Living in the City

[Amy Rose]

I stopped in front of the others and took a moment to catch my breath. Now that I thought about it, I guess I had left them with the impression that I was going to get someone... which I would have if Tifa hadn't been in the state she was in. With things as they were, she wouldn't be on the move for a while. And I doubted Martin would leave her side for a second. I looked up at the group sheepishly.

"Sorry, I was going to, but she hurt herself lately. I didn't want to ask her for help. At the very least, it looks like my call went through alright. So, what happened?"

I suddenly felt something rubbing at my legs and jumped back. 'What in the...' A cat had found its way into the alley and had been snuggling up against my shoes. I stared at it a moment before bending down and scratching it under its chin. It was purring so loud, I was surprised I hadn't noticed it earlier. My attention returned to the others as I continued to pet the kitten.

[Shadow]

[Three-day rule... that and I don't think there'll be a better time to make my entrance.]

"She may not have found help, but help found her."

Shadow leapt down from his higher rooftop, landing gracefully beside the group. "Pardon my eavedropping, he said, crossing his arms and frowning as usual, "but I saw Amy running down the street in torn and bloody clothes, and my curiosity got the better of me. If anyone would care to fill me in on what happened, I might be interested in helping you. If you need it, of course."

[Tutley Sakamoto]

[Which, works out well for me]

The turtle would shrug and close his eyes, only to hear a rather...familiar voice from up above. Crossing his arms, he would look at the hedgehog as he made a rather... flashy show of jumping from one building to the next. He would humph slightly, not being a fan of being upstaged. "Well, it's nice to see your still kicking...long time no see.", he said greeting the hedgehog with a smirk, tilting his head to the side. "I suppose I'll sum it up."

"Simply put...me, Amy, and Jack were ambushed by some deer and his tanoki "accomplice. We beat the stuffing out of them, but... the deer actually seems to have been under some sort of control...", he trailed off. "I believe me and Jack are going to investigate into this by finding his friend. He might have some clue as to what happened to the buck. The current matter is if either of you are coming along also.", he said with a suggestive smile, pointing out he wanted all the help he could get. This matter did seem far deeper than it looked on the surface, and for all he knew, it could get messey(er) . He would hear a sudden peeling out of tires and lose his train of thought, giving a glance in the general direction of it not actually seeing the vehicle though. "Sheesh, the cops were in a rush to carry them off, wern't they?", he said giving a light chuckle.

[Huu B.]

Huu eyed the officer who'd just incapacitated Chadin, but did not attempt to attack.

Something's off here. This is different from the cops' usual M.O. "Hey, I'm as calm as anyone who's just been tossed into the back of a vehicle and seen his partner get Tased can get. So how long is this joyride gonna last?"

[Decoe and Bocoe]

[Note: to clear up any confusion the GREEN TEXT just represents anything Decoe does in his mind/processor/hardware. I know it’s a confusing writing style but it’s something I’m trying to figure out. ]

The cat didn’t seem to pay too much attention to the others. It seemed more preoccupied with Amy’s petting than anything as it was enjoying the much need attention. But its attention was soon turned as it had remembered why it had followed the pink hedgehog in the first. It moved with a slow grace over to the other side of Amy as it soon took part in clawing at the bag in a playful manner.

“Meeeeooowwwwww~.”

----
So there was some kind of fight with a deer and a…tanoki? What was a tanoki?

Searching for word…

ERROR! WORD NOT FOUND


Well, that was a big help. He was still confused! Oh, well, it wasn’t like it was really any of his business. Sure, it sounded interesting, but it of course he didn’t need to get into any more trouble than he already had. As long as he knew the cat was safe, he would leave and get back to Bocoe before anything else happened.

[Chadin]

"Well, you boys can feel free to look into that Chadin guy if you want, me I have to get back to my kids now. Nice seeing you all again, bye." With that I walked back towards the fire escape and made my way back down to street level. I already started putting that wild situation out of my head by the time I reached the street and found my children still dutifully waiting patiently for me. I'd have to get them a treat to make up for all of this. So preoccupied with switching back to 'Mother Me' I completely failed to notice the glaring absence of a police vehicle. Instead, I just collected my children, promised them some ice cream and headed off down the street.

