Chapter 4 – Second Thoughts

A weary smirk lingered on Sonic's face as he and Silver stepped into the plaza sector the following morning.

"Hm," he breathed, scanning the crowd, "good thing we decided to come early."

Silver glanced about the massive room in search of a clock. "What time is it now?" He turned to Sonic as he lifted his customized watch to eye level.

"Eleven fifty seven."

"You call that early?"

"Hey, I told you," Sonic reminded him through his chuckle, "all I need is a moment—but since I'm dragging your dead weight around it doesn't hurt to have a couple more." He strolled forward, mindless of the snout-scrunched glare his jab evoked. "C'mon, let's hurry up and find 'em so we can eat!"

The hedgehogs headed to a large support beam in the center of the plaza, the designated meeting spot they'd arranged with Maria the night before. Spanning several feet on each side, though, it didn't make spotting their new friend as easy as they'd expected. Sonic paced circles around it while Silver stood skimming the various flyers tacked to its corkboard surface. After a few minutes, Sonic reached around the corner and tapped Silver's arm with the back of his hand. "Found her." He quickly disappeared back behind it, prompting Silver to hurry after.

On the other side of the beam, Maria approached and greeted them with a sunny smile. "Hey, guys! I brought Shadow along; hope you don't mind." As she spoke, the ultimate life form peeked stoically from behind her, his arms crossed.

"Not at all," Sonic remarked with a trivial air, though he did reserve a bit of concern for occupying an increasingly significant portion of Shadow's memory. There didn't seem to be any real danger in it, at least. "So, what're we havin'?" He clapped and rubbed his hands together.

"Shadow's in the mood for pizza, right, Shadow?" She glanced at him over her shoulder to see his nod. "What do you guys think?" Sonic shrugged, but Silver tilted his head in reluctance.

"Umm, this is going to be brunch for us, actually…."

The blue hedgehog gestured to the nearby tables. "Well, why don't we go ahead and pick a place to sit, and we can all just go get whatever we're in the mood for?" Maria gave an approving nod.

"Okay!" Once they had selected their table, the four split up three ways, with Sonic hitting up the burger counter, Silver checking out the deli, and Maria and Shadow getting in line for pizza. They each returned over the course of the next several minutes with meals in hand. Shadow was the last to arrive, having made another stop on his way back to pick up something at the salad bar.

Opening her eyes after silent grace, Maria cracked an amused smile seeing Silver yawn and Sonic stretch in his seat. "You two just get up?" At their sheepish confirmation, she raised a concerned eyebrow. "Did you sleep okay?"

"Oh yeah," Sonic assured her through a mouthful of cheese fries. "We were just up late going over our…notes and stuff," he explained, waving his hands in small circles at the intentionally vague concept. Of course, he left out the part about their sneaking into the storage hold to sleep on sacks of potatoes for lack of real beds. "Now that we've had a chance to look around, I gotta say I'm pretty impressed with the technology in this place!" Even this far in the past, he'd found that the ARK still contained features more advanced than those found on Earth in his own time. "It's cool how the thermostat automatically adjusts based on how many people are in the room and the doors open in time even if you're comin' at 'em at a hundred miles per hour and you did not just put peanut butter on your pizza…." His train of thought had derailed upon watching Shadow smear the contents of a single serving tub of the creamy paste atop his pepperoni-adorned meal. Casual crimson eyes peered up at him.

"I like it," Shadow responded matter-of-factly.

Silver looked up from his blueberry tart. "I saw a lot of unusual pizza toppings in Italy, but I've never seen that." Just as Shadow lifted the piece to his mouth, Sonic grabbed it and helped himself to a bite before he could snatch it back. Maria laughed so hard she had to cover her mouth with a napkin to keep from spewing half-chewed food across the table, and then all eyes were on Sonic as he smacked on his sample. Pretty soon he was sporting an anguished face. His eyes crossed as he swallowed, and he promptly followed up with a couple of chugs of apple juice. Maria's mouth was now entirely covered by her hand as she continued to giggle, leaning over into Shadow's shoulder.

"…I guess it's an ultimate life form thing," Sonic croaked following the ordeal.

With lunch out of the way, the group was ready for its true objective of the afternoon—to pay a visit to the wildlife vivarium. Though maintained by and for the purposes of the research facility, it was open to all occupants of the ARK during business hours. Maria had mentioned it the previous evening, and it was certainly nothing to which the hedgehogs were opposed; the more they could learn about the colony, the better.

