The only thing standing in the way of their escape was Shadow's stubbornness. Sonic leapt towards the dark hedgehog, but Shadow teleported out of the way. Getting the emerald wouldn't be easy.
"Well look who's finally here!" Isaac exclaimed.
"For god sake, Lucy. Just tell him you'll never turn him gay again... I haven't been here for long but I've had enough of that for a lifetime," Nami said as she pointed to Knuckles, narrowing her eyes at the echidna. He snapped back with some unintelligent language and the roue began again. This time there was no stopping them...
"But... I want to rewrite my Sonadow series..." Lucy pouted. Shadow growled in protest.
"Wait... SONadow... as in me and Shadow?" Sonic yelled in surprise, then he looked to Knuckles who was likely to break out in laughter again.
"There's no stopping you, is there, Lucy? No matter how much I do, there's nothing from stopping you from writing your fan girl fantasies," Shadow hissed and walked up to her threateningly. Lucy cowered on the spot.
"Why did you start doing that series anyway?" Isaac asked, having read Lucy's stories.
"It was a long time ago. I wanted to try something new... lots of people liked it, so I continued," Lucy said, then looked back down to Shadow who still looked furious.
"Many people may have liked it, but I didn't!" Shadow growled. "And you're going to continue if I let you out of here." Shadow was about to leave them all again but he felt guilty all of a sudden. He remembered what Sonic had told him about the fans. "Which is why I have to let you all go..." he sighed sadly.
"Is this actually happening? Is Shadow really letting us go?" Isaac asked, looking towards Lucy.
Skye ran up and hugged Shadow with a death grip after getting over the fact that Shadow was standing right in front of her. "Oh Shadsy, I knew you would choose the right choice in the end! There's nothing wrong with being gay; we can still be together forever and ever and ever!"
"Damn it!" Shadow cried out and pulled himself free. He ran a few feet away from Skye then glared at her. "Don't push it. I'm letting you all go otherwise I won't have much of a fan base anymore. Nor will I have anything to do because SEGA doesn't seem to care about me anymore..." the hedgehog said sadly.
"Aww..." Skye whimpered sadly, beginning to completely forget her desire to return to America.
Shadow threw his green emerald to Sonic, who caught it flawlessly.
"Take them home, Sonic. I think I'll stay were for a while..." Shadow said shamefully and turned his back on them all.
Skye gasped. "No! That's not right! Come back with us." She motioned toward Sonic and the other writers.
Isaac stood next to Skye.
"Yeah come on Shadow all the fans need you, and even if they are Sonic fans, they still like you as a character."
"And there are lots of Shadow fans too! Fangirls especially, like me!" Skye pointed to herself and smiled awkwardly, showing off her black and red braces.
"Not me, but if I start writing again I'll try not to make your life a misery," Isaac added.
"It doesn't matter whether I suffer or not if you care enough to take interest in me," Shadow said monotonously, with his back still turned to them. He suddenly spun around to face them with a stern look on his face. "But whatever you do, don't write me OOC!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah I'll do research," Isaac replied.
"And the rest of you?" Shadow said, and looked to Lucy before anyone else.
"You know I write you in character, Shadow," Lucy sighed.
"No you don't. I'm not in character in the majority of your stories. I would never let myself get into those situations so easily," Shadow said and folded his arms. "And if I did, I'd solve them quicker than you have me solve them."
"But... there would be no story if it were that easy, Shadow!" Lucy complained but she knew Shadow wouldn't listen. "I'm still going to write about you to help me to improve my writing skills."
Shadow glared at her furiously.
"You'll never learn. Just get out of my site!" Shadow snarled. "All of you!"
"Shadow, wait!" Skye took a step toward him. "You don't understand! We write fan fiction because you mean a lot to us. It doesn't mean that we want to put you through misery! C'mon, you have to admit that it makes your life a lot less boring to have fan adventures to embark on every now and again. Okay, maybe fan fics often have a lot of suffering involved, but think about how worth it the suffering usually is in the end! Even if you're a little OOC! What about the stories where you end up saving everyone, or finding a way to bring Maria back from the dead? What about the ones that have happy endings? If you don't want to go through that, just because you're not in the mood to feel a little pain, then... well... think about how cowardly that is! I thought you were the Ultimate Life Form! Get your act together and man up!" She immediately took a step backward and put a hand up to shield her face, wondering how the hedgehog was going to react.
"Hmph. The fact that I'm the ultimate life form and I can take it, doesn't justify the suffering you've all caused," Shadow complained.
