A/N: Guess who's backkkk?
The terrible writer that is me, that's who.
Well, I'm back, so now I'm here to hear all the hate I deserve for my late, seriously over-due chapter.
I never left this story - don't worry, y'all. I'm just a terrible author, that's all. There's a difference.
Get ready for more confusion.
"Why is that even a word?" the irritating teenager wondered aloud, "Defenestration - where would you use it?"
Green eyes moved to focus on purple.
"Like, can I throw you out of a window? Just for the sake of using it?"
"-How about I throw you out a window!?"
Stupid conversations like these were tossed back and forth between Needlemouse and Knuckles as they continued on, and it didn't seem like they were going to stop anytime soon.
The two stayed in the front of their little group, all the while keeping an eye out for anything seemingly out of place.
Shadow and Venice, meanwhile, trailed behind quietly.
The conversation between the fighters of blue and red continued.
"Why are Chao even in space? Isn't that a little dangerous?"
"It's a movie."
"I know, I know, but still..." A pause… "Hey, you don't think they'll be a Needlemouse Chao in the new movie, do ya?"
"It won't last long if there is."
"That's not very nice."
"-Just shove it in some water..."
The time traveller eyed the bickering two with pure disdain before he shook his head and glanced over at Shadow.
"We could leave them," he offered quietly, raising an eye ridge, "They'd never notice."
By this point, Shadow was honestly tempted.
"-But you gotta really think - which came first? The Chao or the egg?"
Really tempted . . .
"Can we take this seriously?" Venice interrupted, sounding exasperated – not that anyone would blame him.
"Alright, alright," Needlemouse allowed with a sigh, "I'm just tryin' to lighten the mood, is all."
Knuckles scoffed at this, but he said nothing... thankfully. Another argument was the last thing they needed right now.
Luckily, all the noise they'd already made hadn't caught much attention.
The area seemed deserted – besides them, of course. It was night time, and everyone had already left to their houses by now.
In the empty city, only they and a few locals roamed the streets.
"She could be anywhere," Knuckles grumbled, his eyes narrowed, his expression distant.
His own eyes focusing on the dim stars above, Shadow let out a low grunt in agreement, though he didn't say anything.
The world was a large place... and, apparently, Mephiles' range was even larger.
Not only could he travel through this world... but possibly Shadow's own.
Luck didn't seem to be on their side.
"Yeah, the world's a pretty big place," Needlemouse agreed hesitantly, "But we'll find her. I know we will."
Shadow could only hope.
The blue hedgehog continued to smile, but he seemed somewhat solemn at the same time, like something was on his mind...
Venice pursed his lips together, his gaze falling to his boots as he walked, completely quiet as this conversation was being held.
Knuckles, too, grew quiet.
Observing all of this, Shadow noticed that the time traveller and guardian seemed to take Mephiles as quite the serious threat. Even Needlemouse appeared to be slightly nervous, which was odd if he was like Sonic in this regard.
Sonic was usually quite brave... almost cocky while facing opponents. He never showed fear for others to see.
Why was this 'Mephiles' so different?
Shadow didn't have much time to ponder over this.
The blue hedgehog himself broke through the dark hedgehog's concerning thoughts.
"But in the mean time," Needlemouse said with a smile, turning to face the others, "I've got a-"
Zip.
. . .
Black.
He was surrounded in black.
What had happened?
"... Needlemouse?" Shadow mumbled, his eyes straining to see through the darkness, hoping to catch a glimpse of anything else but the maddening shade of pure black.
Nothing… It was hopeless.
"Venice?"
No answer.
"... Knuckles?"
Still, nothing...
They... they were gone. Everything was gone.
In fact...
"Where am I...?"
It didn't even feel like he stood on solid ground. It was just like the place where he'd meet Terios, but...
But it wasn't. This place felt colder and emptier. There was no solid ground to support him. There was no Terios…
He tried to sense the presence of his doppelganger, but there was nothing of him in the air.
"None of this is making any sense," Shadow whispered, his eyes narrowing, looking around uselessly.
He was suddenly overwhelmed with confusion, suspicious... frustration.
He tried again to find something... anything... but it was like he was the only thing that existed here, in this empty void.
"Needlemouse!" he demanded into the darkness, as if waiting for the cheery blue hedgehog to just suddenly appear. "Venice!"
Shadow let out a low growl.
