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DEV: OMG und wieder das fantastischste aller Reviews auf das man als Schreiber hoffen darf, echt mega vielen Dank! :D Hab ich mir seitdem garantiert dreimal durchgelesen :3 Ich freu mich total, dass der Humor getroffen hat, das Kapitel war echt eins meiner Favoriten seit dem ganzen Sex Ed Schwachsinn XD Und jo, mal schauen wie lange Shads den Alien-Teil von sich noch geheim halten kann, hahah, bisher läuft's in Sachen secret-keeping in der fic ja echt nicht so geil (aber ist ja eigentlich auch besser so :P) Shadow und Maria in allen Variationen sind einfach so schön zum Schreiben, entweder wenn er super protective um sie ist, oder eben, wenn er eben weiß, dass sie mittlerweile so robust ist, dass man sie ruhig als Tauzieh-Seil zurücklassen kann, alles immer irgendwo aww :D Knuckles als genervt von Sonic's ewigem LONG TIME NO SEE zu schreiben ist auch mein Lieblings-Running Gag, den hab ich auch schon in dem Pokémon Crossover drin. Und Silvers wachsende Verzweiflung - joah, die wird die Fic hindurch vermutlich nicht abnehmen. Bei Boom-Knuckles muss ich zugeben, dass ich selber beim Dialog-schreiben ziemlich bescheuert kichern musste, der hat schon seine Momente auch in der Serie. XD Und ich bin natürlich auch sehr happy, dass Tom so gut ankommt - ich war direkt zur Premiere im Kino und wir waren echt positiv von dem Film überrascht. Deine Frage nach dem Betäubungsgewehr ist allerdings eine SEHR gute, also wird sie jetzt in diesem Kapitel auch beantwortet ;P Aber jetzt, long reply short, hoffe, dir gefällt das neue Kapitel und nochmal vielen Dank für den wundervollen Kommentar! :D
LoneGarurumon: :D:D:D Ahahahah, yeah...but you're far too good at this foreshadowing-decoding, so I gotta throw in some curveballs to make it interesting, right?^^; Already a good idea of how Maria will handle the very intense parallel interest of Amy and Tails, please read on to find out how that works out! Once again, thank you so much for your comment!
Long time reader: What an absolutely lovely comment, thank you! I really enjoyed also mushing Boom Knuckles and movie!Tom into my AU here, and so glad everyone else is enjoying them as well :) The movie had far too many cute moments to not want to have them in any backstory of Sonic, and I really like the parallels of 'hedgehog raised by humans' it has for Shadow in this story, too :) Hope you enjoy the new update!
Joji: The cast better pray I don't bring even more continuities into this XD
The General Gist: Indeed it is.
Mute Spy: Tom absolutely had to be in there and I also love the fact that there's now someone with a 'dad mode' dynamic for Sonic, because I don't think we ever had that in another continuity - and it's really interesting to think about how a dad mode would look when objectively, the 'kid' you're watching over is so much more powerful, but still...kind of a kid/teen :) So, I had fun expanding on that one! Hope you like!
What Happened So Far: Sonic unjustly imprisoned! A wild rescue mission on Prison Island and a run-in with a strange doppelganger! A white bat called Rouge making off with the stolen Chaos Emeralds right after Shadow saved her life - and GUN still hot on the heels of their escaped blue fugitive (even if said fugitive was actually having a sleepover at Shadow's and Maria's place). Now our heroes have just arrived at the police station, where a certain officer by the name of Tom Wachowski will hopefully be able to help them clear Sonic's name...
xxx
Chapter 25: Live Life
"Well," Sonic started before briefly outlining for the police officer what had happened since Thursday, also carefully leaving it slightly vague what exactly had gone down on Prison Island, phrasing his summation of events to sound more like he was broken out of his cell by the explosions caused by Maria's cousin rather than Shadow's help, albeit without actually directly saying so. Shadow was almost impressed.
"...which is why I came here hoping you could set up a line to GUN command so we can call them and sort this out?" Sonic finished, giving a bit of a shrugging gesture and a hopeful grin.
