A hedgehog with blackend fur marred by red streaks exhaled loudly, rubbing two fingers under his earflaps.
His name is Shadow, and he is sitting at a rounded table. Beside him is his teammate and friend, a white bat named Rouge. Across from him is a trio consisting of a large porcupine, another hedgehog, and a small bear. Two of these individuals had some form of familiarity with him, but he couldn't for the life of him recall the third.
"Alright, run that by me again..." He said, frowning, eyes squinted and staring.
The porcupine, who was red, with his limbs black from just above the elbows and knees and below, chest and lower quills, and yellow on the upper part of his head, shrugged nervously. He was at least a good foot or so taller than most of them, which dwarfed the little bear beside him, making him larger than most Mobians.
"I honestly don't know what else to say, Shadow. We just ended up like this, if I had to guess, it was Chaos energy or something." The porcupine fiddled with with the dark metal band around his wrist with his tan digit-like claws. "I'm just as confused as the rest of us, which is really something considering the obvious."
"And these two are with you because..?"
"To be honest, I wasn't sure what else to do. He-" The porcupine gestured to the bear. "- insisted on sticking around, and it really doesn't seem a good idea to leave him over there alone."
He waved a hand to the scruffy blue hedgehog beside him, who was pawing gray fingers at the strings of the dark indigo colored oversized hooded pullover. The hedgehog had yet to really acknowledge anyone, and seemed incredibly fixated on those strings.
"He hasn't exactly spoken since we ended up like this." The porcupine said, shaking his head, appearing to be quite baffled. "I'm starting to wonder if he can even talk at all."
"He didn't really seem to be able to before." The bear chirped. He was orange, and wore an orange bandana that was tied in the back and seemed to resemble fox tails. A diamond shaped red crystal shard hung from a cord around his neck like a pendant, and it glittered in the light as he leaned forward in the chair, hands bracing the seat. "I think his voice is broken."
"You do realize who that is, right?" Shadow looked at the tall porcupine. "Did you forget what-?"
"Shadow, if you kept that kind of attitude towards me, we would have never been on the same team." The larger creature propped his head in his hand to lean into the table, and toss an unamused look. "Did you forget our first impression of each other was us trying to murder the other?"
"You shot first."
"I'm not denying that." The porcupine cracked a small smile. "But, anyway, he's practically harmless."
"I notice the use of 'practically'."
"To be really honest..." The bear added, shrugging. "We're not sure exactly what he can still do, but he hasn't really made much effort to find out himself, either. Not that we would know, though, if he did... He can't exactly tell us."
The silent hedgehog had seemingly grown bored of the strings on his pullover, and slid off his chair to venture around. Shadow made a small movement as if to follow, but the porcupine held his hand up and shook his head.
"He's not going to cause any trouble, I'm sure." He said, watching the quiet one briefly before looking back at the hedgehog and bat in front of him. "So... I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that... Well, I can't exactly live outside anymore."
"... No, I don't suppose-"
"Of course he can't, Shadow!" Rouge spoke up finally, having spent a great deal of the time watching the trio, particularly the tall porcupine, with what seemed to be sparkly eyed admiration. "That shouldn't even have to be a debate, he's our friend! We've got the space!"
"... I was getting to that, Rouge."
"Oh. Well..." A pinkish tint flared up around her cheeks. "Can you blame me? You're so hard to read, sometimes."
"Surely not so much that you'd actually think I'd say 'No' to that?" Shadow frowned. "C'mon, how long have both of you known me?"
Rouge nudged him almost playfully.
"Enough to know that you don't like change."
"You honestly expect me to not have any problems trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing?" Shadow pushed her elbow away and raised an eyebrow. "How can you be so calm about this? For all we know, there could have been side effects or-"
"But look at him!" Rouge was clearly far from concerned, and her eyes were almost sparkling with excitement enough to make Shadow flinch back from confusion. "Think of all the new and exciting things he's going to get to experience for the first time!"
"Whoa, hey, hold on!" The porcupine waved his hands in front of him. "I'm siding a bit with Shadow here; we have no idea what to expect in the long run. I think we should figure out what we're going to do about this before we start deciding what to do for fun!"
Shadow was about to agree before a loud CRASH! was heard from the living room. The four present quickly made thier way to the doorway and found the likely source of the noise.
The quiet hedgehog was standing inches from an overturned decorative table, and a Terra Cotta pot that had housed a fuzzy, bloomed catcus. The potted plant lay scattered on the floor, with damp dirt and the uprooted cactus, while the culprit stood there holding his wrist tightly, the palm of the hand and the fingers in question embedded with little, thin, spiked needles.