Sonic was literally bouncing off the walls on the way there, letting his feet touch each side for only a moment before leaping to the other in a cross between playing and showing off. He finished the routine by rolling up and launching himself in a homing attack at Silver. "Hey, Silver, think fast!!" Immediately the targeted hedgehog fanned a hand, and his body was enveloped in the frosty blue aura as he brought the Blue Blur to a sudden, green-hued halt, allowing him to only continue spinning at a surrealistically slow pace. He then drew his hand back and thrust it a bit forward again, sending Sonic down the length of the corridor like a pinball. Having pulled his psychokinetic punch, though, he'd only delivered enough force to fire his friend to the far end rather than flatten him against it. Sonic fell just short of the passageway's bend and performed a spin dash upon hitting the floor, rocketing himself back to the others' feet.

Shadow blinked at the display with deep interest. "…How did you throw yourself at him from mid-air like that?" The question was met with a surprised pause from Sonic as he got to his feet. The homing attack had been the simplest move he'd done.

"You don't know how to do a homing attack??"

Shadow shook his head. "It's entirely new to me. I want to learn how it's done." It occurred to Sonic at that moment that Shadow's human upbringing was lacking in Mobian basics.

"Heh…okay," he agreed, eyeing his pupil with a sympathetic smirk. "Well, first things first…how's your quill control? Do you feel a good, strong hold at the roots when you bristle 'em?" He watched as Shadow clenched his fists and a wave of upward motion rippled through the red-streaked spines on his head and back.

"I think so…."

Sonic continued to stare, rubbing his chin, then walked over and cupped his hand under Shadow's primary quill. "Concentrate on this one…tighten and hold it." The black hedgehog complied, and his teacher nodded and gave it an upward push. "Feel it at the bottom?" After a fleeting glance aside, Shadow's eyes widened in realization.

"Yes, I do!"

"Okay, now apply that with a surge of force opposite to the direction you want to go."

The quill was released with its owner's eager nod. "Understood!" Shadow took a few steps forward and leaped up, rolling himself tightly in his ascent. At peak height, he set his quills into motion as he'd been taught, sending his body hurdling forth. The execution was crooked and a bit sloppy but definitely on the right track. Sonic grinned widely at the successful lesson.

"Not bad! Heh, you're a natural!"

"Great job, Shadow!!" Maria joined in, her clapping being echoed throughout the corridor. After a few moments, Shadow jumped up from where he'd landed and attempted it again, this time aiming to strike the far wall. Just as he launched, however, a young boy rounded the corner. The hedgehog sphere whizzed over the youth's head by mere millimeters before slamming with unsettling force into the metal bulkhead behind him, and the collective gasp resounding from one end of the hall was soon offset by a cry of terror from the other. Diving to the floor, the human covered his head with both arms.

"…Shit that was close!!" Sonic stammered once he'd caught his breath. Silver heaved a sigh of relief but kept a hand over his chest. Maria brushed past them and hurried over to the boy, whom she recognized.

"Toby!! Are you okay?" She knelt beside him and touched her hand to his back. "Are you hurt? Let me see your face!" Though sobbing, Toby slowly lifted his head, and she checked him over. Shadow meanwhile pushed himself to his feet and stepped with a slight daze to just behind the boy. The other two hedgehogs soon joined them. Maria noted, "You seem to be okay…he just grazed you if anything…."

With a half wave, Sonic addressed Toby in a mild voice. "Hey there…sorry about scarin' ya. I was just teachin' this guy here a new trick." The child's eyes followed his gesture to the red and black form standing over him, and he screamed again.

"Get away!!"

As he cowered back under the cover of his arms, Maria let out an exasperated sigh. "Toby, I told you, he's not a monster!"

"He's tryin' to kill me!!" the boy wailed.

'No he's not! It was an accident! We didn't even know you were there!" Finding him unresponsive, she pulled him up and into her gentle arms. "Don't be scared, okay? Shadow's really nice. You'd like him if you just got to know him!" She wiped the tears from his left cheek with a single stroke of her fingers, then the right. "Would you like to come to the wildlife center with us? We're on our way there right now." She knew he loved the place, so if anything would put him in a better mood, it would. Aside some sniffles, Toby was quiet a little while before answering.

"………Yeah."

Maria broke into a relieved smile. "Okay, come on, get up." She helped him to his feet, after which he clung to her hand tightly as he stared frowning at Shadow, who merely stared back.

Though the mood was notably heavier than before, everyone had come to civil terms and the time travelers had been properly introduced by the time the group reached the vivarium. As it turned out, Toby was the son of Dr. Curoe, which to Sonic explained a lot when it came to Maria's concern and Toby's mentality towards Shadow.