"So over a single weekend, you wrecked two giant trucks, jumped from a helicopter, got imprisoned in and then escaped from a secret military complex when it was blown up, and had a fight in the jungle with what you suspect is a Robotnik-designed clone of your friend here," Wachowski summed up, rubbing a hand over his face. "Kid."
"Eh, what can I say, slow days," Sonic stuck a blackberry-coloured tongue out, currently on his second donut, "So…?"
"Yeah, I think I know where I can reach someone in GUN who'll actually listen to you. Come on. And leave me at least one donut, will ya?" Wachowski said, getting up and walking over to a backroom of his office; as he passed Sonic, he also reached down to sink a hand into the scruff of Sonic's neck above his spines, giving him a friendly shake and a pull off the chair just as Sonic had been reaching for his third pastry.
In response to the grab, Sonic gave a yelp and a scramble, legs and arms flailing as he tried to go with the pull to relieve the sensation of your scruff in a grip (one which Shadow only knew all too well from Maria when they were kids) and barely managed to land on his feet as Wachowski released him, laughing at the blue hedgehog's instinctive shake after.
"Hey! That's unfair play!"
"That donut is all I have for lunch today. Totally fair," Wachowski shot back, already opening the door to a room containing far more technical equipment than his office.
As they trailed after him into the backroom, Shadow couldn't help but shoot the blue hedgehog an incredulous glance. "You allow him to treat you like this?"
Sonic gave him a shrug and a grin. "Eh, Tom gets privileges. You know Robuttnik actually attacked his car once he found out he had taken me in and he still tried to protect me? He's an alright dude."
"And a policeman who really should know better," Wachowski muttered from the other room. "Right, let me see…"
As he leafed through some folders trying to find the right number, the center of attention in the room was clearly the TV tuned into some news programme playing at low volume in the background. Unsurprisingly, it was currently re-airing some footage of Thursday, starring the real-life version of Hedgehog Redemption from GUN's first attempt at taking Sonic prisoner.
"This is Sigma-alpha 2, heading due south over the city. Current status is a 10-4, cargo secured and…" the voice of the transport helicopter's pilot was played over tape, before there clearly was a sputtering "- What?!" (that also sounded not unlike some of their teachers had at certain points).
"Sigma-alpha 2? Didn't copy that," the Control Tower replied on the tape playing on the newscast. "What's your status? Over."
"The - the hedgehog's gone, he's taken out everyone aboard and-!"
"What? How did he-?!"
"Freeze!" This was a different voice, presumably that of a soldier onboard the helicopter, yelling, "What do you think you're doing-?"
"What do I think I'm doing? Talk about low-budget flights, you didn't even gimme some food or movies! I'm outta here!"
...and Shadow would not have needed the newscast's additional subtitle of [suspect speaking] to guess whose voice that was.
On the TV, there was now also footage from the helicopter itself added, one of the soldiers having switched on their body cam, which mostly showed Sonic grinning at the camera, giving a two-fingered salute, before kicking the door in, jumping out of the plane and using his own momentum to tear the door off, informing everyone that "I like running better!" and then sailing down towards the city while using the door like a skateboard, going "WHOOO!" all the way.
In the police station, Shadow threw Sonic a look.
"Erm. Yeah. To be honest, before they recaptured me and locked me up in Prison Island, all of that stuff was still pretty fun, actually," Sonic gave a bit of a lop-sided grin, rubbing the back of his head.
"Hm-hmm. Go on, ask me how trying to get him to sit still and trying to 'have fun' with a nice, normal family board game night went," Wachowski said, giving Shadow a wry glance and ignoring Sonic's 'hey!' in the background. Then the human officer held out a receiver. "Here, got you a straight line to Towers. See if you can talk some sense into them."
"Thanks," Sonic said, taking the phone. "Right, Sonic here. So, listen, about you guys trying to kill me twice now-"
"Family board game night?" Shadow asked as both him and Wachowski had taken a step back as Sonic was argueing with whatever GUN official he had on the phone. The human nodded.
"Yeah. Or we tried, anyway," he gave a little laugh. "To be honest, at some point my wife and I were even considering adopting him and his kid brother when they wanted to stay in this hemisphere. Though anything cross-species like that still turned out to be nearly impossible when we looked into it."
"Right," Shadow said. "I, uh, heard about that."
