Anonymous Review Replies!
Guest: Thanks! We try our best :)
Guest: Glad you liked! Have an update^^
Guest: hah, Burning Arrow probably gets updated more frequently than this one! XD Next update is due in a coupla weeks, no worries :p
DEV: Wa-hey, und diesmal war's sogar weniger als ein Jahr, was ist denn das? XD Freut mich, dass die klassischen Badniks gut angekommen sind (ich musste die recherchieren - die waren Skyblazes Idee und ich (3D-Sonic-Spielerin) musste dann das Kapitel mit denen schreiben, oh Mann XD Hoffe mal, der Cliffhanger ist dieses mal nicht so schlimm - schließlich hat dieses Kapitel Skyblaze designt, also wird's wohl nicht ganz so fies...:p
Guest: Heh, no matter how the story will turn out, we promise it's gonna be a fun ride! :p Thanks for the review!
JadeNoRyuu: Hey there! Hah, naw, I don't think it actually was a killer whale - what it was exactly our heroes will have to find out, I think. :p Happy to hear you're here for the long run! :D
Guest: Are they ever? XD Naw, no worries, they'll pull through...probably ;)
Guest: Interesting theory! Though I gotta admit to not having played Sonic Generations yet^^;
Reb: Thanks! Hope you like the new chapter!
NovatheHedehog3: hah, cliffies are just wayyy to much fun to put in. :p But have an update!
Anon: Hah, no worries, you can...take your time with the checking up...^^°
Katz4: Double the amount of authors, double the amount of procrastination, apparently! (But at least the updates do happen...eventually?^^°)
Guest: Thanks! Here you go!
Guest: ...your point being?
Guest: No worries, new update on the way! And yeah, water's Sonic's kryptonite, but apparently, the wolf handles it a bit better :p
Guest: We try to make the fic chock-full of them ;)
Anon: Hah, Scratch and Grounder! Now they would be hilarious, but I have a feeling Sonic and Shadow already have their hands full *without* their stupidity...;)
Chapter 10: Light Killing Shadows
His lungs burned. He couldn't see a thing any more, blackness closing in on him, his thick pelt weighed down by icy water as he was slowly dragged down to the depths. Sonic tried to summon up some last reserve of energy, some strength to escape the shining teeth of the robot coming to finish him off, but there was nothing left in him.
A spasm of pain tore through his body as something sharp dug into one of his arms, then into the other and he could feel himself being abruptly pulled.
This was it.
Death rushed toward him with the force of a tidal wave, the coldness of the water wrapping itself around his consciousness like a lover who wouldn't let go, and Sonic could wonder only briefly whether there wasn't something funny in this – the unstoppable hero of Mobius, finally taken out by nothing more than an ancient badnik...
Then his head broke the surface.
Sonic gasped on reflex. While his brain still had no idea what had happened, his body took over instead, greedily inhaling desperate gulps of air into aching lungs, his vision slowly clearing. It took one, two moments for Sonic to get his head back into semi-working order, black spots still dancing in his vision, but eventually, he even managed to look to the side to see what had lifted him to the surface and saved him from the robot.
He almost did a double-take when he realised what it was.
As it turned out, the pinching sensation on his arms was still the pair of Chopper badniks, but they were holding him in their teeth with a surprisingly...gentle grip. Sonic blinked at them for a moment – mostly because the words 'gentle' and 'Chopper badnik' together in a sentence seemed to make as much sense as 'Knuckles' and 'Dance Dance Revolution' – but then another thought crashed into his consciousness and any levity of the situation was immediately replaced by his blood having all but turned into ice.
"Shadow!"
Sonic immediately started to flail as the memory hit, trying to escape from the grip of the Choppers to dive down again, fetch and save the hedgehog who had been floating underneath the ice like he were dead already, had almost managed to tear himself (and a good deal of fur) away from the red, mechanical maws of the robot fish, both of whom gave two rusty, muffled, but still definitely surprised sqawks at the hero's attempts at escape – just before Sonic abruptly froze.
