Thanks for the support through this beast of a story.
Writing is a great way to deal with depression, sadly, depression also stifles writing abilities.
I know it's an unweildy story, but I assure you all that there is a conclusion to be had. You have my word. ;D
I have to compliment all y'all on your patience with this fic. I want to rewrite it SO badly.
Gotta finish it first. Because, right now, it's pure...x_x
-Chapter 98: Chaos-
Shadow followed the small square robot to the basement hallway. The bot dropped art supplies along his way. Shadow graciously picked them up and continued on.
Cubot entered a room and the door shut behind him.
Shadow knocked and the door slid right back open. The sight of several murals of Rouge based on old renaissance paintings covered the walls. The Mona Lisa, The Sistine Madonna and Sleeping Venus were the few he could name off the top of his head. He was shocked to near silence. "You...dropped these." He handed the paint and paintbrushes back to the robot. "What...is all this?"
Cubot turned around and showcased his art. "My lovely Rouge is etched into my heart. No matter how many times I'm reset, her visage of beauty is forever burned into my memory banks. This is how I've been coping," he said sorrowfully.
"Duly noted," he said and left the robot to his devices. He shook his head as if to dislodge the sight that laid before him moments ago. "I won't be forgetting that any time soon." Chalking the behaviour up to faulty programming, he traveled back to Sonic and Amy's.
"Goodness, look at you," Rouge said as she approached him. She fluffed his cheeks as she did Sonic's. "You were right, it did have an effect on him."
"Wow," Sonic said as he witnessed shaggy-Shadow.
He groaned and scratched his cheeks. "Do you mind giving me a hand with this," he said with defeat.
"Sure thing, dear. Come on in the washroom." Rouge got the clippers up and running. She carefully crafted and sculpted her partner's face. "Almost done."
"Rouge, I can't help feel you missed a few spots."
"Shh, shh, I'm creating."
Shadow sighed.
She took a step back and admired her handiwork. She clasped her hands together and gasped at the sight. Immediately afterward, she activated her wrist communicator and flashed a quick picture.
"...what have you done to my face?"
Sonic listened from the other room and snickered, ever so lightly.
She tilted his face from side to side to get a better mental image. "You probably won't like it, but let me enjoy this for a few brief moments." She showed him the picture of the Van Dyke she carefully and lovingly shaved onto his face. His usual ever-present scowl added to the piece. "Dashing, darling."
"..." Shadow sighed. Rouge looked proud of her work and he didn't want to offend her. "Do you really think I could pull this off day to day, Rouge?"
She clicked her tongue. "No."
"I appreciate the effort, but I'm going to pass on facial hair."
Rouge started the clippers. "I can keep the picture though?"
"...fine. Show no one."
"Aww, come on," Sonic whined from the other room.
"Especially not him."
"Be that way," Sonic laughed and dismissed the notion of bearded Shadow. "When you two are done, come look at this."
They emerged from the washroom and went to Sonic at his kitchen counter. He rested his chin on the counter top and closely examined his Chaos Emerald. "Look closely," he said and rotated the crystal. A small reddish swirl passed over it and went back to normal. "See that?"
"Unrest?" Shadow folded his arms. "Have you ever spoken to Chaos before?"
Sonic looked confused. "Can't say that I have. What are they, a manufacturer?"
"No you..." Shadow stopped short of an insult. "No. Chaos is the entity that encompasses the energy of the Chaos Emeralds. They have a consciousness that can be conversed with."
He checked his memory for any instance of such a conversation with an 'entity' in his emerald. "How do I do that?"
Shadow shook his head. "I'm not sure. The only time I've spoken to Chaos is during deep sleep." He picked up the gem and examined it closer. The red swirl only occasionally passed over the surface. During their conversation, it only happened once more.
They decided a more 'sciencey' opinion and or scan would prove useful. The trio headed to Tails. Sonic knocked and they were let in. Tails welded at his work bench and had his back to them. "Sorry to bug you, man. We got a Chaos themed issue and we need your big ol' sciencey brain to help."
Tails laid his torch down. He lifted his face shield as he turned around. "No worries. I'm nearly done here." He laid the mask to the side and tossed a blue tarp over his work.
Sonic held up his emerald and got his friend to stare at it until it did a thing.
Tails witnessed the red pass over the top and sides. His head tilted to the side as he took the gem in between two fingers. "Interesting."
"When I had Shadow hold on to it, my beard stopped growing and his started."
Tails nodded. "Curses tend to have a way they present themselves, so sayeth the movies. I imagine that hair growth was this one's." Tails wheeled out a small computer on a TV tray sized table. The device looked more magic than science. A palm sized platform of solid quartz was attached to a small panel computer with a keyboard. He placed the gem on quartz and powered on the device. It's screen lit up and binary could be read. Tails carefully read the numbers as they whizzed by. "These are the same readings I get from Knuckles emerald. It looks like you have two forms of Chaos energy in this one crystal."