"Hmm," Wachowski agreed. "Well, we let the two of them stay with us anyhow until he'd turned fourteen and could get himself a place to live and legal custody of his kid brother. Or, well," the human officer said, "Could get legal custody as long as he also enrolled himself in High School, as it later turned out. Gotta say, when he told me that, I laughed so hard he promptly hung up on me." Wachowski gave Shadow a brilliant grin, and apparently Sonic was also halfway listening to their conversation, because he promptly shot the both of them a withering glare before getting back to his phone conversation -
"-illegally escaped from military custody-!"
"Custody?!" Sonic interrupted the female voice on the phone, "Listen, woman, you called me in for some 'emergency' at the GUN base and then shot me with a tranq gun! None of that could possibly have been legal!"
"It's a special protocol of precaution for dealing with highly-powered Individuals," the voice on the phone replied primly, "Although it really shouldn't have worn off in the helicopter already," she muttered, now also sounding slightly irritated.
Wachowski nodded contemplatively, "Yeah, total beginner's mistake," he added to Shadow, "When I shot Sonic with a tranq gun he was only out for like thirty minutes, too."
"You shot him-?" Shadow repeated, before giving a short nod. "I have decided I might like you."
"Could you not bond over me getting drugged, please?" Sonic asked, one hand over the receiver and giving both of them a peeved look. Returning to his call, he then continued, "And yeah, you're lucky I'm not taking this whole thing in front of the Sapient Rights Court. And anyway, did you at least figure out you had the wrong guy by now?"
"Well, one of our...agents...on site indeed did turn up some additional information that would clear any Sapient hedgehogs as suspects in the Central City Emerald theft or the destruction on Prison Island," the voice on the phone grumbled, "So you're in the clear. It appears that the responsible party in both cases might have actually been Dr. Robotnik."
"What Eggman?! NO WAY, surely not the guy who was responsible for the last six dozen crimes of this sort?" Sonic shot back, voice positively dripping with sarcasm, "Y'know, I might know an echidna or two who would make great additions to your intelligence team-"
There was a definite click of a receiver being hung up on the other side.
Wachowski sighed. "Well. I guess that went sort of well. Considering."
Sonic snorted. "Yeah. I guess." He hung up the receiver before shooting a small smile at the human police officer, the three of them walking back into his main office where he sat back at his desk again. "Time to start hunting down ol' Egghead again, hopefully now GUN will help instead of being annoying. Thanks for getting me that call."
"Anytime, kiddo," Wachowski gave a slightly lopsided smile back. "Least I can do for you, these days."
"Wha-? Hey. Hey," Sonic said, pulling himself on top of Wachowski's desk again, settling on the edge of the desk in front of him. "Don't say that, you're doing plenty. It's...nice knowing there's somebody caring about whether I and whoever's with me makes it back after an adventure." Sonic gave an easy shrug and a smile while Shadow felt slightly awkward, not sure whether he was supposed to be watching this moment, but Sonic somehow hardly ever seemed embarrassed at all to show affection to anyone he liked. "You were my first friend here, after all," Sonic continued, before also adding, expression utterly serious now, eyes wide and one hand pressed over his heart, "O hana means family, Tom."
At that, Wachowski finally snorted. "Wrong blue indestructible maniac, I think," he replied with a wry smile, though there was an undeniable trace of earnestness in his tone as well. "But I'm glad you think so."
"I know so," Sonic insisted. "But yeah, keep next Friday night free, alright? There's this school event that'd be cool if you guys could come. Or well," Sonic amended, rolling his eyes a little, "As cool as anything connected with school can be, anyway."
"Been in the calendar for weeks, no worries," Tom replied, grinning. "Maddie says she's looking forward to the mother-son dance."
"Oh gods," Sonic groaned, but it sounded more put-on than genuine. "But yeah, alright. She better not wear heels, though!"
"Yeah, because that will make a difference," Tom shot back, before reaching out for one last head-fur ruffle towards Sonic still on his desk. "Take care, kiddo. Don't get yourself killed, alright?"
"Never," Sonic insisted. "So do I get that last donut?"