Shadow was already at the surface.
"Wha...?" Sonic croaked, for a moment absolutely non-plussed. Hadn't the black hedgehog been literally out-cold moments ago? But then something moved in the water next to the other, and the hero's lips formed a silent 'o' as he realized that a pair of the same badniks that had pulled him from the dark was also at Shadow's shoulders, pushing both of them toward the icy shore. Sonic's heart beat slowed down a little as Shadow's head lolled and he thought he could see a small muscle spasm in his face – indicating that the self-proclaimed Ultimate Lifeform appeared to be unconscious, but alive.
It took another minute, but eventually, the red, fish-like badniks had succeeded in towing them towards the shore, supporting Sonic until he could crawl out of the freezing water and lift Shadow out to lay beside him. The hero of Mobius could scarcely resist from kissing the freezing ground – the instincts of the wolf seemed to have kept his aquaphobia in check enough for him to avoid a panic attack, but that didn't mean he was going to go all ocean-hugger any time soon.
"Chaos." Sonic collapsed into the snow. He knew he needed to start getting both of them warm and dry as soon as he could, but surely a moment of respite was allowed...?
From behind a snow drift, there was a noise that somehow managed to sound like a hesitant tank, and when Sonic lifted his head, Burrobot came trundling over to join him. "I, uhm, called for some help," the badnik said diffidently, "Hope that's okay. Sorry." It poked its drills together nervously. "Uh, if you do disassemble me, c'n you take care not to break the nose...?"
"Ahoy kid, if that landlubber tries to take ye apart, we're going to pull him back in. What were you even doing in there? Land-based organics aren't designed for such cold environments," one of the Choppers cut in (and Sonic wondered whether robots were even supposed to be able to have a don't-you-know-anything – voice setting, or whether that was just Robotnik's faible), "They start malfunctioning."
"Yeah," Said another Chopper, "Never send a furball to do a robot's job!"
That comment elicited a round of something that sounded unnervingly like laughter from the water-based bots. Sonic also wondered whether the two mechanical fish had actually just high-fived (finned?) each other, or if he was imagining things by now.
"'eah, 'ou gign'k e'en gek whak 'ou came hor!" Another chopper (who had been towing Shadow, and then dived abruptly down again) proclaimed proudly, if rather indistinctly. The fact that its entire mouth was filled with a Chaos Emerald near the same size as its body might have contributed to that. As it surfaced, it spat the stone onto the snowy shore, its worrisome teeth then forming a rather smug smirk. "Looking for this, spikeball?"
"Uh... thanks. And yeah, 'm not gonna hurt the little guy, so you can keep your...uh, gills on. Or whatever. But thanks a lot for the Emerald, I'll take it in a mo'" the blue hero managed, most of his attention on Shadow by now anyway. He had already turned the black hedgehog over onto his back, checked that he was still breathing and then flipped him onto his front, being careful of the quills. As soon as he did, a great torrent of water gushed out of Shadow's mouth, quickly followed by the Ultimate Lifeform coughing and choking as he hacked up more arctic water.
"Uh. You okay, Shads?" Sonic asked tentatively.
"Why, peachy," Shadow growled in between bouts of coughing, now at least on all fours. "I always...wanted to swallow a freaking aquarium..."
Sonic grimaced as the next round of coughing started. The black hedgehog's body now looked even frailer compared to the bulk of the wolf, despite the strength he knew Shadow's runner's form hid. But now waterlogged black fur was plastered close to skin and combined with the more than pitiful pose of the other, struggling to draw breaths while on his hands and knees, Shadow was looking a far cry from his normally imposing self. Once again, Sonic managed to feel a sting of pity, even if he knew any expression of it would likely go unappreciated here.
Finally, Shadow managed to sit back on his haunches, looking pale beneath the tan fur on his muzzle. One of his hands rubbed over his chest, the other instinctively coming up to wrap around his other arm, a shudder running through the black form as red eyes squeezed themselves shut, looking distinctly miserable.
