Again, sorry if it get's confusing because there is a lot going on in this chapter.
I promise I'm gonna try and cut back on the amount of characters in each one, starting with Chapter 11, which will be mostly Sonic and Shadow.
Anyways, you know how it goes, read and review please!
The wind whipped around his quills as he ran through the mystic ruins, red sneakers barely even touching the ground as he practically flew towards Tails' workshop. After all, he wanted to beat them both. It would be kind of embarrassing to issue the challenge and then be the last one to show up after all! And he could practically see the finish line in front of him. He put in the last burst of energy, going so fast he was nothing but a blue blur. No one would have been able to see him, but they certainly would have felt the strong gush of wind he produced when he passed by.
He quickly raced along the hills, past the train station and making tourists gasp as the wind buffeted them (one even lost his hat), and then leaped over the stairs impatiently so he could land at the workshop. The whole sequence had taken seconds, and the journey back to the workshop it's self had really only taken a minute or two. So, it was safe to say Sonic was pretty confident he had made it here first. He barely felt like he had run at all as it was, his legs tingling restlessly, and he wondered if he should go for another run while he waited for the others to show up to relieve it.
Imagine his shock when he walked around the corner and saw Shadow was already there. "WAH-!" Sonic blinked before his quills fluffed out like Jet's feathers when insulted, pointing at Shadow and looking absolutely mortified. Which quickly turned into anger. "You cheated!"
Currently, the ebony hedgehog was leaning against the workshop wall while tossing the emerald in the air and catching it again. His red eyes had been thoughtful and unfocused until Sonic came along, and now they were burning with both pride and arrogance. A smirk quickly took over tan lips, and he chuckled. "I told you to take the handicap, didn't I?"
Yeah, Sonic did think about some logical explanations. Like maybe Shadow had been closer to the workshop than he had, or maybe Shadow had already been heading back when he called Tails. The speedster still couldn't stand the thought that he had lost a race though. Speed was everything he lived for, and he strived to be the best. Sonic purposefully made a show of stretching his legs now. "Beginners luck. How about we go best two out of three?"
The black hedgehog barely even seemed to think about it. "That only applies if you actually win this time, Faker."
Sonic finished stretching and stood up with a grin. "I'm gonna make you eat those words!"
Shadow only snorted in response. "Where are we racing to this time?"
The blue speedster hardly missed a beat, since he had already been thinking about it once he mentioned a rematch. "Twinkle Park."
That was a pretty good run. Not only would the two of them have a long stretch of narrow railroad tracks to really test their speed, but they would also have to perform lot's of quick maneuvers to avoid buildings, cars, and people when they finally hopped off the tracks and headed for the city. The train took a good chunk of time to take passengers from one place to the other, but for Sonic and Shadow, the race would probably only last ten minutes at the most.
"I wonder if I have enough to enjoy a ride while I wait for you to show up," Shadow teased. The blue emerald he shuffled into his back quills for safe keeping, and then he lowered himself into a sprinters crouch.
The blue hedgehog scoffed as he copied the black hedgehog's movements beside of him. Witty banter was forgotten as the excitement of another race made the blue hedgehog almost fidgety with impatience. "Ready?" Sonic asked, casting Shadow a glance with emerald eyes that were positively electrifying.
"Set?" Shadow shot back, meant as both a tease and a warning that the black hedgehog was just as antsy to get the race started. His own ruby gems were bright and burning, dancing like an open flame.
Both hedgehogs seemed to simultaneously get lost in the other's gaze, a battle of will and spirit now raging between them. The air seemed to become alive as electricity and fire collided in a show of vibrant fireworks. Sonic felt his heart begin racing, and yet his feet hadn't started moving yet.
Neither of them noticed the sound of the Tornado returning. Nor did they hear the shout of Sonic's name coming from a little pink hedgehog off to the side. So lost in each other, that the world had faded. The whisper of a challenge still ringing in the air was the only thing that pulled both hedgehogs out of it.
"GO!" The shout was both sudden and united.
Shadow's shoes sprung to life, gushing a powerful flow of chaos energy. His acceleration was much more powerful than Sonic's. The blue hedgehog was gone a second later, his legs already pumping hard to try and match the ultimate life forms speed. They were perfectly matched by the time they reached the train station, and both forms disappeared down the tracks in a matter of seconds.
The gorilla robot finally smashed through the remaining trees, and before it stood one of the grandest of Eggman's structures. Raven eyed it with scrutiny. It wasn't anything special, just huge and with Eggman's face plastered all over it, making it obvious that it was his ship. She could see some of the rocket launchers hiding in it's sides, and maybe even a few torrents on it's back. In all reality nothing her specially designed Gorilla-bot couldn't handle.
Just to be safe though, she opened fire through her floating base's mouth, the dragon's metal jaw creaking and hissing as it opened up. Bullets rained down, and when they touched the mini rockets they caused little explosions from the ferocity of the impact. The torrents returned fire within moments, but by then her gorilla had reached the base and slammed it's huge metal fists into them. Raven watched with a smirk as the torrents went crashing into the forest.
