Dare 2: Tea Party
Hello everyone! Today's dare - the first outside suggestion - was devised by a certain ckaira77! I hope she enjoys reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Seriously, I broke down laughing constantly doing this. Sonic Boom, episode 48… XD Well, a big shout out to you, ckaira77! Enjoy the next chapter!
Shadow was sitting in his small room at G.U.N. Headquarters. It wasn't much, but at least it was somewhere to go when he wanted to avoid the others. Suddenly, his phone started blaring "ALL HAIL SHADOW, HEROES RISE AGAIN!" at him, meaning somebody was calling him. He looked at the phone - Sonic the Hedgehog. Shadow reluctantly answered. "What do you want?" he asked.
"Way to say hello," the blue hedgehog's voice replied. There was no way of seeing him, but Shadow could tell that his speedy ally was rolling his eyes. Before the ultimate life form could say anything, Sonic continued. "I have a bet for you, should you choose to accept it."
"I'm listening."
"Well, Silver's come back to the past or present or whatever for a visit, and he's hanging out with Cream and Cheese. They both reckon that you might enjoy yourself, so get this - haha - you're invited to a tea party with them." Sonic started laughing, obviously imagining Shadow sitting and drinking tea with a 6-year-old and the most childlike 14-year-old ever.
Shadow thought about the circumstances. Sonic did say it was a bet. "What'll happen, and what do I get if I sit it out?"
Still struggling to contain his laughing, Sonic explained, "You'll be there for exactly one hour. You have to play along with everything the kids come up with and basically not kill the mood. Tails has set up undetectable… uh… Tails, what did you call those things again?"
From the background, Tails called back, "Temporarily placed undetectable high-definition crystal audio 1080p miniature cameras beaming image and sound through Wi-Fi onto my Ringdows 10 laptop."
"Yeah, that blah-blah-blah. So, if you back out now, you lose your dignity and make Cream and Silver sad. If you try but lose, we upload everything we got to my ZoneTube account. But if you succeed, you have bragging rights and you can take one hundred Rings each from me and Tails. You also get to upload the next embarrassing photo you take of me to Ringstagram."
Shadow smiled. He knew for a fact that Sonic was going to the beach in a few days, and a little Chaos Control would probably persuade him to go into the water. "I'll do it. Be there in a flash."
One "CHAOS CONTROL!" later
Shadow appeared outside Cream's house in a flash of green light. (Ha ha ha… a 'flash'? Get it? Yeah, I know. Blame Shadow, not me. He made the pun.) He briefly buried his head in his hands, knowing that this would be a bad idea, then pulled himself together and knocked. Vanilla came to answer him. "Oh, hello, Shadow!" she said brightly. "Come in! I don't think you've ever come to visit Cream before. She'll be so pleased."
Time remaining: 1:00
Trying not to panic, Shadow walked inside. He entered Cream's bedroom. "Why, hello, Mr. Shadow!" the young rabbit greeted him sweetly as she noticed his presence. Her pet Chao Cheese "Chao!"-ed his agreement. "Would you like to take a seat? Mr. Silver is pouring some tea right now." Shadow looked to Silver, who was pointing at a pink plastic teapot that was floating in the air and pouring what was obviously just water into matching teacups.
Pulling out an extremely small red chair, Shadow sat down. Cream looked absolutely ecstatic. Silver moved his finger down and set the teapot back on the kiddie table. He pushed a teacup each towards Shadow and Cream, then took his own and sat on a tiny green stool. Cream happily took a sip, then offered some tea (cough water cough) to Cheese. Shadow looked a little confused and was tempted to say "This is definitely water", but remembered Sonic's words. '…and basically not kill the mood.' He drank some water and said as convincingly as he could, "Um, this is, er, very nice tea…"
Silver smiled. "I made it myself," he said proudly. "Do you want any sugar?" He held up a packet that said Artificial Sweetener on it.
"Er, no thanks…" Shadow replied. This would be the longest hour of his life.
Time remaining: 0:50
Shadow noticed a box in the corner of Cream's room. Misinterpreting his poker-faced expression for curiosity, Silver said, "Oh! That's the dress-up box!" Shadow turned a little pale. Silver either didn't realize it or didn't care. "Let's play dress-ups!"
Cream cheered. "Yay! I love dress-up games!" The little colour left in Shadow's face drained.
