Ok, this chapter is a little bit different from the others, it's a bit more random. But I had fun with it and I hope you do to! Too much seriousness makes me crazy and ends up with word vomit.

Much like this chapter!

Shadow gave a giant moan walking down the stairs of his house, he could already smell breakfast being cooked and the revitalizing smell of coffee. Walking into the kitchen haze asleep he ,patted Sari (who was eating pancakes at the table) on the head, "Morning kid." he mumbled then poked Claire ( who was at the stove) ,'Coffee…Now."

"Well good morning to you too." but handed him off a quart sized cup of coffee.

Mumbling his thanks he went and sat at the table pulling newspaper open, "hmm…looks like allergy season is coming quicker this year. "he glanced over at Sari, "So be sure to keep your inhaler filled at all times, ok?"

"Yes sir."

"And Claire….quit using so much water in the coffee!"

"Hell no. SIR."

Shadow rolled his eyes, "Why can't you be more like Sari."

"Because, that would be just weird

Shadow rolled his eyes again (but had to admit her logic was sound) and pulled the newspaper back up. He heard Claire sit down, and slid over her own cup. He was reading a article on the Brotherhood Festival when he heard a small sneeze, he ignored it at first when he heard another one. Quickly looking over, he looked at Sari, who just kept eating her food. His eyes looked over to look at Claire, who just looked back, eating eggs, "What?"

"Bless you." then went back to his paper when he heard another sneeze. He slammed his paper down, "Dang it do you have something stuck up your nose?"

"NO. Its just allergies, you just said they were coming in sooner then normal."

"Allergies…." then Shadow felt horrified. Allergies meant coughing and sneezing, coughing and sneezing meant germs, and with a small slightly sickly (or his definition of small) child in the house it would only be a matter of time before SHE got sick! But maybe he shouldn't worry, after all it wasn't' like Claire had a fever or anything. He picked up his newspaper to read again, but then slowly reached out and poked Claire's face withdrawing his hand immediately," You're burning up!"

"well duh, its 80 degrees outside and I've been at the stove all morning-"

"You're so full of it! You're sick!"

"don't be stupid, I just told you I have alert-"

Shadow leapt around the table and picked up Sari quickly teleporting away to the Chaotix house and knocking on the door rapidly. Sari looked up at her father confused, "Daddy? Are you having another freak out?"

"No kid, I just thought it would be nice for you to spend the day at Mighty's house."

"While you have your freak-out.

"Yes…yes….."

Finally the door opened to reveal Espio, who looked shocked to see the tow standing there, "Shadow ,I thought Mighty was going over to your house today-"

"NO time, Claries dying."

"Claire's what-'

"Here." Hands Sari, "I'll be back as soon as I cure Claire." he ruffled Sari's hair, "Be good." then teleported away.

Espio just stood there for a while, not sure what just happened. Then looked down on the equally confused girl and smiled setting her on her feet, "Mighty is in his room if you want to go see him."

Sari, face lighting up, running up the stairs. When she was out of sight Espio sighed, he hated Shadow's freak-outs, which seemed to come more frequently as time passed. But it didn't take long to realize what caused these things, it seemed that when ever he thought Sari was in danger of something he couldn't prevent he would get her to safely (9/10 this was Espio) and go back to fight the threat. And it seemed, this time, it was Claire's 'disease'. HE sighed again, he had been hoping to use today to catch up on paperwork or meditation and, with Vector and Charmy at the Brotherhood Festival with Knuckles and Julie-Su there would be no way for him to ask them for help-

He paused, "Brotherhood Festival" an idea hit him.

8888888888888888888

Claire was standing arms crossed (breakfast ruined) when Shadow teleported back," Shadow the hell were you thinking? Breakfast was fine until you freaked-" then noticed that Shadow had brought a suspiciously large bag with him and was now rummaging through it, "Um Shadow-"

"You have allergies, allergies spread germs, and get little girls SICK."

"Its not like I'm going to sneeze on Sari-"

Shadow turned to face her, a holster lined with needles on his arm, "the point is, it's a haphazard, and until we get rid of it you're under house arrest."