"But it does expose your cowardice. Can't man up and take a few stories from the fans? She's right, you're no ultimate life form," Sonic said arrogantly with an irritating grin on his face.
Shadow walked over to Sonic with a fist raised to the blue hedgehog's face. The dark one looked furious and he began breathing heavily through his gritted teeth. Sonic stepped back; he felt very uncomfortable with Shadow's anger. But he didn't have to put up with it for long, as Shadow retracted his fist and bowed his head in shame while sighing deeply.
"You're right," Shadow said miserably.
Skye shifted her weight and crossed her arms, looking down at the ground as she spoke. "Shadow, I'm really sorry. Sorry for being rude a moment ago, sorry for making your life miserable through writing, and sorry for having to say this. Writing fan fiction about you is all I have besides my sister, and I don't want that to go away. That would be... really sad. You've been the most important thing to me since... I don't even know anymore. But... I'll miss you. More than anything. And I think all of us will miss you that much too, if we can't write about you anymore. I mean, look at us." She glanced at the people around her, all completely different, yet completely the same. "We're all different ages, different types of people, and even from different continents. But you know what brings us together today? You. You, and you alone is the reason we're here. Does that not show how tremendously important you are to us all? So I'm going to try not to make this anymore melodramatic than it already is. Will you please come back with us?"
Shadow looked at her in saddened shock, then he glanced at everyone else. Skye was right...
"I guess we should get moving," Shadow said and stood boldly and confidently. The dark hedgehog walked over to Sonic and snatched his green emerald back. Sonic, however, was willing to let it go since Shadow was himself again. "You'd better say your goodbyes... I'm sending you all back home."
Lucy looked as Skye who she'd grown rather close to in such a short space of time. Then she looked to Nami who she'd missed for so long and hardly got to see. Finally, to Isaac, who she didn't get the chance to know.
"Well... bye," she struggled to say then looked to the floor before she made herself cry.
"Well it was nice meeting my favourite author and some new guys. I'll keep checking back for stories and maybe we will see each other again on ff," Isaac sadly told everyone before smiling and giving a small salute. "Until next time, guys."
"Yeah, even if I had to be trapped in here for a day, it was really cool meeting you all. And it was awesome hanging out with you, Lucy." She smiled at the teenager next to her, and then looked to Sonic and Knuckles. "I've been playing your video games since I was three. It's been amazing just to be in your presence." Then, lastly, she turned to Shadow. A tear rolled down her cheek and she uncrossed her arms. "Shadow, I might never see you again, so, do you think... I could... have a goodbye hug?" Surely he would say no, but it was worth a shot.
Shadow's muscles tensed up all over his body when he heard the request for a hug. He felt he owed Skye... but he didn't want to hug her; he didn't want to hug anyone. Close contact wasn't his favourite way of communicating with people. Nevertheless, he took in a deep shaky breath, stood to face her, and put his arms out.
"Oh... my... God..." Skye was completely shocked that he had said yes. Although she had hugged him before, it was a completely different experience now that she had been granted permission. The teenager took a few steps toward him slowly, then broke into a full-out sprint, screaming, "OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD!" She squeezed Shadow tightly and announced, "This is the best day of my life!"
Shadow grunted as he was squeezed all of a sudden; he couldn't wait for the hug to end so he could just go home and forget it never happened. The ultimate life form didn't want anyone to think he'd gone soft. Sonic stood to the side, sniggering at what happened before his eyes. When Skye finally took a step back, she smiled from ear to ear and said,
"Thanks for letting me do that. You're the best!" She then proceeded to walk back into the group of authors and took her spot next to Lucy.
Sonic continued to quietly laugh to himself. Shadow glared at him angrily.
"Shut up, Faker, or I'll leave you behind," Shadow said and held his green emerald above him. Sonic went silent immediately, he'd be stuck forever if Shadow didn't take him home. "When I perform Chaos Control, you'll all be sent home, never to see each other again unless you seek each other out of your own accord."
It seemed as though everyone understood, so Shadow continued. There was time for one last speech of gratitude, but Shadow felt he'd experienced enough sentiment for one day.
"Chaos Control!"
Lucy Labrador, TheVideoGamer, CoolDude1543, xXdizzyblondXx
Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who participated in this. This story couldn't have been this good without you all. Fanfiception is over for now, but feel free to use our Fanfiception ideas for your own humours one-shots. And, check the forum for discussions on this series and role-plays.
Lucy Labrador