"Over my dead body," Wachowski replied flatly, before throwing another glance at Shadow. "Been nice to meet you, too. You also seem somewhat more sensible than him over here," he said, indicating Sonic with a nod of his head, "So if you could, I'd be grateful if you could stop him from getting into the stupidest situations this time."
"I'm not actually able to perform miracles," Shadow replied automatically with a frown before he could think about it, but Wachowski merely laughed at the reply.
It didn't occur to Shadow until they were already on their way out of the office again that the human police officer was perhaps the first person to have just looked at him and - however jocular - had then assumed him to be protector rather than threat.
xxx
"So, what do we do now? Any suggestions on how we find the Doctor?" Shadow asked, carefully not examining his feelings at the last thought as they were standing in front of the station again, Buffles still giving them a suspicious look through the glass doors.
Sonic scratched the tip of his ear. "Well, we do know Eggman is planning something, but now so does the rest of the world, so GUN and every other military will also be looking for him. Tails is already scanning for all six Emeralds, too. As soon as he only shows the tip of his moustache anywhere on this planet, we should know."
Shadow frowned. "The last time we waited around for the Doctor to show up he made a clone of me and you got thrown into prison. What about that Emerald Tails has?" he suggested. "You can see how I can teleport with them. I could try and use it to take myself straight to wherever he is."
Sonic raised his eye ridges. "You can teleport with the Emeralds anywhere you want?"
"Uh. Well," Shadow resisted the urge to rub his upper arm a little. "I...don't know."
"You don't know?" Sonic blinked back at him.
"I've only ever actually done it seven times in my life, okay?" Shadow replied irritably, feeling a bit peeved at having his skills questioned. "And only once with an actual Emerald that didn't break after," he added, grumbling underneath his breath.
"Only…?" Sonic appeared to be mentally calculating as they had started walking toward Shadow's house again, and then gave Shadow another stare. "Wait, you mean when you used that Chaos Control technique to get us into that vault which would have basically been a death trap if we couldn't get out again, that was only your sixth time trying this stuff?!"
"...yes?"
Sonic gave him another long stare, but then actually shrugged. "...yeah, I don't actually have a leg to stand on when it comes to complaining about that kind of thing. So. How far can you actually Chaos Control?"
"Uh," Shadow managed, once again thrown by the topic and mood change, not for the first time wondering whether if you cut Sonic, the guy would bleed quicksilver. "I...don't know that, either."
"Hmm." Sonic pursed his lips. "So, what would happen if you try to Chaos Control to Eggman somewhere and that exceeds the range?"
Shadow's brows drew together as he contemplated this. "...I suppose I'd materialize somewhere en route."
"Right. So what if he's on a base somewhere in the middle of some ocean?"
"I see your point," Shadow admitted with some irritation.
"And besides, the moment we take Tails' Emerald out of its shielding in his house, Egghead's gonna know where it is, so we better have a plan in place before we do that. Let's give it until Monday, alright?" Sonic interrupted his thoughts with a shrug. "Besides, I think there's some other matters you should probably take care of."
The expression Sonic was wearing promised nothing good at all. "Like what?"
Sonic grinned. "Well. If you don't want to go with Sticks, you should probably use the time to figure out a date for Prom."
xxx
"Amy? Tails?" Sonic called out as they came back to Shadow's house, the entryway and kitchen empty of people. "Well, I'm mostly certain they didn't take your sister to an undisclosed location," he added to Shadow, who was caught between a snort and warning Sonic that this wasn't funny, when they heard Maria call out from downstairs.
"Sonic, that you? Down in the lab!"
"So they didn't arrest you again? Shame," Knuckles greeted them as they came down into the basement - Shadow's eye ridges raising slightly at the scene in front of them, which was Maria and Tails on opposite sides of a lab bench, Tails fiddling with the mechanics of some sort of gadget in between them while Maria was intently staring at a bunch of numbers running on one half of the screen of a laptop connected to it. Next to Maria sat Amy on a booster chair and was apparently working on a very elaborate braid of Maria's hair, which his sister also kept checking via the laptop's camera mirroring her own face which took up the other half of the laptop's screen.
"Yes, that's looking promising, Tails, see if you can increase the output of that transformer by just a few microvolt - oh wow, Amy, this style is amazing, I look like I'm ready for a ballroom! Oh hey Shadow," she added, only glancing sideways briefly at the arriving hedgehogs. "Did you manage completing your one, singular task today alright?"
