Chaos: Well, this is more of a non-AU Sonadow character study than anything else - the first thing that occurred to me upon reading the new fic challenge at sonadowdotcom (writing a non-AU Sonadow that makes sense). Until I found a much more disturbing and terrific idea, which I'll be working through on and off as part one of TSOS comes to an end. In the meanwhile, enjoy the little atmospheric one-shot!
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"Hey, Shadow! Come for the party?"
Shadow only quirked an eyebrow and rolled his eyes, barely paying attention to the path ahead of him – the desert was huge, and the chance of him running into something was next to nil. Even if an obstacle did spring up in his distant vision, his reactions could easily guide him past.
More dangerous – or, to be fair, potentially threatening – was the low-flying jet roaring after them.
Well, not 'them'. Just Sonic.
The hedgehog shrugged and laughed when Shadow did not reply, swept his arm back from the jaunty wave, and put on a burst of speed.
He vanished from sight – that was the way it worked at these speeds. Everything went so fast that the land either side became a blur, and the distance stretched away thanks to the refraction, light hurrying to stay ahead. That was the secret to dodging obstacles at the speed of sound, or beyond it as he was doing now.
Since Sonic had started properly sprinting, their two little blurred tracks had separated, rendering them invisible to each other.
Shadow set his jaw, and with one heel kicked his hover skates into top speed, practically ignoring a missile that had entered his slipstream, and now spun crazily off to the side.
He had come here to find Sonic. He wasn't going to let a little thing like the Military distract him.
And apparently, neither was Sonic. Another unexpected reaction from the blue hedgehog. If it had been him in Sonic's shoes this last year, he would be a lot angrier and one hell of a lot less helpful.
At least, he estimated that it was a year. A year since Sonic had become a symbol and not a celebrity – a ghost, a rumour, nowhere and everywhere. It started when certain envious members of the public raised lawsuits; criminal damage, destruction of public property, disruption.
Shadow still wondered how blindingly stupid you had to be to overlook the fact that your life was being saved at the time.
After that, Sonic vanished. Or rather, he stepped back from the public spotlight – nothing else changed. Robotnik continued to be foiled in his plans, mysterious disasters kept being halted at the last second, the Chaos Emeralds kept being returned to whatever bank tried to hold them.
But Sonic was never caught in the act even once.
That was what grabbed Shadow's attention.
He had never paid much attention to the hedgehog before. He found him rather boring and intensely annoying, and privately he wondered exactly who had decided that somebody like Sonic should be the one with the abilities to save the world time and again.
But this, this was an entirely new level. That insuppressibly buoyant personality had taken another twist – when having even the ones who he was helping turn on him, Shadow had fully expected Sonic to deflate and go sulk somewhere, and good riddance too.
This… was something unexpected. Sonic was more complex than he had thought. He had reacted to this new turn of events as though it was a fly; he vanished from camera and human eye alike as though it was nothing.
Shadow had never found it hard to do, but he had never been one to enter that spotlight either. True, he was recognised, but not in the same way as Sonic, not in the merchandising and autographing way. And the blue hedgehog disappeared without even faltering from his little quests, and Shadow was intrigued.
There was obviously more to Sonic than he had thought. And he intended to find out.
His legs were burning now, from the prolonged sprint combined with the intense heat from the desert sand. He was travelling beyond the realms of too fast for the heat in the air to bother him, yet the waves from the floor were gradually taking their toll.
But there was Sonic, and blue smudge that fast took shape until they were side by side.
"Oh, sticking around, huh?" The hedgehog asked with a fast grin. He hardly seemed to be breaking a sweat, but Shadow could his step starting to falter every now and then as his feet were even closer to the heat than the black hedgehog's. Even they couldn't keep up this pace forever.
They had outdistanced the jet, though. The roar of its struggling engines was a mere echo.
Sonic huffed once. "Phew! I'm getting hungry. Time for a break, don't you think?" He winked. "Jump."
Shadow started in surprise. His attention had been entirely focused on his companion, so much so that he had hardly noticed the rock wall looming before them. The blue hedgehog kicked a foot forward and vanished upwards, and Shadow did the same almost automatically.
This was something worrying. How had he become so focused as to forget where he was going? He scowled angrily as he soared upwards at an amazing speed, quills whipping around at the sudden change in air direction.
With a terrible whine of engines, the failing jet slammed into the wall and disintegrated into a ball of fire, and without hesitation Shadow directed himself onto a piece of debris hurtling towards him, using his hands and feet both at once to push off towards the next one.
A few swift, deadly jumps later, he landed with a light thump at the top of the huge cliff, a heartbeat behind Sonic, who wiped a hand across his brow.
"Whew. I'm beat." He panted, taking a few deep breaths before straightening and grinning again. "Still here? Come on, then." And he darted away again, as though already knowing Shadow would follow.
"Hmm." The darker hedgehog murmured, hearing the hiss as his jets cooled down. Sonic wasn't even moving fast enough to be out of sight. Careless. How did he vanish and reappear at while, never in one place if not the other, neither here nor there?
It was as he thought. There was a lot more to Sonic than he had realised.
No matter. He would find out.