"House arrest? Shadow-" then noticed all the needles with a uneasy glance, "Shadow, wha-what's with all the needles?"

"Well, on the ARK we would inject the infected with their disease to prevent it from spreading, this is the same thought. Only ,since the cold is a incurable disease, I'm going to inject you with possible cures created by the Brotherhood."

"And they just let you take them?" she started to back away, putting furniture in between herself and the crazed hedgehog,

"Well, Spectre tried to stop me, and 'm not sure what all these are, at one point the needles with diseases and the ones with potential cures got scrambld up." he looked at the needles he held slightly in each hand, as though rethinking his tactic then flipped them in the air; battle ready, "We're just going to have to stick you with all of them until your allergies go away!'

"what? Shadow have you lost your mind? That'll kill me!"

"OR it'll make you so you're immune system can take every disease! That'll keep Sari from getting sick!"

"Shadow it doesn't work like-" then something shot through the air, making her fall back in reflex, the needle imbedding itself in the wall behind her, "Dam it Shadow! You're going to kill me if you do that!"

"Quite the opposite actually! Now quit being a child and take the needles filled with horrific diseases!"

888888888888888888888888

Espio was relieved when the doorbell finally rang. He had spent the better part of the afternoon trying to call numerous friends in his phonebook, but it seemed like everyone was busy; he had even tried to call his favorite Japanese take-out restaurant (they were asking for too much money). But that's when the last man his, last hope, picked up and agreed to take the two kids to the fair. Espio rested his hand on the door knob, "please don't let Shadow find out about this." he prayed slightly then opened the door.

Sonic stood in the doorway, his face beaming as always, "Hey Espy, I'm ready to take the kids to the Brotherhood Fair!" his voice could barely contain his excitement, "Sally's sick so now I have someone to go with! And now I have a reason to ride the kiddies rides!" he laughed then called, "Sari! Mighty! I'm here!"

"Take it easy Sonic, remember, Shadow doesn't know I'm letting you do this, so for the sake of both of us ,don't let Sari get so much as a hair out of place. Be careful with Mighty too.'

"OF course!"

Sari and Mighty walked down the stairs, smiling instantly at the Sight of the Blue Blur, "Sonic!" the tiny girl and ran over and hugged him around the stomach, "You're taking us to the Brotherhood Carnival? Thank you!"

"Don't mention it kid!" he smiled and held a hand out for both of them, "NOW, don't let go of my hands unless I say so ok?"

Espio simply sighed in relief as Sonic and the two children left. Things were right with the world, but his mind lingered over to Shadow and Claire, jus were they doing? He crossed his arms, it wasn't any of his business, but he hoped that they weren't goofing off, (which was unlikely seeing as it was SHADOW). He walked over to do paper work, "Besides, its not like they're enemies."

88888888888

Shadow slammed Claire against the wall, drawing out the needle, "TAKE IT DAMMIT !" suddenly a foot shot out and caught him in the chest, sending him flying back,

Claire struggled to her feet, "go stick yourself!"

888888888888

The carnival was in full swing by the time the small group arrive, the whole idea of a Festival for the Brotherhood was set up just 2 years back. As the name indicated, the festival was set up by the Brotherhood as a way to give back to the community and give themselves a chance to leave haven for a few hours (Well, ONE of them had to stay behind, after all, who else was going to watch over the Master Emerald?). The Ferris wheel stood high above the other attractions, which went as far as the eye could see. You wanted it, they had it.

Sonic smiled at the amazed children's faces, "See? Knuckles Grandfathers really know how to throw a festival."

"its so pretty! How can they afford it all?" asked the small girl as they started walking into the crowd

"Well, the Brotherhood of Guardians goes a long way back, they're a very important family. And , I guess since they don't have a houses or anything else, they made a lot of money over time."

"how do you kwon so much about it?"

"Because you're uncle Knucky cant' stop bragging about his family."

"oh! Can I call him Uncle Knucky?"