Perhaps most unusual was that his expression didn't seem to reflect that it was painful, or much anything else for that matter, despite the repeated twitching of the hurt hand. Perhaps a bit stunned, or even mild curiosity, but his facial features remained the same as they had been when he pawed at the strings of his pullover.
"Emmett!" The small bear said loudly, pushing past the group to hurry to the now named hedgehog. "You don't just grab cactuses, they have spikes for a reason!"
Emmett shrugged as the bear reached up and pulled his hand lower to be level with him.
"That's a lot of thorns, what do you do? Wrap your whole hand around it?"
Emmett looked up at the ceiling instead of responding.
"Can we borrow some tweezers?" The bear turned and asked Rouge. "Sorry about the mess, I think he probably just wanted to know what it was."
It took a combined effort on everyone's part to remove the needles and clean Emmett's hand, as he immediately began thrashing the moment his hand was held down. It didn't seem he did so because of the pain of the needles be extracted, but rather that his arm was restrained.
If there had been any question as to whether or not he could speak, this incident seemed to confirm it, as he had tried to shout, but he managed a quiet garbled mess of frantic vocalizations as he reached his free hand up to pry the other one loose.
The bear, who quickly introduced himself as "Owen" among the chaos, caught the free hand with both of his, standing on his toes to keep a hold on it.
"Emmett, Emmett! If you do that, it might break one of them off and it'll hurt more!"
"... Is his name really 'Emmett'?" Shadow asked, spreading the hand out flat and upward.
"We've just been calling him that this whole time, he hasn't really said otherwise." The Porcupine shrugged as he caught both arms and held them firmly in place. It was clear he was decently strong for his size, and Emmett's flailing did nothing to move his grip. "He responds to it, mostly, so I guess he doesn't mind. Owen was the one who thought it up."
"I picked out mine, too." Owen chimed in, having let go of Emmett's arm when he was no longer needed.
"And how about you?" Shadow addressed the Porcupine. "What one did you get?"
"I kept mine, I liked it."
The needles were carefully pulled from Emmett's palm, and disinfectant was used on the resulting punctures, met with more protesting before the hand was finally wrapped with ointment coated bandages.
Emmett quickly quieted down once he was released, and he dropped to the floor to sit and begin gnawing meticulously at the wrapping, as if he merely didn't like the sensation of applied pressure around his entire hand.
Certainly, Emmett was an odd one.
Owen reached out and pushed the hand from Emmett's teeth, which the hedgehog didn't protest to, and said: "Keep that on, it'll keep it from hurting worse."
Emmett blinked, and Shadow took note that this was perhaps the first time since the trio had arrived, that Emmett had made eye contact with anyone. Then Emmett smiled at Owen, with such familiarity, it was if he hadn't been so distant to them all this entire time.
Indeed, Emmett was an odd one.
He stood and grabbed the pudgy little bear under the arms, holding him up like a bean filled plush toy. Owen's legs kicked briefly before he just gave up and hung there.
"You gonna not bite those things, right?" Owen said, not sounding too fazed. "We'd hate it if you let that get infected."
Emmett walked away with Owen still in tow, down the hallway, and towards the garage/laundry room. He stared at the door before turning away and stepping further down the hall, and stopping to stare at the door of the single bedroom at the far end. He turned around and walked back to the living room, stepped over the overturned cactus, and sat on the couch, setting the bear in front of him, and pressing his face into the top of Owen's head.
As if he belonged there.
Shadow exchanged a glance with the Porcupine, raising an eyebrow.
"... He sure is a strange one, Omega."
"Honestly, that's the most active I've seen him so far."
Q"Rouge, c'mon, am I the only one who has some severe questions about all this?" Shadow said quietly, leaning on the wall outside the door. "I mean, I know Chaos Energy can do some crazy things, but causing three robots to turn into organic life, at once, seems a bit of a stretch at how simple they make that sound."
Rouge spat toothpaste into the sink and prodded the points of her sharper teeth carefully before reaching for the mouthwash.
"Honestly, after the stuff we've seen, and you find that completely unbelievable?"
"Yes!" Shadow kept the same tone as he tossed his hands in the air. "They can't even give us an explanation as to how that can even be possible! I want answers!"
"Keep that up, and they'll overhear you." Rouge said after finishing with the mouthwash, not even really looking at Shadow, but appearing somewhat sarcastic.
"Good!" Shadow said loudly, stepping away from the wall before jumping back a bit, quills bristled and ears straight up as he cursed under his breath.
Owen was standing there staring at him, hands held up in front of himself in mild surprise, as if the reaction had caught him off guard as well. Shadow took note that the small bear had yet to actually close his mouth since arriving, as if his teeth were a bit too big for it, but at least the oddly large grin was considerably smaller.
"S-sorry, I didn't think I was that quiet..." Owen looked up, reached his hand to the back of his head and rubbed it awkwardly. "... Um, I was just wanting to say 'Thanks' for letting us stay here."
