- - -

Chapter 6: True Friendship

"You didn't have to carry me."

Closing the door shut the black and red hedgehog headed over to the couch and put the azure hedgehog who was over his shoulder down on the seat. "You're injured," stated Shadow. "How else would you get back?"

Sonic sighed as his seat back. "I guess I shouldn't have gone on that run," he mumbled.

Looking out of the window, Shadow spotted that the clouds seemed lighter than they usually were. Perhaps the cursed rain will finally go away in the near future. His eyes suddenly narrowed as a figure outside caught his attention. It looked exactly like another one of the trio that had attacked Sonic. "Stay here," the dark one said suddenly, making Sonic slightly curious.

"Going somewhere?" he asked, but was ignored as Shadow quickly left the apartment. "Shadow!" Letting out a sigh, Sonic sat back in his seat a slight frown on his face. "Where could he be going?"

Nearly jumping down each flight of stairs on his way down, Shadow kept his mind focused on getting to that kid before he disappeared. If it was another one of the attackers then he couldn't let them get away. All three of those boys deserved to rot in hell for what they did to Sonic. Shadow didn't know why but whenever the boys came to his mind he felt a burning desire to make them suffer brutally. Bursting through the door outside, he came face to face with the teen who looked as though he had been waiting for him. Remember back to the day he had first found the azure's broken body, the Ultimate Lifeform recognized that the teen in front of him was the brown haired one. In the boy's hand was a baseball bat. "So you're with that cult, too, aren't you?"

"What cult?" the boy asked with false innocence that freakishly resembled the blonde boy. "I've never heard of any kind of cult. So why would I be a part of something that I don't know about."

Shadow growled. "Don't play dumb with me! I know all about what your cult does to our kind! And the reason behind it is just plane stupid!"

The boy attempted to take a swing at Shadow, but the hedgehog managed to doge it in time. Making a 'hmph' sound, he stood upright, keeping the bat by his side. "If you ask me, you're the stupid one."

Raising an eyebrow, Shadow questioned, "Killing of anthros just because they coexist with you is smart? I suggest you sort out those issues and just leave us alone!"

The brown haired teen shook his head. "Okay, so I'll admit I'm with the cult. After that talk with Harold I'm guessing that you know what our purpose is. We find an anthro, and kill it." He used his bat to point up at the window to Shadow's apartment. "But some of them are rescued before they die. That means our mission has failed. So we try again and again until they are dead once and for all."

- - -

Sonic sat bored, wondering where Shadow had suddenly rushed off to. He was slowly nodding off when a noise from outside the apartment caught his attention. 'Probably some loud neighbor,' he thought, putting it aside. After hearing another noise, Sonic looked over at the door and noticed it was open. "Shadow?" he called out but got no reply. "He probably didn't shut the door properly."

A dark shadow suddenly rose over the hedgehog. Looking behind him, he felt an impact in less than a second.

- - -

Ruby eyes widened in realization. That teen was here to kill Sonic! "You're going to have to get through me before you even think of getting him!" he spat.

"Oh?" asked the boy, a maniacal grin on his face. "I'm afraid you've made a fatal mistake!"

"And just what is that?"

The grin widened. "You left him completely open..."

- - -

Falling to floor with an 'oof', Sonic rubbed his head where whatever had hit him struck. He pulled his hand away to find blood on his hand. He slowly turned his gaze to behind the couch, the rare sight of sheer horror in his eye. Behind the couch stood the final black haired attacker, the very same pipe he had used to plunge into Sonic's eye in his hand.

"Good to see you again...Sonic the Hedgehog."

- - -

"You bastard!" Shadow cried as he made to turn and head back to his apartment, only for the teen to try at him again. Shadow grabbed the bat and managed to flip the brown haired boy over his shoulder onto the ground. He was about to leave again when he found the he couldn't moved properly. When he looked he saw that the boy's hand was wrapped around his ankle. "Get off!" Shadow kicked his leg viciously, trying to pry the kid off, but to no avail. The grip was too tight.

