Chapter Nine – Two of a Kind
The sky was stained with the pale light of false dawn when the van finally stuttered to a stop in the small town known as Sunset Hill. The battered old vehicle seemed to sag down into the road as Manic pulled it to a halt in a narrow alley, its structure groaning as if in torment.
"Phew," Sonia sighed, "Good thing we got here when we did, don't think this thing could go much further."
Manic shrugged, "Hey, we got here, right?" he stretched, and yawned, "Think I'll grab a nap, then head out and find us a mechanic." With that, the weary green hedgehog rolled out of the driver's seat and padded over to his bunk. He blinked when he laid eyes in Shadow, who was trying to pry his hand loose of the death-grip he had been forced to take on the bed-frame, leaving the imprint of his fingers in the metal. "Um…" Manic said, staring at that impression of fingers left in the solid metal frame, "Dude, you're really strong."
Shadow looked ever-so-slightly sheepish, "My apologies." He said, looking away.
Manic shrugged, "Eh, no problem. Ain't the first knock that thing's taken."
"You can have the spare bunk, by the way." Sonia said wandering over to join her brother and gesturing up to the bunk above her own bed, "Providing you don't snore, of course." She smirked.
"… thank you." Shadow said, looking a little off-balance at this sudden acceptance, "I am sorry that you lost your equipment, by the way."
Sonic laughed, "No problem, Maestro. We lose stuff all the time."
"Yeah, man," Manic added, "Ain't the first time we've lost kit to a robot attack. We've totally got spares. We can get more as soon as we get back to Metropolis."
"That's a point – what's Shadow gonna do with the band? We need to preserve our cover story." Sonia mused.
"Sure, but no one is gonna believe he's a Roadie." Sonic commented.
Sonia raised an eyebrow at him, "Why not?"
"C'mon, sis, just look at him!" Sonic said without thinking, earning him amused looks from his siblings, and a surprised look from Shadow. Sonic flushed slightly, his cheeks darkening as Shadow gave him a penetrating stare, "uh... I mean…"
"Is that a bass guitar?" Shadow interrupted, rescuing the tatters of Sonic's dignity.
Sonia glanced over, "Uh, yeah. Why?"
The three teenaged hedgehogs watched with great interest as Shadow wandered over to collect the battered white bass guitar. The guitar had clearly seen better days, and apparently hadn't been played in quite some time, since the strings were hung loosely on the frame.
Deftly, he began to unwind the strings. Sonic looked at him in confusion for a moment before he smiled.
"Oh yeah. I almost forgot about that." Sonic noted.
"Huh?" Manic asked, puzzled.
"I'm left-handed." Shadow replied calmly as he carried on re-stringing the guitar.
"Okay, that's cool – but can ya play?" Manic asked.
"I'm a little out of practice…" Shadow said a little hesitantly as he tuned the guitar and ran through a few scales, his fingers seeming to increase in confidence as he went along.
"C'mon, Shadow, play somethin'!" Sonic demanded, his eyes alight with interest, his attention focussed squarely on the black hedgehog.
Shadow looked away, dropping his gaze down to the strings, he raised his hands…
And from the battered old bass guitar came the blistering sounds of the opening bass solo from 'Hysteria'. He looked up to see the triplets staring at him with goggle-eyed expressions.
"I play a little." He said, not able to erase the slight smirk from his face.
Sonia whistled, "You're hired!" She said, and the other two vigorously nodded their agreement. "Sonic, you can start teaching him some of our songs while Manic is out finding us a mechanic."
"Sure thing, sis." Sonic said with an almost shy smile on the blue hedgehog's face as he glanced over at Shadow, "Guess I get to teach you something this time, huh, Maestro?"
"Apparently so." Shadow murmured.
Manic yawned, "Right after I get some sleep – an' it looks like you guys could use some too. Was kinda rough night."
Most of them agreed and tiredly padded over to climb into their bunks. Shadow hesitated for a moment. He didn't really need sleep, but at the same time he felt reluctant to introduce Sonic to the extent of his strangeness just yet. It was a peculiar impulse, the only time he had ever hidden his history before was to disguise his identity, so why was he so hesitant to tell his story to Sonic? The need for secrecy was over.
Perhaps because his story was so long and complex, and the triplets were all very tired… or perhaps it was because he feared Sonic would reject him after he had learned what Shadow really was – as so many had done in the past.
"C'mon, Shadow." Sonic called as he climbed into his own bunk, "Ya gotta be tired – take a load off. Nobody else is gonna use that bunk, its ok."
Shaking off his momentary introspection, he shrugged and climbed the ladder to the spare bunk, his head flopping down onto the pillow. He realised as he lay back that he was only really worried about what Sonic would think – the opinions of the other two triplets mattered much less to him, his eyes drifted across the tiny space inside the van to seek out Sonic's drowsing form…
His fingers suddenly clenched convulsively around the blankets. No… he wouldn't… he couldn't let himself start thinking like that. Decisively, he turned over to face the wall, deliberately closing his eyes.
Something else occurred to him as he did so and it was an extremely uncomfortable thought. The day had been so busy that he had almost forgotten. He had abandoned the Echidnas in the middle of the ceremony and gone specifically gone against the Queen's orders. He was going to have a great deal of explaining to do.