"Yup, sure did," Sonic replied in his stead, ambling up to the table and shooting a pointed look at Knuckles still leaning against the back wall with crossed arms. "And no, we managed to get everyone's name cleared, thank you, Knucklehead. Also, Tom says hi, Tails. That the Emerald radar you're working on?"
"Uh-huh," Tails nodded. "Maria had some really great ideas, we're testing it right now."
"And we're also testing some really great hair styles for Prom, which is more important obviously," Amy said. "Human hair is so great to work with, seriously! Have you given the dye idea some more thought, Maria?"
"What? No. She'll look like an anime character," Shadow protested instinctively, only to get some very non-impressed looks by the two girls.
"Hmm, like you're one to talk. Your colour scheme could only be more drama if you turned your chest fluff purple and bat-shaped," Maria said and Amy and Tails (of course) immediately started giggling.
"That's - look I didn't design myself, that was your grandf-!" Shadow started, which of course only prompted Tails and Amy to laugh harder, so Shadow bit the rest of the sentence off. "Never. Mind," he grumbled, massaging his forehead in anticipation of a headache.
Still, it was an oddly...soft sensation to be able to talk about his origin so openly now, even making it the subject of humour and apparently no-one thinking less of him for it. He suspected Amy was probably in the loop by now anyway, and Knuckles - well, Shadow had the faint suspicion the echidna could probably care less about who or what Shadow was as long as he got his Emerald back, which was oddly comforting all on its own.
"Yeah, don't. That's a battle you can't win, and I've taken it up with, like, half a dozen demigods so far. Trust me," Sonic said, clapping a hand on Shadow's shoulder before turning around to walk back upstairs. "I'm gonna go make some sandwiches for everyone, special requests?"
"Is any of that raw deer still left? Can I have that with Nutella on mine?" Tails asked hopefully and Maria replied with the location of the deer leftovers, while Shadow now thought about going without food for a day or two or possibly forever. He went and sat down on another unoccupied workbench somewhat closer to Knuckles while Tails, Maria and Amy had already gone back to their respective tasks, once more engrossed in saving the world and Prom Night all in a day.
"I...didn't know your family was human," Knuckles finally said quietly after a minute or two of silence, still staring ahead at the working and happily chattering trio.
Shadow turned his head, raising an eye ridge. " Problem?" he asked, voice carefully neutral.
Knuckles still didn't turn his head. "Didn't have the best first meeting with a member of that species. But no."
"Hrm," Shadow acknowledged.
Then:
"...was that first meeting with Doctor Robotnik?"
"Yup."
Of course it was. Shadow gritted his teeth, because the only other constant in his life now seemed to be…
"And did Sonic have anything to do with it?"
"Yup," Knuckles confirmed again and Shadow let the back of his head bonk against the wall, because why continue fighting.
xxx
"Alright! Emerald radar's all boosted and turned to Master Emerald shards as well as Chaos Emeralds!" Tails proclaimed after a few more hours of tinkering, eating and easy conversation had passed (Amy somehow actually having managed to give Maria like three different looks with hair styles, eye shadow and mascara in between).
"Thanks," Knuckles nodded. "I'll get in touch if I come across any Chaos Emerald signals."
"Yeah, we should probably get going, too," Sonic (who had mostly dozed in Professor Gerald's padded chair after lunch, apparently not having gotten very much sleep during his stint as a captive) stretched and yawned. "Don't wanna overstay our welcome."
"Oh no, you're welcome anytime," Maria protested while casually stepping on Shadow's foot, before adding with a slight wince, "But yeah, actually, grandpa is about to arrive back soon, I think, and he's probably….not going to be pleased with our weekend." She grimaced.
"Oh, right," Amy's expression was sympathetic. "Should we stay for moral support?"
"Thanks, but it's probably better we break it to him slowly that we, uh, kind of went on an illegal prison break," Maria sighed.
"And that I attacked like two dozen soldiers on said prison break," Shadow added. "And that we harbored a fugitive from justice."