Time remaining: 0:45
Silver was wearing a green jacket covered in feathers. Cream was in a cute blue dress, with her normal one slightly visible underneath. Cheese had an elastic-supported yellow bowtie over his own red one. Shadow looked in the box and nearly fainted when he saw his options. His face reddening, he said, "I'll take the purple one…"
Half a minute later, Shadow was in a violet dress that made him look like a Disney character. A female Disney character. He covered his face with his hands. "Oh, god…"
"You look really pretty, Mr. Shadow!" Cream reassured him, not knowing that it was probably making things worse. "Mother says that I should wear that dress when I'm all grown up. Hey, do you want to play grown-ups?"
Time remaining: 0:35
"Yes, I would love to come with you to the ball, Lady Cream!" Silver told Cream, bowing. "And Shadow ought to accompany Sir Cheese."
This was getting ridiculous. Shadow was going to dance in a purple dress at an imaginary ball with a Chao. Sonic's explanation once again played in his mind. 'You have to play along with everything the kids come up with…' Inhaling deeply and trying not to have a panic attack, he said, "That… would… be… a… privilege… and… an… honour."
Cheese yelled "Chao, chao, chao!" happily. Shadow groaned internally and took the little Chao by the hand. Cream took out a kid's CD player and hit the PLAY button, causing the theme of Chao from Sonic Adventure to play.
"Let's dance!" she said excitedly.
Time remaining: 0:15
After the most humiliating twenty minutes of his entire life, Shadow had finally gotten a lucky break when Cream and Silver decided to stop playing grown-ups. He had to finish the dare now. If that footage got on the internet, not even his fans would want to make a sequel to Shadow the Hedgehog. Taking the dress off as quickly as he could, he sat back down. Vanilla walked into Cream's room. "Hello!" she said. "I brought you all muffins." She set down a plate of four muffins.
Shadow smiled a little. This would help to make the next minutes bearable. He, Cream, Cheese and Silver all grabbed a muffin and bit into it. Cream and Cheese seemed very happy with it, and Silver looked grateful to be having food, but Shadow instantly noticed that something was up. "Er… these are some nice-looking muffins," he lied. "What's in them?"
"Carrot and spinach," Vanilla replied. "Healthy and delicious! They're also sugar-free and vegan friendly."
Shadow looked down at his food. "Um… interesting," he said, trying simultaneously not to hurt Vanilla's feelings and not to puke. "…I'm not really hungry, though. You should save this for later or something."
Time remaining: 0:10
Silver had gotten out the plastic teapot and teacups again. He poured some tea (cough water cough) into the cups again and carried them over to the table. "More tea, you two?" he asked. Cream nodded vigorously and Shadow shrugged his agreement. Silver smiled and took a cup for himself. "What would you guys like to do next?" he asked.
"Chao, chao, chao-chao!" Cheese piped up.
"Cheese says that he wants to have a conversation!" Cream translated. "Good idea, Cheese! Well, yesterday I was at the park with Mother and I found some flowers and…"
Time remaining: 0:01
Shadow glanced over at the alarm clock by Cream's bed for what must have been the millionth time. One minute to go. Silver was still talking. "So I told Blaze that now she's in her world instead of my time, we should try to create a portal so that we can meet up more often…"
Forty seconds…
"But how do you do that, Mr. Silver?"
Thirty…
"Well, I don't understand it much myself. Blaze figured out how to do it, not me, and her friend Marine put things together…"
Fifteen…
"Chao chao, chao chao?"
"Cheese says that 'isn't Marine only seven?'"
"Yeah, but she's pretty smart for her age."
Five… four… three… two… one…
Shadow had completed the bet.
Over at Tails' house
"Holy Chaos, he did it," Tails stammered from his laptop.
"Well, great. What am I gonna do now?" Sonic asked in frustration. "I didn't think he'd make it through, and if he takes a hundred Rings, I'm practically broke!"
"It was your idea to give him the dare."
Back to Shadow, Cream, Cheese and Silver
"Oh, look at the time!" Shadow exclaimed. "Sorry, but, um, I have to go." Go and collect my money from those fools, he thought.
"Aw," Silver sighed dejectedly.
"Like I said, I'm sorry," Shadow reassured him, feeling a bit guilty. "But I have to get going. It's been… unforgettable."
"Well then, goodbye, Mr. Shadow," Cream said. "I'm glad you had such a wonderful time! Please come back soon."
"If I have the time," Shadow said, thinking that he never wanted to be in this place for an hour ever again. "Chaos CONTROL!" he shouted, vanishing.
A few days later
Shadow dialled Sonic's phone. "Er, hey Shad, ha ha ha… er, I still don't have a hundred Rings, okay? Stop harassing me."
"Dude, you give me those rings, or I find your phone and send a couple of fake texts to Amy."
"Please, no."