"Our mission will be complete!" the boy shouted, his fingernails digging into Shadow's ankle. He suddenly found that a foot had made impact with his head, leaving a small cut. He growled in frustration and grabbed his bat that was nearby and attempted to hit Shadow again.

Quickly grabbing the bat before it hit him, Shadow yanked it out of the teen's hand before bringing it down on his head, knocking his out cold. He shook his leg until his ankle came loose. He paused for a few moments to catch his breath before looking up to where his apartment was. He then took off to his apartment, hoping that what the teen had said was untrue.

- - -

Sonic's entire being froze as the icy voice rang through his ears. This couldn't be happening. There's no way that boy would know how to find him. His gaze shifted to the pipe, noticing how there was some blood on it.

"I see you remember," the boy said casually, twirling the pipe. "The blood on it was from that day, you know. Normally I'd wash it after a kill but I thought that it seemed somewhat...special. But.." he stopped twirling the pipe, his grip tightening on it. "Only one side has your blood on it. It would be much more satisfying if both had it!"

Sonic quickly stood, trying his best to forget the pain in order to jump out of the way as the boy attempted to drive the pipe through him. He was in no condition to fight. But if he didn't then he could die. And Sonic certainly didn't want to die. "How did you know where I was?" he asked, trying his best to mask the shakiness in his voice.

The boy chuckled. "You remember that fat guy called Harold don't you?"

A gasp escaped the hedgehog's throat. "He really was working with you!"

Giving a slow nod, the teen gripped his pipe with two hands like a bat. "You bet he WAS!" he cried, swinging his pipe when he spoke the last word at Sonic. The metal object hit him square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying backwards. The boy stood over him swinging the pipe loosely in one hand. "You poor...poor...creature." He gripped the pipe with two hands again and raised it above his head with the clean end directly above Sonic's remaining eye. He quickly put his foot and the hedgehog's chest so that he wouldn't be able to escape.

Closing his remaining eye tightly and making a silent pray that help would come, Sonic waited for the pipe to permanently blind him. But after a few seconds, it never came. Sonic risked opening his eye. A wave of relief washed over him when he saw Shadow stood above him gripping the pipe that was just centimeters away from Sonic's eye.

The black hedgehog held the pipe firmly, scowling at the final attacker. When he had rushed into the room he had found the human pinning Sonic to the ground with his foot and the pipe raised above his head. Sonic had his eyes closed and looked as if he was praying for help. In one swift movement, Shadow swung the pipe around, causing the boy to fly in the direction Shadow spun the pipe. That lead to the boy to smashing into the wall headfirst and become unconscious.

Sonic slowly sat up and lightly rubbed the gash that was above his eye and looked from Shadow to the boy, the boy to Shadow, then Shadow to the boy again.

"Are you okay?" Shadow asked, turning to Sonic and kneeling down next to him. He noted the small, bleeding gash above the other hedgehog's eye, thinking it would be best to wipe it, but waited for any sort of response from Sonic.

A little shocked from the concern in Shadow's voice, Sonic slowly nodded. "Just a bit winded," he replied.

Shadow nodded and stood, heading into the kitchen to find the mini first aid kit he kept. He quickly returned with a few cotton pads, a bottle of antiseptic and a plaster that was just the right size to cover the gash. Kneeling down in front of Sonic he again, he poured some of the liquid onto the pad before gently dabbing the gash.

"Shouldn't you do something about him?" Sonic asked, looking down at the floor. He felt something cold and a light sting as Shadow saw to his wound.

Continuing to clean the gash, Shadow replied, "He'll be out for a while. I'll dispose of him later. Right now it's unimportant. What is important is making sure you're okay." He stopped cleaning the hedgehog's wound up in order to pour more antiseptic on a different pad, finding that the first one was too dirty. "How did they know...?"

"It was Harold," Sonic said spitefully, still staring at the ground.

