THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE!!!: Stretching the Band

    For the next event, with only a mere 10 ½ hours to spare, Rouge guided the gang over to another tree-less clearing. And yet again, everything was already mysteriously set up and ready to go. “Allright, boys, this may be a tough one!” she addressed with a frivolous grin. “Hey!” Knuckles interrupted. “I didn’t even get to choose my card, yet!” Rouge gave him a weary expression, then she grinned. “I know, but you don’t have to, since there’s only one card left for Strength! Bu~~~ut…” she playfully mused, waving the card in front of him, “unless you want to Knucklehead, then be my guest…!” “And I do!” he replied and took the card from her. As he did, he leaned closer to her and whispered “I’d also like you to join me for dinner…” “Uhh…” Rouge made a face that crossed both a grimace and shock.”…Sure…” she responded sarcastically. Knuckles’ face brightened. “You mean it?” “…No…” she answered skeptically. “Anyway, let’s keep this going. What’s your card say?” Looking it over, Knuckles squinted then raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong?” “Just trying to read this… it says… ‘pnab a4j  6ul4 …’ Huh?! That can’t be right!” Tapping her foot impatiently, Amy was the one to speak up. “That’s because you’ve probably got it turned upside down!!!” Surprised by her sudden straightforwardness, Sonic whistled and nudged Amy in the arm with his elbow. “Hey hey! What’s gotten into you?” Amy sighed and crossed her arms. “I’m just so tired of waiting!” “Eh?” “Let’s just get this over with so I can go out with you already!” Sonic broke out in cold sweat and he nervously rubbed the back of his head. “Just what makes you so sure that I’m gonna lose this Amy?” Smiling darkly, she turned to him—her eyes flashing. “Because, Sonic, we were MADE for EACHOTHER!” she chirped, lunging at him and grabbing him around the neck. “Ugh! Amy!!” he cried, trying to pry her off of him, but he knew it wouldn’t be any use. Sulking, he looked up to find everyone’s gazes on them and he instantly started to sweat. “He-hey, what are you looking at me for?” he shrugged, then looked outward towards the horizon pioneer style. “It’s such a beeeeautiful day!!” “Uh huh” Rouge commented with a small and playful smile and Shadow chuckled. “How I do not envy you…” Hearing this, Sonic pretended to sulk and pouted. “Aww why not? Finally realized I’m too good for you to match?” Shadow glanced to Amy then smirked to Sonic. “No. But ‘If you’ve got girl problems, I feel bad for you son. ‘ “ “ ‘I got 99 problems!’ “ Tails joyfully joined in. “ ‘BUT A &#%@# AIN’T ONE!! HIT ME!’ ” Knuckles finished with a roar---only to get smacked in the face by Rouge. “OW! Why’d you--!” “You said to hit you!” She joked, smiling. She just couldn’t pass that one up. Shadow laughed, and she glanced to him. “Shadow, I never knew you got into hip-hop or rap!” He smirked. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Rouge…” he said in such a way that BOTH Amy and Rouge to blush. “Wow!!” Amy exclaimed, releasing Sonic from her vice grip. “Sonic, you need to be more smooth like Shadow!!” Sonic blinked and peered down at her. “ WHAT! Or else what!? You’re gonna ‘leave me’ for him like you almost did with Knuckles?” He chuckled, tossing a glance the echidna’s way. Briskly, Amy shook her head. “No way! Are you NUTS? Besides Shadow is way too moody for me. I can’t have angsty relationship issues!! My coat would turn white!!” Stifling a laugh, Rouge dared a look at Shadow, who said nothing, but slowly shook his head with a smirk. “ ‘No more drama in my life, I don’t ever wanna hurt agaiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIn!! No more!’ ‘ No…MORE…DRAMA! I’m tired of alll the drama!!! No more… NO MORE!’ “ All eyes darted to Tails, who had just burst out into song. “ ‘No more Dramaaa in my…in my..! Liiiii~~~ii~~~ii~~iii~~ii~~~fe. So tired..’ “ “Yes…PLEASE stop that racket!” Amy complained, wrinkling her nose at Tails. “And you exaggerated too much!” Scrunching back meekly, Tails slightly cowered as if he did something wrong and shrugged. “Hey, you said your coat would turn white if you were with Shadow. That meant there would be a lot of drama, right?” Then Tails started to sing again… “ ‘I knoooooow you see it…’ “ “OKAY! That’s enough!” Rouge shouted, covering Tails’ mouth. Looking down at him wriggle she shook her head in disbelief. “And just WHERE did you pick up on a song like THAT?” Wiggling his face from behind her hand, Tails managed to squeak: “Soni—“ “SHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” Sonic shushed, overreacting. “You’re not supposed to tell anyone that!” “But you told me I should be proud about…” “SHH Tails!! We can talk about it later” Recoiling, he sulked. “Okay…” Watching them both, Amy and Rouge, shook their heads while Knuckles and Shadow chuckled. Although, Knuckles’ sounded more like a growl. He snuck a sneering glance Shadow’s way then “hmph”ed. And Shadow did the same and walked away from him. Rouge watched him with a faint smile, then returned her attention back to Knuckles. “Okay what’s the card say?” she asked, and to prevent him from reading upside down again, Rouge snatched it out his mitts and handed back to him right-side up. Blinking at what just took place, Knuckles brought the card close to his eyes and read. “Stretching the Band? What?” “Thaaat’s right!” Rouge chirped. An unsettling silence dropped on all of them, including Tails, who raised his hand.  “Um Miss Rouge, exactly whose band are we stretching? Amy’s or yours?” Another hush fell over them as angry glares from the females and surprised and questionable gazes from the guys darted to Tails instantly. “Yikes!” he cried and jumped back. “Why is everyone staring at me like that?!” “Arrrgh! I can’t take it anymore!!” Amy complained blatantly. She pointed an accusing finger at Tails. “YOU KNOW exactly what it is you’re saying!!! You can’t fool us!” “Wh-what?” Tails squeaked in a shy voice, obviously confused. B-but, don’t girls wear bands in their hair? Sometimes they use rubber bands too, right?” “You LIAR! That’s NOT what you were referring to!” “Amy! Amy…take it easy on ‘im, allright?” Sonic consoled, placing his hands on Amy’s shoulders. “Really, calm down. I’m positive that Tails didn’t realize the double meaning of what he said. “Yeah right!” Amy scoffed and flicked a hand through her bangs in frustration. “Anybody who listens to Young Joc can NOT be innocent!!!” Knuckles shrugged with a toothy grin. “She’s got a point there!” “Shh!” Sonic shushed “I-It depends on which version you’re listening too! The dirty version or the edited version!” “That doesn’t matter Sonic!!” Amy threw back at him. “Allright, fine, it doesn’t matter which version he listens too!” Shadow clarified, speaking up. Then he smirked. “What matters is that Sonic’s to blame!” “Yeah!” Knuckles chimed in as Amy pushed Sonic on the shoulder. “That’s right!” “Hey whoa, hold on there!!” Sonic began, holding up his hands in caution while backing away from them. “We can talk this out! One at a time now!” But the glares and sneers he received told him otherwise! Glancing over to Rouge for help, she frowned and unraveled her wings to their full size. And with a mighty flap, she created a gust so powerful that it blew all three of Sonic’s momentary nemesises away from him and would have sent them back a few yards, if they weren’t as agile as they were and landed a few feet from where Tails stood. “What was THAT for!?” Amy yelled at Rouge, who simply folded her wings back behind her and rolled her shoulders. “For reminding you that we have an event to start! THEN after it’s done with you can beat Sonic up or whatever!” “Whew!” Sonic breathed. Then he winked to Rouge and gave her a thumbs up. “Thanks, Rouge! I owe ya one.” Both Shadow and Amy narrowed their eyes at this. Amy glared at Sonic while Shadow eyed Rouge, while dusting his coat and tuft of fur off from getting tossed into the air as well. Knuckles, on the other hand, was grinning like crazy instead of seeming upset. Noticing it, Rouge blinked and was about to ask, when Sonic beat her to it. “Hey Knuckles!” he called, cupping his hands over his mouth to further distance his voice. “Now you can say that Rouge blew you!” “I know that!” Knuckles shouted back, his grin growing into a beam. Greatly annoyed, Shadow tossed a glare at Knuckles who tauntingly shook a fist at him. “Ahhh haa!” he teased. Shadow simply rolled his eyes and walked over to the giant rubberbands they would be using, and crossed his arms. Looking over to Rouge, he gave her an expectant look and she mouthed “I’ll talk to you later” back to him. Clearing her throat, Rouge walked passed the majority of them and held up her hand. “Allright listen up! Here are the rules of the event!” she announced. “You have 30 seconds to push the band as far out as you can, then 30 more to pull it back