Shadow was looking out the window at earth. The place Maria always talked about, shadow was at the usual spot at space colony ARK, the viewing room, well… one of many. But shadow reprogrammed it so that only they could come in.
A sanctuary from there hectic lives,
Shadow was constantly going through rigorous training, for all his five years of life he had learned how to fight, shoot a gun, master mathematics, physics, geometry, he put the E=mc2 equation to shame, and computer programming, even swimming! (Well, Maria taught him that, but still) he was the strongest there ever was and will be.
Maria was the same. Even though they both where 13 Maria was as smart as a college student, but even for that she still was hardheaded and brash, and she still was an ordinary 15 year old girl, despite being so smart. And in a space colony
Shadow was getting bored, waiting for Maria, so he activated his rocket shoes and hovered a few feet above ground. The he started to try a new style of fighting, midair fighting, then with a swoosh. The door to their usual spot open, shadow quickly drops to his feet, Maria hated him fighting in their spot.
"Shadow" she drew out his name she gave him. Shadow held back his usual scowl he gave everyone else. But he never was angry at her, why would he be angry now?
"Maria" he drew out her name with a smirk, he copied her voice perfectly.
Another thing the doctor and his workers taught him
"Shadow!" she fumed "stop using my voice!" He knew she hated it, but she looked so cute when she was a pent up, shadow walked up to her and tapped her shoulder
"Okay, okay, what do you want to do today? I'm Shure there's nobody in the pool, the lab guys are done in the shooting range-"
"Let's go see grandfather, okay?" she interrupted him, shadow shrugged
"Alright, to the doctor" he picked Maria up in his arms, bridal style. Maria was taller than him by a bit and shadow never took any notice of it. He walked out the door sideways to avoid hitting her head on the door frame. He hovered up on his rocket skates Then surrounding himself in chaos energy from the chaos force, he said quietly
"Chaos control"
He didn't want Maria to hear his words.
He usually yelled it out loud, but it just seemed right to be quiet
He was right
A listening bug set up for Shadow and Maria in their usual spot popped itself off the wall, and using and anti-gravity rocket, searched for the people it was listening to.
Xxxx
"hello grandfather!" Maria exclaimed as she strolled in through the door to Professor Gerald's room,
"oh! Maria" Gerald spun around from a chair at his worktable, it was a small room, metal dresser, queen size bed, a worktable scattered with spare parts here and there, along with a computer screen, turned off now, but shadow saw a flicker of an image, but he quickly dismissed it,
"what'ca doin?" she asked with the "innocent look"
"Oh, I'm just making another device that will let me tunnel to the center of earth" Gerald replied matter of fact
"What! No way! You must be joking!" she exclaimed
"He is / I am" Shadow saying He is, and Gerald saying I am, they said it at the same time overlapping each other with their "well duh" tones
"Wow! Jinx! Grandfather! You owe shadow three soda cans!" she said with a smile on her face
"What! Why would I give shadow pop! That's insane!" Gerald exclaimed in mock horror
"Hey! I can have pop when I want to! And she did say you're supposed to give them to me!" shadow fought back with fake hurt look they all new was fake.
"Alright, I'll give you three sodas in a bit" the professor moved his hand to the side and a blue box fell of the table, Gerald had a look of horror as the box started to fall, shadow broke into action, whispering a quick "chaos control" under his breath to stop time, he dove forward and time unstopped, a second later as they processed what happened, all three of them, the two humans and the black hedgehog notice that shadow was on his stomach and had caught the box, that and the waste basket next to the table he kept old scraps of paper in was on his head.
"Whew… haha… that was way to close" Maria said with a nervous laugh,
"Yeah, but at least he caught it" Gerald commented
"wow, I'm glad I dived" shadow said with a grunt as he sat up, he then set the box back on the table by tossing it up lightly for it to just make it onto the table. Then shadow still had the bucket on his head, he was frozen
"Ummmmm… Shadow, you okay?" Maria asked
"I-it's stuck" Shadow stuttered quietly, his checks reddening a little bit, "and I-I can't get it off, and I can't see" he said
"wow, shadow, I never would of thought of that happening, imagine that, my greatest creation and the ultimate life form, has his head stuck in a wastebasket" Gerald commented with chuckle
"s-shut up!" shadow stammered again, his cheeks where reddening now to as crimson as his highlights, Maia resisted every urge not to laugh out loud, because it would only hurt shadows feelings, but it was so funny to see him like that
As well as kind of cute
Maria shook the emotion off and ran over to shadow "alright, stay still, I'm going to grab the bucket, and put my foot on your shoulder, you lean forward and I'll pull back"
"Alright" shadow grunted without stammering this time
"Alright, here, we, go!" Maria and shadow started to do their respective things, shadow moving his head forward, and Maria pulling back on the bucket, Gerald sat on the chair with a faint amusement watching his two "kids" work together, he smirked, leaned forward, and using one finger, poked it between the edge of the bucket, and shadows head, with a loud POP, the bucket came loose, shadow's head flew forward and slammed into the metal wall in front of him, Maria flew back and the basket slammed her head
"owowowowowowowowowow!" the both stood up holding their foreheads, Professor Gerald started to laugh
"Now shadow, I guess I'm going to have to give those sodas to Maria then" he said between a laugh, shadow and Maria looked at each other for a second, and then started laughing themselves
XXXXX
Gerald grabbed shadows arm as he was about to walk out of the room and told him to stay inside to talk to him alone, he told Maria to go to "their spot" and he complied after it "Alright, I guessing what was in the box that I was so despaired over it, Shadow, I'll tell you and show you, Maria knows of it already but, here" Gerald took the box and grabbed a key and stuck into the hole, twisted it a few times, then gave it to shadow. "Open it, gently now" shadow did as he was told
"What is this? Is this a trick?" shadow exclaimed, "Music? From this box?" shadow asked, a gentle melody rang out, and a wooden statue painted of a man in brown hair in a white tux dancing with a woman with blond hair in a white dress
"yes, it is a music box, exactly as it is, it's a present I gave my wife, as a wedding gift" tears shone in Gerald's eyes as he took the box from shadow and set it on the dresser, out of harm's way, along with the key "thank you for reminding me, shadow" he said
"Yes, it is a nice music box, though… I guess I've only seen one" he said with an embarrassed smile
"heheh, it's not of much matter, shadow, I just have to ask you a question, and ask a favor as well" grald said matter of fact.
"then what is it" he said, all in serious
"no not that serious! I just want you to answer this: are you keeping up completely with your studies?" the prof. asked
"Yes! Why wouldn't I be" he said with incredulity,
"because the inspector for our group is coming and is giving you an inspection, this" he glanced to his screen touchpad on the table "this Friday, so I want you to study the entire time, and not bother Maria as well, she has a test on Friday as well, but neither of you are supposed to know about it, so do not mention it, at all, got it?"
"vikaishi, kyoju" shadow confirmed in Japanese (translation: understood, professor)
"Good, now go study, I'll tell Maria you had to go study" Shadow nodded solemnly then paced away towards the direction of the shooting range, Gerald leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh,
"this is of dangerous waters, but I must for the sake of my granddaughter, and James, my son in law, and you, Sera, as my daughter and as a mother I know you must understand me, this is for her sake, as well as my own, I regret this decision" he turned to look at the music box
"but this is for the sake of our family, and our life"