Shadow blinked.
"... How long have you been standing there..?"
"Dunno." Owen shrugged. "Maybe a few minutes?"
Shadow continued to blink, as if considering that perhaps he had in fact been a bit too loud.
"But, don't worry, I'd be skeptical too if I was in your shoes." Owen dropped his hands to his sides, letting them swing a bit. "We're not planning on tricking you or anything; we're just as confused as you are about this. I've just decided to go with it, and enjoy it while it lasts..."
"While it..?" The hedgehog raised an eyebrow while flashing a glance to Rouge.
"Well, I mean we don't know if this is temporary or what." The bear scratched and shook his head. "Though, I think I've gotten used to having lungs and I've already gotten fond of tasting things."
He laughed as if this amused him, but he quickly stopped with a cough when he was aware of the awkward stares he was receiving. His fingers found the red crystal shard around his neck, and closed around it, giving it a slight tug.
"... I thought I should mention that Emmett doesn't always sleep through the night, by the way." Owen said, stealing a glance behind him. "If you find him walking around after Two in the Morning, he's probably not awake, so don't freak him out. And we've had a few times where he's woken up kinda fighting, so I guess he has nightmares or something..."
"You guess?"
"Well, I mean, he can't exactly confirm it himself, y'know? Makes it kinda hard to tell in the middle of the night 'cause he's pretty quiet." Owen grinned sheepishly and raised a hand in a shrug. "... He's honestly not much trouble at all, he just likes to look at things and hasn't quite gotten the idea of personal space yet."
"You've told us all about him, but you haven't really told us a thing about yourself, kid." Rouge put her toothbrush away in the cabinet and stepped into the hallway.
Owen flinched briefly and continued to touch at the gem around his neck, a tinge of pink flaring up across the bridge of his snout.
"... Not really much to say, I'm in the same boat as the both of them." He looked at the floor and shuffled his feet. "It's just-"
Before he could continue, Rouge grabbed him by the arm carefully as she walked by and made the comment about boiling water for tea.
Shadow was left there to debate whether he should brush his teeth now or follow after them. The latter choice won out, and he stepped to the direction of the kitchen before freezing and becoming hyper aware that a certain dark blue hedgehog was staring at him.
"... Yes?" He said calmly, glancing sidewise at the other, who continued to stare at him, flashing a look of recognition behind the eyes before giving a small smile.
As to what he recognized Shadow from, Shadow could only guess from a handful of reasons, but at the very least, it seemed friendly.
"He must like you, because I haven't really seen him smile much." Omega took note. "In fact, he normally looks distant when he's staring, that I have to wonder what is even going on in that head."
Omega got up from the couch carefully to avoid leaving any quills behind and made to step over to Shadow, only to be stopped by a sudden tug at his tail.
Emmett had grabbed it, prompting Omega to stop immediately to not have the barbed quills tear into the hedgehog's hands.
Emmett gave him a look of mild panic, as if startled that the porcupine was choosing to leave.
"You can come with us, if you want." Omega assured, carefully prying the hands off his spiked tail. "... He doesn't like to be left alone." He told Shadow with a shrug.
Emmett quickly grabbed Omega's wrists and, being smaller than the porcupine, pulled himself towards him as he made the motion to tug. Omega lifted his arms without so much as batting an eye, as if he wasn't much concerned, and Emmett hung on, kicking his feet in the air idlly.
"... See?" Omega said as he set Emmett down carefully.
Meanwhile, Rouge set down a cup of tea in front of Owen, who stared at it cautiously, watching the steam rise. The bat warned of its temperature, but the bear figured enough from the aforementioned clue. The tea smelled of sweet spices, perhaps a bit of clove and cinnamon, a maybe a hint of citrus peel. Not that Owen knew well enough about those things to identify them yet...
"So, tell me about yourself." She urged gently, sitting down with her own cup.
Owen continued to stare at his steaming cup, closing his mouth completely for perhaps the first time since arriving. He looked up again and grinned nervously.
"... I'm pretty much the same as the both of them. Started out with the Doc, decided that I wanted to do more, and, well, here I am now."
"And that's about the most generalized explanation I've heard." Rouge sipped her tea before setting the cup down and leaning forward, braced by an arm. "Tell me about yourself."
Owen blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected much to be pursued further beyond his explanation, much less be set down to discuss it over tea.
Watching the bat do so before him, he carefully pulled the bag up by the string, pressed a spoon against it and the wall of the cup, and set it aside.