Shadow frowned. "Haven't we already gone through this? Harold is not working against us."

"That kid," Sonic motioned over to the unconscious teen, "Told me himself that Harold had informed them of where I was! And if you don't believe me then ask him yourself when he wakes up!"

Shadow sighed as he put the pad down on the floor next to the other one. He then grabbed the plaster, took the strips off and stuck it down over the gash. Once that was done he glanced at the unconscious teen. "There's something I need to do." He turned to Sonic. "That means I'm going to have to leave again." Standing, Shadow made his way over to the teen. "I'll come back as quickly as I can," he stated, grabbing the teen before Chaos Controlling away.

Sonic shuffled over to the side of the couch, using the arm to help pull himself up. He coughed lightly as his chest stung. He then moved in front of the couch and fell on it on his side. "Thank you..." he whispered, closing his eye and placing a hand over it.

- - -

Harold Mime sat in his office doing some paperwork that he had received. He was hoping to finish it soon so that he would be able to go home. He was just about done when there was a flash of light in the centre of the room and a black hedgehog appeared who dropped two human teenagers on the floor. "Shadow? What is the meaning of this?" he exclaimed, standing from his seat.

Shadow simply frowned at the man. "Here are two of the kids from the trio," he stated. "They somehow managed to find us. And according to Sonic, one of them told him that you were the one who told them."

"That is absolutely preposterous!" boomed Harold, frowning deeply at the hedgehog.

Shadow cocked an eyebrow. "Oh really? Just yesterday when you came to tell us about that cult, you told us that you managed to capture one of the kids when you ambushed their lair. That would mean that there would only be one kid still left out there. But how do you explain this?" he gestured to the two unconscious teens. "There are two."

Harold chuckled as he sat back down in his seat. "You really are one smart hedgehog. Yeah it was me. I set that other kid free so that they could do the job correctly. But as it seems they failed again."

"What you did was strictly against the law!"

"Don't you think I know that? But look around. We are the only two in the room. How are you going to prove that it was me?"

A smirk played on Shadow lips as he pulled a tape-recorded out from his quills. "Just the confession you made," he said before using Chaos Control to leave the room again.

- - -

After handing the tape to the chief of police, Shadow had decided to walk home. For the first time in weeks, there was no rain falling. And although it was night, Shadow was still glad that the clouds had slowly drifted away and patches of the starry sky could be seen. It did seem odd though how the rain had stopped when the boy's and Harold were all seen to and made sure they would never do any murderous acts again.

As he reached the apartment block, Shadow slowly trooped up the stone stairs until he reached his home. He opened the door and let himself in, locking the door behind him. When he looked around the room he saw the familiar sight of Sonic asleep on the couch. As there were no lights on in the room, the only source of light was the rays from the moon as it shone down through the window and onto Sonic. Shadow found himself admitting that he was glad that the boys had been put away, for now Sonic wouldn't have to live in worry that they would attempt to kill him again.

Sighing to himself, Shadow moved over to where the slumbering hedgehog, pulling the black raincoat he still had on off and hanging it up before and gently picked him up bridal style and heading over to the bedroom. Once he tucked Sonic into bed he headed over to the bathroom to take a shower. While showering, he silently wondered to himself if he should get Rouge to come and check up on Sonic and try to find out when the blue blur would be able to leave. He felt a small churn in his stomach as he thought about the other leaving. Until that day he found Sonic, Shadow had always lived alone and preferred to not have any visitors. But after bringing Sonic home, he found that the home had a little more life in it. He hated to admit it, but he had come accustom to having Sonic annoyingly about. And once he leaves, it would go back to being the lonely, empty home it was.

Pushing his thoughts to one side, Shadow switched the water off now that he was finished showering. He quickly dried himself off before paying his respect to Maria by the small shrine he had. Now all that was done, Shadow thought it would be best to get some rest. Upon entering the bedroom, he saw that Sonic was hugging his pillow close to him as he slept. Ebony shook his head. "At least it won't be me he cuddles tonight," he said to himself before getting into bed.

