Chapter 9

Here's the next chapter. This is a 'falling action' chapter, I mean last chapter was pretty straightforward and a bit foreshadowing. This chapter is going to be a little bit different. It is the day after the explanation of Blaze's parents, so everyone knows.


Blaze could barely get up yesterday was such a blur. A sad one at that.

But Blaze knew her parents would be disappointed at her if she just cried and didn't do anything productive. She knew they would be counting on her.

And with her new found friends, there was no way she could lose…easily. It was going to be a rough battle.

"But that's not for a long time," she thought. " I still have some time to enjoy here."

And with that she got up and planned for another day.

Shadow was not surprised when he saw Blaze come out with a smile. A hopeful one. In fact, his hopeful talk, gave him hope, too.

He wondered what was he going to do today. He could run. Target practice at G.U.N. Take a nap. So many possibilities.

"Hey, Shadow!" Amy greeted him.

"Hi." he replied. The pink boom box has made her arrival.

"Why are you just sitting there?" she asked.

Ugh. " Thinking." he replied shortly.

"About what?" Amy wasn't getting the mental daggers.

" My day, hopefully a peaceful wal-" but Amy finished it for him.

"We should all go for a walk!" she squeaked. " Wouldn't that be fun Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog looked up from his orange juice. " Hm? Oh yeah, a walk would be great.

"There goes my day of walking." he thought.

"Wait. Why don't all of us go?" she asked.

Blaze nodded and looked over at Shadow and gave him a fake angry face and smiled.

While Amy babbled about inviting Rouge and Knuckles, he decided to at least get something so he wouldn't freeze. But freezing might be better than the walk.

" Oh, come on Shadow!" Sonic asked. " Can't you chill out for a day?"

" Yeah, if I didn't have a bunch of annoying voices-"

"Look, I didn't ask about your mental disorder." he said with a smirk.

" Everyone else has the disorder." He muttered under his breath.

Blaze walked in after Sonic. That was better than most of them.

" So how are you doing?" he asked the lilac cat.

" Fine, I didn't tell the others." she replied.

" Good, we don't need more commotion from the pink trombone." he told her.

She smirked. " She isn't always bad."

"Yeah, when she's asleep. Also, don't encourage her by agreeing." said the ebony hedgehog.

" Whatever, you really need to follow Sonic's advice. Chill out sometimes." she said leaving the room.

"Yeah, but a minute later he said I had mental disorder." he thought. " Once again, the others have the disorder."

Well, he knew whether he liked it or not, he was going on a walk with the others. Man, this is gonna suck.

After meeting up with Rouge and Knuckles they started down the trail. Him and Blaze remained fairly quiet, while the others mingled and joked.

Shadow wasn't really into the jokes or people. It was the wonderful scenery and outdoors. He wasn't ever crazy about it, but he admired it.

" This kind of looks like my country. I can't imagine what it looks like now." she spoke to him.

"Yes, the areas are probably similar in their natural way. If it is different there now, it's one more thing to strive for." he replied.

" I agree." she smiled at him. So the pair kept walking in silence.

Blaze was impressed with Shadow's attitude. He hasn't really ever shown his hopeful or optimistic side. It was probably one of the rare things you get from him.

After a while, Sonic saw a chili-dog stand. Everyone sighed and agreed on chili-dogs. At least they were warm.

" You aren't gonna eat your chili-dog, Blaze?" Sonic asked.

" Well, I'm a vegetarian and this is pretty disgusting…" she replied. Sonic was giving her his best puppy dog eyes. " Fine."

She tossed it to the azure hedgehog, and decided to eat a granola bar instead.

" I didn't know you were a vegetarian, Blaze." Amy told her.

" Yeah, I just always thought it was a cool lifestyle and I stuck to it." she replied happily.

" I dondt howv youv dodnt livke chili dogs." Sonic told her, his mouth stuff to the rim with chili dog.

" That, just gave me another reason." she said jokingly. Everyone laughed.

Shadow was surprised. Blaze had seem so shy to speak before, but know she was the life of the party. Even he thought the chili dog joke was funny.

So after everyone finished their food, they kept walking.

Rouge flew over to Shadow and walked by him.

" So, Blaze is doing pretty good now. Yeah, she's over the family death. She seems to have some good friends now."

" Yeah, it's good to see her happy. Well, I gotta go see my Knuckie." With that she flew off to the other side and the torture began.

" Hmph. Rouge sure seems to have a thing for Knucklehead. The funny part is she is the dominant spouse." he thought.

Sonic then made a joke about Knuckles and the chase had began. Of course, Sonic was way faster, but if Knuckles caught him, he would be dead meat.

Everyone laughed and kept walking. This was one of the few days that Shadow felt content. This wasn't a horrible walk after all. Not fantastic, but even like zen.

" Shadow! I have a question…" Tails asked him. As he listened, he was thinking of zen.

Blaze was happy she could trust everyone now. It was something she knew she would have to grow into, and she was glad it was over with.

Now she had good friends with greater personalities. She really felt happy.