As they trailed inside, Silver was the first to speak, his brow arched in awe. "Oh wow…."

"Snnnazzy!" Sonic dragged the word out. "I was expectin' a little petting zoo, but this place is incredible!" He crossed his arms behind his head and turned in tipsy circles to take in the scene behind the thick glass on each side.

"Let's go to the bug room!" Toby demanded, trying to pull Maria along with him, but she resisted.

"Wait, Toby. Sonic and Silver haven't been here before. Let's let them look around."

After a brief glance in the groaning boy's direction, Sonic returned his gaze to the creatures roaming their extensive artificial habitat, but his thoughts remained behind. Observing Toby reminded him a bit of his own daughter, who couldn't have been more than two or three years younger than him. But unlike this brat, she had a sweet, lovable, angelic side to her—at least in her father's eyes. He smiled to himself thinking of her.

The winding trail sandwiched between the observation panels eventually led the group into a large gift shop that acted as a hub, connecting the sector from which they'd just come to the avian, arthropod, and marine ones, as well as men's and women's restrooms. Shadow endlessly drank from the lower of two wall-mounted fountains while Toby dove his grubby mitts into a bin of small toys and Maria went on a quick bathroom break. Sonic and Silver browsed the shelves of unusual souvenirs.

"Hey, Sonic, didn't Maria have one of these in her room?" Silver asked, picking up a glass ball containing what appeared to be some water and a spidery tangle of twigs. It was about twice the size of a softball and nestled nicely in his hand as he lifted it to his squinted eyes.

"Oh yeah, I saw that," Sonic recalled, and retrieved another from the shelf. "What is it?"

The elderly clerk leaned his elbows into the counter facing them as he answered the question. "That there is an ecosphere. It's a self-contained and self-sustaining ecosystem."

Silver continued to gaze into the orb. "I think I see something swimming in here!"

"Those would be shrimp," the old man identified with a nod.

Sonic flashed a fascinated grin. "Huh! So this is kind of like an aquarium?"

"Somewhat, only everything in there feeds on something else in there, so you never need to feed 'em yourself. All it needs is a little light."

"What's the tree limb do, or is it just for decoration?" Silver prodded.

"That's coral, and it plays a role too."

"Hm!" Sonic tore his attention away from the globe to look at the clerk. "How much are these?"

He cleared his throat before answering. "Those are two hundred and thirty-five dollars a piece." At the figure, Silver's eyes snapped up, conveying a different brand of amazement as Sonic glanced back at him. Their spheres were carefully returned to the shelf.

By this time Maria had returned from the restroom and joined Toby at the bins of novelty trinkets. Shadow had wandered over to the book rack and was thumbing through a hardback entitled The American Past. While Sonic got a better look at the tiny pots of carnivorous plants, Silver made his way over to the shelves harboring an assortment of dinosaur products. One item in particular caught his eye.

"Uhh," his voice carried an uncertain edge as he approached Sonic with a pewter sculpture labeled "Brontosaurus" in hand, inquiring, "isn't this a false species?"

"Yeah, pretty much" Sonic confirmed, cracking a smirk, "but most people won't know that for another forty or fifty years. I heard it even had the wrong head for a while."

Silver's eyelids fluttered. "W-wait, what??"

"I heard it had the wrong-"

"No, no, before that!"

Sonic glanced aside as he paused in recollection. "…Most people won't know that for forty or fifty years…?" He quirked a confused eyebrow at his friend, whose demeanor had taken on a sudden urgency. The quill-crowned hedgehog leaned in and lowered his voice.

"What did you mean by that?"

"I meant from this time that we're in now."

Golden eyes held fast to green. "How many years have we gone back?"

"'Bout sixty." Sonic went on at his friend's gape, "You didn't know that?"

"No I didn't know that!!" Silver rattled back, but before he could he could say more another customer meandered near them, prompting their shuffle to a more private spot. He resumed freaking out in the corner. "I thought we were within the last ten years of your time!"

Sonic shrugged. "Does it matter?"

"Well, it makes me wonder how many other things I don't know about! This could…we could be…." he trailed off, his eyes fearful.

"Hey, guys," Maria called from across the shop, "Toby wants to go to the bug room next if that's okay with you."

"Uh, yeah, fine with me," Sonic answered. Silver forced a meek smile as he nodded agreement.

"Okay. You ready to go yet?" She looked from them to Shadow, whose eyes lifted from the book in his hand. Sonic turned back to Silver with a haphazard simper.

