Swapped Lives

Chapter 4: The Day I Met Him

Shadow's ears had long since drowned out the demanding voices of the soldiers surrounding him. He ignored their smacking him with the butts of their rifles, ignored their constant questioning, ignored the smell of the gunpowder in the helicopter, ignored the handcuffs clinking together in his hands. He was in a complete shock. Then again, who wouldn't be? Who wouldn't be surprised if they were arrested by the very people they had sworn to protect?

"For the last time," one man's words finally got through to his head. "Were you at Prison Island three days ago, assisting Eggman with breaking into the base?"

The coal-black hedgehog merely humphed, turning his head away, though his ear twitched in annoyance when the soldier dodged his razor-sharp quills.

"Why you-" Shadow cut the man off, attempting to cross his arms, but forgetting that he was wearing handcuffs in the first place.

"You have no right to arrest me, the one who's been saving your worthless lives for the last six years. You dare lay your filthy hands on me, the one who's been protecting you all this time, human?" Shadow's crimson irises seemed to glow as his gaze narrowed. "You are nothing but a weak, selfish human who only cares for himself."

Shadow whipped his head over to the others, looking them over. "I know what you are. No matter how many times you say this is 'all for the sake of the country', in the end it all boils down to your own selfish thoughts. How pathetic."

One of the men stood up, holding up his hand. "Secure him! Hurry!"

Judging by the way his eyebrows were scrunched together, and by the gritting of his teeth, Shadow found himself satisfied at making them angry. It was exactly what he wanted them to do. Be blinded by rage, and end up attacking uselessly and randomly, that is.

Every soldier within the helicopter raised their rifles, and Shadow didn't even blink when the crosshairs landed on various parts of his body. He didn't know why, but he felt as though he'd done something like this before, with someone else.

What he was also surprised about was how rude he acted to military personnel. He'd never spoken like this to anyone before-and besides, if he did, he doesn't remember it. Filthy humans? That sounded oddly...natural, coming out of his mouth.

"Fire!"

The bullets rained down on the hedgehog, but for a reason unbeknownst to him, time slowed drastically for him. Like, so slow, it seemed as though he were in one of those slow motion videos-only about two hundred times slower. A lot of slows in the same sentence, he just realized.

Shadow blinked and, using the opportunity, ducked the bullets, and ran over to the aircraft's doors. The moment his fingertips touched the doors, time sped up, returning to its regular flow.

"Where'd he go?!"

Shadow swore under his breath, before sliding the door open and jumping out. He heard several shouts and orders coming from the men above him, as well as their futile attempts at hitting him with at least one bullet.

Well, now that Shadow was free, he needed to figure out how he would land without killing himself. Indeed, that would be a difficult task, considering all the tree branches that blocked the path below him. He was above a forest, after all.

"Well hello, Stripes!"

A tick mark appeared on the jet-black hedgehog's forehead, but his eyes flickered in surprise at the unfamiliar-but at the same time reminiscent-voice. He turned to where it came from, which was too his right. He found himself staring face-to-face with a sapphire hedgehog who had a pair of bright, vivid green irises in his eyes. A cocky smile was etched onto his face.

"And who might you be?" Shadow asked the hedgehog, who had turned to look down at the ground below. The blue hedgehog did a bow, though it looked awkward, with how they were skydiving and all. "Sonic the Hedgehog, at your service!" He introduced himself.

"Sonic?" Shadow echoed the name. He was rather surprised that it sounded familiar, even though he knew he had never met Sonic before. He received that sense of familiarity, like he did whenever something that reminded him of his unknown past came up.

Sonic tilted his head in curiosity. "You're Shad, right? The guy who saves the world all the time? And the guy who's practically invisible on the freeway." He murmured the last part, though Shadow's hand fisted since he heard it.

"Anyways, I just wanted to meet ya! Ya should thank me, though, since I'm the one who did the Chaos Control thing for ya. Slowin' down time and everythin'."

"You're the one who did it?"

"Yeah, thanks to the Chaos Emerald the doc gave me." Sonic pulled the lavender-colored emerald seemingly out of nowhere (like in all the cartoons, though Sonic refused to tell where he actually kept it hidden all the time), and Shadow's eyes enlarged. "You've got to be kidding me."

Sonic smiled, and threw the emerald up, where it landed back in his hands. It seemed the laws of physics and gravity had no effect on him. "Nope."

Shadow barely stopped himself from smacking the hedgehog over the head. "Please don't say you're on the doctor's side."

"I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm on his side, but..." Sonic never finished his sentence, as the expression on his face quickly grew solemn. He turned away, so much that Shadow only caught sight of cyan quills. "Never mind."

"Sonic..." Shadow froze, remembering.

"Were you at Prison Island three days ago, assisting Eggman with breaking into the base?"

"Sonic the Hedgehog, at your service!"

"Yeah, thanks to the Chaos Emerald the doc gave me."

Shadow quickly grabbed Sonic by his arm, and got so close to his face that their foreheads were pushed together. "Are you the one that got me framed?!"

