A/N: Request for my FanFiction friend smileaway96! Enjoy. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co., or anything else referenced!
"Why do I keep getting the feeling that this is a bad idea?" groaned Rouge, as Shadow fiddled with a parking meter.
"I have no clue," said Shadow blandly. "What could possibly go wrong?"
"Let me save some time and tell you what might not go wrong," retorted Rouge.
Shadow rolled his eyes. "I can control myself, Rouge. Maybe you can't help swiping jewels when you see them, but I know how to keep my hands to myself."
"When it comes to jewels, maybe. Not when it comes to this."
"Stop worrying. I'll be fine."
"Wanna bet?"
Shadow snorted and turned to head off.
"Come on. The next tour starts in twenty minutes."
"Just a second," sighed Rouge, bowing her head solemnly. "Just let me say a few quick words of apology in advance to the soul of poor old Hershey."
"Oh, very funny."
"Seriously Shadow, you're twitching already, and so far it's only the smell of the chocolate."
Shadow rolled his eyes again. He knew better than to argue when Rouge was in a teasing mood. Besides, she may have been right . . . maybe he should have eaten breakfast before they tried to take the chocolate factory tour.
However, the tour went without a hitch. The chocolate-making process was pretty fascinating, and Shadow watched it all with bland interest, not even trying to snitch a single piece. At the end of the tour, everyone got a free chocolate bar.
"See?" said Shadow smugly, unwrapping the sweet and sinking his teeth into it. "Didn't make a single move out of line, did I?"
"True, true," admitted Rouge. "A real gentlemanhog."
As they circled around the factory to return to the motorcycle, they came upon a worker rolling a barrel out through a door.
"What's that?" asked Rouge curiously.
The man (whose nametag read "Bill") gave the two Mobians a puzzled look, but shook it off and answered calmly enough.
"It's chocolate mix we have to throw out. It accidentally got too much sugar, and now it's no good for anything."
"You're going to throw out that whole large barrel?" said Rouge. "That's a shame."
"Can't be helped. We have quality standards to keep up," shrugged Bill.
"Mind if we have a little?" asked Shadow.
Bill shrugged. "Be my guests. Just close up the lid when you're done, 'kay?"
"Thanks!" called Rouge. Shadow was already prying the lid off the barrel.
"Lunch," he remarked, dipping a finger into the thick chocolate-scented liquid.
"Not with your fingers, silly! Use a spoon," scolded Rouge, digging in her purse and producing two plastic spoons.
"Where'd you get those?"
"I picked them up the last time we were at a fast-food place. You know, that place you couldn't pronounce?"
"Don't remind me, all right?"
Grinning, Rouge took a spoonful of the chocolate mixture.
"Oh wow, that is too much sugar. Yugh."
"Actually, I like this better than the standard recipe," said Shadow.
"You would," sighed Rouge. She could only manage a few mouthfuls of the sugar-gritty substance, then the excessive sweetness started to make her queasy. Shadow, however, kept munching away unwaveringly.
"Better take it easy," said Rouge anxiously. "Much more of that, and you'll get a sugar rush. And you get normal when you're on a sugar rush. And also jumpy. Remember the last time?"
"Mm-hm," said Shadow absent-mindedly.
"Oh, I can see where this is leading," groaned Rouge. "I don't even want to see this."
Sure enough, Shadow's ears were beginning to twitch, frequently but erratically. He shook his head suddenly and mumbled something about a ringing in his ears.
"I wonder if M-Flo is going to film another music video," remarked Rouge resignedly.
Meanwhile, Shadow was tilting his head and striking the heel of his hand just below one ear, as if trying to knock water out of his other ear.
"Stupid ringing," he muttered. "Well, I guess I've had enough. Let's get going."
He clamped the lid back onto the barrel and started to walk back to the motorcycle. Rouge took a few steps back instead—Shadow's footsteps were clicking against the pavement. They didn't click unless the jets in his shoes folded down. And if the jets in his shoes folded down, that meant he was about to start jet-skating.
Sure enough, Shadow's skates suddenly powered up (seemingly without any consent on his part), and he shot off somewhere. He appeared to be circling the building, because a second later he came whizzing by and disappeared again. When he came around yet again, he suddenly locked into a spindash, bounced off several walls, knocked over the barrel of chocolate liquor, and ricocheted into a stack of wooden pallets. There was a series of crashes, then silence for a moment. At length Shadow sat up, looking dizzy and somewhat puzzled.