- - -

Sonic awoke to the unfamiliar rays of sunlight that caked the bedroom through the window. Groaning slightly, the azure hedgehog buried his face in his pillow. Why didn't Shadow have any curtains or blinds to shut out the light in the morning? Wait...light...sunlight? Sonic looked up from the pillow and smiled as he saw that it was no longer raining and the sun shone brightly again. He pushed the covers aside and slowly limped over to the window. That was the first time Sonic realized that Shadow's apartment was pretty high up. He heard some shuffling from behind him, and Sonic turned around to see Shadow still asleep. Sonic grinned as he made his way back to the bed. He climbed over to the side Shadow slept on and his grin widened. Putting two hands on Shadow's side, he counted to three before pushing the dark hedgehog out of the bed.

The dark hedgehog suddenly found himself awake on the bedroom floor with the covers tangled around him. He frowned when he heard Sonic laughing. Untangling himself, Shadow stood and gave the laughing hedgehog a glare. "Any particular reason why you pushed me off the bed?"

Sonic shrugged. "You have work today right?" he asked, watching as Shadow slowly nodded. "Well you don't have an alarm clock so if I hadn't of pushed you out of bed you would be late, get fired, miss paying the rent and become a homeless bum."

Shadow's glare only darkened. "I can get myself up!" he snapped, before leaving the room. He headed towards the lounge and then out the door. He had decided to check the lockers downstairs where the mail would go if he were to receive some. Since he had been so busy putting up with the annoying blue hedgehog he had been forgetting to check. When he made it to the bottom floor, the door to an apartment swung open to reveal the landlord.

"Shadow!" he boomed. "Do you have any idea of how much noise there was in your apartment yesterday?! I could hear it down here!"

Shadow simply glared. "If a murderous teenager came into your apartment and tried to attack your roommate it wouldn't exactly be quite, now would it?" he growled before heading to where his mail, if he had any, would be. Taking a look, he saw a white envelope with his name on it. He quickly opened it as he began heading back to his apartment. It appeared to be a letter from the hospital asking to make a check up appointment for Sonic. 'Couldn't I just get Rouge. It's much easier.'

"Whachya lookin' at?" Sonic asked, peering over Shadow's shoulder.

Blinking, Shadow looked around. He was back in his apartment. His ruby eyes then turned to the blue hedgehog who was trying to look at the letter in his hand. The glare returned. "Do you insist on being so nosey all the time?" He then sighed and put the letter on the table before making his way into the kitchen. "You need a check up is all."

As soon as Shadow was out of sight Sonic picked the letter up, his eye scanning the printed words on it. "Is that it?" he grumbled, putting the letter back down on the table. Limping over to the kitchen, Sonic saw Shadow Placing some poptarts in the toaster. "Don't I get one?"

Shadow simply glared at Sonic. "They're both for you," he replied, not really paying attention to the other hedgehog as he made a cup of coffee. Glancing at the clock on the oven, which he rarely used, he spotted that he had some time before he had to leave for work. "So I suppose that once you're back up to full strength you will go back to that fox," Shadow said before evening thinking.

Sonic chuckled and leaned against the counter. "I didn't think you'd care. I though that it wouldn't matter where I was just that I was away from here," the azure one said, running a hand through his quills, feeling a little relieved when he felt some of his quills were starting to grow back.

"For once you've said something smart," grumbled Shadow, sitting down at the table and taking a sip of his coffee.

"Thanks for the compli–hey!" Sonic let out a sigh and copied Shadow's action, sitting down at the table. "Well, if so interested, then I guess I could tell you that I might go back there. I do have a home of my own, you know. I just rarely use it. Kind of gets a bit lonely." His ear, well what was left of it with the giant chunk mark in it, twitched as the poptart popped up from the toaster. He leapt up from his seat and grabbed the hot tarts, placing one in his mouth, while holding the other.

