Right, soo… Most people aim to write long, deep stories full of meaning. My head, however, appears to be filled only with stupid Sonadow shorts ideas. May as well get them out of my head, I guess…We'll see how long the ideas keep coming and how large this ends up being, I have no idea myself. Rather than post a bunch of separate stories I'll do them as chapters in a single story from here on, unless they end up being part of something bigger. Each chapter is intended to be possible to read independently, there is no strict chronology either but I suppose this first chapter could be considered a loose continuation of Bad Fur Day, and we'll see how it goes from here.

Oh, and yeah, our dear hedgehogs are already together in these. There are countless stories of how they get together, to the point I'm not really motivated to write my own version. So, you know, pick your favourite falling-in-love story and pretend we're going from there lol.

Short 1: Caught up

Treasure hunting can be a very, very tedious activity. Hours of painstakingly studying maps, travelling, searching, digging, going over a large area with a fine-toothed comb… It's truly a job only for the most dedicated in most instances.

On the other hand, if your search team consists of two supersonic hedgehogs, each with a built in chaos energy radar, it's a different story all together.

A feral squirrel barely avoided an untimely death by trampling as Sonic leaped over it. He took the opportunity to use his momentum to jump to a series of large boulders sprawled in the deep green moss ahead of him. Hopping from stone to stone, he stopped at the largest one, turning his gaze to his left with a beaming smile.

"Any second now!"

Barely offering a glance as a response, Shadow kept going forward. His readings were strong – Sonic was right. The emerald was up ahead.

The artificial hedgehog had, of course, been gifted with a strong sensitivity towards Chaos energy from the beginning. All part of the plan during his creation. Truth be told, there was probably no one on the planet – as far as he knew, anyway – who could use it like he could. The chaotic energy flowed through him like a river. After rigorous training in his early days he had learnt to use it for his own purposes, as nourishment for his mind and body, to energize his jet skates and of course, to use it in the form of powerful energy-based weapons. No one who had faced one of Shadow's Chaos blasts was likely to forget about it any time soon.

Through focusing his mind on the characteristic aura, Shadow was able to track the Chaos emeralds as well. He may not be able to pinpoint their precise location, especially if they were far away, but if one was anywhere nearby, he'd know it.

The very much non-artificial Sonic, on the other hand, wasn't doing too poorly in that department either. His exposure to the Chaos emeralds for so long had left its marks and he too was attuned to their energy. In his case it was more of a vague feeling and not a sharp reading like that of Shadow, never mind Knuckles when searching for his beloved Master emerald, but what he lacked in precision, he more than made up for with his dedication and tenacity during his searches.

In fact, after using the emeralds so many times – especially after going Super on multiple occasions – Sonic now harboured a faint but constant Chaos energy flow of his own in his body. He wasn't really aware of it himself, couldn't feel it unless he was using the Emeralds anyway, but Shadow and Knuckles could both sense it in him. Not that they had told him about it. Both of them found it quite handy indeed to be able to know the hedgehog's general presence whenever he wasn't too far away. Shadow in particular enjoyed being able to sneak up on him when Sonic thought he was alone – the blue hedgehog still not certain just exactly how he always seemed to know where he was - and being quite annoyed about it whenever Shadow used it to his advantage.

As a result of their Chaos-related qualities, Shadow and Sonic were doing well enough at their current treasure hunting task - tracking down the red emerald, hidden somewhere in a vast, northern forest, not far from the borders of Holoska. Firs and pines stretched endlessly around them, the great green carpet broken only by vast mountains in the distance, snow-clad tips glinting in the faint sunlight.

It was a pretty typical emerald hunt. For being one of theirs, anyway. Recently the emeralds had once more been blasted apart from each other almost as quickly as they had come together. Sonic had recently used them to go Super during yet another fight with Eggman. Seconds after he was done and had gone back to his normal state they the emeralds had blasted off like colourful rockets in every direction, rejecting each other like two positive ends of powerful magnets put together.