"How'd I get here?" he asked irately.
Before Rouge could get anywhere close to answering, Shadow was on his feet and launching into another spindash. This time he barreled off towards a nearby fence.
"For the love of Mike, not Hershey Park!" Rouge hollered after him. "You'll mow someone or something down!"
It was somewhat futile yelling, because Shadow didn't really have much control over where he was going. Luckily, he bounced off the fence of the park, landed on his feet, stumbled for a second, then spindashed off in another direction.
"Oh, much better," groaned Rouge, covering her eyes. "The zoo. Wonderful." She took off after Shadow with a bit more haste now. Heaven forbid he should accidentally release the mountain lions.
The zoo was somewhat twisty and confusing, and Rouge quickly lost sight of Shadow. She still managed to pursue him perfectly well, however, by following the crashes that rang out sporadically or tracing the path of damaged zoo fixtures and puzzled-looking tourists.
At length there was a final crash, and a series of softer thumps. Rouge skidded into a staff-only building to find Shadow had careened into a stack of hay bales used for feeding the animals. He was in the process of clambering to his feet again, and Rouge noted with relief that his ears were no longer twitching.
"Worn off the sugar yet?" she asked drily, leaning against the doorframe and catching her breath.
"Dangit," groaned Shadow, rubbing his head. "Now I remember why I try to avoid sugar rushes."
"I'm just glad that you don't lose your mental capacities permanently," Rouge retorted wearily. "You'll need them for when ZooAmerica sues us."
"That much damage?" asked Shadow, his eyes widening slightly.
"Well, you trashed a few of the cages, I think. Or do those usually run around loose?"
A prairie dog scurried along the wall. Before Shadow could say anything, an elk clattered through the door and began to munch at a scattered hay bale.
Shadow plunked down on one of the undestroyed bales.
"Oh, sweet Mobius."
"Yes, sweet Mobius." Rouge was unsympathetic. "And you're gonna have to explain this to the zoo management in oh, about—"
Three men in zoo uniforms came barreling through the door.
"Fifteen seconds," finished Rouge.
Shadow sighed and bit his tongue. Now was not the time to be confrontational.
A few hours later, Rouge and Shadow were jointly wrestling with a zoo signpost, trying to twist it back to the correct position. It always spun too far one way or the other.
"Well, at least they didn't sue us," sighed Rouge, as they finally got the right orientation. "Though if they did, you'd be working that out on your own. Consider yourself lucky, Shads."
Shadow said nothing; he'd been uncharacteristically subdued ever since he calmed down from the sugar rush.
"Well, at least nobody got hurt," said Rouge resignedly. "It could be worse."
Shadow shrugged.
"Take it easy on the sugar next time, huh?" said Rouge.
"Yeah . . . guess so."
"What's eating you now?"
"Nothing. I'm just wondering what happened to that one prairie dog we never found."
"Poor little guy," said Rouge sadly. "He's probably gone to the big prairie dog colony in the sky by now."
As they returned to their parking spot, they figured they'd better go restack those pallets Shadow had knocked down at the beginning of the fiasco. However, as they walked up to the side of the factory, they heard a little squeaking and slurping sound.
"Look!" gasped Rouge.
The barrel Shadow knocked over had spilled its contents, pouring liquid chocolate all over the ground. At the edge of the chocolate puddle was a small tan creature, lapping greedily away at the sweet substance.
"The prairie dog!"
Hearing Rouge's cry, the prairie dog looked up, licking a rim of chocolate from around its mouth. Then it suddenly performed a backflip and a pirouette, then tore off at a speed that momentarily startled even Shadow. Then he came to his senses and dove to snatch the little creature.
"Sweet Mobius," he grumbled, struggling to hang onto the furiously kicking rodent. "What did they put in this chocolate?"
"Sugar, Shadow. Lots and lots and lots of sugar."
A/N: By the way, if anyone wants to know about "last time," and that music video they're referencing, look up "Shadow the Hedgehog M-Flo" on YouTube, then click the one that says "M-Flo Shadow the Hedgehog Fan Video (Full Version)". Then tell me if I should laugh or cry, because I'm still not fully sure myself. XD