Thank you SO much to: Slick the Wolf, Steve993, Regular sonic fan, Nate the Werehog, Chibi-Aibou-Midna, neophobia, DeLuna The Cat, ToxicWolf1132, TheLastoftheRealOnes, Eden Areru, Acaybay and Strawberry r Kitty! Thank you, I loved all of your reviews! :D
Slick the Wolf - Hahahaha, I'm glad! That may have been my best line yet X'D
Steve993 - Thank you very much! Haha, I just love torturing him, it's how I show my admiration X'D Thank you!
Regular sonic fan - Aw, thank you! That's so nice to hear! Hahahaa, awesome! Thank you so much!
Nate the Werehog - Sonic's chances are not looking good! D:
Chibi-Aibou-Midna - Hahahaha xD
neophobia - Amy, is that you? X'D
DeLuna The Cat - That is so lovely, thank you very much! Hahaha, I'm so glad you like their characterisation! Thank you!
ToxicWolf1132 - Ohhhh no, hahaha, I don't even wanna think about that X'D Thank you!
TheLastoftheRealOnes - It would indeed! X'D
Eden Areru - Thank you very much!
Acaybay - Gahhhhhhhh, thank you ever so much! Your review has made me so happy, because I am a HUGE fan of your Baby Sonic story! It's incredible and I am absolutely addicted! Thank you! :D
Strawberry r Kitty - Hahahaha, don't say that, because if SEGA can use them as a get-out card, then you can bet that I will too! X'D Thank you so much!
Chapter Seven
Ask Him Where the Computer Room Is!
The next morning, in his apartment, Shadow's ears were ringing.
"Are you okay?" Silver asked, nervously chewing his lip, as he watched the Ultimate Life Form clench and unclench his fists.
He was struggling to control his irritableness, "I'm fine. It's... It's nothing."
"It's obviously not nothing," Silver murmured, raising his eyebrows. Shadow had noticed that he was becoming more and more like Sonic, "You've been in a bad mood all morning."
Shadow couldn't disagree. He knew that he'd been in a foul mood today. But he did have a good reason: a crying baby, screaming the place down at two in the morning, was not something to envy.
Unfortunately, the rest of the gang had decided that Baby Sonic should stay at Shadow's house. Silver had laughed at that, until he was told to stay and help the ebony hedgehog. They had even had their Chaos Emeralds taken away, so they couldn't flee to the future, or anywhere else, if they got desperate.
After the team had agreed to this — with various arguments from Knuckles and Rouge, in between — they soon left and Sonic became a little downhearted by this. His mood grew increasingly worse and, as a result, he started to cry and wail, until the tears wouldn't stop.
Silver had tried to keep Sonic happy, by talking to him, when he started crying again at one in the morning. Shadow was extremely grateful for this. However, Silver's efforts were in vain and the grey hedgehog had stormed into Shadow's room, told him that he couldn't take it anymore, and slammed his guest room door. This left Shadow to try and calm Sonic down.
By ten, when Shadow and Silver were falling asleep in their breakfast, Amy had popped round to see how things were getting on. Or, in reality, to coo over Sonic. But she'd ended up looking after Sonic, while Shadow and Silver had a nap, so it was worthwhile. She had taken Sonic to Tails' workshop, for a couple of hours.
"Can you really blame me?" Shadow muttered.
"I guess not," Silver sat up, "I know! I have an idea."
"If it has something to do with babies, or Sonic, I will kill you."
"Whoa!" The psychokinetic hedgehog raised his hands in mock-surrender, but he was struggling to keep a grin off his face, "Relax. It'll be fun! Why don't we hang out? Take our minds off our, uh... adorable little kid?"
The Ultimate Life Form raised his eyebrow, but he pondered the idea. Spending time with Silver wasn't something that Shadow would despise. It had just never crossed his mind before. Shadow and Silver had met through Sonic, and even that was only because another evil was threatening to take over the world. It wasn't exactly the strongest of reasons for them to be friends.
But it could be fun. Anything was preferable to listening to Sonic scream.
