Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to a new oneshot I have been working on for quite a while!

A quick disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or properties used in this story; they are owned by SEGA. (Also, despite the name of the story, it does not contain any red and blue wearing spider-people.)

Without further ado, please sit back, relax, and enjoy the story!

Homecoming

Shadow The Hedgehog sighed deeply to himself- a heavy breath, full of exasperation, exhaustion, irritation and a host of other distinctly negative emotions, as he wondered just how he got into this situation.

Mere days ago, the Ultimate Lifeform had been awakened in an unfamiliar bunker of some sort by a human called Ivo. What Shadow found special about the human- besides his rotund build and impressive mustache, was that his last name: Robotnik.

The hedgehog's memories may have been fuzzy due to recently waking up from suspended animation, but Shadow definitely recalled knowing two Robotniks on the space colony he had lived in. Those two had treated him like their own family in all but name, before the incident happened and he was put in a cryogenic pod that rocketed itself straight into Earth.

So naturally, when the human confirmed that he was related to them the hedgehog instantly felt a sense of kinship to the man, and the two individuals, deciding it was better to exist together than alone, had banded together and Shadow had essentially become a second-in-command to Ivo, helping him reach his goal of "making the world a better place," or so the man had said.

Now, Shadow at the time personally did not understand how conducting heists for multicolored gems and blowing up secure bases inherently contributed to improving the world, but he hadn't questioned it, figuring that modern problems required modern solutions.

Anyhow, that wasn't the place where everything went awry; that was when they had unfortunately gotten separated whilst on the way to their base of operations when Shadow had unceremoniously fallen off of the hovercraft several hundred feet in the air and crashlanded into an alley in a city he later found out was called Station Square.

Another problem arose was when he got, and he was ashamed to say it, mugged by a bunch of common criminals.

Yet another issue was also the strangely familiar blue hedgehog running beside him and chattering incessantly.

The two had been sprinting through the city for some time now, on the way to a place called the Mystic Ruins to find a friend of the azure one's whom he called Tails for some reason, and although Shadow had attempted to move faster to outrun him and thus lose his needless talking, the other one had simply cranked up his speed as well and caught up to the striped hedgehog.

To the credit of Sonic- for that was what the hedgehog was called apparently-, the hedgehog seemed friendly enough and had saved him from the mugging, and he'd kindly decided to help him when Shadow urgently said that he had places to be, which was why they were rapidly approaching the outskirts of the city right about now.

However, Ivo had apparently known this particular hedgehog and had not held back at all in expressing his sheer distaste for the "pint-sized, self-absorbed, blue-furred cretin". Given that Sonic was about to talk his ear off in addition to the striped one's already sullen mood, Shadow could see why.

"-You know," came Sonic- or rather the walking noise generator as Shadow had designated him in that moment-, "there's several great chill dog vendors around Station Square, but the best one in my opinion is, and it's a hard decision, definitely-"

"Do you ever shut up?" snapped Shadow, aiming a glare that could melt steel at his running partner, who at least had the decency to raise his hands in surrender as well as he could while running at speeds just shy of the sound barrier.

"Chill, Shads. Why so upset?"

"I'm trying to think of what to do next, and I can't with your inane word vomit impinging my ears!" shot back the hedgehog, his words coming off in a snarl.

"That's easy," replied the hedgehog, the laidback ease in his words causing Shadow's quills to bristle, "We head on over to my pal Tails' place and have a plane ride that takes you where you need to go."

Shadow paused. It could theoretically be simple... But Shadow's communicator, evidently not as durable as the hedgehog, was reduced to unusable pieces by the landing. Furthermore, Shadow didn't know where the doctor actually was -probably looking for him, no doubt, but still-, so Shadow decided to stop a bit of distance away from their base of operations and find a way to reach him from there.

Sonic, taking the silence as a sign of reluctant agreeance, simply hummed and smirked.

"So, you got anywhere in mind?"

"...Night Babylon."

"Really? Never took you for a gambling kind of guy."

"I don't gamble." came the response with a glare. "My... home... is there."

Home.

It was a word Shadow was still trying to come to terms with. He'd lived in a space colony before everything hit the fan. A rather unusual place to claim as your residence, but Maria and the professor's presences combined made it feel like home.

Then he found Ivo- or more accurately, Ivo found him, and they lodged in their base the Doctor had strangely named "Gimme Shelter".

They ate, slept, conducted plans and hacked into highly advanced databases there.

A somewhat less than usual living space, but they did their best to make it work. At this point, however, Shadow, still adjusting to everything, had begun to question the very meaning of the word 'home'.

Did it even begin to make sense when you recently woke up to find yourself in a completely unfamiliar environment knowing that you'd never see your loved ones again?

"Hm, that's awfully close to Emerald Town- what brings you all the way here to Station Square?" asked Sonic, effectively snapping Shadow out of his musings.

"It's a long story I don't have time for." Shadow replied in clipped tones, not exactly sure of how much he was allowed to say without attracting suspicion from the other.

"Okay, Mister Long Story, bank right."

The two hedgehogs skidded to a halt near a wooden structure with what seemed to be a strange insignia of a pair of tails painted on its surface. The sun was still high up in the sky as the two Mobians took in the fresh air and multitude of trees peppering the area.

"Here we are," exclaimed Sonic, stretching his arms, "Man, this beats taking the train any day!"

"Wait. You had us run ragged to this place when we could have simply used a train?"

"Well.. You and I are faster than any train, anyhow?"

Rather uncharacteristically, that statement from the blue one's mouth came out sounding more like a question. Shadow didn't comment and just fixed a cutting stare on Sonic as the blue hedgehog sheepishly walked over to the house and knocked on the door.

"Tails!" Shouted Sonic, "You in there, buddy?"