"Goddamn this cold..."
"Hey. Want a blanket?"
Shadow looked up. While he had been emptying his stomach, Sonic appeared to have been shaking himself dry a few metres apart, judging by his coat now appearing fluffier before. A part of Shadow's biology education piped up that this probably meant that the inner layer of Sonic's fur was still dry, similar to the mechanics of a polar bear's coat, and he couldn't help but feel a small flare of jealousy (that he of course wouldn't admit at gun point). Now, humiliation was also making itself known along with an unwelcome heat in his cheeks that Sonic had seen this undignified display of him just now. However, the blue hero wasn't looking smug or teasing in any way, just holding out the mentioned orange blanket from their pack with a lop-sided grin and what even looked like honest apology in his eyes.
"Here. Figured you could use it. Sorry I couldn't get you out earlier."
"...thank you," Shadow managed somewhat stiffly, taking the blanket and wrapping it around himself, immediately feeling a bit better. "What happened? All I remember is suddenly getting attacked..."
"To be honest, I don't know exactly, either." The transformed hedgehog scratched his head. "But you were taking too long to resurface, and when I tried to yank you out, your rope came up torn. So I jumped in after you. But I didn't get a clear look at those things either, it was just way too dark down there."
"You jumped in after me?" Black eye ridges rose ever so subtly, showing a rare expression of surprise on the face of the Ultimate Lifeform. Shadow seemed to notice, because he immediately tried to re-form his face into a frown. "I mean, I thought you had a...thing about water?"
"Well, funny thing, as soon as I thought you were about to snuff it down there, that somehow didn't seem to matter that much, anymore," Sonic gave him a somewhat awkward smile as he rubbed the back of his head, looking slightly embarrassed himself. "Mind you, I think being a wolf helped somewhat there."
"...huh," the black hedgehog managed, instinctively drawing the blanket closer around himself as he felt the inexplicable urge to examine his shoes for a moment. Someone else risking his life for him, despite having to go up against what probably amounted to one of their greatest fears...
For some reason, there was a part in his chest that suddenly felt just slightly warmer than it had before, and Shadow was pretty sure this didn't have anything to do with the blanket.
"Oh. Er. Well, thank you," he managed to look up again, his voice thankfully steady even if the words came out somewhat awkwardly, but the light up of emerald eyes and the sudden, wide toothy grin of the wolf told him they sure didn't seem to go unappreciated. Which in turn didn't feel too bad at all.
Once again, Shadow felt just slightly like he was losing his inner footing here, and was therefore grateful when Sonic was already continuing with a shrug,
"Then again, me jumping in after you probably wouldn't have helped all that much if the Chopper badniks hadn't come to rescue us anyway, soooo..." the hero gave a slightly embarrassed laugh.
"The...chopper badniks," Shadow repeated, giving a slight glance at the (cheerfully waving) red fish-shaped robots still in the arctic sea. "I thought we had sent the Doctor's robots away?"
Sonic waved a paw. "Well, yeah, technically we did. Your call, remember? I didn't go against it. But, eh, well. Li'l guy here decided to stick around and radioed for help, apparently," Sonic said, at the same time giving a (perhaps slightly more forceful than intended) slap on the back to the burrobot, who gave a mechanic squeak at the impact.
"Whoops. Sorry, li'l dude."
"Diagnostics...minor damage, repairable...er, I mean, I'm okay! Just a few screws loose," the little tank managed (not quite sure why this seemed to elicit a small chuckle from the organics).
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that," Sonic repeated (now with a small grin) before turning to Shadow. "But yeah, see? It's not that bad to have friends or trust them once in a while, Shads." The words were accompanied by a smile, and once again the Ultimate Lifeform strangely felt less annoyed at the 'lecture' than he maybe should have been. Instead, his voice sounded to his own surprise a bit warmer than he had intended when he replied.