"... Well, you've probably figured that I'm not originally flesh and stuff, but a sentient, um... Robot? Is... Is that a proper term? It seems so, lifeless, I don't think we were really true robots, now that I think about it..." Owen lifted his cup and carefully sniffed it. The sweet scent made him briefly think of how Emmett would enjoy it. He sipped it cautiously, and added after he swallowed: "Honestly, I'm not used to people being civil with me. There's always been a sort of fear or something when they looked at me, so it's actually pretty nice to be able to talk with someone..."
With as calm and polite as he seemed at the moment, it seemed to be so unlikely that was the case. But, as Rouge had come to know, because of her acquaintances over the years, looks were deceiving.
"... I don't think you've heard of me before, since the Doc kinda retired me years ago, long before Omega came around, but I made to resemble one of that one hedgehog's friends. A fox, I think, but I'm sure my outside appearance was just a modified teddy bear with some tails stitched on." Owen shrugged, tapping his fingers against the cup. "I think I took the least time to build, because I was just a basic frame stuffed into a doll, and an external energy source slapped on. I wasn't in action for too long, because I was just an extra for a set of races, and wasn't meant for battle like the others..." He took another sip, and inhaled slow and deeply after swallowing. "It was actually kinda fun, to be honest. But it didn't take long for word to spread that I was some kind of cursed thing that would take souls if I tagged everyone in a certain order, and the rumors kinda spiraled out of control for a while."
He took yet another sip and waited, breathing quietly through his teeth when he finished swallowing.
"... Well, you certainly look a bit like Tails." Rouge said, seemingly missing the point, but that was just her way of breaking the ice.
"On one hand, no one tried to trash me. On the other, no one wanted to get near me." Owen took another, this time longer, sip. "Barring the other robots, of course. Especially Emmett. I like Emmett."
"Any particular reason you call him Emmett? Considering..?"
"Oh, I just thought it was a clever retool. He doesn't mind it, so it's fine."
Rouge blinked, and glanced past the threshold into the living room. Omega seemed to have given up on prying off Emmett, who had his arms wrapped around Omega's left, staring at Shadow, who looked as though he was having a bit of an issue reading him.
"How can you tell..?"
Owen sipped his tea again, now having cooled a bit too much. He finished it off and set the cup down.
"He'd let me know, I'm sure." He said, as if it was an obvious answer, seemingly oblivious to Rouge's confusion.
It was late, and Emmett was, as far as one could tell, the only one still awake.
He has specifically waited to be the last one up so he could freely browse this house with little interruption. He had recalled seeing a large glass jar of candies that had been placed out of his immediate reach upon request of his short bear acquaintance, and he was determined to get to it.
Emmet didn't speak much, but for good reason. His voice had been, for lack of a better word, "injured" some time ago, so he appeared to be very quiet, when he could, if he wanted to, speak short words under his breath with clarity if one were to really listen.
Speaking louder resulted in little more than unintelligible sounds, which often embarrassed him and he kept his mouth shut for good measure.
He also liked sweets, perhaps too much, and had already more than once suffered significant "sugar crashes" from eating too much sugar in a short time.
Owen had decided after the third incident, to actively limit his intake, but the bear was asleep right now, and Emmett was going to get that jar.
It was simple enough. He could simply push a chair to the long flat surface beside the large metal box that held food, and climb on the surface, and grab the jar from the top of the aforementioned box.
He was clever, he thought, and such a task was far too easy for him, it was almost a crime.
He frowned a little at that thought, staring up at the jar, already having stepped into the room.
It was too easy, surely Owen would have guessed that he'd try for it?
He blinked and weighed the consequences. He knew that there was no way he'd be able to sneak off with the jar, as it would be noticeable if it was missing, and the smaller amount left in it would surely rat him out once found...
He could just leave it be, he supposed, but he was just so very curious about the sort of sweets that existed in this jar.
He pushed a chair to the counter, and made to step on it, before a dull red glow surrounded him like a bubble and blocked him from going further.
He didn't even bother to turn around, knowing full well what was happening.
"I thought you might try that." Owen said, sounding as though he wasn't so much amused as he was more exasperated. "It's barely been a week since the last time, do you really want to get sick again from eating too much of that?"
A low, inaudible grumble escaped Emmett and he threw an annoyed glare at the bear.
"It's two in the morning, go back to sleep, Emmett."
Owen flicked his wrist and the bubble around Emmett dispersed, dropping him to the floor on his rump from a short distance. Emmett rolled his eyes, got up from the floor, brushed himself off and made to climb the chair again, unfazed.
"Emmett." Owen said reprimandingly, catching a wrist before the hedgehog could even get his foot up on the seat of the chair. "That's not even yours to get."
Owen then stepped in front of Emmett and started to nudge him towards the doorway.
"It's late, anyway, you don't need that."
Emmett huffed at him, but followed anyway, still eyeing the jar. Perhaps Owen was right... He'd leave it alone.
For now.