Sonic instantly reverted back to his cocky, prideful self that Shadow saw him to be, and raised his hands up in a playful surrender. "Dude, are ya an idiot? Unless everyone on the planet is colorblind, then I highly doubt that they would arrest ya after mistaking ya for me."

"Well, apparently, the entire freakin' world is colorblind!"

"Really?" Sonic blinked.

"Yes, and-" Shadow never finished, as he suddenly remembered that they were still falling from the sky-and were dangerously near the ground. He began flailing his arms around. "Crap!"

Sonic began to laugh, pointing at Shadow. "Aw, man! Didn't know y-you panicked so m-much about falling from the sky! This is hilarious!" He shouted, laughing between each word.

Shadow felt his face begin to heat up. He never really had done any training with Knuckles in the air before, so can anyone blame him? This was actually only his third time doing this-the other two being when he was on rescue missions. Of course, he ended up breaking one of his limbs every time, but that's another story.

"ANYWAYS," Shadow began, "How do you think we'll get out of this?!"

The cobalt hedgehog smiled brightly. He then grabbed Shadow by the waist, and held the raven-colored hedgehog in a bridal-style, one that made him blush to a very, very large extent. Sonic held up the violet emerald. "CHAOS CONTROL!"

"Chaos Control? What's that?"

"It's a technique used with Chaos Emeralds, Shadow. If someone can do it right, they can actually teleport through time and space!"

"Woah! Really?"

"Yeah! Do you want to try with one that I made?"

"Of course I do!"

The burning sensation of a recovered memory returned to Shadow, making him freeze up and completely forget where he was for a moment. He knew that those voices. One was his own, the other belonging to one of the people he loved very dearly.

Shadow quickly remembered that Sonic was holding him like a groom would for a bride on their wedding day, but he didn't have time to get out of the hedgehog's arms. Sonic had fallen over, breathing heavily. He had dropped Shadow, who fell to the ground with a painful thump.

"What was that for, Faker?!" Shadow shouted, before lowering his currently raised arm in surprise. Faker? Where had that name come from? It sounded so...natural, like it had been something he'd been doing forever. But this was the first time it had ever escaped his mouth.

Sonic's heavy breathing snapped the inky hedgehog back to his senses, as he watched the cobalt one attempt regaining his energy. Depending on where they transported themselves, the farther away, the more energy it took. Judging by how exhausted and fatigued he looked, Shadow assumed that he was either very unexperienced with a Chaos Emerald, or he just transported them quite the distance.

Looking him over now, Shadow realized this was exactly how he looked after pushing himself past his limit in his training-or rather, fighting and arguing-with Knuckles. After figuring that out, he knew he truly was a pitiful sight when his training ended.

"Did you get that sense of déjà vu too? Like you just remembered something important?" Sonic asked the question between ragged breaths.

Shadow was taken by surprise. "You have amnesia too?"

Sonic smiled, though Shadow noticed the strain and exhaustion behind it. "Worse than you ever could. For crying out loud, all I know is my own freakin' name. My age, my family, my friends, where I was born, where I lived, what I did...I don't know any of it."

"And here I thought you're brain was a peanut." Shadow murmured, crossing his arms and taking a look at their surroundings. Trees everywhere, so Shadow had to assume that they were in a forest somewhere that was definitely not in Station Square anymore. Sonic wouldn't be that exhausted after simply teleporting to a few stories below where they were before. Unless he was already fatigued enough in the beginning. After all, he had slowed time down drastically so Shadow could escape the helicopters. Even if it was only for a few moments, slowing down time took up a large amount of energy.

"Anyways," Sonic began standing up, using one of the many trees around him for support. "I have ta get goin' now. Mr. Eggbutt needs me back soon."

Shadow's ruby gaze narrowed. "If you're working with doctor, then we're enemies, no matter how many times you go off trying to save my ass." He felt the heat in his face as he whispered the last part of that sentence.

"Relax, Stripes. Just 'cause I'm workin' with 'im doesn't mean I'm on 'is side." Sonic dusted off his arms. "See ya some other time, Faker." He placed his hand over his mouth in surprise.

Shadow blinked. Faker? So they both knew the name, despite it being their first time using it. But, it sounded so right coming out of their mouths. What did that mean?

Sonic just waved his hand dismissively. "Forget it, Stripes. I'll see ya later. CHAOS CONTROL!" Like he had done beforehand, Sonic raised his hand into the air, and the light of the Chaos Emerald temporarily blinded Shadow.

Once he came back to his senses, Shadow nearly wanted to slap himself. Sonic had a Chaos Emerald and he was too stupid to bother grabbing it from him in the first place! He, Tails, and Maria could finally get another emerald, as they currently only had two. Who knew how many more Eggman had?

There was that, and Shadow couldn't help but feel strange at the thought of earlier. He treated those soldiers like they were less than him, he said Faker, a term completely unfamiliar to him but familiar at the same time, he met Sonic, despite having felt that they had met before, and he discovered that both himself and Sonic were amnesiac in one way or another.

He looked up to the sky. Just what in the hell is going on?