"Hm. I guess. Once in a while, anyway," he tried to make the last sentence sound curt and dismissive, but it came out not quite as sincerely as he had planned it, the grudge distinctively lacking bite.
Yet somehow, the blue hedgehog's answering snort wasn't such a bad reward at all.
Next, there were already clanking and whirring noises indicating the return of the rest of the batniks, interrupting the two hedgehogs. The entire troupe from before came flying and trundling into view cautiously.
"Er... you both still functioning?" Bat Brain asked.
"Yeah, we're both alive," Sonic replied easily, "Pretty close call, though."
"Ya never were all that good at water," Crabmeat put in, somehow looking vaguely smug despite its limited range of facial expressions.
"Thank you so much for the concern," Shadow muttered, the familiar causticity thankfully coming to him easily as soon as they weren't alone any longer, (and, somehow, hearing Sonic chuckle at this familiar attitude wasn't all that bad, either). Shadow bent down to pick up the Emerald from the snow as the blue hedgehog attempted to hold up heroic appaerances, though.
"C'mon, Shadow." He nudged him slightly. "They did just save our lives. And got the Emerald for us, by the way."
As a reply, the black hedgehog this time merely grunted and Sonic rolled his eyes, "That's his way of saying 'Thank you'," he told the badniks, ignoring the flat stare from the Ultimate Lifeform this provoked. Sonic turned his attention back to the badniks. "What were those black killer whale things anyhow?"
"No idea. We've never seen anything like 'em either," one of the Choppers (impressively, without shoulders) gave a shrug. "We travel around a bit, and all we know is that we're sure they weren't here last week..."
"So they probably are connected with that eclipse..." Sonic pondered. "Hm. Maybe they were Dark Gaia creatures? I ran across those last time, but I don't remember anything that looked like them."
Next to him, Shadow shrugged as he folded the blanket and put it away again, dark fur as dry as it was going to get without a proper warm environment. "Different situation this time, it may have changed things. It's hard to say without more data."
"Uh, guys?" Bat Brain put in suddenly.
"Yeah?" Sonic asked.
"Is...are those going to be a problem?" the bot asked in an almost worried tone, pointing with one wing.
Sonic looked to where the bot was pointing and saw...a horde of penguins? – he wondered briefly, but only for a moment, for when the truth became apparent a second later, his heart briefly clenched in his chest.
In the arctic night, an army of Shadow clones was closing in rapidly.
"Yes they are!" Sonic yelped, rearing backwards, "Shadow, we got incoming!"
"Yes, I noticed," Shadow growled, but he also looked fairly tense, as if a fight was looking less than appealing now that he was drenched and cold.
Bat Brain swooped down in front of them both. "We can hold them off!" it exclaimed (ignoring Crabmeat's muttered 'The hell?' in the background). "If you promise to put in a really good word with the villagers, we can lead them in the opposite direction!"
"Thanks for the offer, but no. These things are fast, you'd get yourself scrapped," Sonic replied curtly, then glanced at Shadow, "Any ideas, Shads?"
Shadow's eyes narrowed, only a part of him noting how naturally Sonic was including his opinion now instead of just blasting off, "We need to lead them away from the village. The last thing I need is one of them escaping and again wreaking havoc in my name." Red eyes briefly scanned the terrain. "We need somewhere defensible, like a choke point to thin them out."
Sonic's lips thinned. The thought of fighting more of those things - things that looked so much like the hedgehog he had come to see as a friend - turned Sonic's stomach after what had happened last time, but he nodded grimly.
"We know a place like that," the buzz-bomber said. "It's a fairly steep climb, but-"
"Sounds fine," Sonic cut him off, perhaps more quickly than usual, "Then let's go!"
