Chapter One: Leave
By
LordHelen
Sonic snuggled comfortably into her armchair, holding up Wuthering Heights. How long had it been since she had gotten Shadow back? Two weeks? It was wonderfully peaceful, too peaceful for the year she had had. She stretched out, thinking about Shadow now.
He was still very distant, but he was warming up. She expected he thought he would wake up one day and Sonic will have gone all psycho and killed everyone. Sonic could hardly blame him, and she was trying to be patient. He had gone all distant again after the Hogura adventure though, and it was hard.
Sonic was not very patient. When she had tried meditation before to get through Shadow's distant phase, she had been unable to do it correctly. She had twitches and ticks that annoyed most who looked at her. She looked up at Rouge's hammock, finally realizing the bat had not come home.
"Still at Knuckles's house?" Sonic wondered aloud. Everyone in the cluster of friends had suspected there was something going on between the two and often discussed it. Sonic had openly refused to join this, stating it was rude to discuss someone behind their backs. The others, of course, disagreed and simply refrained from talking in front of her.
The too bright yellow door swung open and Sonic jumped, her forgotten book falling to the floor. Rouge entered, looking tired and enraged. Her eyes were puffy and red as if she had been crying. She locked the door quietly behind herself, seeming to remember to be quiet. She turned and jumped into the air, her flapping wings taking her to the ceiling.
"Sonic, what are you doing? It must be past midnight!" Rouge rubbed her eyes and sank back to the floor. Her face was wrinkled with anger and pain, something Sonic had never seen. Not on Rouge, at least.
"I was just reading." Sonic said honestly, standing up. Her friend looked bad. "What happened? Have you been crying?"
"No." Rouge lied unconvincingly. She sighed and it was long and shuddering, a sigh of defeat. "Yes."
"Why? Rouge, did Knuckles make you cry?" Sonic demanded. Rouge didn't answer, so the hedgehog pressed. "Rouge, you get your little bat butt over here and answer me!"
"Okay, Sonic, fine!" Rouge said. Sonic felt the water works coming on and ran to her bed, grabbing the box of tissues. "Yes, Knuckles made me cry."
"Tell me what happened, Rouge. Please."
"Well, Knuckles and I have been…well, we've been…" Rouge fought for words, her face screwed up.
"Involved?" Sonic suggested helpfully.
"Yeah, sure. Involved…anyways, I came to Knuckles and we were talking…and we got into a hug fight!" Rouge was sobbing now. "It wasn't even about anything important, and he almost kicked me out! And I was yelling, and he was yelling…"
"Shh, Rouge, hush now." Sonic comforted, stuffing the tissues in her hand. "Go to sleep, you can talk to Knuckles tomorrow. He was fine, you were great! You're supposed to yell and fight and be mad! And then you make up. Go to bed."
"Okay…" Rouge sniffled and fluttered to her hammock, crying all night. Sonic wanted to be there for her friend, but she wanted to sleep to! Between Shadow and Rouge and the boring classes, Sonic almost wished for another person to come around! Another disaster so she could be the hero and everyone would love her again. Forgetting the anxiety and fear, Sonic silently prayed for one more disaster, just one…
The morning was bright and Sonic could barely hold in her excitement. Shadow was watching TV with her, and he was hardly distant at all. He even kissed her once or twice. Sonic stretched on his bed and laughed at his joy.
"Are you feeling okay?" Sonic asked, the question popping unexpectedly from her mouth. She blushed.
"Yeah, I'm fine. No bruises or head bumps. No migraines. Why do you ask?" Shadow turned and gave her a puzzled gaze.
"It's just…I don't know, maybe the light made you look pale." Sonic's lie sounded feeble even to her. "Okay, you're acting funny. But I like it, and don't you dare stop."
"Okay, sure. You sure are strange, Sonic Hedgehog." Shadow smiled and turned back to the TV, watching a program about G.U.N. It was the government association, Guardian Units of Nations. It was explaining their purpose and weaponry.
"Wow, this is highly educational." Sonic commented, throwing popcorn in high arcs towards Silver. "Only smart people should watch this. I guess you should go, Silver."
"Ha ha, so terribly funny, Sonic." Silver snapped. Sonic looked taken aback, and Silver immediately felt rotten. She was just kidding. "Sorry, your snoring boyfriend kept, me up last night."
"I do not snore you liar!" Shadow snarled, throwing a whole handful of popcorn perfectly, slapping Silver in the face. The hedgehog smiled, wiping his face off.
"Oh sure, when I do it I get reprimanded. When he does it, he gets the smile of doom." Sonic pouted. Silver chuckled and got up, leaving with the claim he had studies at the library.
"So, what do you want to do? Go out for coffee?" Shadow asked, shutting off the TV. He stood and stretched.
"I dunno." Sonic admitted, smiling. "I guess we could, The cafeteria serves decaf, if you want to go there."
"Nah, let's go to that new place. You know, Grinder. Or Grind Me, I can't remember." Shadow smiled back. Sonic was about to reply when the door burst open. Several men wearing black protective uniforms and holding guns rushed in.
"Paradox 007 is in range." One man said into a communication device, maybe a wire. "Shoot?"
"NO!" Sonic shouted, seeing all the guns pointed at Shadow. She had little fear; she could knock these guys out in an instance. She concentrated and her fur glittered a light blue.
"Citizen, we are a military task force, G.U.N. We ask you to leave and let us handle the situation." A soldier grabbed Sonic's arm, then dropped it like it burned him.
"Touch me again." Sonic smiled evilly, her voice echoing loudly like it always did when she became the Light Wanderer. "I dare you."
"General, there appears to be another unknown a seemingly deadly individual residing here. She is in range as well."
"We want them alive! We want to study! Do not kill them, soldier!"
"Shadow, go!" Sonic ordered. He didn't move and she ran to him, pressing him forward. "Shadow, run away! Right now!"
"Right, of course." Shadow ran out the door. Some turned to follow, but Sonic distracted them by blowing up the door.
"Highly dangerous, I repeat, seemingly deadly individual is highly dangerous! Fire, men, fire!" a soldier shouted.
Sonic dodged the bullets, as if they were in slow mode. She saw some of them trying to get through the wreckage to get to Shadow. Raising a hand, she blew up a large piece of rubble, showering the men in blazing wreckage. Consumed by her odd delight in destruction, Sonic didn't notice the man creeping up behind her until a gun slammed against her head, knocking her out cold.
"Commander, we only got one. We'll send out a search when we get back, but we need to stabilize this one. Subject is highly dangerous, I repeat, highly dangerous."