towel was wrapped securely around his waist before he opened the door and glared at the two girls before him, "What do you want?" he asked in irritation. He stared in disbelief as Rouge slipped right past him and took a seat on the couch as though she lived there, "Its like we said, Soggy, we have something to tell you. Oh, and by the way, I like the new look." She replied.

Amy could be heard snickering behind the ebony hedgehog. He turned to face her and watched as she tried to cover up her outburst with a slight cough before she muttered a 'sorry' in embarrassment.

He said nothing as he stepped aside to let her in. She cautiously stepped inside and scurried to the couch and sat next to Rouge. Two watched as Shadow closed the door, locked it and made his way to the stairs.

Rouge was the first to speak, "Where you going, Soggy? Aren't you going to stay and entertain your guests?" she asked in a teasing manner as she crossed one leg over the other and leaned back into the couch. She looked over at Amy who was blushing a beet red before turning to look in Shadow's direction.

Shadow stopped with one foot on the steps. He could feel his quills beginning to rise in anger, a reaction to her taunt, but he forced the feeling back. "I'll be back in about 15-20 mins. Oh, and Rouge, don't touch anything." He said in reply as he continued up the stairs.

Rouge sat patiently on the couch waiting until she heard the sound of running water, then she got up and looked around.

It was a spacey room with white walls and red carpeting. It had 2 large black sofas, one of those giant High Definition TVs, a black DVD case next to a PS3 and DVD player under the TV. In the back of the room he had an impressive collection of guns, swords and ammunition in a glass case.

Amy marveled at all the things Shadow owned and tried to figure out how he got all this stuff while Rouge searched for something else and she found it: Shadow's red Chaos emerald. It was in a small glass compartment next to the gun case. It had a voice analyzer, thumbprint scanner, password pad, and even a weight measurer.

“It’ll take me a bit of work to get you out of there, which I don’t have time for now, but don’t worry, I’ll have you soon.” Rouge sighed as she examined all of the unlocking devices before she rejoined Amy on the couch.

{Two Minutes Later}

“Bored!” Amy said out loud, slightly startling Rouge who replied, “Yeah? And what do you want me to do about it?”

“Well we’ve got at least 10 mins. Left, you wanna sneak upstairs and have a look around?” the pink hedgie asked mischievously as she stood and stretched.

“I think I’m starting to rub off on you, Amy.” the bat replied as she followed her up the stairs quietly.

{Meanwhile with Sonic and Tails}

Sonic and Tails had made it to the edge of a dense forest. They decided to follow a large river that lead into it since Big lived right next to one in the center of the forest. After about 30 mins. of walking they came upon a small hut and farther down the river they saw a large purple figure sitting on the far bank.

"Hey Big!" Sonic called while waving his arms in an effort to get the cat's attention.

"Huh? What?" Big questioned as he stood and reeled in his line. He looked up river and saw Sonic and Tails waving to him. "Oh! Hi, guys!" he called back.

"Come on, Tails." Sonic said as he leapt over the water and walked down to greet their old friend. "We've got some great news for you, Big!"

"Great news?" the cat repeated as he tilted his head to the side in question. "What is it?"

"A friend of ours, Blaze, is coming to visit in two weeks and she wants to meet all of our friends. So we want you to come to Tails' workshop in two weeks to meet her and a lot of other friends. Okay?" the blue blur answered.

"Yeah, okay!" the Maine coon said with a big smile. "I'll be there!"

"Alright! Well, see ya buddy!" Sonic said as he turned to leave. "Don't forget! Two weeks from now, Tails' workshop!" he called one last time before he disappeared into the dense foliage.

"See ya around, Big!" Tails called to the cat before he flew away into the forest after Sonic.

Big walked down river to a better spot, sat down and began to fish again. Soon a green figure could be seen swimming towards him. It jumped out of the water and landed next to him. "Ribbit."

The cat smiled at the small frog. "Guess what Froggy? We're going to meet a new friend soon."

The green frog stared at him with its black expression. "Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.

The purple cat laughed at his friend before returning to his fishing.

{Back at Shadow's House}

Amy and Rouge had snuck up to the bathroom door and they could hear the sounds of running water and movement behind it. Rouge signaled for quiet and she skillfully moved past the door without a sound with Amy right behind her. Rouge was an expert at being stealthy but Amy wasn't doing so well. She bumped into things every now and then, but thankfully the shower's running water was loud enough to cover up the noise.

"Let's check this room first" Amy whispered as she pointed to a black door.

"Alright, but only for a second. I really only want to see Shadow's bedroom." The white bat replied.

The pair snuck up to the door, opened it quietly and slipped inside.

{Meanwhile in Shadow's Bedroom}

Lunair tossed and turned in Shadow's bed. She seemed to be having a nightmare, a bad nightmare. She clutched the sheets tightly in her claws ripping holes into them. She rolled over and grabbed the mattress, her sharp nails tore through the fabric and padding like one would tissue paper.

"Artemis…Artemis…help me", she whimpered as she curled up into a tight ball, pulling the ripped covers out of place.

{Nightmare}

She was standing in a desert and a young boy was lying on the sand in front of her bleeding profusely. He looked up at her, the look in his eyes were pleading for her help. She reached out to him wanting to go help but her legs refused to move.

"Sister…" he uttered with his last breath before going still.

"Nova!!! No!!!" she cried as she fell to her knees. She cried into her hands but stopped immediately when a cruel laugh sounded from behind her. She froze, she knew that laugh but it couldn't be him, she forced herself to turn around and look. It was him, Obsidian, in other words 'pure evil'. She opened her mouth to scream but never got the chance.

He spread his wings and dove at her with a growl, his fangs gleaming in the bright sun…

{End of Nightmare}

Lunair sat up immediately with a scream. "Artemis!!!" She pulled her knees up to her chest and let out a sound close to that of a kitten's 'mewl' as she buried her head in her lap.

{Rouge and Amy}

Artemis!!!

"What was that!?" Amy yelped in surprise as she looked around for the source of the disembodied scream.

"Dunno." Rouge replied as she turned towards the door, away from the piles upon piles of dusty and unused books in the room. "But I think it came from down the hall."

End of Chapter 2