Disclaimer: I own nothing

Engine 45

Chapter 3

A/N: sorry this chapter took so long. Life and work, you know?

As it turned out both Scourge and Shadow had the same second block class, Rock and Roll Methods, and after finishing their respective cigarettes they left the sanctuary of the smoke spot to head to class. Shadow led the way since he actually knew where the classroom was and Scourge fell into step beside him. The two teens had come to unspoken understanding, neither of them would go so far as to say that the other was their friend but they could, at the very least, tolerate each other. As strange as this may seem it didn't bother Scourge much, he had had the exact same type of relationship with Patch back in Moebius. Their blackened eyes and bruises got them a lot of sideways looks and curious glances but nobody asked. In fact, from the way people were avoiding them, Scourge was starting to think that Stripes was a people-repellant. Absently, he wondered what Stripes had done to make people so damn twitchy around him. He didn't really care one way or the other (he couldn't really get on a high horse when it came to beating the shit out of people, after all) but it was something to think about.

He decided to test his people-repellant theory out. He nudged Shadow casually as they were passing a group of nervous looking students and asked: "Hey Stripes, how's your face feel? Figured I'd ask since it looks like shit."

Shadow growled (one of the younger looking girls, probably a sophomore, squeaked in fear) and threw a not-so-playful punch at him, which he avoided easily. Scourge laughed and glanced back over his shoulder at the frightened looking teens. He felt a smirk growing on his face.

'Oh I am gonna have so much fun with this.'

Xxx

Scourge tapped his pencil against his chin, thinking, and then quickly scribbled another line of the fledging song into his notebook.

"Are those even words or are you just trying to look busy?" Shadow (or Stripes as Scourge had taken to calling him) asked, sounding curious. He shifted in his chair so that he could get a better look at what Scourge was writing.

Scourge glanced at the teen sharing the table with him and then back at his handwriting. One of Scourge's first foster parents had deemed it necessary for him to learn how to write in cursive and he had never quite gotten back into the habit of printing; although over time his handwriting had devolved from neat loops and bumps into a heavily slanted and cramped mess that might, from an objective standpoint, look like a scribble.

"They're words smartass." Scourge grumbled, writing down another line as if to emphasize his point. Shadow snorted skeptically and Scourge rolled his eyes, "I suppose your handwriting is just perfect then?" he asked sarcastically.

The striped teen reached over and plucked the pencil from Scourge's fingers. He pulled the notebook away and quickly wrote something near the bottom of the page before pushing it back, smirking smugly.

The words 'might not be perfect, but definitely better than yours' were scrawled across the bottom margin in annoyingly neat handwriting.

"…smug asshole."

Shadow's face remained mostly impassive but Scourge thought he could see a glint of amusement in the back of his red eyes, "What are you writing anyway?" he asked.

"Song." Scourge replied noncommittally.

"You're in a band?"

"This song's for a side-project, actually."

As far as Scourge was concerned the Suppression Squad was on hiatus, but he needed something to fill his time. It's possible for a vocalist to fall out of practice, after all, and the last time he had fallen out of practice it had taken him weeks to get back to where he had been. He'd be stuck in this place for a little under a year in the best case scenario, so he figured he'd start-up a new band, play a couple gigs, and just kill some time.

"Side-project, huh? Side-project from what?"

"Eh, don't worry about it Stripes."

"Chaos-damnmit if you call me Stripes one more time I'll—"

"Whine like a bitch?" Scourge smirked and dodged another not-so-playful punch.

Xxx

Manic walked into the Rock and Roll Methods classroom with his brother and looked around, trying to see who he recognized. To his surprise he noticed that Scourge was sitting next to Shadow Robotnik. Shadow was a notorious loner, and seemed to like it that way. The only person who he willingly spent any amount of time with was Rouge the Bat, who had graduated at the end of last year. And, to make things even stranger, both teens looked like they had had the shit kicked out of them. Well, actually it wasn't that strange. Shadow had a habit of beating the hell out of people. Apparently he had tried this on Scourge and the other teen had fought back. It still didn't explain why they were sitting together but, Manic did feel a little less confused.

Apparently he wasn't the only one to notice this strange development because Sonic stuck an elbow into his side and whisper-shouted, "Bro, am I going crazy or is Scourge sitting with the Faker?"

"No dude, I see it too." Manic rubbed his eyes, blinked a couple times, and then looked back, "Yeah, it's still there. We both musta lost our minds. Bummer majores, right?" he chuckled and walked to the back of the room. He dropped his backpack onto the floor and slumped down into his chair.

Sonic sat down next to him and began tapping his fingers on the desk, "So I've been working on this new song but I hit a road block on the third verse, think you could help me out?"

"Yeah, sure bro. No pro—"

*BRRRIIIIIIINNNNGGG*

The bell rang from its position directly over their desk and both boys jumped.

The teacher ran into the room a moment later, out-of-breath from trying to get to class on time.

"Hi…I'm Marcos…your teacher…whew, give me a minute." He leaned forward, hands on his knees, and took a couple deep breaths. The young-looking wolf straightened up and ran a hand through his hair, "Okay, sorry about that guys. Anyway, I'm Marcos, your teacher and uh, it's my first year teaching so uh, I'm nervous obviously, but I'll try not to screw up too much."

Marcos pulled the strap of his messenger bag over his head and set it on the desk. He hoisted himself up onto the desk and sat cross-legged, looking a little like an excited second-grader, "So, I learned something pretty awesome today, you guys wanna hear it?"

There was a general murmur of ascent.

"Okay so I'm a pretty big fan of The Suppression Squad; any of you guys heard of them? Band from Moebius, almost got signed to Overlander Records? Anyone?"

A couple people around the room raised their hands, Manic and Shadow included.

"So I went on their website yesterday, and they were saying goodbye to their vocalist 'cause he was moving out of Moebius. I thought the vocalist's name was familiar so I looked over the list that has the names of all the students registered to take this class and…he's on the list! I get to teach the vocalist from the freakin' Suppression Squad! How awesome is that!"

Manic perked up at that. He had stumbled upon a song by the Suppression Squad on the internet about two months ago and been hooked instantly. It would be way past cool to actually be able to meet the dude.

"What's his name?" someone asked.

"Scourge!" Marcos smiled cheerfully.

Manic could feel his jaw hit the middle of his chest.

A/N: Okay, chapter 3 is done, hopefully I'll be able to finish chapter 4 soon. Uh, just for the record Marcos is not an OC, he's a character from the Archie Comics.

So how many of you guys have heard of trancepanda? He's got a MANOURGE fic up on here that I think is pretty good so if you're looking for something to read check it out. It's called Hail to the King. He also has a ZonicXSonic fic called Narcissism that you could check out.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

pathetic-really