An echoed thud against the mine floor alerted Shadow to someone's presence behind him. As he turned, confusion spread across his face, seeing a shaken grey boy standing and staring at him, with the source of the sound on the floor between them. Shadow stood on guard while gripping the emerald in his hand, sizing the other up. The boy, looking like he was about to cry, didn't come across as all that threatening. The two stood staring almost frozen before being interrupted by a chirp from the communicator on the floor.
"Jay did you find the emerald?" Came a familiar voice, and Shadow's frown deepened as he recognized it as Sonic's. He glared at the boy, waiting for some type of advancement, even just to pick up the communicator, but he stood frozen still wide-eyed.
The two stared at each other in a strange standoff; the grey chinchilla glancing over the other continuously, confused and searching, while Shadow stared back, watching the other, only adding to his perplexity at finding a fairly small stature, body language not retreating but open and almost trying to approach. The communicator spoke again, but neither registered what came through in their focused staring.
Shadow's ears twitched from the faint echo only he could hear, and before he could react to it, it quickly grew louder and Sonic had burst in, immediately taking a protective position in front the grey boy. He was closely followed by Knuckles, the rest of the team likely not far behind, and Shadow scowled.
"You alright Jay?" Sonic asked the grey chinchilla as he glanced over his shoulder. Receiving a nod Sonic turned his attention to the dark hedgehog across from him. "Alright Shadow, make this easy for yourself and hand over the emerald."
Shadow sneered, "Step aside, I don't have time for your foolish games." Sonic glanced at Knuckles, then down the passageway he came from, and back to Shadow.
"Knuckles, I'm getting Jay out of here, you got this." Sonic said, nodding to the echidna. He received a nod back and turned towards Jay.
"Hey, wait-" Jay's sentence was interrupted by Sonic speeding off. Shadow shook his head to clear his mind before glaring at Knuckles standing in front of him.
"Even if I did have the time for this, I don't think you'd be worth it." Shadow said sneering, while the red echidna very quickly became infuriated by this, diving at Shadow. Dirt and dust scattered as Shadow avoided the attack, and before it could settle he had already disappeared.
Standing in a field close to the entrance to the base, the wind swept grass around Shadows ankles as he looked into the distance, lost in thought. Reasonably, he should have been in and out, even with the Jay character finding him. Looking back, it seemed as though they stood there for ages, though he already had the emerald and should have made a quick escape.
"Then why…." Shadow's thoughts trailed off, he knew why, he was thrown off his rhythm. HIs question was exactly how this kid, who was about as intimidating as a crayon, was able to shake him so much in the time it took to turn around and register who was there. Of course, it might be that he expected a strong adversary like Sonic, and instead got a squeamish looking kid, but that shouldn't have distracted him for so long. Maybe it was the way he was being looked at. Not that Shadow wasn't used to being glared at, but strangely enough they made almost no eye contact, like he wasn't a real person, let alone an enemy, but just a display being looked over carefully. It must've been that.
That, and that the other wouldn't really move. He thought it strange, recalling how, while the boy would move his hands unsurely, and almost rocked forward and back into position. He never actually moved from his spot, not even to back away. And Shadow found that very unfamiliar, and very perplexing. People knew to keep their distance and people didn't move towards him unless it was to attack, they moved away. He expected such a timid person to immediately want to run to safety, or to call for help and back away, but he just stood there. And stranger still, so did Shadow.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts, refocusing. Looking around to get a grasp of his surroundings, Shadow looked in the direction opposite of where he was going, letting himself wonder again, before he blinked and ran off towards the base.