A blue blur shot through a course of tangled foliage and yellowed crumbled pillars. His course danced around the more recent but equally ruined robot factory. Nothing could be heard there but the frenetic tapping of feet. A strip of white tape on one arm not quite fastened flapped in the wind.
He was in a rare state: alone. The old instinct came out still, demanding that he exert his speed without reason. Slowing down enough to let his friends keep up, and Eggman distracting him with a killer robot (for the third time that week), kept him from it. If these fell away, the itch came back, and Sonic just ran.
Man, it felt great to stretch his legs and be out. Relaxing, even in this boiling heat. At least, for him it was. Tails dealt with it by building what he called Cool-Bots out of a junked fridge and broken fans. The last he saw of Amy and Sticks, they were lounging inside, chatting to keep their mind off the heat. Knuckles - Sonic laughed to think of it - Knuckles dug a deep hole and sat in it. Then invited everybody else to share the hole with him.
Sonic had hopped in the hole out of boredom. It was less hot down there, kudos to Knuckles, but it was too cramped for his liking. Running with the wind in his quills and under the shade of the forest was so much better.
By now, he'd lost count of how many times he had circled the ruin. Now he wanted some competition. Sonic shifted gears down a notch for the turn and changed course. The plants in the ancient city he circuited ceased to shake in the wind. The lofty ivory gate blinked and he was through, only looking straight ahead.
Shadow Canyon. He snorted. How wacky of a coincidence was that? Sonic jumped through the usual platforms of the canyon. His feet did the thinking for where or how to jump or stop. How many landforms could there be that just so happened to have your name on it? It wasn't as if he had run into Metal at, like, Metal Sonic Mountain.
The narrowing ravine echoed with laughter at his own joke. Metal Sonic Mountain. That would have been impossible to take seriously.
Sonic screeched to a halt. In a way, he'd gone backwards. The silver enerbeam slingshot to the junkyard stood at the start of the canyon. He paused and made a face. What was he doing again?
Oh, right. Mr. Serious. Sonic shielded his eyes and squinted down the ravine. Where was Shadow? All he had to do to draw the black hedgehog out was to arrive alone and run around, and he had. Just like last time.
Maybe something's wrong?
He took a step back into the canyon but reconsidered. The guy hangs out by himself in a gorge. If even he had alone days, Shadow the lonerhog might take weeks or months for solitude. Though it had been weeks already…but then it could just be a bad day for racing.
Sonic blinked and realized how sweaty he was. Phew. He wiped his brow. The heat wasn't so bad a reason.
That was probably it. Oh well, another time. Maybe he'd go running back home on the coast. Not in the water- not in the water, no way- but on the beach, misted by the cool ocean spray. That sounded real good right about now.
He ignored the enerbeam slingshot and leaned forward into a marathon-starting stance. There's no fun in traveling if he doesn't get to run.
This time Sonic accelerated into a spindash, whirling to the bottom first. He sprinted at the cooler ravine floor. The tapping of feet slowed as he went; even he got tired. The sun grew brighter upon him as the cliffs fell into the lower sides of the well-worn clearing. There was the gate! And glorious shade-
The blue hedgehog chanced to look aside and skidded to a stop.
He didn't have to see the crumpled black figure up close to know who it was. He jogged towards that spot by the wall and slid to a kneeling stop. Shadow lay limp on his left side; his limbs sprawled outward on top of each other. In this heat and nothing to lean on but rock, no way he just fell asleep.
Sonic shifted his legs to sit and think. Had somebody gotten the drop on Shadow? Lyric had somehow, that one time. Thinking about it, how hadn't he noticed the mind-control thingy then? Or the roboty way Shadow was acting? In retrospect, it was obvious...
He doesn't know. And, right now, it doesn't matter. Should wake him up; see if he's all right. And then he'd probably be yelled at for 'disturbing his superior', or whatever that thing was Shadow went on about.
Sonic rolled his eyes. Whatever. So what if they weren't exactly friends. There was no way he'd just leave pretending he hadn't seen anything.
He gripped the black hedgehog's right shoulder and shook him.
An arm swung at him. Sonic jerked back to avoid it and caught himself by the fingertips. Shadow opened his eyes blearily.
"Mnn…" He blinked and twitched his head. And glowered on seeing who woke him. "You again?" Shadow growled, hoarse, annoyed.
Eh, so what else was new? Sonic leaned forwards to sit normal again. "Yyyep. Me again." He said, somewhere between also irritated but amused. "Man, we keep meeting like this." He fanned himself, but stopped since it didn't help much. "Did somebody else knock you out this time, or…?" He waved his hands around trying to come up with an 'or'.
Shadow pushed himself up from the ground and leaned against the wall, not answering. He ran one hand across his damp forehead. "What are you-" He grimaced and hissed at something midsentence. Sonic stretched up to look for it and started.
Shadow's left leg was swollen; mottled purple bruising only just visible under black fur. It looked like it hurt bad. How hadn't he seen that a second ago? "Oh, geez," Sonic began, a little startled, "Your leg looks awful."
The black hedgehog twitched his good leg inwards, as if to hide the injured one. "I'm dealing with it." If he was in pain, he did a good job sounding frustrated instead.
"Ok, but-" Sonic glanced down at the leg again, and winced in sympathy. "Eugh, I don't think it's supposed to bend that way."
"What do you care?" Shadow shot at him, bristling. "I've got it, leave me alone."
Well, no, he's not gonna do that. Sonic was silent for a moment. There were scorpions larger than his feet around here. Prickly-proud Shadow isn't a pitiable figure, sure. But anyone unable to move and left exposed to driller worms, robots, and this heat…
"Er. Busted legs suck." Sonic decided to say, as if forced to point out the obvious. Stopping to be choosy with words helped his patience. "And if you could stand," He couldn't help but quip, jabbing a finger at his rival, "you'd be long gone by now."
Shadow was silent, but his mouth twitched in a way that indicated grudging agreement. Or more pain. Both, probably.
That was good enough. Sonic hopped to his feet and snatched Shadow's arm. The black hedgehog barked in alarm at the sudden tug, his good foot scrambling to support him. Sonic stood up and slung Shadow's arm over his shoulder. The injured leg swung between the two. Shadow instinctively clung to Sonic to keep from falling.
"Alright, you admitted it," Sonic said. He shifted the other hedgehog's arm a bit. "Now let's go."
Shadow tore himself away, throwing Sonic off and falling away to latch onto the rock wall.
"Shadow, hey-!"
"I did not agree to anything!" He growled, "You, of all people, are not helping me."
The blue hedgehog just looked at him and shook his head. "Guhhh…" Veins of frustrations deepened his voice. "Do you have a problem with me, or do you just hate..." Sonic waggled his hands in midair, unable to pin down anything. "…uh." His shoulders fell, no longer tense. "Something?"
Ok that was lame. Shadow rolled his eyes and wasn't about to fill in the blank.
Definitely not enough to stop him. "Ok. I don't know what your deal is," He glanced down and pointed at the swelling on Shadow's leg. "But you are not getting anywhere on that, so c'mon."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes! I'll drag you there if I have to."
"Go away!"
For answer, Sonic grabbed his arm and yanked him off the wall again. "Nope, sorry." Shadow stumbled and had to grab on to the blue hedgehog again.
Sonic waited a second for more resistance just to be fair. On hearing nothing for once, he took the first steps of what was to be a long, slow walk to camp.