"And that we told like four different people all about Shadow being a completely illegal and highly secret experiment," Maria said and Shadow nodded, looking at her.
"We're dead."
"We're so dead."
xxx
"Hi grandpa! Come in, we cooked your favourite meal!"
"Let me take your suitcase, Professor. I also tried to write an essay on pacifism for my social studies class, maybe you'd like to have a look at it later?"
Professor Gerald, still standing in the doorway of his home, gave the two of them a very long look.
"Shadow. Maria. What did you do."
"Nothing that could get us in legal trouble...we think," Maria said very carefully.
xxx
"You did WHAT!"
"You said Shadow was supposed to make friends at school, right?!" Maria tried, desperately. "And I mean technically-"
Gerald was hiding his face in his hands by the end of it and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "I should never have tried to procreate", but aloud, he only uttered a very long-suffering sigh. "Very...very well. According to your accounts at least GUN doesn't seem likely to pursue this matter further and - especially with the reports of this doppelganger of Shadow running around - there is now the possibility of plausible deniability for anything people saw you do on that island." Gerald took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, tiredly. "I suppose it is technically not even entirely your fault, considering my grandson is the reason any of this was happening in the first place. Chaos dammit, Ivo."
Maria and Shadow exchanged a brief hopeful glance. This...was going as well as it could be hoped, at least. But that still left the question of -
"Yeah. That was also something I wanted to ask about," Shadow said, "Professor, that...doppelganger I saw on Prison Island…" he swallowed, trying to banish the images of the uncanny replica from his mind's eye. "With the information stored on GUN's servers that your grandson stole, would it...could he possibly have replicated…"
"...you?" Gerald finished the sentence Shadow was struggling with. "Technically, actually...no."
"No?" Shadow carefully didn't let himself feel anything at that yet. "Why? Professor, it...he...that other hedgehog also had Chaos Powers."
"Yes. And that puzzles me, believe me," Gerald said. "But to really replicate you, Ivo would have needed access to Black Doom's blood that helped me modify your cells and gave you your powers. And I couldn't take any of those samples with me when we fled."
"Black Doom. The alien coming to destroy the planet in 45 years that you engineered a giant space cannon against, right," Shadow said, wearily. Even with any luck maybe at least that could be something that didn't involve Sonic for a change.
Who am I kidding, he's probably somehow a god in their religion or something, Shadow thought despairingly. Aloud, he was about to ask whether the Professor had any theories what the mysterious doppelganger could be if not a clone, but before he could open his mouth, Maria was already interrupting.
"But, uh, grandpa, we also have some really good news!"
"The two of you have decided to become reasonable, normal citizens?"
"Almost! Tickets to Shadow's Prom arrived this morning and we can all go!" Maria exclaimed excitedly, waving an envelope in a spirited attempt to change the topic (and Shadow now kind of wished they could go back to the world-domination line of conversation). "The letter said every senior gets three tickets for family members, so that means we can all go! Amy even styled my hair, look!" she gave a hopeful twirl while Gerald made the kind of face all parent figures make when they're technically mad but their (grand-)daughters are doing their brightest and happiest smile at them on purpose.
"Agh," Gerald commented.
"Approximately my thoughts on the topic, yes," Shadow said. "So, um, with the third ticket, do you...maybe want to invite your mother…?" he asked, looking up at Maria but trailing off at her now suddenly slightly awkward expression.
"Um...Shadow...if there's only one ticket over, I...I kind of…"
"What?"
"I kind of have somebody else I'd like to go with."
"Oh." Shadow blinked. "Oh."
"Um, yeah. If that's okay with you..."
"Is it that cradle robber."
"His name is Dexter, Shadow, and we actually had our first off-campus date on Thursday over lunch. And he's really nice, I swear! Stop looking at me like that!" Maria defended herself from now both Gerald and Shadow looking at her with some toothachey expressions. "I mean, Shadow, come on, don't you have a date, too?"
"Not if I spot Sticks first," Shadow replied flatly and automatically, then adding before he could help it, "Or - well, actually, there's this squirrel I met in Home Economics - or you know what nevermind!" he broke himself off as quickly as possible at Maria's sudden look of absolutely raging curiosity, "You can bring the...the guy. And this topic is now closed."