Eggman didn't even have time to take off or really retaliate. The gorilla used it's weight to smash right into the hull and disappear into the ship. Raven had confidence that though she could not see her robot, that her robot was doing what it was designed to do flawlessly. She turned her attention to the screen beside her, typing in a few more commands before pressing enter.
Salt reappeared by her side, her metal coat glossy. Inside her torso sat a chaos emerald, and every few minutes it would pulse power and her metal would shine brilliantly. Raven had built her not only with the chaos emerald to give her incredible power and an invincible shield, but with self repairing nanobites and with much more powerful weapons. Even with the special laser she had developed, she liked to call the Pyro-Cannon.
There was just one thing missing.
The computer beeped suddenly, and out rolled a tiny syringe, filled with a thick purple liquid. Raven smirked and lifted it, watching it swish with a her eyes shining dangerously. Salt offered her arm and Raven opened up a small compartment to install it, popping it into place and letting Salt's engineered arm do the rest.
And by the time that was finished her gorilla had reappeared, holding something shiny in it's hands. The base below was blowing out black smoke from any opening in it's metal walls, and sometimes a white line of electricity whipped through it like lightening ripped across the sky. Her robot was unscratched of course, and it moved to a safe open spot to be retrieved by it's master.
Raven glanced behind her at Salt. "Be ready to be deployed. I will be dropping you off in about an hour."
Salt beeped acknowledgement. That meant recharge, go through battle statistics from the videos Raven had her study, and make sure every weapon was in working order. Soon she would be meeting the blue hedgehog, and she didn't want to fail her master.
Salt rolled away, while Raven carefully lowered her flying dragon fortress and opened the hatch for her gorilla to climb aboard. For those few moments she was vulnerable to attack, but if her robot had done it's job in eliminating Eggman, then she had no worry about such trivial things. She was back in the air and cloaked from radar again in moments. The emerald was deposited in a special tube by the entrance by the Gorilla-bot on it's way to it's charge station/holding compartment, and it was brought to Raven in the cockpit via a tube.
Raven laughed when she saw it's glittery brilliance, and almost felt like dancing in her chair. She knew better than to gloat before the fat woman sang though. Quickly she scooped up the gem and walked over to her container for them, locking it into place next to the other two shining emeralds.
"Just two more!" It came out of her mouth with such passion.
She sighed in awe at the emeralds radiance, before shutting the compartment and heading back to the controls. She typed in the next destination, Station Square, and then leaned back in her chair, relaxing.
The Dragon shaped base did a full one eighty before charging it's rocket boosters, setting the coordinates. It took off with a Sonic boom that could have rattled the clouds and the trees below, flying through the air like a fatal arrow flew towards an unsuspecting deer.
"Sonic…!" Amy cried. Too late though, the other hedgehog had already disappeared down the tracks. She had been so close…! Amy placed her hands on her hips and huffed in an irritated manner. "Why can't that hedgehog ever stay still long enough for me to catch him?"
By now the Tornado had landed. Tails leaped from the cockpit and used his name-sake to gently lower himself to the ground below. He had watched the whole event transpire from the air, and could only guess that Sonic had lost and somehow managed to get Shadow to agree to a rematch. "You know Sonic. He never stops moving unless he's asleep."
"Shadow was with him, wasn't he?"
The question was so pained that Tails looked at his friend with flattened ears. He didn't want to answer, because he knew it would only hurt Amy. Now doubt she was here because of the news blowing up about Sonic and Shadow's pretend relationship. In fact, it was practically the only thing talked about these days. And the little fox really hated that this would hurt her.
He doubted Sonic could really understand just how much.
Tails knew that Sonic had to have some inkling though, because the blue hedgehog was not heartless, and would never hurt Amy just because he could. Tails just didn't see how this was a good way to do this. Certainly just letting Amy down nicely would have been better. But, Sonic liked to do things he wasn't supposed to, it gave him that dangerous flare in life that he thrived on. This little scheme of his was just another example of that.
"I have to catch up to them!" Amy suddenly announced, her eyes burning with determination. "Tails! Can I use your Tornado?" She whirled around and implored the young fox with her passionate hope.
Could he really say no? Especially since Amy would probably get mad and attack him with her hammer and then take the plane herself anyway. Tails sighed, closing his eyes, before nodding in defeat. "Yeah, I'll come too…"
"Thank you so much, Tails!" Amy cried, leaping into the plane's passenger seat and already impatient to start moving.
Tails couldn't share the same enthusiasm though. He used his tails once again to fly up into the Tornado, and he started the engine. His ears were flattened, and it didn't seem like they would be perking up any time soon. He was pretty sure the confrontation between Amy, Sonic, and Shadow was looming in the near future, and that it wasn't going to end well.
Or clean.
"Come on, try it!"