"That's bad...I take it," Sonic said as he speculated as to what happened. "Maybe the chaos energy the scientists combined is having a bad reaction with the Chaos energy I have in my emerald."
Tails shrugged. "The only way we can know for sure is to ask Chaos herself, or himself, I doubt they really have a gender, actually."
Sonic planted a fist on his hip. "You and Shadow both say that like it's common knowledge."
"You should have spoken with them when you imprinted with the crystal when you first got it," Tails said.
Sonic looked further back into his memory banks. "That's nearly twenty years ago by now."
Shadow spoke up, "Chaos is fluid looking. They're blue, like the canisters we've been pulling out of the abandoned laboratories."
That description jogged his memory. "I vaguely remember talking to a being like that long ago. I thought it was a dream; so, Chaos is someone I can actually speak to."
Tails nodded. "I only ever spoke to them once, when I accepted my gem, when I was seven. I guess my imprint was a bit closer than yours, so I remember it better."
Sonic was handed his gem. "How can I get in contact?" He watched the stone wash over in red and go back to it's normal vibrant green once again.
"Isn't Julie-Su practicing meditation with her's? She does take a more 'spiritual' approach to the whole thing," Rouge mentioned.
"For me, science is just magic I can explain," Tails said with a shrug. "Knux and Jules said they'd be out for a bit, but they should be back shortly. Speaking of 'shortly'," he said and hooked a thumb at his previous project. "I have something that's going to make your life a lot easier. Give me an hour and I should be finished."
Sonic brightened up, "Cool. Oh yeah, Mina was talking about a music video idea. I got to get a hold of her too."
Tails tails whipped back and forth in excitement. "It's gonna be great," he said with clenched fists. "She was talking to me and Cream about it when we helped her with her concert swag. I've made drones to get the angles she needs, but without a full cast, the idea falls through. The lyrics for the song she's using implies it's a collab piece."
Sonic rubbed his hands together with a wide grin on his face, "Will Duditude be making a comeback?"
"Here's hoping," Tails smiled wide in return and gave an invigorated fistbump.
Farewells finished, the three headed out once again.
A solid knock on the set of brand new oak doors brought no one forward. Sonic leaned in and spoke, "Hello? You home?" He let them all in. "We can chill out here till they get back." He smelled the air. "Were they baking?" Sonic looked over and witnessed a brand new stove with a pile of cooling cookies atop it's surface. "Nice. Six burners," he said as he went to the black and silver appliance.
"Cookies? Don't mind if I do," Rouge said as she walked up along side him. He held out a note to her. "Hmm?" She read aloud, "THC cookies, only eat one."
Sonic abandoned the notion of eating a cookie. "Maybe they made a batch without lacing them?" He lifted the cover to a white porcelain serving dish. A second note, with the same message, sat atop some frosted cookies. Sonic picked it up and said, "Guess not. This must be an order for Tonic Concentration." He noticed a stack of unfolded boxes, big enough to house four cookies a piece.
"They're making edibles," Rouge asked as she picked up a cook to smell. "Ooh, gingery."
"Don't eat that. You're still on the clock," Shadow said from the kitchen table attached to the side of the old tree. Five other stools surrounded the bar-like, crescent table.
"I know, dear. Don't worry, after the other night I've had my fill of mind altering substances for a while. Though, I am curious...is she using this as a means to meditate?"
Sonic perked up. "Let's find out." He called Julie-Su on her communicator.
'Yo, what's up,' she answered casually.
"We dropped by to see if you had any luck with your Chaos Emerald and found a bunch of weed cookies. Was wondering if those two things are connected."
She chuckled, 'Gosh, no. The cookies were for bot fun and shipment. I managed to summon my gem without much trouble. Hard time holding on to the thing; that'll come in time, I imagine.'
"Gotcha. You guys heading back soon?"
'Soonish,' she said.
'We're hunting down some fruit for smoothies. I think we found the biggest Jackfruit on the island,' Knuckles voice sounded in the background.
"Smoothies?"
'Yeah. Stick around. We got enough for everyone,' Jules said.
Sonic looked to Shadow and Rouge. "You guys down for smoothies?"
They nodded.
"We'll be here."
Sonic scrolled through his communicator for anything in Amy's schedule that hadn't been taken care of. Besides Anne and Rolph's town registration, they needed to get photo ID's made when the paperwork was done being filed. He also made a note of getting in contact with the Gogo'Ba tribe before the luau and their 'vow of silence' kicked in.
"What's in the baked goods?" Shadow asked.
Rouge spoke up first, "You know that stuff Hugh was into the night you couldn't locate him with the hivemind? That."
Shadow searched his own memories. "I don't think the military tested that one on me."
"Tested?" Sonic asked.
He explained. "My body, as you know, has the ability to heal at a nearly immeasurable rate. In a vain attempt to understand my DNA better, the military issued testing to gauge my abilities. If I were say, put on a mission wherein I'm given poison or drugged, it's best to know how my body can handle it."
"What were the results?" Sonic asked.