"Of course!" sonic grinned, whether it was because of his natural laid back nature, he loved kids. And they loved him just as much. Actually, he was still shocked that Sari was still so childlike ( he could of sworn Shadow would of sucked the cute right out of her). He noticed a ice-cream stand and walked right up to it, getting 1 large chocolate cone for himself and 2 small vanilla cones for the two kids with sprinkles. He laughed as they dug into the ice-cream with innocent greediness, he looked over the area at all the happy families and it reminded him of a thought that had been bugging him for a while, he put a hand on Sari's head, "hey kiddo, can I ask you a question about your Pa?"

"About Daddy?" Sari stopped devouring her cone for a moment ,"yeah!"

"What's he like at your home? You know, around you and Claire?"

"What do you mean, Uncle Sonic?"

"Does he treat you ok? And Claire?"

"Oh yes! Daddy is the best! He never cusses in front of me, he never lies, he makes sure I take my breathing treatments everyday, he makes sure I'm warm when I go to bed, and always makes me eat my veggies every meal! He's very sanitary and cuts the grass every weekend , even though he hates the lawnmower. Every night he reads me a story or lets me read one. He's letting me read "the Hobbit" right now. And he gives me lots of hugs!"

"Hugs!" Sonic felt a little laugh threaten to come over him, he couldn't imagine Shadow being THAT fatherly, he wanted so badly to teleport to Shadow right now and rub it in his face, but it would probably end up with Sonic in a early grave. He thought for a moment," Wait, what about Claire? How's she fitting in?"

"Mommy is awesome! She does everything Daddy does, and when I have hard question, like where do babies come from, I can always ask them because Daddy is allergic to questions like that. She's teaching me how to play the violin!"

"Violin?"

"Daddy said the only way I could play Peewee Hockey was if I joined Peewee band. So Claire offered to teach me, she and Daddy get along great! They only argue outside, they love to play cards together and watch old horror movies after I'm tucked in."

Sonic smiled, maybe he didn't have to worry so much, he felt a little guilty after being so suspicious of Shadow. He should of known he would be a good father and great friend-Sonic suddenly choked on his cone as a word came back to him," Mommy?" he looked at Sari with a horrified look on his face, "you call Claire mommy?" what the heck did he miss?

"Yeah."

"Why are you calling Claire, Mommy?"

"Because she is Mommy. She acts like a Mommy, and loves me like a Mommy. She's my Mommy, even though I don't call it to her face, Daddy and Mommy get upset when I call her that."

Sonic sighed relieved, fearing a horrible Elise complex but should of known better then that too, "so what do you call Claire?"

"Aunty Claire.'

Even better, he looked over and saw the kiddies' rides, there was no need to worry after all. What ever , he hoped those two were having fun , no matter what they were doing.

88888888

With a final kick Shadow went flying out the window, leaving a panting and very sore Claire standing in the demolished living room, "Take…that…." she reached onto eh ground and picked up a few needles that had fallen when she and Shadow had been fighting, and leapt after him.

Shadow stood up, wiping the blood off his lip MURDER in his eyes, "Take. The. Dam. NEEDLE!" he leapt at her, spinning at high speed and launching himself at her with the strength of a rocket.

Claire leapt back, and put her hands up, the spin contacting with her hands, the force forcing her back, her arms shaking under the pressure, "Dam it Shadow just list-"

Shadow threw himself into the ground, positioning his feet and leapt up, spinning again but this time, forcing them both into the sky, the two flying up high into the sky, the wind whipping past their ears as they flew higher and higher, until they broke through the clouds, shadow broke out of his spin, grabbing Claire by the throat with one hand and the last needle with his free hand, "TAKE THE DAMM NEEDLE!" he started bringing it down on her shoulder but Claries hand shot up and grabbed his stabbing hand and the other grabbing his own throat, "TAKE YOUR OWN!"

888888888888888

Espio leaned back in his seat relieved, finally that all his paperwork was done, the house was clean, (for the time being)and the fridge was full, (once again, for now). He took a sip of his soothing tea when a thought bugged him, What had Shadow meant when he said 'cure Claire?' Was she really that sick? Well, now that he had time, he might as well go and check on the two, maybe offer to run down to the pharmacy or store for them. Reaching into his desk he pulled out a warp ring and tossed it to the side, thinking of the place he wanted it go, "Shadow's house."

