Shadeam - Path to Chaos ch5

"Have no fear! Amy Rose is here!"

The pink hedgehog strutted through the door of Tails' house, and was met with rather less applause than she'd like. Sonic was fast asleep on the couch and Tails was hunched over his workbench.

"Well, 'hello' to you too!" she scowled.

"Huh?" mumbled Tails, apparently noticing her for the first time. "Oh... Hi, Amy."

"One down," she muttered, grinning as she knelt down by Sonic's ear. "HIYA SONIC!"

"ARGH!"

Amy laughed her head off as Sonic ran around the room like a headless chicken. It went on like this for another 20 seconds before he finally realised where he was and began to glare at Amy. "You have got to stop doing that!"

"Sorry, it's just too fun to miss!" she giggled, sidling a little closer to him. "So... Little Planet's back, huh? Bring back any sweet memories?"

Sonic groaned. "You mean chasing Eggman around a continent-sized planet whilst travelling through time and getting pounded by robots? Yeah, real sweet..."

"Hmph! I meant the bit where you saved my life and we fell in love with each other forever!"

"Can you guys keep it down?" moaned Tails. "I've got a headache..."

Sonic gave a short laugh. "That's probably 'cos you haven't slept! You're not gonna get any work done if you don't get yourself some shuteye!"

"Sorry, Tails!" Amy frowned. "I'm just trying to entertain myself until Cream gets here. Oh yeah! How did things go last night?"

The fox sighed. "You'll find out soon enough."

"Apparently, Egghead was involved," said Sonic, "That's all I can get out of him."

"Aw, come on Tails!" she beamed. "You can tell me, right?"

"I'll warn you," he said, swinging back on his chair, "She might not be so fond of you guys anymore."

"She's right here," said a voice behind them. Amy and Sonic turned around to find Cream staring at them. Tails didn't even bother.

"Uh, hi Cream!" said Amy, nervously. "Time to go shopping, huh?"

"Sure," she replied, staring fixedly at Tails, her expression frighteningly hard to read. "Hopefully you guys can manage without your mascot for a while."

With that, she left, Amy following awkwardly.

Sonic turned inquisitively to Tails. "Mascot...?"

Tails facedesked.


"How about this one?" she asked, striking a pose in yet another outfit.

Cream simply stared at her. She had hardly said a thing since they'd arrived at the mall.

"Oh, come on, Cream!" she whined. "What's the problem?"

The rabbit sighed. "Well, this is you: 'Hey Cream! Wanna come and watch me shop for clothes so you can shower me with praise? Of course you do! Ooh, I think I look fabulous in this outfit, don't you? Me, me, me!'" she finished, striking a pose identical to Amy's. "Now, how about I try something on?"

Amy gaped at her, completely speechless. Just what had Tails done to her?

Apparently taking the silence as an agreement, Cream pushed past her into the changing room with a random selection of clothes. Amy leant against the wall, still in her outfit. Clearly, Cream's mood was going to continue unless she did something about it.

"Hey, Cream…" she began, still trying to decide what to say next, "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Oh, sure," replied Cream, in the same tone as before, "I can tell you anything. That doesn't mean you'll actually listen."

Amy sighed, leaning closer towards the changing room. "What happened with Tails last night?"

There were about ten seconds of silence, before Cream finally responded. "I… asked Tails if he thought I was underappreciated."

"He didn't say you were, did he?" she gasped.

"He said something about me cheering people up by existing, or something along those lines. Basically, I'm just a mascot."

So that's what this is all about, she thought. "Cream, you totally took that the wrong way! You know as well as I do that Tails doesn't think of you as a mascot; else why would he ask you out? I've always wished I could have your life for a day – everyone loves you because you're so happy all the time!"

"Shows how much you know about me," replied the girl behind the curtain.

Amy groaned. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I was a little selfish today, and I'm sorry, but we're friends! We can just forget about stuff like that, right?" A grin broke out on her face. "Now, how about you smile for a change? I haven't seen you happy all day!"

Silence was her response. "Cream? Are you alright in there?"

Amy carefully pulled back the curtain to the changing room, only to find a pile of clothes roughly stacked on the bench. Immediately, she panicked. Vanilla would kill her! "Cream! Where the heck are you?"

She dashed out into the main store, her eyes scanning the aisles for any sign of the 8 year old. "Come back, Cream! This isn't funny, you hear?"