Next, they were already running across the tundra, the buzz-bomber leading the way. Sonic was forced to run on all fours in order to keep up (which thankfully Shadow declined to comment on). Snow had begun to fall again, covering their tracks as soon as they made them in the arctic night. Near all of them were moving at maximum capacity, but this didn't change the fact that in their current form, Shadow was still the fastest - and it showed in the speed of the copies.
The pack of Shadow clones was closing in rapidly behind them, skates blazing in the darkness and lighting up their sleek bodies from below like a demonic horde. Sonic, who had only thrown a glance over his shoulder to get this picture next nearly barrelled into Shadow when they came to a halt.
"Watch it!"
"Sorry, sorry - oh. Are we here?" Sonic asked, but he could see the question was superflous as soon as it left his mouth. Around them and in front of them, high ice walls were now soaring up into the dark sky, creating a natural cul-de-sac, an area surrounded by steep cliffs made of solid ice, perfect for an ambush – if you were atop the walls.
"Hurry! We need to get up before they get here!" Burro-bot called (somewhat redundantly), waving at them with one panicked wing motion as the other badniks had already begun to scale the cliff in front of them, the ground-based models aided by those who could fly.
"Right!" Sonic was after them in a moment, his claws and spiked boots making efficient climbing spikes, his stretchy arms letting him reach heights otherwise unattainable.
"Hurry, Shadow!"
"I am!" the black hedgehog snapped, but, in truth, he could already see that his own method of ascent was much more laborious, especially since he was still clutching the Emerald in one hand. This was truly a terrain where the wolf held all the advantages and their natural form none. For the first time, Shadow briefly wished the sun would come up and allow him to transform, giving him an opportunity for a swifter climb. Annoyed at himself for these nonsense thoughts, he glanced back down over his shoulder and felt his heart jump in his chest when he saw that the clones were nearly upon them.
Shadow dug his fingers into the ice wall, trying to climb as quickly as he could when the first ones reached the bottom of the cliff and immediately started to crawl upwards like a swarm of black spiders.
Dammit! Of all the times to be missing the ability to Chaos Control-!
"AH!" Shadow cried out, train of thought ripped from him when a sudden tug on his foot almost made him lose purchase. With a mixture between a yelp and a growl, the Ultimate Lifeform instinctively kicked down, steel-reinforced skates impacting mercilessly into the skull of the clone below. The jets on the soles of his shoes blazed hot as the Chaos inside him flared up at the threat to its master, scorching the already disorientated clone's face badly enough for it to lose its grip and tumble down the cliff with a wordless shriek of pain and fury. Shadow was gratified to see it take two of its brethen with it, two of them landing awkwardly on the ice below, not moving anymore.
Serves you right.
Teeth bared, Shadow tried to resume his climb, but the clones were swarming him now from all sides. With a furious snarl he kicked off another, but a third was already grabbing at his arms, all of them trying to reach the Emerald.
"Shadow!" Sonic called, now at the summit of the cliff, "Hold on, I'll come help!"
"They don't want me, they want the stone! Just grab the Emerald! I can handle this if I have both hands!" Shadow shouted back, punctuating his sentence as he tore yet another mock-up of himself off the cliff face with a savage backhand blow.
"Okay! Hold it up, I'm coming!" Sonic's voice sounded closer, but Shadow didn't dare look up again. There were too many enemies around him already, and his grip on the ice was too precarious by far. One of the creatures came up on his right like a snake, moving unnaturally against the frozen wall to grab at his arm, reaching for the Emerald with its other hand, cold, artificial fingers digging into the flesh of his biceps. It tugged and Shadow's grip slipped with a cry.
"You...mockery, don't you dare-!" Shadow turned on it instinctively, eyes blazing with fury, but he knew at once this had been a mistake.
