Shadow Saves them All
Chapter 2
A cold crisp night was welcomed by station square and all its residents as the cold winter weather continued to gently tickle the red noses of the kind people. And the members of the Sonic team were all enjoying themselves as well. It was December 23rd, two days from Christmas and everyone was excited. Vector Espio and Charmy were in a car on their way to Cream's house. Vector was happy and cheerful as he hummed 'Jingle bells' while driving. Charmy and Espio were both just as merry doing a Christmas crossword puzzle in the backseat.
"I can't wait to see what Cream and her mama are doing for the holidays!" Vector finally shouted with a vigorous voice, which startled his comrades in the backseat.
"Yeah!" Charmy said happily. "I hope they made cookies!" Charmy started to fly in the car, his childish excitement was too much to contain.
"We should be thankful they invited us over, and not jump into asking for sweets," Espio said to Charmy with a calm tone. Charmy stopped flying and sat down with a sad face on. He hated it when Espio lectured him on simple stuff, it made Charmy feel impolite. Espio smiled at Charmy and recovered quickly saying ; "But I'm sure they'll be very happy to see us Charmy," He patted his bee friend on the head and Charmy smiled his big smile again. "Yeah! Hurry Vector! I wanna get there fast!"
Charmy started barking 'Faster Faster!' At Vector over and over, irritating the alligator as he drove. As they turned left into the town square a figure stood on top of a snow covered building. He was not a hedgehog however, no… he was human. He had on blue jeans and a blue T-shirt, with a black jacket and a red scarf. The snow blew past him as he continued to listen to the Choatix Crew go about their business until they were out of range.
"Well, I guess those three don't have anything to do with the problem. I'd better check on the other candidates," He turned around and began to run at incredibly fast speeds, nearly as fast a Sonic. He jumped off the building and landed on the road, sprinting about fifteen miles in no time until he stopped right in front of an apartment building. He walked up to it and buzzed in the front door. He went up the stairs to the fourth floor and came to room 412.
He knocked on the door and waited, a woman's voice said 'coming!' and footsteps were heard as the door was opened only to see a small white bat in front of him. Rouge.
"Hello Rouge," the man said with a stern look on his face. Rouge immediately recognized the man and said; "Dylan! Oh it's been too long! Come in come in!" she said gesturing for him to enter. Dylan stepped inside and saw the apartment was decorated with some Christmas decorations. Santa cookie jar, wreath on the glass door leading to the patio, but what caught his eye was the two glowing red and green lights she had put up over the fireplace. A glass Santa was riding in a glass sleigh that held two large glowing objects in it, one red one green.
Dylan picked them both up as Rouge closed the door. "So, I see you're still collecting chaos emeralds," Rouge looked over at him as she got some eggnog out of the fridge.
"Oh yeah! I got one of those from an old ditch I was flying by! The other one I swiped from Knuckles when he wasn't looking," Rouge put on her trademark smile of slyness and deviousness and continued to pour the eggnog as Dylan sat down on the couch, juggling the two emeralds.
"So, what brings you back here? Last time you were here was when Eggman stole the master emerald for the first time, and Sonic and Knuckles teamed up to get it back," Rouge asked. Dylan stopped juggling the emeralds and sat up on the couch.
"I know, I come here whenever there are serious power problems, and something big is headed this way that I have to stop," he said calmly. He continued to stare at the emeralds, gazing into their glowing light.
"The Chaos Emeralds… where did they come from? What was their purpose? Even my higher ups don't know," Dylan thought to himself.
"Well, anyway, it's great to finally see you again," Rouge said handing him his glass of eggnog. Dylan sighed and threw the two emeralds right back into the little sleigh he took them from. She sat down next to him as he drank it and she turned on the T.V. and browsed the channels. As they sat there the cold snowflakes began to fall outside, little falling sparkles reflecting off the light of the city. Finally Rouge found the News Channel and set the remote down on the coffee table alongside the eggnogs.
A news reporter was standing in Station Square in front of a large pile of Eggman robots, or at least what was a pile of Eggman robots before they were completely destroyed.
"Here we have the acts of two brave heroes! Sonic the Hedgehog the worldwide hero! And Silver the Hedgehog lesser known do gooder!"
Dylan saw them and his curiosity rose. He stiffened a little and grabbed the remote turning up the volume a little.
"Unfortunately our brave heroes are being hospitalized after severe injuries," In the background Sonic and Silver were both being placed into ambulances and hastily being taken to the nearest hospital. Both of them looked pretty bad, but watching this, one thought couldn't escape Dylan's mind. There were the three hedgehog heroes; Sonic, Shadow and Silver. So where the heck is Shadow?
Dylan stood up and headed for the door as Rouge was startled by his sudden movement. She got up and stepped in front of Dylan stopping him before he could open the door.
"Wait!" she said quickly. "Where are you going? You just got here, you can't stay a little longer?" Rouge stood there and kept Dylan from leaving until he spoke out.
"Rouge, I would like to spend some more time with you and everyone else, but right now I have a job to do," he sternly walked past her as she turned around to face him.
"… I'm sorry," he said about to leave when Rouge stopped him.
"Hang on a sec, I've got something you're gonna need," she ran into the den of the apartment and grabbed the two Chaos Emeralds out of the glass sleigh and gave them to Dylan, who was waiting just outside her apartment door.
"If you're having a power issue, you'll need these," Rouge placed them in his hands and winked at him. He thanked her and walked down the hall to leave. Before Rouge closed the door she yelled down the hall;
"If you need any help, you know where to find me!" she smiled at him as he called the elevator which opened immediately. He smiled back and put his index and middle finger to his head, like a two fingered salute. He waved goodbye after and entered the elevator. As it went down to the first floor Dylan thought to himself;
"Well," He thought about Rouges sly look that she gave him earlier.
"She's definitely not part of the problem," He smiled and exited the elevator and went outside, returning to the chilly winter weather that was blowing all throughout Station Square. He knew this would be a long couple of days and he still had a ton of old friends to see.
"This is gonna be fun," he zipped up his black polyester jacket and began to run for Cream's house.
To Be Continued…