After a few seconds, Shadow's keen hearing picked up a "Coming, Sonic!" from inside the place.

The striped Mobian stared in confusion, mulling over the voice. It sounded male, yet very high-pitched and dare he say it... young. It was almost as if-

Shadow's thoughts screeched to a grinding halt as the door opened to reveal an orange fox who sported a pair of bushy white-tipped tails instead of the usual single tail that foxes in general posessed.

This same fox also couldn't have been older than eight.

What.

"Back so soon?" Asked the fox, apparently oblivious to Shadow's confused and mortified stare.

"Yeah, this guy here needed a ride home." Replied Sonic, jabbing his finger at the striped hedgehog. The fox turned to look curiously at the Ultimate Lifeform.

Snapping out of his stupor, Shadow replied, "..Yes. My name is Shadow."

Tails nodded. "Nice to meet you, Shadow! Where do you live, exactly?"

"Night Babylon. Just drop me off somewhere there and I'll know where to go."

The fox hummed before re-entering the workshop.

"I'll go get the Tornado ready!" the kit shouted as he disappeared into the interior, leaving the two hedgehogs in silence.

"Oh, you might wanna come in, Shads." noted Sonic, as though this thought came to him just now.

"Don't call me that." retorted the other hedgehog, although he followed the blue one inside. At last, they made it to a living room with couches, a TV, a gaming system, and a shelf with books and what seemed to be random souvenirs.

"Make yourself at home!" exclaimed Sonic, to which Shadow nodded his thanks.

The two hedgehogs sat down and Shadow lost himself in his thoughts whilst Sonic boredly flipped through channels. Eventually, the blue Mobian spoke up again:

"So, got any folks waiting for you at home?"

Shadow blinked before turning to him. Just how was he to answer this? Ivo was related to the professor and Maria back on the ARK, but Shadow didn't know how close his actual ties were to the combined family of Robotniks.

I'm staying with a.. distant relative of mine." replied Shadow, going with the safer option, "I used to live with my grandfather and sister, but we got.. separated."

Shadow left it at that, and the hedgehog on the other side of the couch nodded and didn't pry into how the 'separation' actually took place, figuring that it was probably some traumatic event the striped one didn't want to talk about.

'Fine by me.' thought Shadow. The less he had to explain, the better.

"You said that this 'Tails' is our pilot? He seems a bit young." He continued, parrying back with a question of his own.

Surprisingly, instead of getting offended, Sonic just raised his hands casually.

"You'd be surprised how many people have asked me that, heh. Kid's pretty good with planes and.. basically everything else in fact."

"Is he your brother?"

"Close enough. We first met on some island- Westside, I think. I actually found him tinkering with my plane."

"You didn't get irritated?" asked the striped hedgehog, skeptically.

"Hey, I pretty much crashed the thing into the island. No where left to go but up from that point. Besides, like I said, the kid's a genius." defended Sonic. Shadow nodded but didn't comment, allowing his cerulean counterpart to continue:

"As I was saying, he fixed the ol' Tornado and somehow made the thing run better after he messed with it. We hung out and became friends from there. A really bright kid, but he wasn't exactly honored by the general public." Sonic's gaze darkened as he said that last bit, but he pressed on.

"So long rest-of-the-story short, he tagged along with me on my numerous adventures, and we pretty much bounced from place to place until we decided to settle down in the Mystic Ruins."

The striped hedgehog's frow burrowed. Did Sonic and his fox friend really not spare any thought or misgivings about leaving his original living space- wherever that may be, and travelling around the world with no permanent settlement? Shadow said as much, but his blue counterpart just put his hands behind his back.

"Yeah, well, the nomadic life got a little hectic at times, but home is where the heart is, y'know?"

Shadow didn't respond this time, losing himself in his thoughts once again.

Home is where the heart is.

Sonic seemed so... laidback about it all. Maybe he did believe that every space those two found to shelter themselves was a home, no matter how temporary?

In any case, space colony or not, Shadow The Hedgehog was the Ultimate Lifeform, designed to adapt and learn from his surroundings and actions. Maybe he could learn a thing or two from his adventure-loving contemporary.

"The Tornado's ready!" came the voice of Tails, the fox's namesakes shifting lightly of their own accord as he stepped into the living room with a spring in his step.

"Guess that's our cue, Stripes. Let's go!" spoke Sonic, snapping up from his seat. Shadow got up as well, ignoring the use of the nickname. The three Mobians walked out of the room, eventually stopping in front of a red biplane which had the two-tail insignia subtly painted on its tail, with the white, bold words "SONIC" displayed on its side. An impeccably placed driveway was placed just outside the back of the house where it sat.

The orange kit climbed into the driver's seat and the blue hedgehog- who Shadow just now realized bore an uncanny resemblance to one of Robotnik's robots- for some reason climbed onto the wing of the biplane. Figuring that nothing from the other erinaceinae could surprise him, Shadow made to hop into the passenger's seat of the flying machine.

"Guys, get ready for takeoff!" exclaimed Tails just after his passenger had strapped on a seatbelt- so as to prevent any other sudden freefalls. The putting on a pair of pilot goggles and getting ready to start the plane.

"Wait," said Shadow, a little louder than he originally intended, the two brothers looking at him with surprised and inquiring expressions. The black and red hedgehog coughed to himself before speaking next.

"Thank you."

Whether it was for the ride or the epiphany, the hedgehog didn't know. All the same, the dynamic duo smiled at him in appreciation.

"You're welcome!" replied Sonic, mock-saluting as his twin-tailed friend started up the engines.

As the plane tore down the driveway and eventually lifted off into the clear blue sky, Shadow allowed a small smile to break out on his face.

He was finally going home.