And Knuckles was going to be royally pissed.
Later on that day, Manic found himself wandering through one of the rougher areas of town. Many of the buildings were in disrepair, bits of brick poking through crumbling plaster. The older buildings had fared better, but even then several windows were boarded up.
The other mechanics he had found had just about laughed in his face when they had seen the pitiful amount of money he had. Though the gigs did net the Sonic Underground a decent amount of money, much of it went on supporting the Freedom Fighters, leaving them with little to spend.
Though there were a fair number of people wandering the streets this late in the afternoon, there still seemed to be a peculiar, almost furtive hush over this particular part of town. The people here kept their heads down and went about their business with hidden eyes and shadowed faces. Manic recognised the atmosphere - he had grown up in it.
On impulse, he casually moved his fingers to display the classic recognition signal of the Thieves Guild. He had no idea if any of the locals would recognise it, but since he was mostly lost, he figured he had nothing to lose. One of the marginally friendlier mechanics had suggested he try his luck with 'The Freak' - apparently some kind of mechanic or odd-job guy who might be willing to work for cheap. He had been given some vague directions, but this part of town was a warren of alleyways and crooked backstreets, even his sense of direction had been foiled.
Finally, his recognition signal got some sort of response. A scruffy-looking squirrel casually sauntered up to him and grinned.
"Hey there," The squirrel said. Manic did a quick appraisal, deciding the squirrel was most likely a sneak-thief or pickpocket, no one significant, but someone likely to know the streets very well.
"Hi." Manic grinned back.
"You don't look like a newbie," The squirrel continued, "But I ain't never seen you before. New in town?"
"Just passin' through." Manic said, casually leaning against a wall. The words and posture were important, he was displaying that he had no intention of moving in on anyone else's turf. This would help make the local thieves less hostile and more helpful.
The squirrel visibly relaxed, "Cool. Where ya from? Oh, and my name's Ray."
"Robotropolis." Manic shrugged, "And you can me Manic."
The squirrel – Ray - raised an eyebrow, "You're a long way from home, dude."
"Heh, my van broke down."
"Ahhh," A look of understanding flooded across the squirrel's face., "You're lookin' for the Freak, then?"
"Sure am," Manic affirmed, "Though I'm kina wonderin' why this dude keeps getting called that."
Ray snorted, "You'll see soon enough." With that cryptic remark, the squirrel quickly gave some fairly good directions to where he needed to go, ending with, "So was your boss in Robotropolis anybody I'd know?"
Manic, who was diligently trying to commit the directions to memory, replied somewhat absently, "Huh? I dunno; he was called Feral. He raised me."
Ray almost recoiled, his eyes wide, "Dude! You worked for Feral?"
Manic gave him an odd look, "Uh, yeah…"
The squirrel suddenly had a look of profound respect in his eyes and he was regarding Manic with peculiar intensity, "Well… I'll spread the word we got a guest in town. Let one of the boys know if you need anything else." Ray twitched slightly, then turned and slipped away into the shadows of the alleyway. Manic watched him as he vanished, a perplexed look on his face. When the squirrel had twitched before he left, it had looked quite a lot like he was suppressing the urge to bow.
With a slightly uneasy shrug, Manic followed the road further out of town, the buildings becoming more dilapidated as he went along, until the commercial-style towers were replaced by tired old houses. He turned one last corner and came across an old, abandoned gas station.
Manic stared for a moment at the beaten-up old building, "You gotta be kiddin' me…" he muttered to himself. But this was definitely where Ray had told him to go. So, with a faint shrug, he opened the door and stepped inside.
If anything, the inside was worse than the outside. The air was thick with the smell of rotten wood and old oil, in addition to the faint tang of hot metal. There was dust everywhere and the remains of the dark blue paint on the walls had peeled away and now hung off the wall in long strips. Manic's feet shuffled over the unfinished concrete floor as he looked around. There were minimal signs of habitation scattered around - the occasional empty tin of food, and tucked away in a corner was a pile of rags that seemed to serve as someone's makeshift bed.
"What are you doing here?" The sharp voice coming from behind him almost made Manic jump out of his skin. The green hedgehog spun around, one hand automatically reaching for the small knife he kept tucked behind his belt, but he stopped dead when he caught sight of the person who had challenged him.
It was a young fox kit. Perhaps ten or eleven years old, badly undernourished with matted fur that seemed to be orange under the layer of grime covering it. A pair of vividly blue eyes regarded him with harsh suspicion.
"You gonna answer me, huh?" The kit demanded, "What d'you want?" The little fox's voice was filled with bitterness, his tail lashing behind him.
Manic blinked, wondering for a second if he was seeing double when he realised that it wasn't a single tail that was stirring up the dust next to the kit - it was in fact a pair of them.
"… Or ya just here to laugh at the freak?" the young fox finished.
To be Continued...
Author's Note: Apologies for the short chapter. I have been distracted by other things. Next one will be longer, I promise.
In blatant plug news, you really, really ought to go read Greyfore's fic 'Walk A While In My Shoes'. Go do it now and leave him lots of feedback!