"Alright," Shadow said, gruffly, "I'm curious. What do you want to do?"
Silver mulled it over, "Um, lemme see. The mall?"
A single look was all it took for Silver to reconsider his suggestion.
"The... cinema?"
Another death glare from Shadow.
"L-Library?"
"Better, but still not ideal."
"Nope. I've got nothing."
Frustrated, Shadow let out a prolonged sigh. Was it really that difficult for them to find something to do together? Neither of them had much time to relax, and the Ultimate Life Form felt that they were wasting their rare chance of peace.
With a quiet sigh, he looked out of the window, up at the sky. Then, an idea struck him.
"I know what we can do."
"How about that one?"
"Hmm. A crocodile... juggling a vase."
"You're making this up."
"I'm not! Look, there's the vase! And there's his snout!"
"How do you know that it is a 'he'?"
"I just know! Trust me! Time traveller's instinct!"
"So, you knew that that cloud was going to form the shape of a crocodile, juggling with a vase, because you're from the future?"
"Yeah! Totally."
To his surprise, Shadow found himself smiling. Of all the things that they could have done, he didn't think that he would be the one to suggest cloud-watching. But he found it a pleasurable way to pass the time. Silver seemed to think so too.
Shadow and Maria had never had a chance to play this game, but they had guessed how big, and how far away, each star was when they were up on the ARK. Shadow had enjoyed it — it was a nice memory to relive, as he played a similar game with Silver.
He vaguely wondered if Silver got the chance to do things like this, in the future. Shadow had seen his world, when he had been transported further in time, with Rouge — but that was before they had changed the flow of time. He didn't have a clue what the future looked like now, and Silver didn't talk about it too often.
Were there clouds? Was there even a sky?
"Hey, Shadow?"
He looked up, frowning at the grey hedgehog, "What is it?"
"I just said it's your go. What does that one look like?" Silver pointed at the oddly-shaped cloud, just to the right of the tree. The two of them were lying on the soft, green grass, the shade of a tree, outside of the city. It was much quieter and calmer, out here; both of them preferred it.
"Oh. Hm... a dragon. Yes, a dragon."
Silver snorted, "Really? At least mine were inventive! A dragon — doing what?"
Shadow decided to take up Silver on his challenge, "A dragon who is running away from a chicken, which is chasing him with a bowl of soup."
Silence. Silver seemed doubtful, "I have no idea where you got that from."
"Look, it's simple," Shadow pointed at the time traveller's chest. He chuckled, when Silver looked down and Shadow took the opportunity to flick his wrist up, hitting Silver's nose. He frowned, but then broke out in laughter.
"That's the oldest trick in the book!" His laughter slowed down, as he rubbed his nose.
Shadow shrugged, "It worked. You looked."
"Try it again. What does that one look like?" Silver pointed his finger at the cloud hovering over the city skyline. It was pretty easy to describe — it was so ordinary that it could have been anything. However, just as Shadow was about to define it, he noticed something more important.
"It's the Doctor!" He yelled, sitting bolt upright and watching, as Doctor Eggman flew past in his flying hovercar. Silver, however, failed to notice.
"What? How is that one Eggman? Sure, it's round... but Eggman isn't that small."
"No!" Shadow grabbed Silver's chin and jerked the grey hedgehog's head in the direction of Eggman's fleeing figure, "Eggman!"
"Oh, yeah!"
"Let's go!" Shadow snapped, leaping up and racing after him. Silver hurried along behind, not quite as fast, but still speedy enough to remain on the Ultimate Life Form's trail.
"Why— are we— going after him?" Silver lacked the speed that Sonic and Shadow naturally seemed to possess. Silver was a lot faster than the average mobian but, compared to Sonic and Shadow, he felt like a turtle.
"To see if we can change Faker back to normal!" Shadow replied, gritting his teeth when he noticed that Eggman was speeding up, "Come on, Silver! We're losing him!"
"I'll catch you up!"
"What? No."
"Go! You're faster than me! Now, go ahead!"
"No!"
"Why not?!"
