Early in the morning, Sonic dashes to Club Rouge and drops Tails off so he can fix Rouge`s karaoke machine which got busted up from Sonic throwing Metal Sonic into it the night before. After doing that, Sonic takes off to go who knows where and do who knows what. In the meantime, Rouge helps Tails take the machine to the back so he can work on it in peace. Then Rouge goes back out to the front part of the club to get everything ready for tonight. It`s a Saturday night so the place will be very busy.

Back at the condo building, Maria has taken her medicine for the day and had breakfast as well as her bath. She is standing on the small deck that the condo has. Her back is to the railing as she leans against it, her hands gripping the edge of the railing to maintain balance and ensure that she won`t fall. She`s looking over her shoulder to the buildings and other items in the scenery that is outside. She takes a deep breath, slowly. Today, her attire is a long skirt, one that is just above her knees. Her shirt is of one that looks like a mock-corset; it has the ties along the front from bottom to top which can actually be totally undone but it does not constrict her like a real corset does. She still wears her medical bracelet as she needs to all the time.

Shadow steps out the sliding door that allows him access to the deck. Seeing Shadow come out, Maria turns her attention to Shadow. She still bears a gentle smile. She must have forgiven him for pulling out a gun last night. Shadow pauses a moment, looking to Maria. He finds himself thinking of how she looks so wonderful in that outfit and is glad to find that she likes it.

She is quite beautiful...

Shadow then steps up to the railing of the balcony, standing beside Maria. But unlike her, he is facing the scenery. He sets his forearms down on top of the railing, crossing them over one another, allowing him to lean against the railing. He turns his head to look to Maria, who is looking back at him. He would like to do something different with her. Since she never got to experience cars before, perhaps he could give her a ride around? He can`t access his car on the spot right now, it`s with GUN at the moment. But his bike is easily accessible and would serve just as good. Maybe she would like it better than a car? Shadow then asks Maria,"Would you like to go for a ride? On my motorcycle?"

Though Maria knows very little about cars, she knows enough to know what a motorcycle is,"You have one?"

Shadow nods his head,"Yes, I do."

Maria`s smile changes to a delighted on,"Ok, sure. I would love to ride with you on your bike, Shadow."

"Would you like to go now?"

"All right."

Shadow had prepared himself previously before walked out onto the deck so he is set to go. Maria only needed her shoes placed on and she is ready. With the condo locked, Shadow walks Maria out of the place. He would have carried her but Maria wanted to try and walk as far as she can on her own. They take the elevator down and then retrieve Shadow`s motorcycle from it`s hidden spot.

Of course, Maria can`t help but be amazed at it. It looks well-kept. All parts are in tip top shape and the frame is shiny. The bike itself looks pretty sturdy and strong. It should be. The bike was custom made for Shadow; it runs faster than the average bike to try to suit Shadow`s need for speed. He can still outrun it with his hover shoes but it is better than most bikes. He is happy enough with it.

Shadow doesn`t rush her. He patiently stands by the bike, watching Maria react to it, ready to answer any questions she might have. Maria reaches her hand out and carefully touches one of the red frame pieces of the bike. Her fingertips glide right over the frame with ease.

Shadow`s only regret is that he never got any helmets for the bike. He doesn`t wear one due to that whatever danger comes along, he can take it. He hadn`t planned on Maria being brought back to life and the idea to take her on a ride was a spur of the moment thing. It isn`t until she asks him how she would ride the bike that he realizes that he lacks a protective helmet for her. He notes to himself to drive extra careful. Not that he planned on driving recklessly with her on the bike anyway but he`ll have to be even more so careful than what he originally planned.

To get her positioned for the ride, Shadow first mounts the bike himself. In his seated position, he turns back and helps Maria to sitting on the bike behind him. Because she`s wearing a skirt, she will be sitting sideways on the bike. If she were to sit normally, her skirt would fly up and flashing people is not the goal. So to prevent that from happening, Maria will be sitting sideways on the bike. She draws her legs close together and puts both of her feet on a foot panel at Shadow`s direction. As he tells her to hold on to him tightly, Maria wraps her arms around Shadow from behind. Though she wants to make sure that she won`t fall off, Maria is confident in Shadow`s skills and is sure that everything will be all right.

Shadow starts his bike`s engine and it roars to life. A couple of quick revs and the bike is ready to go. When it suddenly comes alive and begins to make noise, Maria is startled. She jumps a little and hugs Shadow tighter, leaning into his back. It`s the loud noise more than anything else that has her frightened. Shadow looks over his shoulder back to Maria and tries to reassure her,"It`s all right, Maria."

Shadow gives her a few moments before he will allow the bike to move anywhere. Slowly, Maria lifts her head a little and begins to regain confidence on the bike. Sensing that Maria feels better, Shadow gets both feet up on the foot pedals and the bike starts rolling forward, gaining speed as it goes.

At first, Shadow takes things nice and easy with the bike until he feels that Maria feels ok being on it. They spend a few minutes just riding through the streets of Station Square at the speed limit. Once Shadow feels that Maria isn`t clinging to him for dear life any more, he decides to get things rolling on with the plan for giving her a ride. A good place to go for the ride would be Radical Highway. It`s close to Station Square and it`s route isn`t too crazy. Maria should be able to handle it. But Shadow will hold off on the high speed until they get there.

As the night falls over Station Square, Rouge gets her club open. Her assistants have arrived and will be tending to the customers who are already coming in. Sonic is among the first people who arrive for the night. He goes straight to Rouge and sets his fists confidentally on his hips. With his cool smile, he says,"Is Tails all done? I came to pick him up."

Rouge comes out from behind her back counter,"I`m not sure, I hadn`t checked on him in the past couple hours. Let`s go see."