As soon as the portal opened up Espio stepped through, "Claire? Shadow? You guys o-" he froze when he saw the devastating nature that was the living room, the couch was torn in half, the coffee table was so full of needles it looked like a dart board, the ceiling was full of body imprints, and a whole (that used to be a window) lead to a yard with even more destruction.

Espio felt frantic, what had happened here? He ran out the door, "Claire! Shadow! Where are you!" he suddenly heard a small , steadily growing sound and looked up, seeing two faint dots heading down towards the earth, "what the-"

888888888888

2 minutes later

"I said no needle!"

Shadow sighed, "hey Claire, are you as tired of this fight as I am?" ignoring the whipping wind around them and the fact they were descending and slowly gaining speed

"Actually yeah, it was fun, but lets give it a rest ok?"

"Good idea."

Claire smiled then her face became slightly worried, "Hey Shadow? Aren't we still falling?"

"Huh?" Shadow looked at the fast coming earth below them," OH Spit!" quickly he tossed the needle he had been carrying back into the air (where they had been flying upward towards) teleported to the earth and caught Claire in his arms, "that was close, you could of broken your neck."

"I'm not the one who was launching people into the air. Thanks though." she smiled then looked towards the house, "Wow we destroyed a lot."

"As long as the coffee maker is fine, I really don't care."

"Hey look!"

Shadow turned, still carrying Claire, turned around.

Espio was a few feet away, his eyes wide with shock and two shuriken out as though he had been under attack, stuttering uncontrollably "Wait…what-what?"

Shadow looked at Claire slighly aggravaed,"What the hells wrong with him?"

Claire, shrugged and stood up walking over slowly, "Espio? Esp? Are you ok-" she touched Espios' face but he didn't so much as twitch. She looked back on Shadow (who stood just behind her now, arms crossed and confused), "What's' wrong with him?"

"Maybe it's a ninja thing, I'm going back inside to see what we need to fix."

Claire looked back on the retreating hedgehog , back on Espio for a moment before running after him," Wait for-"

"WHAT THE HELL SI WRONG WITH YOU TWO!"

Shadow and Claire both jumped before turning around, Espio was now standing, Shuriken put away, but his face was clearly not happy.

"Esp? What's-"

"OH DON'T you "Esp" me. What's wrong with you two?"

Claire, looked back on Shadow , who looked just as confused as she was. Before turning to Espio (she saw Shadow stand by her), "I don't understand-"

"You two were throwing each other! THROWING EACHOTHER!" he pointed at Shadow, "YOU kneed her in the chest! A GIRL! AND YOU!" points at Claire, "KICKED SHADOW IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD!"

"Well, yeah , it was for kicking me in the chest."

"And there were NEEDLES-"

"I can explain that." Shadow jabbed a thumb in Claire's direction, "Her allergies were acting up, which made me freak-out. SO I went and grabbed about a thousand needles full of deadly diseases and cures in hopes of getting rid of them." he looked over at Claire, "But after a while neither of us could take this fight seriously so we just fought for fun, the needles added extra action. We were bored' he shrugged slightly, 'No big deal."

"NO BIG DEAL! YOU TWO COULD HAVE KILLED EACHTOERH-"

"NO, we never try to KILL each other-"

"YOU SPUN INTO CLAIRE SO HARD YOU TWO FLEW ABOVE THE CLOUDS!"

"Huh." Shadow looked at Claire again," I guess we did," he gave a slightly laugh, "It was pretty cool."

"I know right?" Clarie looked at the clouds , "I bet if we actually try we can go higher-"

Bu only made things worse as Espio stomped his foot angrily ,"THAT IS NOT THE POINT IN ANY SENSE OF THE WORD! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU TWO! THIS ISNT' WHAT FRIENDS DO FOR FUN!"

"It's not?"

"NO!"

Shadow crossed his arms again, "Then what do friends do for fun, by your definition."

"I don't know, they play CHESS, they go to AMMUSEMENT PARKS, they watch MOVIES!"

"Oh we watch-"

"that doesn't mean go to a movie theatre showing the Exorcist and laugh so hard through the movie that you get kicked out."

"Oh, well that's boring otherwise. Is that what you do? Explains why you don't have any friends."