as far as you can. You will be scored on distance. Now, there will be two of you doing this at a time, so that you can be observed more closely. “ She glanced over their expressions, to see if they were keeping with her so far and looked to Amy. “Amy and I will be the observers.” “What?” Amy inquired, her voice going up a few pitches. “Oh well I don’t care! As long as I’ll be able to watch Sonic closely!” she added with a sweet and dreamy smile and clasped her hands together. Sonic sighed and mumbled something under his breath that nobody caught…thankfully. Continuing on, Rouge stepped over to one of the giant rubber bands, that had either side tied to two stainless steel poles, burrowed deep in the ground. So each set up leveled about around they guy’s waistlines. “Now, before we get started, does anyone object to this? Knuckles?” she asked him first because he was the one who got this event and had to initiate it. “Yep” he grinned, cracking his smaller knuckles. “Okay” Rouge nodded and got her notepad ready. “How about the rest of you?” Glancing around to everyone, Sonic shrugged then nodded. “Sure, I’m in!” Tails agreed and Shadow simply “hmph”ed with a smirk. “Then it’s settled! Allright!! First up are Knuckles and Sonic! Come on down boys!” Hearing their names, they both headed towards a band each, but with Knuckles moving with a little more enthusiasm than Sonic. “Wha?” Sonic wondered, watching the echidna pass by him. Standing at the ready, Rouge stood to the side of Knuckle’s set while Amy followed suit with Sonic’s. “On my command…On your marks! Get set!—Ah—ACHOO!! Whew. Bless me… GO!!!” At her declare, Knuckles and Sonic both rammed into the bands, giving their all to push them forward. “Come on, Sonic! You can do it!” Amy cheered, jumping up and down with her hands in taut fists. “Stretch that band, and push it hard!! HARDER!! Go FASTER, Sonic! You’re almost there!!!” Trying not to get distracted by her words, Sonic broke out in cold sweat and tried to stay focused. “Stop… cheering…Amy…!” “What!?” Amy questioned with wide eyes. Then her brow furrowed and she brought her fists to her hips. “So, you’re saying you can’t push hard enough? Not even for me? Be a man Sonic! GO ALL THE WAY!” “Amy!!!” he shouted, the annoyance clear in his voice. Not able to help but hear them, Knuckles chuckled, holding back a laugh and pushed the band all the way out, as far as it could go before the poles started to get pulled up out the ground. “Okay, and STOP! Time’s up!” Rouge called. Jotting down scores for them, Rouge glanced to Knuckles. “Good job…” Knuckles and the others, except for Shadow, gasped. “Whoa, did Rouge just give Knuckles a COMPLIMENT?” Sonic shouted in bewilderment. “And MEAN it?!!” Amy added, with a shocked expression. “Wow!” Tails chimed in. “It must be your lucky day, Knuckles!” “GYYAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!” Knuckles guffawed heartily with his fists on his haunches. “I sure hope so!” Rouge scoffed, as did Shadow, and she looked over to Sonic. “You did pretty allright Sonic!” she called with a small smile “Especially from the things Amy was throwing at you. “ “I KNOW!!” Sonic exclaimed. “Whew!!” Amy giggled innocently and Tails just looked at her with a puzzled expression. “All she did was tell Sonic to go harder and faster. What’s so bad about being hard and fast? There’s even a song about that!” Silence. “Okay, Ignorriiing yooouu!” Amy declared in a sing-song voice and turned away from Tails so he wouldn’t even be anywhere near her line of vision. “A-anyway, we’ve got the next part to start. Gentlemen, prepare to pull it out!” Rouge announced, referring to the giant rubberbands. Both Sonic and Knuckles shared boyish chuckles and snickers as they grabbed onto the bands. “On your mark! Get set! GO!!!” At Rouge’s call, the two teens struggled with pulling the bands towards themselves this time and made many grunts apiece. Staring blankly at them, both Rouge and Amy raised their brows and exchanged glances at the way they sounded. Shadow burst out laughing, which seemed almost extremely out of character for him at this moment. Alarmed, Rouge tossed her attention to him and he returned his eyes to hers. “If only they could hear themselves!” Shadow commented with a dark and toothy grin. “This would be perfect blackmail material!” Rouge sighed and smiled faintly. “Yes, I know. But they haven’t done anything to get blackmailed…yet. So I guess we ought to let them slide