The other six emeralds were too far away for either of them to get any readings on without using Tails' tracking devices at the moment, but this one hadn't been too far away from Sonic's and Shadow's position at the time and it had – unsurprisingly – become a race between the two hedgehogs over who would find it first. Shadow wanted it to enable him to use Chaos control and boost his powers in general. Sonic, on the other hand, mostly wanted it because Shadow wanted it. He loved few things as much as riling his partner up and since Eggman was still licking his wounds from their last encounter he was just itching for some action. He didn't have any particular use for it right now – though he knew Tails would love to work with it, giving it to him was his goal – but his main reason was still to annoy his black companion. Nothing like a little bit of friendly competition, right?

And so it was that as Sonic once more took up the chase while Shadow paid him little attention, focused on the emerald's presence rather than the blue hedgehog's. So far, both of them had mainly relied on their own respective Chaos readings – Shadow going in an almost straight line, homing in, while Sonic had moved in wide circles, following his gut feeling more than anything.

It was a bit of a pride thing too, of course – Sonic wouldn't dream of asking Shadow for directions, even if he would (reluctantly) admit that Shadow was better at finding the emeralds. Instead, he had gone with his instinct for the emerald's location, coupled with increasing his speed and fervour, searching as many areas as possible in the shortest amount of time he could muster.

Sneaking a glance at the dark hedgehog, Sonic noticed Shadow going faster as well now, his focus clear as his eyes shined brightly and his ears were perked forward – about half a mile ahead of them was a small clearing of sorts among the great trees. Dapples of sunlight through the branches lit the area almost like a theatre stage. The ground was covered by soft green grass, moss-covered stones of granite and quartz of all sizes glittering faintly in the light. Most noticeable of all, though, was a huge tree. Or what remained of it, anyway. It had once been a great thriving pine, surely hundreds of years old. Its wide branches must have covered a great portion of the sky around it – perhaps what had kept other trees from growing below it, the area more reminiscent of a field than a forest. The tree was, however, in a very poor state of health now. Its pale stem had been pecked and eaten at by bugs and birds of all kinds. Many branches had withered and fallen off and the tree appeared to be at least partly hollow as well, a small opening at their waist height showing nothing but darkness inside. It was still alive, but only barely, a shell of its former majesty. The reason for this stood clear to both hedgehogs – the scorched top and splintered wood still visible in heaps on the ground the tell-tale sign of a hit by lightning.

Now so close to its presence, both hedgehogs instantly realized the location of the emerald. Shadow in particular could feel its pulsing energy in consistent waves and even Sonic felt his ears perk up at the energy around him, almost tangible in the air. It must be inside the tree. How it had gotten there, they had no idea. Either it had been dragged there by some animal, or perhaps there was another opening into the stem higher up that it had fallen through. Quite a resting place for a Chaos emerald, indeed.

With a whoop, Sonic raced ahead. Shadow would have none of that however and poured on speed as well, but unfortunately his blue counterpart's quicker reflexes gave him the upper edge in this instance. Before Shadow had even reached the tree, Sonic had already gone after the emerald. The hole in the side of the stem was just large enough for him to squeeze his head, neck and one arm through. One would think maybe, just maybe, he should have considered what he was effectively doing by pushing himself into such a small hole. Then again, "thinking ahead" was not a quality Sonic was famous for. Though Shadow couldn't see it, the blue hedgehog already sported a winning grin on his face, certain of his victory. He got it first, Shadow's superior Chaos readings and all! Oh, how he would rub this in his face!

To his annoyance, however, Sonic couldn't reach the emerald, though he could clearly see it – just out of his hand's reach, its faint red glow causing a rather eerie atmosphere inside the tree. The hole into the tree was in fact was quite roomy on the inside, he would probably have been able to stand in there had the opening into the tree been larger, and it continued high above him, though it narrowed gradually towards the highest point. The emerald was securely lodged at a particularly thin portion of the wooden tunnel above, out of his reach. Most likely, it had fallen into the tree from above when the emeralds were spread across the planet.