Espio face started to swell with anger, his color changing to red ready to burst at any moment (which Shadow was looking forward to) when Espio suddenly spun around and started stomping wildly, "Jigoku wa karera to nani ga machigatte iru watashi wa watashi no kotoba o mīn-jin no watashi no orokana banchi dea~tsu tari shita koto ga nai! To, atama no ushiro ni otagai o kikku shiyou toshite otagai no AT hari o nagete, ima de wa karera wa yoi nakamadearu ka no yō ni chatto shite iru! Sore wa kore ppo ~tsu chi mo seijōde wa nai yo! Karera wa nō ni sonshō o o mochidesu ka? "

As Espio continued to scream like a mad sumo wrestler, Shadow and Claire glances at each other for a moment before Shadow tugged on her shoulder, a indication for her to listen, "Either he's having a stroke, or he's screaming in Japanese."

"I think its Japanese, makes sense, he is a ninja. Do you know what he's saying?"

"Something about needles, kicking, buddies, and brain damage. He's speaking to angrily to pick up to much."

"Maybe we should stop him before he has a aneurism."

"I was thinking so too, except he's just getting on my nerves.'" walking over , Shadow stopped for a moment, looking at the sky for a moment then back at the stomping Espio, as though judging something. Then took Espio by the shoulders, from behind, and pulled him over to the left a few feet (Espio screaming ," baca baca baca baca baca baca baca!"). Before stepping away entirely he checked Espios location again before walking over the shed, disappearing for a moment and came out again with 2 lawn chairs. He set them down, handing Claire a old and rusty football helmet, "Sit down and put this on."

Claire, a bit confused, Sat down and pulled on the rusty helmet, she looked over at Shadow through the broken visor and then back at Espio (now screaming, "Kesshite subete no watashi no toshi de,")

Suddenly something shot down from the sky and smacked Espio right in the head, the sudden impact made him waver fro a moment, turning to face Claire and Shadow, his skin started changing colors uncontrollably from many designs, with a sicken hue in his now droopy eyes he pointed a shaky hand at them, "You…..you…Akuma….." then fell flat on his face, a needle ( the one Shadow had tossed into the sky when they had been falling) sticking out of the back of his head.

Shadow threw his hands into the air, "touchdown!"

But Claire screamed in shock,' Espio!" she quickly ran over and knelt down (tossing the football helmet aside) and rolled Espio over, his eyes were droopy and his tongue (which she could see from his agape mouth ) was also changing colors. Her head shot in the direction of Shadow urgently, "Why did you do that? You injected him!"

"Oh calm down, it was one of the cures, I counted off how many needles are left, 23 cure and 23 disease, so he should be-"

"Shadow." Claire pulled out a needle from her pocket, "THIS is the cure needle."

Shadow blinked, and walked over, as though to verify her statement. His eyes widen slightly at the proof,, "Oh crap." he pulled the needle out of Espios head, "So what did we-"

"NO not we, Y OU."

"WE inject him with.." he read the needle carefully, his eyes widening even more, "Uh oh."

"What! What?"

"Lets just get him to the Haven NOW."

888888888888888888

Few hours later

Shadow and Claire stood at the observation room, watching Espio in his new "isolation room" while his body was still waving new colors every second, he was sitting cross-legged in the center of his germ-free , self ventilating room. From the way he was completely still you would think he was meditating, but no. He just had a death like glare that was stuck on Claire and Shadow.

Claire, unlike Shadow, felt bad, "Mobian Bubonic Plague….out of all the needles we gave him the Black death." she looked over at Shadow, and his face was pretty much in the blank, but he simply shrugged, "He was the one who was yelling at us, that's what he gets. Its' not like he's going to die or anything, he'll just be in isolation for a while." he saw Claire disproving glare and sighed, "But we'll make this up to him later, I promise."

Claries face brightened up, feeling better, "But what could we possibly do to make up for giving him the Bubonic Plague?"

"He's a ninja, and we're with GUN, I'm sure we can think of SOMETHING."

Sorry about this being so random, I wanted to have fun with something and I did with this! I hope you at least got a chuckle out of it, if not I'm sorry.

Return to Top