"C'mon…we'll talk more later." After granting a couple of quick pats on the back, he headed for the entrance to the arthropod sector. "All right, bring on the bugs!" Gently clapping his book shut, Shadow placed it back on the rack and followed their lead out the door. Silver sighed as he reluctantly brought up the rear.

Rather than a single simulated habitat enclosure, this sector housed a multitude of smaller vivaria bearing the names and illustrations of the insects within. To his surprise, Sonic found that their lids were only secured with simple latches; as far as he was concerned, it was an invitation to pop the top. It consequently wasn't long before he had a stag beetle crawling down his arm. "H-hey! Take it easy with the barbs!" he urged the bug, chuckling.

Maria looked a bit apprehensive. "Umm…I don't think we're supposed to take them out of their cages…." The blue hedgehog winked at her.

"Aww, he's not hurtin' anybody. –Yeow!! Except when he does that!" The beetle was quickly pried from his forearm and returned to its tank. Sonic then helped himself to another enclosure.

"Hey, Maria, look at this one!" Toby beckoned, pointing to a marbled praying mantis perched on a fake limb near the top of its cell. Its watchful eyes were steadfast on a cricket that had been deposited for feeding purposes. "It's gonna get it!"

While the humans watched the mantis, Shadow studied a bombardier beetle and Silver strained to see around a group of other people admiring a tank full of fireflies. Sonic approached the hedgehogs with a monstrous grasshopper sitting atop his open hand.

"Here's a biggun!"

Silver peered over his shoulder at it and grimaced. "I don't know why you like handling those things." He crossed his arms as Sonic snorted.

"Unlike some people, I'm used to picking up stuff with my hands." His arm extended in Silver's direction. "Wanna hold him?"

"No thanks." The pale gray hedgehog leaned away.

"Psch! I'm gonna start callin' you PK Pansy!" He chuckled as Silver rolled his eyes and turned back to the fireflies. "Shadow's not scared of a little bug, right, Shadow?"

Annoyance filtered through Silver's voice in his defense, "I didn't say I was scared!" It only added to Sonic's gratification as he offered the insect to the other hedgehog. Shadow turned and eyed it quietly.

"Here," Sonic prodded, "take him. I'm pretty sure he doesn't bite." At first it didn't seem like Shadow was going to cooperate either, but after a few moments he slowly began to reach for the bug. As his hand neared it, the grasshopper suddenly sprang forth, landing right on his face. Everyone within earshot jumped as an intense cry rang out through the room. Sonic froze in the initial shock, but watching the normally fearless hedgehog flail like part of a bad breakdancing routine quickly displaced any concern. Hugging his stomach, he sank to the floor laughing as his knees lost strength. Maria stood with her hands cupped over her mouth, and Toby wore a blank gape. Silver gritted his teeth, knowing this couldn't end well.

He was right.

Shadow slung the offending creature off himself and, just as it struck the side of a nearby tank, he followed up with a full-force punch. The impact shattered the glass, which poured in fragments to the floor with a shrill clatter. A couple of rhinoceros cockroaches scurried out soon after. Sonic looked up from where he lay, grimacing. His eyes traveled to the glass-riddled remnants of the grasshopper.

"…Cool! Orange guts!"

Needless to say, the visit to the wildlife center was cut short, and the inevitable discovery by Dr. Curoe of what had happened came all too soon thereafter, thanks to Toby. Through the window of a closed office adjoining the main lab, the red-faced man could be seen loudly berating Shadow, who sat rubbing his bandaged hand.

In a break room across the way, Sonic, Maria, and Silver stood indirectly watching from the door. Though they could hear Curoe's angry voice through the wall, none of them could make out what he was saying. Sonic leaned back with a groaning sigh.

"Man, that guy needs a straightjacket…." He noted Maria's wide-eyed glance and guessed it was because of the woman pouring coffee for herself behind them. He didn't care; being a member of the research team, she'd surely heard such things before.

After a brief silence, the lady commented as she poured sugar into her cup, "He seems harsh, but he really does mean well. He just doesn't want to see any of our projects get jeopardized." The hedgehogs remained silent as her spoon softly clinked against the inside of her cup. Nothing else was said until after she'd left the room, at which point Maria leaned in and whispered a key piece of information.

"That was Dr. Curoe's wife!"

Sonic broke into a sheepish chuckle. "Boy, I'm just hittin' all the marks today!" Hearing the office door open, he turned to see Shadow emerge, obviously vexed, with Curoe still shouting behind him.