Shadow looked down at the coffee in his cup, deep in thought. He then glanced up at Sonic, watching him as he stuck his tongue out because the poptart was too hot. Sonic didn't like his home...because he was lonely...? Then maybe...Shadow mentally slapped himself. There was no way that Sonic would want to stay in the apartment with Shadow! Or would he? Heaving a sigh, Shadow stood and mumbled about getting ready before leaving the kitchen with his coffee still in his hand. He went to the bedroom to get a new pair of gloves and socks. He had already put the ones from yesterday in the laundry basket. He quickly drank the rest of his coffee before heading to the front door, putting on his shoes and leaving without a word.

Sonic, who had moved to the couch, watched as Shadow left without a word. He simply shrugged, biting into one of the poptarts and switching on the TV. After finding nothing of interest on any of the channels, he sighed, switching it of and just laying back in his seat. "Sooooo bored...."

Stepping out onto the sidewalk, Shadow glanced up at the sky, noticing some puffy dark clouds slowly making their way towards the city. Snow already it would seem. The autumn was only just packing up and winter was trying to squeeze in. As he began making his way towards the café, he stopped and turned as he heard someone calling his name. A small pink and white hedgehog came running up next to him. Shadow just looked at her, not saying anything.

"And a good morning to you, too," Belle said with a smile. She glanced at the apartment block behind the darker hedgehog. "This where you live?"

"You really like to stick your nose in everything don't you," mused Shadow, raising an eyebrow at the girl and folding is arms.

Laughing, Belle Put her arms behind her head lazily. "You've only known me for a few days and already you know exactly what I'm like. C'mon! Let's get to work! I presume that's where you're heading, right?"

"Yeah, sure." Shadow glanced up at the window of his apartment before walking towards the café. Belle appeared to talk most of the way there, telling him about random little things of which Shadow would reply, 'yeah' or 'uh-huh' to.

"Um, hey Shadow," the girl spoke up, now seeming a little hesitant. She looked up into the ruby eyes of Shadow that were boring into her. "That blue hedgehog last night. It was Sonic the Hedgehog, wasn't it."

Shadow nodded, wondering where she was going with this.

"He's hurt," she said softly. "How did it happen?"

Sighing to himself, the black and red anthro replied, "It's classified. Only a certain few know of it. Whatever you do, tell no one about his injuries. Understand?"

"I understand. You're taking care of him aren't you? That's so sweet."

Shadow mentally jumped, his muzzle slightly pink at the sudden thought that was entering his head. "I'm not taking care of him," he almost stuttered. "He's just staying at my home until he recovers."

Belle just smiled. "Right," she sang. "if it's okay with Grandfather then would I be able to meet him properly? Oh please Shadow I won't bother him. It's just that he's a big hero and all..."

"Wanting to be friends with someone just because they're a hero is pretty ignorant of you."

Blinking, Belle asked, "What do you mean?"

"Ah, I don't know. Just...If you want to be a friend of someone just because they are famous...wouldn't that mean that it's not true friendship? For all you know that person could be stupid, selfish and annoying. Would you really want to be friends with that? Or would you rather be friends with someone who actually cares about you and likes to be around you," Shadow explained, finding it difficult to find the right words to describe this. He wasn't very good when it came to friendship and stuff.

Belle glanced down at the ground. "I guess I never thought of that...let's hurry up. The café is only down the street."

Nodding, Stripes continued towards the café, odd thoughts about the blue speed demon suddenly entering his mind. He then mentally slapped himself, not believing the speech he had just made. 'What a fool' he thought to himself before opening the café door and entering it to begin the day's work.

- - - Okay, I didn't actually fully proof read this. I would havebut when I went to the edit/preview part of the site it's messed up and I can only see two lines...And also, any of you who like those crazy penguins of madagascar please join my forum: PoM Role Play and Discussion. I mean you don't have to but if you want you can. Also I noticed that there were quite a lot of hits for the last chapter. It made me happy. More reviews would have been nicer but that's okay. You can review for this one. See Yah!