("Thank Chaos," Gerald muttered)
"Hrmm. Fine." Maria pursed her lips, before actually dropping the somewhat joking demeanour. "But I actually really do wish I could bring mom - and dad. That's something important, right? Seeing your daughter at prom?" she asked, a hint of uncertainty in her voice now, reminiscent of her nervousness when they had gone to see her parents for the first time last week.
Shadow heaved a very big sigh.
"…I'll ask around if anyone has two tickets to spare."
"Thank you." Within a moment, Shadow could feel himself encircled in Maria's arms, his once so fragile sister now actually able to hug and lift him bodily off the floor, pressing her face into his headfur and squeezing him like in the entire world only she was permitted to.
Hanging limply in her arms, the Ultimate Lifeform sighed.
Dear Universe. Please give me a break?
"Also," Maria said, setting him back down onto the floor, "We have a double date with Sonic and Amy to go clothes shopping for Prom tomorrow!"
Shadow thought very uncharitable thoughts toward the universe.
xxx
Later on, as things had quieted down again, Shadow was back in his room again and still thinking. What was the other black hedgehog? A robot? A clone imbued with Chaos Powers some other way than an alien overlord's blood? A shapechanger? A hologram? A surgically altered Mobian to look like him?
Shadow groaned, letting his head fall back against his chair. Having watched far too many sci-fi shows during his childhood didn't help at all in situations like this.
Well. I'll just have to make him - it - bleed and see, he thought grimly, drumming his fingers on the table. The more pressing matter was finding the other hedgehog and his presumed creator anyway - Shadow stilled.
The moment we take it out of the shielding…
"Bait," Shadow muttered. He didn't have to use Tails' Emerald to teleport to Maria's cousin at all. They could just use the Emerald to make the human come to them.
Well. That would be a topic of conversation tomorrow other than bowtie patterns and pocket square colours, at least.
The way this is proceeding we'll probably fight the damn Doctor *at* Prom, Shadow thought, also tempted to let his head bonk onto the table at that image.
"Shadow?" he lifted his head again as his own creator's voice interrupted his thoughts and the Professor stepped into his room, his hands filled with some...blue needles…? "Shadow, I just found hedgehog spikes all over my bed sheets, please tell me you and Sonic didn't..."
It took a moment for Shadow to compute where this sentence was going. When he did, his eyes widened. "Wha-NO!"
"It's - it's not that I'm generally opposed to it," Gerald said, with the expression of a soldier accepting a suicide mission, "but please understand that you've been alive for all of six years and you've known that hedgehog boy for six days and while I'm sure Sonic is a good kid, hero even-"
"No! Professor, just...no!" Shadow squeaked back, gripping his chair, features frozen in horror. "Why would you assume that?!"
"Well," Gerald swallowed, now also just as flustered, "because - you mention him a lot, and you apparently this weekend risked your life to help him escape even though you just met him -"
"THAT IS NOT MY FAULT! That is just how this world works!"
"And then, you came to me, also asking about -"
"That was general interest!" Shadow defended himself, despairingly. His creator still looked at him, somewhat doubtful.
"Right."
"Professor, contrary to the Thorndyke mansion, no one in this household is currently interested in any hedgehogs," Shadow insisted with rising emphasis. "Please believe me."
"Shadow's totally got the hots for some squirrel babe, though," Maria piped up, grinning and poking into the door frame from behind Gerald, and Shadow jumped abruptly up.
"I will end you-"
Gerald sighed as he watched the two teenagers tearing through the house shrieking, fairly certain that his little engineered weapon of mass destruction would not actually kill his granddaughter and proof of concept of cross-species immunotransplant therapy, and went to bed.
To be continued…
Well well well, it's been a while, but today's my birthday, and in true hobbit-style tradition where the guests get the gifts, this means that I get to be a year older and you all get a new chapter! :D (I think that somehow works out better for you XD) But yeah, hope you all are still reading, liked the chapter and if you read, why not drop a review as a birthday present? ;P All the wonderful comments so far sure make it a joy to write for you guys no matter how busy IRL can get :)
(Also, small A/N: again, absolutely no pairing bashing intended, y'all know that Sonadow is my OTP. ;P But why not mix it up once in a while?)