Another copy had taken advantage of his slip-up immediately, its fingers wrapping around the Ultimate Lifeform's leg and pulling. With another chocked gasp, Shadow could feel his foot hold torn away from him, leaving all of his weight to be held by one arm and one foot wedged precariously into the slippery ice. He couldn't move. Grasping hands from all sides were clutching at him like a zombie horde, blunt nails digging into his fur like worms in mindless determination. The clone at his side seemed to sense his predicament, baring its teeth in an artless expression of malice and victory as he reached for the Emerald or for his throat, Shadow at this point wasn't even sure any more. He briefly considered to let himself drop to get away, but a quick glance below only showed that this wasn't an option. By now Shadow was their prey at the centre of a hive, like an insect in a nest full of black and red-striped cannibalistic spiders about to tear him apart. Falling into their seething mass below would mean death.
"No!" Panic now for the first time rising, Shadow viciously kicked against his captors closing in, trying with all his considerable strength to tear loose, but whenever he managed to tear one of them off, two seemed to its place, seeming to sense his weakness like bacteria closing in on an open wound. He couldn't win this with only one hand free. They were going to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. Already, another twitching, grasping hand was starting to lay itself across his face, fingers digging into his eyes, his open mouth-
N-No! Get awa-!
Something white and blue entered his peripheral vision like a marine lightning bolt. Shadow's head flew up to see one of Sonic's impossibly elastic arms wrap itself around the neck of the clone and tearing it away from Shadow, the other reaching towards him, the wolf's claws extended.
"Shadow! Gimme the Emerald!"
Wrenching his arm free from another blindly groping hand grabbing at it, Shadow threw his hand holding the jewel desperately upward, trying to stretch without falling. If he could only get the gemstone somewhere safe and free his hands for climbing and fighting-!
Sonic's claws closed around the Emerald.
The next second, the arctic tundra was suddenly lit with a brightness so sheer it burned.
What...?!
Shadow could feel his eyes going as wide as Sonic's as, for a single moment, the endless night of the polar circle turned into blinding day. Next, his breath was almost crushed from his lungs as a wave of energy slammed into him with the force of a sledgehammer.
Shadow would have screamed, but he was already drowned out. The same light that had blinded him had also seared the eyes of the clones, the creatures throwing their heads back in apparent agony as the light washed over them, some falling from the cliff as they instinctively tried to cover their eyes and lost their grip. Shadow himself would have nearly lost what remained of his footing - but not because of the lightning.
What had nearly knocked him off the wall had instead been the fierce burn of Chaos energy rushing through his veins like a spring tide of pure fire.
The Emerald was active again.
The black hedgehog's head snapped up to look up into Sonic's equally wide, bright green eyes (ignoring for the moment the comical sight of Sonic in his wolf form apparently dangling upside down and held by a chain of badniks suspended from the top of the cliff like a character chain straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon).
"Just a moment," Shadow said, and he could hear his voice sounding hoarse, but steady. "I'll be right back."
Before Sonic could even reply, he had already twisted his hand still holding the Emerald out of the wolf's grip and pushed himself in one smooth movement away from the cliff. Shadow twisted his body to backflip in mid-air, skates activating at the apex to slow his descent and let him land at the foot of the cliff as gracefully as the acrobat he was. Around him, the clones, both the ones that had fallen off the wall and recovered, as well as the ones that had just arrived, immediately rushed at him, red eyes intent like a pack of hunting dogs smelling blood. Hands looking exactly like Shadow's were already reaching out mindlessly, grabbing and clawlike in their eagerness towards the Emerald now lit with its proper pale blue glow.
Shadow looked at them and smiled like a shark.
"CHAOS BLAST!"
And when the Chaos, blissfully, finally obediently came at his call, irresistably focused by the Emerald and fountaining up inside his body like a tidal wave, an erupting volcano, a deadly bloom, the arctic night was lit up for a second time in as many minutes - but this time, the false sunrise burned red.
When it was over, Shadow looked at the melted crater about him and the strewn bodies of the mindless creatures that wore his face and form, now lying still in the arctic snow forever. He nodded in satisfaction.
Hah. Don't mess with the original.
Silently, he then turned back to the cliff face and started to climb. Above him, Sonic, still dangling from the chain of robots suspended from the cliff, allowed himself to infinitesimally relax.