"Mephiles!" he shouted, "Is this your doing!?"
No answer.
Not even Mephiles responded to his cries. He was truly all alone here... for whatever reason.
What was going on here? Where was he? Why was he here?
Nothing made sense. Absolutely nothing.
Shadow closed his eyes in frustration... and possible helplessness that he would never admit to...
What the hel-
"Update processing; please wait."
The hedgehog looked up.
. . .
"... Doctor?"
That had been Eggman's voice... or, at least, Shadow thought it had been...
Had he really heard that? And what had he said? Wait for what?
Maddening silence answered him in return.
No... he could've sworn he did... but the silence...
No one was here but him.
Needlemouse had also mentioned before that this world's Dr. Eggman was locked away... so it couldn't possibly be him... could it?
Unless...?
Shadow's eyes closed once again in frustration...
"-an idea. Do you guys wanna hear it?"
... But he reopened his eyes instantly.
His gaze snapped in a fierce manner over to Needlemouse.
The latter, in turn, took notice of this and gave the black hedgehog a strange look.
Needlemouse acted as if nothing had ever happened... as if all was normal.
That made no sense, though.
"Is that a no?"
Shadow was at a loss of words. But... what...
"... hmph."
"... alright, then?" Needlemouse's expression brightened as he looked everyone over.
"So," he began, "I was thinking..."
"... what's wrong?"
It was Venice. The boy had caught on his awkwardness, and had been watching him suspiciously.
"Everything alright?"
"... yes," Shadow lied quietly, "I... I'm fine."
No one had noticed that... that what? What could he call it?
He had no clue what he could even compare that... event to. He had never experienced anything like that ever before.
Yet, here, everyone stood casually... as if nothing had happened.
Nothing...
"You were acting strange." Venice pointed out.
"It... was nothing." Shadow replied.
Nothing.
"If you say so,"
The time traveller obviously didn't believe him. That didn't mean that Shadow would tell him what had happened.
Something was wrong.
Shadow could feel it deep inside – something unfamiliar in the air... Something had changed...
Something was not the same.
"... and that's the plan."
Shadow's gaze travelled over to Needlemouse.
"What do ya think?"
Knuckles gave a half hearted shrug in acceptance, but Venice and Shadow paused.
This didn't go unnoticed.
"Ah, you guys!" Needlemouse complained, giving the two hedgehog's a disappointed look, "Come on!"
"Sorry," Venice mumbled sheepishly. Shadow simply grunted.
"Whatever. We'll just go with it, anyway."
Suddenly, Needlemouse moved to grab a hold of his three friends, much to Shadow's distaste.
"Get your hands off me," the black hedgehog growled.
The blue teenager simply smirked.
"Chaos Control!"
. . .
Thud.
All three hedgehogs and one echidna fell from the sky, onto some rough terrain.
"Oops," Needlemouse murmured, "Guess I miscalculated that one."
"Don't do that!" Knuckles cried out once he finally regained his footing, "You can't just do that without warning!"
The Sonic lookalike simply smiled.
"Well, we're here, aren't we?"
... where was 'here', exactly...?
Shadow grunted and glanced up, slowing rising to his feet.
Tails' workshop. That's where 'here' was... but why?
Out of all places that blue hedgehog could've chosen... It had to be here.
The said hedgehog quickly brushed himself off as he moved over to the front door.
"Hey! Tails! You in there, lil' buddy?" he called out casually with a large smile reserved only for the two-tailed fox himself.
There was a moment of silence, then some shuffling, then...
"... Needlemouse?" A quick pause... "I'm coming!"
The door opened in no time, revealing the confused but delighted face of Tails.
"Hi ya!" he greeted. "What're you guys all doing here?"
"Hey, buddy," Needlemouse said, "I was just wondering... could you do us a small favor?"
The fox boy blinked, confused, and scratched at his head in thought.
His gaze traveled around, observing the faces of his guests.
"Well... sure! I'm not busy, so..." He smiled at his 'brother', "I'll do what I can to help out!"
Needlemouse smirked. "I can always count on ya!"
The boy simply offered a sheepish grin in return before politely moving to let everyone in.
"So," Tails began once they all walked inside, "What's the problem here?"
Distracted, Needlemouse shot the fox a quick look before his eyes retreated to some of the inventions the child had left laid out on a table.