Sonic tried to press himself deeper into the opening, but there was no way he'd be able to squeeze in any further, the opening simply too small, even if the inside was roomier. They'd have to find another way to reach the emerald.

He didn't want to damage the tree further – it was in a sorry state enough as it was and he never hurt living beings, of any kind, if he could avoid it. He knew what Shadow's suggestion would be – blast the tree away – but he considered their other options. Maybe he could simply find a stick, go back in and poke the emerald so it fell down. Yeah, that should do the trick.

Hearing the soft steps of jet skates on grass behind him, he was about to voice his suggestion as he pulled himself out of the hole. Or tried to, rather.

He couldn't quite get out. No biggie, right? Just pull harder. He pushed his feet deep into the ground and heaved.

Sonic couldn't see it himself, of course, but he could feel his quills embed themselves deeper and deeper into the wood the more he pushed. With their aerodynamic shape the sharp spines had followed him well enough into the hole, but now that he was pulling backwards instead, the tips caught in everything around them. They spread out to the sides on either side of the hole, effectively blocking any chance of escape. His unfortunate position, leaning over, one arm stuck in the hole along with his head, made moving harder than usual as well. Unable to get any speed or even to curl up, he couldn't even spin dash his way out. Now what?

Shadow crossed his arms and shifted his weight as he came to a stop, eyeing the hedgehog before him. Or his backside, anyway, bent over with his front half inside the tree. Arguably not the worst position to see your lover in, but he was still annoyed at Sonic for getting to the emerald first.

"Did you get it?" Grumbling, glaring at nothing in particular.

"No… but I see it…Can't reach it, though."

Sonic's voice sounded muffled through the thick wood. And uncertain. Shadow raised an eye ridge.

"So are you coming out?"

Sonic pulled once more, harder than before. He noted with some alarm that he felt even more stuck this time around, now unable to go forward as well as back. His quills had burrowed themselves even deeper into the tree at this point.

"Err…"

He felt around the hole with his hand still inside the tree, though it was hard at such an awkward angle. Yep. Quills were deeply embedded in the thick stem now. For being a half-dead tree, its wooden insides suddenly seemed incredibly thick around him.

Sonic had never considered himself a claustrophobic, but even so he was beginning to get kind of nervous. This was… not a good position to be caught in. For many reasons, at that. He certainly didn't want to meet Eggman stuck like this, but he didn't much fancy his friends – never mind his lover – seen him caught in such an unfortunate position either, for that matter. In fact, he was more worried about Shadow than the mad scientist right now.

"Shadow?" He hesitated before continuing.

"Yes, faker?"

At this point, Shadow was very much wondering what Sonic was playing at. He took a slow step forward, eyeing the bent back curiously. A short blue tail held in a straight line, quivering ever so little, told him its owner was completely tensed up. Why hadn't he come out yet?

"I think I'm stuck."

Shadow suddenly knew it was going to be a long day.

"Look, it's not that difficult. One well aimed Chaos spear should do the trick…"

"No way! Either the tree's gonna fall on top of us, or you're going to impale me. Your aim is not that precise!"

Shadow bristled at the insult. His aim was perfect, thank you very much! It wasn't his fault that Chaos energy was, by default, rather… well, chaotic. He could bend it to his will, true, but its very nature meant there was always a certain margin of error, however slight. But that wasn't his problem! Still, he supposed Sonic had a point. Blasting the tree to bits may not have been the best course of action after all…

"Well, any other suggestions?" Sonic sighed, his voice still sounding muffled and far away through the tree. The forlorn tone didn't help him appear any less miserable.