Sonic follows behind Rouge as she leads him to the back room where Tails was left with the karaoke machine. The karaoke machine looks repaired. The outside has been fixed up to how it was before and the whole thing is assembled. Tails seems to have done a great job with getting the machine together for Rouge. But where is Tails? He`s nowhere to be seen back here.

The only evidence that Tails was even here is that his cell phone is abandoned on the floor. Sonic is quick to snatch that up. Sonic looks at the phone in his hand with concern for his "little bro." His fingers enclose themselves around the phone tightly and he turns around to face Rouge,"Tails wouldn`t go anywhere without his phone, he knows better than that..."

Rouge looks around the room once more and her expression softens up to show pity for the kid,"Whoever took him was very sneaky and quiet about it."

"Do you have cameras set back here?"

"At one point there was but Shadow busted them when you two had a fight back here."

"Right...Maybe Amy has seen him."

Sonic pulls out his phone and flips it open. He doesn`t have to scroll very far on his contacts list to get to Amy; she is listed first due to her name starting with A. Then Sonic puts the phone to his ear, waiting for Amy to answer.

On Radical Highway, Shadow is making his motorcycle race down the road. Maria has been keeping her arms wrapped tightly around Shadow from behind. This isn`t the usual way she gives him a hug so his body feels a little different to her at this angle. Despite this, his body still feels just as amazing to her as it does when she hugs him from the front. From back here, she can feel his strength as he works the bike for turns and other moves.

She is semi-used to high speeds as on the Arc, Shadow had given her a ride around on his high speed. It had always thrilled her to be able to go so fast and it thrills her now with the speed the motorcycle is moving. So much stimuli happening at once that is enthralling Maria right now, she gives a little laugh and with a big smile she says,"Please go faster, Shadow!"

Shadow has his own smile on his face, though the way he`s doing it coupled with his natural expression, it would seem like a villainous smirk. Following Maria`s request, Shadow twists the throttle and the bike starts speeding up more. The two of them on the motorcycle speed pass the cars that are on the highway. Luckily there aren`t many cars right now due to the time of the day so Shadow can get past them without too much to worry about. In fact, the further along they go, the more the car population lessens. Normally Shadow would engage in wild stunts such as darting between oncoming cars, leaping off bridges, riding right on the Jersey barriers and other such stunts. He is being mindful of his driving because of Maria as his passenger, despite how seemingly reckless his driving may seem to the average driver.

The highway makes a downward hill dip and the bike seems to go even faster as it`s working with gravity. Shadow can feel Maria hug him tighter at this point. Beginning to wonder if they are going too fast for her, Shadow asks Maria if she is all right. Maria tries to speak over the bike`s engine though it is difficult as she is naturally soft-spoken,"Yes, I`m all right, Shadow."

The hill comes to an end but the highway is starting to turn left. Shadow gets the bike to make the tight turn by leaning himself to the left, which also makes Maria lean over as well. She holds onto Shadow as tight as she can, worried she will fall off. When the turn is over, Shadow straightens himself back up and thus, puts Maria back into an upright position. She lessens her hug on him to go back to holding him normally. Shadow senses that the turn has scared Maria since she had such a tight grip on him, thus, he decides to take it slower on the next turn. He wants this ride to be fun for Maria, not scary.

The suddenly Maria exclaims,"Shadow, it`s that green coated guy!"

Shadow lifts his head a little," ? "

He turns his head around and sees that behind them, off to the side, Jet is is quickly catching up to them on his gear board. Jet has his eyes locked on them and oddly enough, he is alone. Maria`s fearfulness of him is obvious as she tightens her hug on Shadow again and she seems to be tucking herself into Shadow`s backside. Shadow isn`t willing to risk the possibility of Maria getting hurt by Jet.

To ensure that she will be safe, Shadow turns around as best as he can and gets an arm around Maria, keeping his other hand on the handlebar of the bike. Then he pulls her in front so that she will be sitting on the bike in front of Shadow. Maria would be more impressed with this move if it wasn`t for the fact that she is too afraid of Jet`s presence to really focus on it. In this new position, Maria quickly gets her arms around Shadow`s torso. She is still seated sideways for the same reason as why she was seated sideways behind him. Shadow keeps an arm around Maria to be sure that she won`t fall and to further serve safety for her. With Maria up here, if Jet were to attack, Shadow would take the hit instead of Maria. Shadow divides his vision between watching the road and watching Jet.

Jet catches up to the motorcycle and slows his speed down so that he runs besides them. He doesn`t speak a word but he seems to have a serious expression on his face. Maria`s face is striken with fear, remembering how Jet and his friends had pushed her around on the school campus grounds. She tucks herself a little more into Shadow, finding safety in his grip. Shadow`s own expression is directed towards Jet giving two messages to the green coated one. One message is that Shadow isn`t the least bit intimidated by Jet`s presence so fear is not existing in him. The other is a warning to keep his distance. Shadow locks his eyes with Jet to get these points across and doesn`t break the stare. The two of them glowering one another, things are seeming to be turning pretty thick.

After a few moments of the two males staring each other down, things suddenly change. Jet grits his teeth and pulls away from Shadow and Maria, taking off somewhere else on his Type-J. Shadow watches him in case he is pulling any tricks on them. His attention quickly breaks when Maria suddenly calls,"Shadow!"

In a split second, Shadow puts on the breaks and turns the bike sideways to quicken the pace of the bike coming to a stop. The bike comes to a stop at the edge of a break in the highway. It looks like the highway had been broken here like something massive smashed through. It must have happened just recently as there are no warning signs to the disaster. Maria looks on with more concern of whether or not someone will fall down there,"What happened...?"

Comments

To leave a comment, you must be logged in.