this time!” “I like the way you think!” he replied. As they both continued to eye the other, a shout from Amy tore them out of their trances. “SONIIIC!!!!” she groused, annoyed. “You’re PULLING on it TOO MUCH!” “I think I know how it works, Amy!” he shouted back through the pressure. “I swear!” Amy huffed, crossing her arms across her chest and frowning. “I never knew you could be so rough! Even Knuckles is being gentle, compared to what you’re doing!” Neither of them, except Tails, knew if that was Amy’s idea of encouragement or something else. “That’s not cool, Amy!” Tails spoke up. “Oh Gawd, what is it now?” she grimaced. “Sonic is doing the best he can! It’s not like you can help him do all that pulling! That’s a man’s job!” “No, actually a man’s job is pushing…” Shadow mumbled under his breath and Rouge’s ears picked up on it immediately and stared at him. “What? It’s true.” “How…straightforward…!” Shadow shrugged and returned his attention back to the youngsters before them. “Yeah well, Sonic was doing a much better job at pushing than he is now!” Amy grumbled. “Maybe pulling just takes a lot out of him. It does sound more painful you know…” Tails shrugged. Gritting his teeth while trying to pull the band as far back as he could AND block out what the two of them were saying, Sonic HAD to say something! “Could…you…two…stop talking…PLEASE?!!” A throaty chuckle rose from Knuckles as he pulled the band nearly 3 times as far back as Sonic did. But Sonic was catching up! Checking her watch, Rouge counted 13 more seconds, then threw a hand up. “Allright! Time’s up!!!” With a whoosh of air, Sonic let the band go and fell on his backside, catching his breath. Knuckles on the other hand, casually let the band out his grasp and wiped the imaginary sweat from his brow. “Wow.” He laughed, then lead a dark glare towards Shadow. “Didn’t even break a sweat…!” Shadow frowned. “Hey, that’s MY line!” “I know!” Knuckles grinned threateningly. “Why do you think I said it!” Shadow’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “How dare you mock me! It doesn’t even sound cool when you do it! Don’t you ever take and use one of my phrases ever again!” “Haha!” Knuckles jeered “Beat me in this even and maybe I’ll think about it, faker!” “Dang, Knux!” Sonic commented. “Them’s fightin’ words!” he added, glancing to Shadow, who wasn’t taking this too well. Trying not to let their bickering get to her, Rouge simply sighed and flipped a page in her notepad. Clicking down the top of her pen, Rouge jotted down numbers for them both. Sonic got a 4 and Knuckles got a 5. In the previous part, Sonic received a 3 and Knuckles got another 5. So altogether, for this event, Sonic received a 7 while Knuckles got a whopping 10. “Allright, you two can go.” Rouge directed, pointing to both Sonic and Knuckles with two fingers. “What? Go? We didn’t even hear our scores, yet!” Knuckles complained. Rouge sighed. “Fine. You got another 5 and Sonic got a 3.” “Another 5? Oh YEAH!!!!! I got a 10!!! Whoo! Beat THAT, hedgehog!” Knuckles sneered, passing Shadow. Shadow swore that if Rouge, Amy or Tails hadn’t been around he would have knocked that echidna senseless for mocking and threatening him in such ways! “You’re lucky that Rouge and children are present, echidna…” he muttered, then glid off towards one of the giant rubberbands. Watching him, Rouge called Tails up and told him to go towards the other rubberband. Not taking her eyes off Shadow, she called Amy back too. Rouge stood near Shadow’s set while Amy, disgustedly, stood near Tails’. The two exchanged irritated and annoyed glances with the other, then both looked towards Rouge as if to say they were ready. Rouge looked to Shadow and noted that he had his arms crossed and was staring off into space. The thought crossed her mind to ask him if he were allright, but she decided against that and just raised her hand. “On your mark! Get set! GO!!” Immediately, Shadow and Tails pushed through the bands with all their might. Because of Tails’ height, he had to work twice as hard since the band’s height matched the same level as the bangs on his head and stood on his tippy-toes. Shadow used the glowing power from his air shoes to enable him to propel faster and further into the band. “Wow.” Amy spoke, obviously impressed and surprised by Shadow’s display. “He’s really strong!” “Is he ever” Rouge commented, enthralled. “Go Shadow!” Amy cheered, throwing a fist into the air. “Work that body!!” Rouge