It spoke volumes of their relationship that the black hedgehog hadn't kicked the blue one's butt for getting himself caught up in this mess to begin with, which would have been the result of this escapade had it happened to anyone else. In fact, if he had looked annoyed before, now his eyes shone with a kind of dark joy, mouth moving into a calculating smirk.

"Well… Actually, while standing like that, you're really in a perfect position for me to…"

He didn't get to finish that sentence as a blue leg lashed out viciously, Shadow very barely jumping away before receiving a kick from a very, very peeved blue hedgehog.

In the end, it turned out that no amount of pulling, pushing or cursing got Sonic out of the hole. Blue spines simply refused to cooperate, much to their owner's chagrin. Reluctantly, Sonic had eventually ordered Shadow to take off to find Tails, hoping the fox could saw the hole bigger or something. Tails was still at the landing area where they'd taken down the Tornado - there was not enough room in the forest to land nearer to the emerald - probably washing the plane off or making adjustments to its controls as he was wont to do whenever he had a bit of spare time.

It was perhaps one of his most frustrating moments in a long, long time while he waited for them to come back. He shifted his weight restlessly as he tried to listen for any sounds of danger around him. He couldn't hear much inside the tree, though, and he felt very vulnerable. He and Shadow weren't been the only ones after the emeralds, after all. Eggman could arrive at any moment; he was always on the lookout for them… And there were others, too. Rouge of course, bounty hunters of all kinds really, probably various humans who wanted to see the Pretty Rocks in person… And then of course there were the feral predators, probably swarming in a forest as remote as this one. What's to say a pack of wolves or a hungry bear wouldn't say yes to a serving of helpless hedgehog? Under any other circumstance he'd outrun any such threat without breaking a sweat, but right now…

Feeling his heart beat faster while his brain produced image after image of him attacked by a plethora of enemies of all kinds, Sonic almost jumped out of his skin when suddenly someone grabbed his tail and pulled it hard.

"YAH!"

The smirk was so strong he could feel it through the tree, even if he couldn't see it. Lost in his worried thoughts and almost locked out from the world around him, Sonic hadn't noticed that Shadow had come back, sneakily stalking up to him the last distance before grabbing the unsuspecting appendage.

"Just a little bit of payback" the dark voice purred behind him. Sonic scoffed in reply, readying another kick. Just in case.

Behind Shadow, a somewhat rumpled-looking fox who was not only younger than either of the hedgehogs but arguably also a whole lot mature, rolled his eyes. He carried his trusted toolbox with him, barely giving Sonic a glance as he put it on the ground. Tails had been busy cleaning up the Tornado when the black hedgehog had appeared seemingly out of nowhere at top speed, unceremoniously grabbing him in one hand and the toolbox in the other before taking off again. He hadn't even had a chance to complain or ask what was going on, but Tails of course was quite used to similar antics from his big brother anyway and so had gone with the flow.

In all honesty, Tails still found Shadow to be rather foreboding and, well, dangerous. He wasn't a person he'd ever hang around with under normal circumstances, but he had noticed that Sonic seemed to be completely enthralled with him. He knew his big brother's competitive side and had at first thought it was simply that – Sonic enjoyed having someone to measure himself with, someone to compete with and to test his limits. He had noticed over time that there seemed to be something more to it at this point, thought he didn't know how far it stretched yet. Sonic and Shadow rarely saw each other in public, but he had his suspicions at least some of Sonic's unannounced day trips were spent around the black hedgehog... Racing or brawling or whatever they were doing.

Still, this was no time to ponder Sonic's choice of friends (or whatever Shadow was to him). Shadow had barely given the fox in his grip a glance, but he had summed up the situation well enough as they sped through the forest; "Sonic's stuck in a tree, you need to get him out". That had technically been all the fox had needed, anyway. Not like he hadn't seen Sonic do worse things than get stuck in trees over the years, so he wasn't that worried about the hedgehog's predicament.