"Woah. Close call."
The blue hero muttered, only looking faintly relieved now – the badniks, on the other hand, were now staring at the black hedgehog with eyes the size of power rings. Given the fact that their faces technically shouldn't even be able to show any expression at all, Sonic supposed he had to give them credit for that.
"Is...is that the future?" the bot resembling a bee buzzing next to the line of his hanging brethren asked, and sounded aghast.
"Uh. That's Chaos Blast. Yeah," Sonic ventured.
"Barbaric."
"It did just save my hide," Shadow pointed out calmly, as, Emerald safely in his hand again, he had reached almost the height of the party of the others by now. His voice sounded steady, but the transformed hero couldn't help but notice, how there was just a hint of pride at his powers in the other's eyes that he hadn't quite managed to conceal. When red eyes met his and saw Sonic looking straight at him, Shadow also appeared just a little startled, but, when the blue hero smiled understandingly, didn't seemed to mind so much, only giving a faint frown in response. Nevertheless, he then also let himself be pulled up without complaint when Sonic reached down and wrapped one of his massive paws around his forearms.
"There you go. Nice show," Sonic commented as he set Shadow down, the black hedgehog having trouble not to feel like a stuffed toy next to the massive wolf.
"Yes, well," Shadow cleared his throat, not quite looking at Sonic as he tossed the Emerald once into the air. "It feels good to have my powers back."
"You sure scared the badniks," Sonic snorted, giving the huddled pile of robots now staring at Shadow slightly freaked-out a glance. "But I guess it was worth it, huh?"
"...yes," Shadow ventured, as he once more couldn't help but gaze into the depths of the Emerald instead of meeting the other's gaze. "Chaos...it's part of who I am. Like your speed for you," he said, voice somewhat more quietly. "Being cut off from it..." he trailed off, then and abruptly cleared his throat. "Anyway, it got rid off those creatures effectively."
"Not able to use your Chaos powers is like not being able to go at full speed, huh?" Sonic replied, a small twitch tugging at the edge of his mouth, revealing a large incisisor inside. "Well, in that case you probably can guess what the wolf form feels like. Looking forward to you Chaos Controlling us into daylight after this, that's all I can say. And I guess knowing how to re-activate the Emeralds will help with those at home, too, huh?"
Before Shadow could choose a suitable reply, the communicator in Sonic's ear crackled to life.
"Sonic! Sonic! Can you hear me now?" Tails' voice came over the tinny little speaker.
"Yeah, little bro, I can hear you. What up?" Sonic replied, and Shadow supposed he should only be mildly surprised the thing still worked. Tails was well aware of his lunatic big brother's lifestyle, and therefore probably tended to make his devices to last.
"Oh, thank goodness! We... well... Knuckles is here and-"
"Great!" Sonic interrupted, "Glad you found the big lunkhead. Where was he, out on a fishing trip?"
"Not exactly, Sonic..." then, distantly in the background behind Tails, Shadow fancied he could hear the sound of Knuckles yelling, "Well... Knuckles... he says he has some information, but he wants to talk to you."
"Uh... ok, sure." Sonic said, confused. Rare was the occasion when Knuckles wanted to just have a chat.
Yeah. Rare as something like the sudden evaporation of every ocean on Mobius, or possibly Robotnik announcing his intention to stop his schemes for world domination in favour of joining a Zumba club.
And then, sure enough,
"What have you DONE, you blue maniac!?"
...Knuckles was definitely yelling down the line with enough volume to make Sonic's ears flatten themselves to his head.
"So nice to hear from you too, Knucklehead," Sonic replied flatly, "Remind me to send you a postcard never."
"Don't get smart, Sonic," Knuckles growled, "What I want to know is how in the name of all the Emeralds you managed to end up as the avatar of a GOD?!"
"Well, I..." Sonic blinked, "Wait... WHAT?!"
To be continued...