threw a glare Amy’s way at this, which she ignored and kept rooting for the dark hedgehog. “Keep on pushing that body, Shadow!” “Now hold on!” Rouge began, raising her voice, “Amy, you stay on your side!!! Root for Tails!” Amy laughed and turned her nose up at him. “As IF. I’m not cheering on that PERVERT!” “I’m not a pervert Amy!” Tails whined, struggling with the band. “I’m not 16!” “HEY!” Knuckles roared, taking offense. Sonic laughed, and nudged Knuckles in the shoulder. “He’s got a point there!” Growling, Knuckles broke out in cold sweat. Yet, he couldn’t deny it! Watching them make jokes, Amy crossed her arms, the brought her attention back to Shadow. “WORK IT, SHADOW!!” Shadow couldn’t help but smirk as he heard her, but secretly wondered what Rouge would say, if anything. Tapping her foot while she waited for time to be up, Rouge checked her watch and was thankful 30 seconds was almost up so Amy’s vocals could cease in grating her ears. “Okay, time’s up!!!” Rouge called and both Shadow and Tails stopped. Jotting down some numbers in her notepad, Rouge smiled. “Good try, Fox Boy, but maybe the next part would be more beneficial for you.” Trailing her eyes over to Shadow, who stood there with an expectant expression of how he did, Rouge’s expression softened and she gladly wrote down a number for him. “Great Shadow.” she warmly smiled, glancing back up at him. The two stood in each other’s gazes yet again, neither one daring to make a move or say a word. Noticing it was becoming unusually quiet, Amy stepped over to Shadow and waved her hand in front of his face. “Uh Shadow?” “Man, is he love-struck!” Sonic commented from a distance. And to this Knuckles made a disgusted face. “Yeah, well let him be. I’m gonna impress Rouge so good it’ll make both their heads spin!” Unconvinced, Sonic slipped Knuckles a look of disbelief. “Funny, I somehow doubt that…” he mumbled. “What’d you say?” “Nothing! Nothing that’ll interest you…” he continued with a mild smirk. “Hmph...!” Knuckles scoffed, letting Sonic’s previous comment slide. “I’ll let that one go this time!” Sonic smiled nervously at his friend and chuckled. “Why Knuckles, whatever do you mean?” Sighing, Knuckles rolled his eyes walked away from Sonic. “Whew!” Sonic exhaled. Coming out of her daydream, Rouge peered down at her notepad---- and realized she had aimlessly doodled scribbles of Shadow’s name all over the page. Feeling her face warm up profusely, Rouge quickly flipped to the next page in her notepad and rewrote the scores and then added Shadow’s again. “Um, Shadow?” “Yeah?” he asked with a suave tone in his voice. Rouge bit her lip, then cleared her throat. “You got a 4.” He smiled faintly. “Okay.” “Okay…” “Ahem! Can we please move ON!?” Knuckles vociferated, stepping between them. “Rouge, don’t you have a milkshake to win…with me?” he grinned, pointing to himself with his thumb. Rouge paused and lowered her eyes to him. Then she sighed. “Oh, just calm down! You don’t even know what your total score is!” “Ooh, could you tell us?” Tails jumped in, full of curiosity. “Yes, yes! But only AFTER this event is finished! Now, the two of you get ready!” Shadow and Tails got ready instantaneously. “Ready? On your mark! Get set! GO!!!!” And in that very second, both contestants grabbed the giant rubber bands and pulled with all they could. It didn’t take long for Shadow to make it in the lead. Tails did his best to keep up, but he was a good little distance away from Shadow. In anticipation to do much better this time, he spun his Tails behind him like a helicopter rotor and pulled his little body even further back. Moments later, Shadow’s grip tightened , as did his pace, and before long, he pulled the entire set out the ground. “Okay stop!!” Rouge called and quickly jotted down their numbers. “That’s enough! You guys did it!!” Skidding to a halt, Shadow turned and skated over to Rouge. “Sorry Rouge…” “Huh?” Shadow smirked while holding up the nearly deflated rubberband with the bars still attached to it. “Sorry…I stretched your band…” he grinned darkly. Rouge felt her face warm up in no time flat. Nervously, she took the set from him and tossed it down beside her. “Thanks, Shadow.” “My pleasure…” A nervous air drifted between them, but Rouge smiled and it dissipated. ‘Whew, she’s not offended. ‘ Shadow thought with relief. Flashing Shadow another bright and bashful smile, Rouge altered her attention to the rest of the group, overlooking Knuckles’ scowling expression. “Allright you guys, listen up!! Here are your scores for this event! Sonic, you know you have a 7, Knuckles you’re aware that you have a 10” “Yes!!” he grinned, eyeing Shadow. Shadow simply scoffed with a smirk. “Shadow… you had a 4 for the first part, and a 5 for the last. So your total for this event is a 9. Tails, got received a 2, and this time, he got a 3. So Tails your total is a 5.” Hearing the scores, Knuckles sneered a dark chuckle in Shadow’s direction.  “Ha! Looks like I beat you after all!!! So I get to bother you as much as I want! You FAKER!” “Hey!” Sonic assessed. “I could take offense to that too, ya know!” “Stuff it Sonic! You know what I mean!” “Ahem!” Rouge interrupted with a sly smile. “You didn’t give me a chance to finish! I still have the total scores to announce!” Putting their disputes aside, Shadow, Knuckles, Sonic, along with Amy and Tails gave Rouge their full attention. Smiling mischievously like she was upto something, or going to give someone a shock from reading the scores, Rouge tallied up the scores and read them out. “Allright, listen up! I’ll say Knuckles’ first.” Knuckles grinned, rolled out his arms and flexed his muscles. “Knuckles, your total score is a 29.” Amy, Sonic and Tails all clapped for him and he gratefully accepted his accolades. Shadow adverted his eyes. He knew he’d toss another snide glare his way. “Sonic, your total score is...23!” More claps ensued as Sonic took a bow. “Thank you! Thank you! I’m here until…whenever this crazy game ends!” Rouge half-smiled, and kept going. “Fox-Boy, your total is 26! Not bad!” All of them clapped for Tails, including Shadow...even though they were 3 slow claps. He didn’t mean to be disrespectful, but he wanted to find out what his total score was. He didn’t have to wait long. “Shadow… … your score… is … 32!!” An ascension of ‘wow’s and ‘cool’s arose as all of them, save for Knuckles, clapped for Shadow. Sonic even whopped. “Yeah! That’s what I call impressing yo’ lady!” Shadow’s eyes darted to Sonic’s at his last two words and he blushed. “Y-yeah...” he uttered, then lifted his voice so that all of them could hear him. “Only the highest score is suitable for an ultimate being like me…” Having to admit, she’s heard his “I’m the Ultimate” this and “I’m the Ultimate” that one too MANY times now and frankly, he needed to get a new catchphrase. “Anyone could have gotten that score, Shadow” Rouge mentioned, glancing to him truthfully. “But no one could do it in the sexy way you did.” Sonic and Amy both looked at each other and went “Ahhhhhh!” in ascending tones, sounding as if they were in elementary school. Tails smiled faintly for Rouge, while Knuckles stared at her in shock. Rouge, was in shock herself as she quickly covered her mouth and looked up at Shadow. He smiled back. “Um...anyway, uh…The strength events are over for now. They may make a return, if we have enough time in a special event. Allright, now that’s finished, we can all head back into the workshop now to find out with our next event will be.” She glanced at her watch “And keep in mind that we’ve got nearly 9 hours left before that parlor closes! If push comes to shove, we may have to cut some events short! I want to get there and be able to ENJOY that milkshake! Allright?” Everyone agreed and followed Rouge back towards Tails’ workshop. Knuckles kept his attention in front of him, thinking to himself, while Sonic and Amy shared snickers about Shadow and Rouge. Shadow paced himself calmly behind Sonic and Rouge, keeping his eyes on her as she walked. A small smile inched his lips. Tails happily bounded after them in short hops. As they made it to the door, Rouge opened it for them and glanced at them as they walked by. Meeting eyes with Shadow, she smiled and walked in with him. Seconds later, she popped her head out the door looking for Tails. “Hey!” he shouted, peering down into the field of the Mystic Ruins that still had all the equipment strewn about from all their strength events “Who’s gonna clean all this up?!” Smirking, Rouge walked over to him, grabbed Tails by the scruff of his neck and tossed him into the workshop, and closed the door behind her.     -   Wow this one was so much BETTER! Songs mentioned in this chapter:   99 Problems- Jay Z No More Drama- Mary  J Blige I Know You See It (Dirty Version) – Young Joc   “pnab a4j  6ul4” is part of “band the gnih “ in stretching the band, the name of the event  upside down. ^^   -   Mel