Tails walked up to Sonic and patted the tree, noting the hollow sound it made. He turned his head up and gave a low whistle at the remains of the majestic branches up above him. Must have been a fantastic tree when it was still healthy.

"Should I even ask what you were doing?" Tails muttered, although he couldn't suppress a small smile, eyes now focused on the parts of Sonic still visible to the rest of the world. His hedgehog brother looked downright silly and he could imagine he wasn't happy about it. At all.

"What can I say, bud? There's an emerald here and I wanted it and well…" Sonic trailed off, shifting his weight again. "Can you get me out? Like, right now, preferably?"

"Sure. I think" Tails said while lifting a small saw out of the toolbox. He glanced back at the dark hedgehog. Would he dare ask Shadow for his assistance? Shadow could probably use it more effectively than he could. They'd be going at a pretty awkward angle for this to work. Shadow was currently busy smirking at the blue one, arms crossed and ears perked forward, quite pleased at the current situation. He and Sonic may have ended up as more than friends, but the spark of rivalry was very much still there, and probably (hopefully) always would be.

Swallowing at the other's expression, Tails shook his head ever so slightly. The day he asked Shadow for help would probably be the day he fled from a Chaos spear. Instead, he walked around the tree until he found a spot that would do. Carefully, he once again knocked on the wood.

"You're not right behind this portion, right?"

"No… I don't think I am…" Sonic strained his ears to pinpoint Tails' exact location.

"Well, are you or aren't you?"

"I'm not!"

Tails nodded and gripped the saw firmly. Here goes…

In the end, they got him out, of course. Tails had started to saw into a portion of the tree, close to the emerald. It was difficult to cut at such an angle, but after a while the dark hedgehog had deduced what he was doing and without much ado simply grabbed the saw out of the younger one's hands and did it himself. With his strength and endurance, the process had shortened down considerably in required time and a few minutes later Shadow had curiously peeked into the new hole in the stem. Tails had remained waiting behind him, his namesakes fidgeting a bit nervously.

At that point, the ultimate life form been met with the confused yet hopeful stare of a rather dusty looking hedgehog below him, faintly illuminated in a red glow. The small amount of sunlight that could reach into the hole had him blinking, bright eyes temporarily accustomed to the darkness. Sonic had given him a doubtful smile and had they'd still been standing at the other side of the tree, they would have seen a hesitant wag of a blue tail – a rare sight indeed. He was pleased to see his companion again, his body betraying his emotions, in particular a faint blush still on his cheeks, the result of Shadow's earlier remark about his… position.

Shadow had been more focused on the emerald, though. Giving his partner an evil smirk, he grabbed the emerald with his hand, ignoring the annoyed "hey!" and adding insult to injury by holding it out just in front of Sonic's face for a moment, enjoying his upper hand. Shortly after that, he'd turned on the spot, grabbed the fox, Chaos controlled him back to the plane (Tails very barely able to suppress a terrified yelp of his own as this all took place) before controlling back once more. Now he and Sonic were alone. Again.

"You know, you can release me any second now."

Sonic wasn't stupid. He knew Shadow could simply grab his leg or whatever and Chaos control him away now. He wasn't sure why he hadn't done so already. But when he felt a gloved hand suddenly touching the side of his hip, he could suddenly imagine.

Sonic gulped. He had been right, it turned out. He'd known as much, of course. Eggman finding him stuck like this wasn't nearly as dangerous as being incapacitated around Shadow. He'd get him good for this… Later. Right now, he was far more focused on the two skilled hands working their way down his sides.

"Time to get you out later. Right now, I was thinking I deserve a reward for finding the emerald first, hm?"

It was going to be a long day indeed.

Well, there you have the first chapter/short/thing! I'm starting to notice a pattern with my stories, all of them appear to be about Sonic becoming the butt of some stupid joke or another lol. I'll have to come up with one where it's Shadow who gets the short end of the stick, I suppose… I have a couple of ideas for new shorts, we'll see when I've time to try to get them written down!