"From now on until Gerald gets back, you're to stay in the research facility during working hours!" he dictated. His scowl deepened as Shadow merely continued walking toward the back door that led to his room. "Is that understood?!"

The dark hedgehog's tone was sharp, matching his glare as he pivoted about. "Yes, Doctor." He then continued on his way. Curoe sighed heavily and strode into the break room past his small audience. Using a handkerchief pulled from his lab coat's breast pocket, he proceeded to remove and wipe the sweat from his glasses.

"I apologize," his voice came out much calmer but still tense. "He's not normally like this. I hope he hasn't been too much of a problem for you two."

"Not at all," Sonic asserted, then paused. "Uhh…try not to be too hard on him. I was the one who took the grasshopper out, so that whole deal was my fault…."

"It's not really a matter of who's to blame," Curoe explained, replacing his glasses. "It's just…he doesn't seem to consider how much is at stake. I'm sure you know as well as I do that there are people who are looking for any excuse to shut this place down, and yet he goes out and draws attention to himself like it's a big joke. That goes for you too," his words were then directed at Maria. "We allow him to interact with you and Toby to provide him with enriched development, but if it's going to be a problem we'll put an end to it. You need to remember that he is a project, not a playmate." Maria turned her eyes down and nodded quietly, after which he went on, "Go back to your room and do your homework. These two don't need you tagging along with them all day."

Sonic started to say something but thought better of it. He waited until Curoe had left, then genially urged the sulking girl, "Hey…smile! Don't get yourself down over that; that guy's just got his lab coat on too tight!" The edge of her lips curled up a bit at the joke, but it did nothing for Silver, who was now all the more distraught.

At the close of the research center's business hours, Shadow was allowed out, and the evening was spent in Maria's room. Sonic and Silver were there as well, doing their best to lighten the somber mood. The two told jokes and stories and even got in a round of singing. Maria and Shadow sat watching from her bed, the latter folding his ears while Sonic belted out a fitting stanza. "Maria Mariaaaaaaaaaaaa, she reminds me of a west side storyyyy!"

Seated near Sonic on the floor, Silver's ears were flat at well, pressed under the cover of his hands. "She asked you to tell her about Earth music, not torture her with it!" The verse came to an abrupt end.

"Hah! Jealousy!!" He cackled and dodged a psychokinetic projectile, which landed in Shadow's lap. Shadow picked up the beaded bracelet and tossed it at Silver like a frisbee, successfully enwreathing his crown's central quill. Maria's and Sonic's subsequent laughter filled the room.

Later the topics of discussion turned more serious. "Seven?" Shadow echoed the figure Sonic had just specified. The blue hedgehog nodded.

"Seven in all. They're capable of amazing things when they're all together! You could warp…this entire colony to another location!" Sonic smirked a bit, recalling a time when they'd done just that.

The fixed crimson eyes grew wide with realization. "Of course…why didn't I think of it before?" A pensive glance was cast at Maria as new ideas brewed. The girl took no notice, however, her mind being too occupied with concepts of its own. She spoke up amidst a lull in the conversation.

"…I'm really glad you guys came here. I love getting to talk like this and hear new things about Earth, and Shadow has other hedgehogs to talk to!"

Sonic flashed a smile at her, free for once of the cocky contour. "It's been a pleasure." Silver nodded convincingly but remained silent.

Shadow leaned back, serene and thoughtful. "I thought you were annoying when I first met you," he admitted, glancing at Sonic, "…actually I still do..." Several moments after the others' subtle laughs, he continued, "…But I'm glad you came too." Sonic blinked at him, speechless this time. The words were more or less the same as Maria's, but coming from him, they meant a world more. Finding no words to return, he could only nod his appreciation.

As the evening wore on, Maria finally got around to tackling her algebra homework, with more comical than helpful assistance from three hedgehogs. Afterward they all wound down; Shadow and Maria read books while Sonic drew pictures, and Silver gazed forever entranced into the ecosphere on the dresser. It wasn't until the sound of a book tumbling to the floor startled the two time travelers that they realized the occupants of the bed had fallen asleep. Maria lay on her side with Shadow backed against her, a pillow between them shielding her from his quills. His face was leaned like a child's into her bosom, and his hands lay before him in failing grasp of his open book. Sonic gestured with a nod to the door, and the two quietly slipped out of the room.

"So," Sonic began as they made their way down the corridor to an uncertain destination, "what was the problem you were wantin' to talk about earlier?"

Silver snorted and cracked a smile as he looked over at his friend. "…Nevermind."