Why not? Shadow didn't know. He didn't need Silver for this mission — it would be far easier without having to worry about protecting him, as well as himself. But, for some reason, Shadow got the feeling that Silver might be useful on this mission. He always had this optimistic side that Shadow seemed to lack. And, in truth, he always felt a bit lighter, when Silver was around; he didn't mind too much if Shadow was sullen, or miserable. He was happy enough to do the talking for both of them. Shadow was grateful for that.
"I just..." Shadow didn't have a sensible response.
"Go! But you'd better wait for me when you get to the front of the base! I don't want to miss the action!"
"Deal," With a satisfied smirk, Shadow sped up.
"Oh, man..." Silver panted, as he slowed to a halt and paused for breath. He hadn't run that fast in a while. But it felt good to be back in action. He'd sort of missed having something important to do.
"Sonic?" A foreign voice boomed out to him, as a green crocodile strolled towards Silver, "You look kinda different!"
"Sorry, Sir," He mumbled, not sure what he was apologising for, "But I'm not Sonic the Hedgehog. My name is Silver."
"Oh! I'm sorry!" The crocodile rubbed the back of his head, bashfully, "I do that a lot."
"Why don't you ask him for directions to the computer room, too?" A hyper, and loud, bee shot out of nowhere. He looked rather young to be that comfortable talking to random people.
"Quiet, Charmy!" The crocodile yelled, suddenly furious.
Silver raised an eyebrow, not wanting to get caught in their row. Subconsciously, he took a step back, "Uh, I'm sorry, but did you need anything else? It's just that I'm in a bit of a rush—"
"Oh, nah!" The crocodile shook his head, "We're just a bit worried. Ya see, our friend has gone missing. We can't find him anywhere."
Silver knew that Shadow would be getting impatient, while waiting for him. He didn't want to irritate the Ultimate Life Form, but he figured that Shadow would have to wait, for once, in his life.
"What's his name?" Silver asked, "Maybe I can help you out."
"Thanks, dude!" The bee — who clearly went by the name of Charmy — hugged Silver's shoulder, as his eyes lit up in delight, "I miss Espio. He's really, really quiet, but he's the only one who can stop Vector doing stupid things."
"CHARMY!" A blush spread across Vector's face, though he tried to hide it.
"It's true! I mean, did you really think that we'd find Sonic by leaving a chilidog near our front door?"
"That was a cunning plan, which only didn't work because you ate the bait, Charmy!"
"Uhhh," Silver chuckled, nervously, and rubbed the back of his head, "Was your friend's name Espio?"
"Yeah," Vector's rage subsided, and he looked thoughtful, "He's a purple chameleon. A ninja. I know, it's pretty cool, right? But he spends most of his free time by himself. He didn't like our plan to find Sonic. He said that, if we found Eggman, we'd find Sonic. So he went off to Eggman's base."
"How long ago did he leave?"
"This morning."
"Okay," Silver nodded, "My friend is also heading for Eggman's base. Ever heard of Shadow the Hedgehog?"
"Shadow is your friend?" Vector raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know that he had friends! He never really hangs around with anyone, other than that bat. What was her name? Riley? Ronda?"
"Rouge? I know her, too."
"Yeah! That's it! Rouge," Vector triumphantly nodded.
"Well, I'll go to Eggman's base to meet Shadow — we need to speak to the Doctor. I'll look for your friend while I'm there, and I'll tell him to meet you at your home. Is that okay?"
"Sure!" Charmy beamed, "Thanks, weird dude!"
"Weird...?"
"Ahhh, don't worry about him!" Vector grinned, bashfully, as he swept Charmy under his arm and covered his mouth, "That all sounds dandy! We'll wait at our office! We really appreciate this! Thanks!"
The two of them headed onwards, with Vector raging at Charmy for being 'immature' and 'rude' and 'wearing at Vector's patience'.
Charmy didn't sound concerned, judging by his cheeky replies.
Silver shook his head, dismissing any further thoughts. Now he had two missions to fulfil. And an angry Ultimate Life Form to deal with.