Shadow sat with folded arms, "Every drug they gave me failed to subdue me for any longer than five minutes. The dose that Anne gave me was the longest I'd been negatively affected by a drug."
Rouge shivered, "I remember when they tested uncut heroin on you."
He looked up and saw her rub her arms free of goosebumps. "Why are you bothered? I was fine."
Rouge shook her head, "You stopped breathing for a solid minute." She sighed, "I know you can heal, but at the time I didn't. I thought you died."
Shadow smirked deviously, "If I can survive reentry through the planet's atmosphere, I'm sure some measly chemicals won't do me much harm. For the record, the dose they gave me would have been enough to kill four healthy adults."
Sonic's eyes went wide. He looked back to the cookies. "I guess pot cookies wouldn't do much to you then."
"Probably not. Alcohol seems to be the only thing I can't handle. Still need to look into that a bit more," Shadow lamented.
Sonic thought again. "How close are Hugh's healing abilities? Because he's got the whole 'can't drink alcohol' thing too, and the weed hit him fine."
Rouge smiled and picked up a cookie. "One way to find out."
"No." Shadow gave it a second thought, "...not right now." Shadow thought about it more. "Did you call it 'Pot'? Isn't that what Private Walker smokes?"
"Yes," Rouge nodded, "Marijuana's got a lot of names. Pot, weed, hash, ganja," she said as she counted on her fingers.
Sonic joined in, "Reefer, grass, green, Mary-Jane."
Rouge continued, "Sticky-icky, herb, chronic..."
"Dope," Sonic added with a raised finger.
"Why does one plant need so many names?" Shadow was simultaneously bemused and frustrated.
"No clue," Sonic said.
"Maybe it's because they keep needing to make new nic names to talk about it around others who may not be 'cool' with it," Rouge suggested with bunny ear, air quotes. "Not to mention how widespread it's use is. Each region has their own slang word for it."
Sonic went on, "Bud, kush, hashish-lengthened form of hash, cannabis," Sonic counted more names. "That's nearly twenty names."
Shadow continued to question the substance. "What does it do? You say this can be used in meditation?"
Sonic nodded, "Calming effects. Increased apatite. Kills pain. Relieves nausea. I don't know if it affects everybody the same, but when it wears off you sleep like a rock. I say if we can't figure out how to talk to Chaos on our own, this is an option we can try."
Shadow pondered. "It would also be useful to know if I'm able to develop immunity to it, as well. I'm reluctant though; from my experience with private Walker, it makes you rather slow and stupid."
Rouge laughed, "Speaking of which. He got back to me."
"Anything to report?"
She shook her head and pulled up the message he sent her. "He says: Hey, babe, did as much snooping as I could and...every...one came up clean. Hold on, he's typing something..." She waited for the giant block of text to come through. She read to herself. Each word made her more horrified. "Oh dear...oh...that's...oh, no, that's not okay."
"WHAT?!" Shadow said through clenched teeth.
She held up a hand. "Please don't shoot the messenger," Rouge cleared her throat gently and read aloud for them. "Hey, babe, update: While I was snooping, I figured that Shadow may have been the mole, so I broke into his apartment to gather more info."
Shadow looked upset.
"Unfortunately, I was kinda drunk and knocked over his motorcycle."
Shadow looked more upset.
Rouge continued, "It only ended up getting a small scratch, but the sound of it falling over alerted the neighbours. They called the police and I got arrested. After they questioned me, it looked too fishy that I was there. Instead of throwing me in jail, they added another two years to my enrollment and are shipping me your way. Apparently the only one they trust to keep me under wraps is the Major himself. See you in a few days. Later," she finished and turned off her communicator.
Shadow looked even more upset with his mouth drawn back tightly, as to stifle any amount of yelling and or swearing that may erupt.
"You okay, bro?" Sonic asked.
"Don't...don't even..." Shadow sat at the table and laid his head down. He took a deep breath.
Rouge spoke up again, "Want a cookie?"
"...after I give my report," he said and sighed deeply, accompanied with a heavy eyeroll. "This place is safe, right?" he asked and looked up to Rouge.
Rouge gave an intense listen for ultrasonic sounds. After they all checked for electronic bugs, Rouge gave a thumbs up. "All clear."
Shadow reached into the burlap bag that accompanied he and Rouge for the duration of their trip to Seaside island. He emerged with yet another communicator to contact the Colonel with.
Nearby, across the room, a tiny, white teardrop shaped robot, no larger than a sand flea, listened in on all they had to say. It's slinked along the floorboards near the edge of the wall. It's colour turned black and blended in better as it got closer.
Back at Eggman's lair, he folded his hands behind his head, "I knew they'd let their guard down soon enough." He removed his glasses and shut his blue eyes. When he opened them again, his sclera were blackened and his iris reddened. "I see everything now."
Orbot floated obediently at his side. His eyes were also red in colour. "Your insight is like no other, boss. Par for the course, of course."
He chuckled at the wordplay. "Isn't it?" Dr. Eggman smiled and watched and listened.
O_o