Well, the race to Twinkle Park had ended in a tie. Which should have resulted in some kind of rematch, except Sonic's stomach had grumbled pretty loudly and cut the banter off short. Without even skipping a beat, he had grabbed Shadow's gloved hand and ran into the elevator of Twinkle Park. Since they were technically a couple according to most of the world, the both of them got in for free. And then Sonic raced to the first available chili dog stand and proceeded to order three of them.
Shadow watched the hero gulp down two of them as if they were nothing, appalled, before staring down at the one sitting on the plate in front of him. Currently they were sitting at a wooden bench, painted pink and glittery, under a heart shaped umbrella. People walking along the marble paths that surrounded the park squealed when they saw them together, while others giggled and whispered from the other benches around them.
This certainly did look like they were on a date, didn't it? Yet Shadow was probably the only one who knew that Sonic had dragged him in here for the simple fact that this was the quickest route to his favorite meal.
"Shads… I bought it for you. The least you could do is have one bite."
"Nice try, but it was on the house."
The ultimate life form eyed the fowl looking meal in front of him like it was a three eyed alien from another planet claiming to be his father. Shadow wondering just what in the world this was made of. It certainly didn't look healthy. And watching Sonic stuff it down his throat had pretty much made him want to gag, while simultaneously made him wonder how in the world Sonic didn't choke on them (he'd almost been tempted to ask the other if he wanted a shovel).
Tentatively, he reached up and poked it, causing Sonic to snort in amusement.
Shadow looked up, prepared with a snarl on his lips, when he stopped short. Sonic had leaned across the table towards him, eyes half lidded and sparkling with mischief, and his gloved hand reached out and gently laid across Shadow's own. Immediately Shadow realized Sonic was acting for the benefit of the people watching, and inwardly he face palmed.
And unsurprisingly those emerald eyes made his heart reluctantly skip a beat.
"Look, I'll even feed it to yah," Sonic teased. He took the chili dog in his free hand and held it up for the other. "Open up nice and wide~"
Yeah… Shadow felt his cheeks threaten to heat up. The blue hedgehog was telling him to open wide so he could shove a hot dog down his throat… how utterly humiliating.
"Get that away from me-hgk!" Shadow had turned his head away and closed his eyes, glaring and trying his best to sound as threatening as he could. He really shouldn't have opened his mouth though, because Sonic took the opportunity to shove the offending artifact in it as soon as Shadow's guard was down. Such a bold act of childishness begged for repercussion, but as it was Shadow was too busy choking on something he wasn't prepared to swallow, proceeded by coughing as the jalapeno's burned his mouth, throat, lips and made his eyes water.
"FAKER!" The shout was a death threat laced with pain.
Sonic sat back and laughed at the black hedgehog, swallowing the rest of Shadow's chili dog as though he was drinking a glass of water. "Guess not everyone appreciates the total deliciousness of a chili dog." This was followed by a nonchalant shrug.
Shadow punched his chest a couple of times to jump start his breathing, easily overcoming the burning sensation once he had calmed down enough. His glower never wavered though as he burned lasers through the others head. With people watching curiously, Shadow couldn't do what he really wanted, and that was lunge across the table and punch the other hedgehog right into last week.
The black hedgehog was beginning to realize, however, that perhaps he could use this situation to his advantage. So far Sonic had tripped him up, flustered him, and ultimately been the one in control of the situation since he had agreed to pretend date him. It was about time Shadow found his footing and flustered the younger hedgehog for once. He softened his features into a warm smile, and then took his turn reaching across the table. This time he took Sonic's face in his hands, glad to see the total shock in those emerald eyes for the bold action.
"You're eyes… they're so beautiful." Shadow took special care in lacing the sentence with as much "passion" as he could muster (though it probably came out as something a little more frustrated than love struck). Sonic bristled and sat frozen on the spot, and Shadow could feel some heat pouring into the gloves on his hand from a mortified blush.
Sonic, being the whirlwind that he was, wasn't frozen for long, but still, Shadow got the desired affect he had been going for. Even if what he said was rather random and ridiculous.
"Shadow…" Sonic whispered it, like the word it's self would break if he spoke too loud, letting his eyes fall to half mast. His emerald orbs became molten with feeling, and the blue hedgehog tilted his head into one of the black hedgehog's hands on his face. The black hedgehog was surprised at this for a moment, almost believing the others act because it had felt so real. Then he felt the twitch of the others lips into cocky grin against his glove.
Shadow started to consider nominating the hedgehog for an Oscar.
"I thought you didn't like PDA?" Sonic questioned, trying to sound confused and hopeful all at once.
The blue blur having caught on to Shadow's ploy had massacred his fun. Shadow let go of Sonic with a dismissive sigh and sat back on his seat again, disappointed. "Sometimes I just can't help myself," he replied, but it came out a bit more bored rather than apologetic.
It was extremely hard to ignore the bloody noses and the panting of the crowd that had gathered around them now, watching their every move. And it had better have been Shadow's imagination that he heard a shout of 'kiss him already!'