Tloj: Welcome! Again, only thing changed is the spelling errors.

Author's Chapter Notes:

I do not own the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, or Wal-Mart. I do, however, own Maria the Dark Chao and she cannot be borrowed without my permission.

After his latest defeat at the hands of Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, a.k.a. Eggman, sat in his secret lair, brooding.

"How can he beat me again and again?" he asked. "My greatest inventions and weapons—destroyed and broken! He always has to break all my stuff!"

Eggman turned to his three greatest creations, Metal Sonic, Robo Knuckles, and Shadow Android, although none of them looked very great right now.

Robo Knuckles had been ripped in half and had multiple holes in his torso where the real Knuckles' fists had ended up. Shadow Android's head was gone courtesy of a point blank shot with an AK-47 wielded by the original Shadow the Hedgehog.

And Metal Sonic, well…there was a flat piece of metal that Eggman assumed used to be part of the robot's left ear lying on the ground, which was all Eggman could salvage after Amy stopped pounding it with her Piko Piko hammer.

"And you three were no help, either," Eggman told them accusingly. "What I need is an edge, or my dreams will never become a reality!"

The mad scientist started looking through all the recordings he'd made while fighting Sonic all through the years. "There must be a weakness, somewhere," he muttered. Something caught his eye and he froze the images.

"What was that?" he asked, going back. It was the recording made by his Eggafier Ray three months earlier. (If you remember, it really had nothing to do with eggs.)

The image on the screen had been captured mere seconds after the ray had gone off while Eggman was flying off.

"Oh, my," Eggman said, grinning malevolently. "It's perfect! Absolute genius!"

On the screen sat a two-year-old cobalt blue hedgehog, looking up at the screen quizzically.

"If I change my enemies into children and then raise them as my evil minions, then no one would be able to stop me! Eggman Land will finally become a reality! Ho ho ho ho ho! Robots, prepare my ship for launch!"

There was an awkward silence since the three robots were pretty much destroyed beyond repair. Although Shadow Android did fall backwards and start short circuiting.

Eggman sighed. "Never mind; I'll prep it myself."

"Hey. Shads, whatcha doin'?"

Shadow the Hedgehog mentally sighed and opened his crimson red eyes, glaring at his happy-go-lucky doppelganger, Sonic, who was grinning like the big dope he was. The Ultimate Lifeform stopped leaning against the cozy tree he'd been dozing under and stretched.

"I was enjoying myself until you came along," Shadow informed Sonic.

"And?" The grin got bigger. "Anything neat happening?"

Shadow stared at Sonic for a long second. "Why are you here?"

Sonic shrugged. "I dunno."

Shadow's eyes widened so slightly that Sonic would never have noticed. Sonic was unable to remember, but a few months ago Eggman had turned him into a toddler, and Shadow had been forced to watch him.

'I dunno' had been Sonic's favorite statement.

"Hey, Shads, you OK?" Sonic's annoying voice broke into his thoughts, and Shadow noticed with annoyance that his blue furred rival was waving his hand in front of Shadow's face. "Helloooooooo?"

"Stop that!" Shadow snapped, pushing Sonic's hand down.

Sonic grinned cheekily at him. "You zoned out on me, Shads," he said.

Shadow rolled his eyes and got up to leave. "Don't call me Shads!" he called to Sonic as he walked off.

Just before he raced off, however, a missile came out of nowhere and completely destroyed the tree he'd been resting on mere moments ago. The impact sent both of the super fast hedgehogs flying in opposite directions.

Sonic moaned slowly and opened his eyes. The blast had thrown a partially demolished tree branch on top of his legs. Sonic looked up and gasped as he saw Dr. Eggman with that bizarre laser Sonic knew he'd tried to kill him with some months ago.

"Ho, ho, ho, ho!" Eggman laughed. "I've got you this time, hedgehog!"

"Don't bet on it, Eggman," Sonic quipped, struggling to get out from under the tree limb.

"I do plan to bet on it," Eggman answered, as his Eggafier Ray powered up. "And I bet I'll get rid of your meddling interference once and for all!"

Sonic finally managed to pull the tree branch off of him and scrambled to his feet. He looked up and gasped again as he realized the Ray had already fired. Barring a miracle, he was toast.

Shadow had been thrown clear of the tree rubble. He moaned and rubbed his head, looking around to determine what had happened.

Shadow's eyes widened as he saw Sonic struggling to get out from under a tree branch off in the distance. Eggman was above him, powering up a giant laser to fry him.

In that instant, Shadow saw a baby Sonic, holding up his hands to be held with a smile, proclaiming Shadow to be his hero. Shadow's heart seemed to stop thumping in his chest and without even realizing it, he started running towards Sonic.

Sonic closed his eyes and prepared for the laser to hit him. He wasn't really sure what being struck by a laser felt like, but he certainly hadn't expected it to feel like being rammed in the side and thrown off to the left.

Sonic yelped in surprise and opened his eyes, realizing that he had, in fact, been rammed in the side by Shadow and pushed out of the laser's way. Shadow was unable to evade the laser himself, however.

"Shadow!" Sonic screamed in horror as a pinkish/white glow enveloped the ebony-black hedgehog.

When the laser stopped, a large crater filled the space where Shadow had been moments earlier.

Sonic growled and started running, spin dashing Eggman's machine and causing warning lights to go off.

"This is a new low, even for you, Eggman!" Sonic shouted, spin dashing the machine again.

"No!" Eggman yelled, jettisoning in that stupid plastic bubble machine. "You've overloaded my machine! But mark my words: This isn't over, hedgehog."

"You'd better hope you never show your ugly mug around here again, Eggman!" Sonic threatened as the bubble flew out of sight. Then the cobalt blue hero turned his attention to the newly created crater, and the unpleasant task of claiming Shadow's remains.

"Oh, man, Shadow," Sonic muttered as he slid into the hole. "Why'd you do that?"

"What?"

Sonic swirled around and his jaw dropped as he came face to face with a small, black, crimson-eyed toddler. "What the…"

The hedgehog crossed his arms and said, "Humph!"

"No way!" Sonic gasped. "Shadow? How did…what did…do you know what this means?!" Sonic waved his arms around and started pacing, his mind a jumble as he blurted out anything that came to it. "Eggman turned you into a baby! And…and you're a cute baby! Do you know how wrong that is?!"

Shadow blinked at him slowly and then yawned. He rubbed his eyes with his little hands. "Go way," he told Sonic rudely. "Want be awone."

Sonic paused for a second. "At least he didn't take away your personality, but still..." Sonic picked up a protesting Shadow, still rambling. "A baby! That is SO wrong on SO MANY conceivable levels!"

"Down!" Shadow snapped, struggling against Sonic's grasp. "Want be AWONE!"

"Hey, cool it, Shads," Sonic scolded him. "I'm trying to help."

Shadow stopped struggling, looking at Sonic in bewilderment. "I no Shads. I Shadow," he said matter-of-factly.

"Geez, chill already, Shads!" Sonic ordered. "I'm going to take you to Tails. He's smart, so he should be able to fix this. A baby! That is so wrong!"

"I NO SHADS!" screamed Shadow as Sonic carted him off to Tails' workshop.