"Hmm?" He uttered, before he realized that a question had been asked, "Oh... um, well, I just wanted to know if you could track something for us..."
"What would that be?"
The blue hedgehog suddenly pointed over to Shadow's communicator, much to the latter's confusion.
Shadow raised an eye ridge, still quite unimpressed.
"Nails' location through Terios'... little gadget." the blue teenager explained.
The youngest of them all looked thoughtful for a second, processing his hero's words.
He looked doubtful for a second, but then his eyes filled up with determination.
"I... should be able to," he finally said after some thought, "It just might take a while."
Needlemouse gave the boy a nod of understanding. "'Course. Take your time, buddy."
Knuckles simply grunted in quiet agreement.
Upon being told this, Tails cautiously moved over to take the communicator from Shadow.
"May I?" he asked.
Being given a curt nod, the fox carefully pulled the gadget from the dark hedgehog's wrist before turning to leave from the room, still wearing a determined look.
"It's gonna take a while," Needlemouse said as he leaned against the closest wall, staring through the window.
"What do we do now?" Knuckles grumbled.
"Wait." the blue teenager responded with a shrug.
Venice mumbled something under his breath. No one brought this up, though. They were all too distracted by their own thoughts.
Silence followed.
'This is ridiculous,' Shadow thought as he shook his head and leaned back against the wall he stood by.
What was 'ridiculous'? Everything. This whole scenario was bizarre. Everything about him being here, about Mephiles, about this weird scheme of his.
The dark hedgehog crossed his arms over his chest.
How had he accepted this all so far? He didn't even know. It had just felt... natural.
And that was what was bothering him.
When everything disappeared, he had been overwhelmed with confusion and doubt and suspicion.
He had felt everything he should have felt... but one he 'returned back to reality', it was all gone once again.
He went back to feeling indifferent.
This was not how he was supposed to feel. He now knew this much...
But even so, no matter how hard he tried... he simply couldn't bring himself to question anything anymore.
He had been given the chance, but he had been too confused to realize this until now. He hadn't noticed his freedom until now. Now, when it was too late.
"I'm gonna go get a snack," Needlemouse said, his voice sounding tired, "Anyone wanna come with?"
"... I could go for some grapes right now," Knuckles allowed, moving to join the blue blur.
"How about you guys?"
Green eyes met gold and red expectantly.
"... I think I'll pass," Venice excused himself politely, "I'm not really hungry."
"Alright," Needlemouse said with a shrug, "Terios?"
"... I'm not hungry."
"Of course not," A teasing laugh, "We'll be back in a sec!"
While Knuckles turned to leave immediately, Needlemouse paused to playfully nudge Shadow on the way out.
"Hmph," was the only response the speedster got out of the dark hedgehog.
The teenager smirked in return, "Yeah, thanks for the farewell, buddy."
"You'll be back."
Needlemouse left the room with Knuckles after that, leaving Venice alone with Shadow.
The boy was glancing out the window, obviously forcing himself to not make eye contact. That didn't last long.
Golden eyes retreated when met with red.
"Hmph,"
Venice grew embarrassed by the noise, knowing that he'd been caught.
He rubbed near his shoulder nervously, but then cringed. His injury probably hadn't healed yet.
"I... This is probably just a small distraction," he finally said after a while, "I'm pretty positive that your way home is through Mephiles... somehow... Maybe Nails can even lead us to him."
Shadow's eyes narrowed as he looked off to the side. Mephiles wasn't Eggman. If he was in possession of someone, he wouldn't treat them like royalty...
She could be in serious danger.
"But who knows. I mean, this Mephiles may not even be our own, so he might think differently."
"We must stop him." the black hedgehog grumbled, his head lowering.
"He won't stop until he gets what he wants," Venice replied with a solemn look, "Which could be anything."
"The letter could've told us what he wanted..."
"But it can't anymore..."
They stood silent in thought, but that silence didn't last too long.
"... you never told me how you could read it."
The boy was caught off guard. His head snapped up, and he grew tense.
"The letter is of no use anymore," Venice pointed out sternly, "We have to focus on finding another way to get our answers."
Shadow grunted, though his eyes narrowed.
"Bingo!"
That was not one of them.
It must have been Tails.
Shadow and Venice straightened up upon hearing this, their expressions holding obvious interest.
The fox walked into the room with the communicator in hand, smiling brightly.
"I think I've traced the signal!"