She suddenly felt something pulling on her skirt. She spun around in the hope that it was Cream, but she was surprised to find Cheese floating in mid-air.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, panicked and bewildered, "I thought you were at home with Cream's mom?"

"Chao chao!" Cheese exclaimed, shaking his head. "Chao! Chao, chao chao!"

"Cheese, how many times do I have to tell you?" she moaned, "I don't speak chao!"

After a brief facepalm, Cheese proceeded in what could only be described as chao charades. He was zipping all over the place, shouting the occasional "Chao!" when he stopped. Amy was pretty sure she saw a muscle-man pose at some point.

Blinking, she reached into her handbag and pulled out her notebook. "Do you think you'd be better at Pictionary?"

Scowling, the hero chao forcefully grabbed the pencil and proved to be quite the artist. He drew a pretty good impression of Cream picking flowers, followed by what was probably a chaos emerald in her hands. After that, he turned the page and left one blank before he continued onto the next one.

"Hey! What are you leaving a page out for?" exclaimed Amy. "That's my notebook, you know!"

"Chao!" muttered Cheese, which was likely the chao equivalent of "Hmph!" He then held his hand... the end of his arm out in front of him and shouted "Chao... CHAO!"

The response to this was a bewildered stare from Amy. "Chao... CHAO!" he repeated, turning back to the first page and pointing at his drawing of Cream with an emerald in her hands.

"You're gonna have to make it a little more clear, Cheese," Amy laughed nervously.

If Cheese had hair – or longer arms, for that matter – he would be pulling it out now. Appearing to abandon the idea, he pointed to himself. "Chao!" he said simply. After a look of hesitant recognition from Amy, he went back to the third page and drew a large "S" shape. He then looked at Amy with an almost begging look.

"Cheeses?" said Amy, hopelessly.

"Chao!" he screamed. "Chao! Chao!"

"Okay, I get it! Chao!" said Amy, flustered. "Um, chao plus S... Chaos?"

The little chao breathed a sigh of relief. "Chao... CHAO!"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, finally understanding the meaning behind the blank page. "You must mean Chaos Control! But, wait... how could Cream do something like that? I thought that was just Shadow and Sonic?"

Cheese shrugged, and went back to drawing. This time, he drew a stick figure followed by an egg shape, which was a hint at "Eggman" if she ever saw one. He drew Cream again, this time being grabbed by some sort of mechanical arm. "Chao… CHAO!" he shouted again, crossing out the picture of Cream being grabbed by Eggman and drawing her alone at the bottom of the page. Shrugging, he handed the notebook back to Amy, who leafed through it.

"So," she began, trying to understand the chao's sketches. "Cream was picking flowers when she found a chaos emerald, and for some reason she decided to use Chaos Control – God knows how she did it. Then, presumably during her date with Tails, she got captured by Eggman but used Chaos Control to escape. And that's all you know?"

Cheese nodded solemnly.

"So, that means she must have used it to teleport out of the changing room when I wasn't looking, I guess. But why is she so mad at us? She told me about the whole 'mascot' thing, but I don't see where it's coming from…"

Snatching the notebook back, Cheese made a quick drawing of what appeared to be Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge and Shadow charging towards Eggman. Underneath this, he drew a chibi version of Cream with a tear in her eye, along with a little storm cloud over her head which he added almost like an afterthought.

"She feels left out because we don't bring her with us when we fight Eggman?" pondered the pink hedgehog. "Poor girl… and she must want to use Chaos Control to help out."

Flying up to eye level, Cheese made a pleading expression, complete with puppy dog eyes.

Amy smiled. "Don't worry, Cheese! Now that I know what's wrong, I know I can fix this!"


"You said WHAT?"

Tails hung his head. "Well, it seemed like a good thing to say at the time! Besides, I was under pressure; I'm still new to this whole relationship thing."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "You really don't understand women, do you?"

"What, and you do?" retorted Tails. "You still haven't made up your mind about Amy! How many years do you need?"

"Yeah, whatever," said Sonic, dismissively. "Don't worry – I'll take care of this for ya."

The twin-tailed mechanic was surprised at this. "How?"

The headstrong hero tapped his nose. "I've got somethin' that'll make her feel appreciated!"

"Wait" Tails called as the hedgehog sped off in a blue blur. "There's something else I need to..." By this point, there was no sign of Sonic other than a trail of disturbed ground in the distance. "Fine," he sighed, "Don't come crying to me..."