[In the interests of speeding things along, I'm going have Huu and Chadin leave this topic to the Streets of Station Square topic...]

[Jack-the-Hedgie]

Jack let out a surprised gasp as he heard someone land behind him. He turned around to find... That black hedgehog from two weeks ago? What was he doing here? Tutley didn't seem to care. In fact, he was all too willing to fill the mysterious hedgehog in on what had happened to all of them. Jack gave the turtle a questioning glance, but relented. If Tutley trusted him, Jack may as well convince him to follow. Even if it seemed Shadow wasn't exactly Jacks biggest fan, given their first impressions.

"It wasn't just that he was under some sort of control." Jack said, crossing his arms as he returned his attention to Shadow "It's that he doesn't remember any of it. He had completely lost his memory. I don't know how much of that is true but..." Jack trailed off. He decided not to worry about giving his own reasons for looking into this amnesiacs story. "...well, I don't know if we'll find anything but... You... Want to help us?" Jack said one thing, but his tone asked something else entirely. Namely, it asked if Jack should feel as surprised as he felt about the hedgehog being so willing to come aboard.

[Amy Rose]

[SONIC! Oh, wait... It's just you, Shadow. ;D]

I looked over as I heard someone land lightly beside us and a familiar low, brooding voice.

"Shadow?"

I didn't really have the chance to say much more than that. Tutley, talkative as usual, filled him in on the details. I got the impression that he was more outspoken than me. It wasn't really much of a surprise anymore though. What was more striking was Shadow's sudden appearance. Not in the sense that he did it. It was almost his trademark. More like that he would even bother to be in the big city such as this. With the publicity stunts he had been a part of two years before, it was probably better off for him to be out of grasp of GUN or anyone with a personal vendetta against him. He wasn't exactly Mr. Popular. Even as the story of his sacrifice circulated through the city, I remembered hearing a lot of the customers in Tifa's shop making some not so friendly comments about his death. And now that he was back, if they ever found out... Well, I didn't want to think of what would happen right then.

At the moment though, that wasn't important. What was, well, was that one of the two who had attacked me might have done so unwillingly. I couldn't help but be a little bit unsure. A shot to the arm can make someone hesitate like that. But Tutley and Jack seemed convinced that something was fishy and with being gone so long without hearing the story personally and two out of the three believing that, I guess I could go with it for now. There was a good example of what could happen in such a case standing just a few feet from us.

The kitten I had been giving attention to interrupted my thoughts then with a drawn out mew. Just what did it want? I looked down to spot it pawing the bag I had picked up. I looked inside it briefly to see why it would be so interested and that's when I saw an open packet of shrimp crackers I had left there a long time ago. I pulled one out and held it towards the kitten with a sideways smile.

"The more help we can get, the better, right? Cutter didn't really leave us with a lot to go by anyway. She sure was in a hurry to leave... but I guess with her kids, it can't be helped... We'll figure something out though!"

[Shadow]

Shadow listened to what the three had to say in silence, then nodded. "I see... he lost his memory and attacked you... that's certainly not unheard-of," the black hedgehog mused dryly, thoughts of his own false memories and actions two years ago in the forefront of his mind. He shrugged. "It's certainly an interesting situation. I'll come with you, then. At the very least it's something to do." Something substantially better than knocking on GUN's front door on a wild goose chase, he thought to himself.

"So, I'm assuming we have some idea where this friend of his is?" Because the last thing I need is another wild goose chace, Shadow thought grimly with a slight grimace.

[Decoe and Bocoe]

( Gah, this is practically skipping. >> I’m not posting as Decoe for the reason that he’s pretty much just listening in and such. )


The little cat sniffed it shortly, before biting into the cracker. It nibbled on it happily, purring softly in content.