Chapter 10: Brewtiful Morning, But A Latte Problems

Shadow watched Sonic eat his way through two protein bars while he, himself, sipped a cup of less than adequate coffee, his third that morning, doubting there was anyone on the entire island who could make a decent brew.

The hero seemed pretty content considering what he'd been through. After effects of sedation were no picnic. He should know, having had his limits tested with varying doses of different drugs while he lived as a science experiment on board the ARK decades ago. He was honestly surprised that Sonic hadn't tried to throw up. He shook away the unpleasant memories, finding the sight in front of him to be far more appealing. The hero seemed to be lost in thought with a bit of a frown on his face as he chewed. The agent felt a stab of guilt over being so harsh and antagonistic towards him when he had woken up. Only a teeny tiny bit of guilt, after all, he did almost punch a hole in the wall…and he's not appealing, just more tolerable than he used to be. Maybe…and that was probably because food was keeping him quiet. He might change his mind once Sonic told him how the chaos emeralds came to be in such a state. But for now it was nice to have the company. He passed a bottle of water to the blue hedgehog.

"Drink more," he instructed, "you will be dehydrated."

"Thanks," Sonic smiled a little at Shadow's concern. A rarity from the Ultimate Lifeform, though Sonic had been convinced all along that there was a deeply caring nature behind that frozen blockade he had built around himself. He noted the agent didn't eat with him and it was either because he really didn't need food, something he had boasted about in the past, or because he knew just how awful the protein bars tasted. However, he was grateful that Shadow had thought to feed him, so he kept his opinion to himself.

"So…. are you ready to hear this?"

Shadow nodded and Sonic, after gulping down most of the water, began his story.

"It was a battle between me and Egg-for-brains You know I'm winning coz Eggy's got that scared look on his face…."

Sonic continued explaining how Dr Eggman had ripped the seven chaos emeralds from him while in super form and used them to power a canon to crack open the earth and awaken an ancient, powerful entity from within so he could use it for his twisted plans. He may or may not have skimped a little on the part where he had walked right into the Doctor's trap. He talked of the hundreds of robot battalions stationed everywhere and of the many weird night creatures that feed on people's negative energies.

Of course, Shadow had seen and dealt with the hoards of badniks, as part of Team Dark. He'd encountered the nightmarish creatures emerging from the shadows as the sun went down but he remained silent throughout, watching Sonic animatedly recount his latest adventure. The blue speedster was seated upon the window ledge, the sunrise glowing through the curtain behind him almost throwing him into a silhouette. Green eyes, flashing between excitement and agitation, kept pulling in Shadow's gaze until the story ended.

'So that's what happened…" Shadow breathed. The chaos energy within the emeralds had been absorbed by Dark Gaia. It all started to make sense to him…the dramatic shift in chaos energy he felt, the struggle with his own chaos reserves. And those creatures…they had been responsible for the disruptions within GUN and for him being stalked all the way to this small Northern island. He looked down at the emerald he had still not returned to Sonic. All of a sudden he felt very heavy.

The hero nodded, regarding Shadow carefully, "yeah."

"And Dark Gaia is responsible for your transformations at night?"

"You got it. Apparently I absorbed some of it when Eggman released it from the earth."

"I see."

"But I don't turn into a raging monster, y'know…despite the papers saying so."

Shadow looked up from the rock in his hand, "for what it's worth, hedgehog,..I believe you."

"Thanks," Sonic smiled, eyes meeting his, "it's actually worth a lot. And I'm sorry about the wall. I shouldn't have lost it like that…"

"It's forgotten. I shouldn't have provoked you the way I did."

As Shadow shifted his gaze back down to the emerald, he could still feel Sonic's eyes on him. He cleared his throat to break the silence that had fallen between them.

"So what is your plan to remedy this?"

"Oh um…"

Sonic, a little taken aback by Shadow's indirect apology, proceeded to explain the plan concocted by Professor Pickle to deliver the emeralds to each Gaia temple for them to be restored to their full power and to set the continents back into place.

"One emerald has already been taken care of. Only six more to go." He offered cheerfully.

Shadow nodded. He vaguely remembered something about Gaia temples being mentioned in stories or textbooks long ago. He wanted to ask Sonic more about them. He looked up, as a thought occurred to him.

"Why did you think it was me framing you?" He crossed his arms and waited as the speedster's lips fell apart slightly.

Sonic considered his answer. The visions of Shadow in his flaking memories were fleeting but he decided to be open with his rival. After all, the ebony hedgehog had already put his own butt on the line by hiding him here from the police.

"Honestly, I thought I saw you a few days ago…maybe. Coulda sworn it was you. I put two and two together…."

"And came up with minus-fifty." Shadow finished. He knew why the thought had crossed the other's mind. He had framed him for theft and got him arrested before they had even met so Shadow understood the accusation based on Sonic's evidence, yet he somehow still felt a little hurt by it. Times have changed, their relationship has changed. He didn't consider them as friends and he had no doubt the blue one felt the same but they were at least allies now, even if reluctantly at times.

"You're way off, faker, I was nowhere near you until last night. I didn't even know you were here."

Sonic huffed. There were too many missing links for him to think clearly about what had happened. It wasn't his fault, nor was it Shadow's but it frustrated him none the less.

"I'm sorry for accusing you earlier…"

Shadow felt the blue one's vexation and a part of him wanted to tell him what had happened at the inn a few days ago. If Sonic was convinced someone had framed him, then that creature, whatever it was, must be connected in some way. But mentioning that would likely invoke Sonic asking questions he wasn't yet ready to answer.

"What are you even doing here?" He asked instead. "There's no sign of Eggman here. Nor these Dark Gaia creatures you have mentioned."

"We got a lead from someone who asked us to come…"

Sonic explained the letter he had received only a few days ago and how the sender had feared for his own safety thanks to Eggman.

"We were flying here across the moorlands and the Tornado-1 crashed thanks to Dark Gaia and poor Tails he-" Sonic saw the agent's eyes widen. "What?"

"Those things have come here?!" Shadow blurted out, turning his face away before his rival could see the inevitable red hue of embarrassment stain his muzzle. He hadn't meant his words to come out as exasperated as they sounded to himself.

"Shadow..?" Sonic was caught off guard by Shadow's reaction. It sounded like the agent had somehow encountered the freaky beings himself but he had kept quiet about it.

"You crashed? The young fox…?" The GUN agent simply enquired once he felt better composed. The hero had cocked his head to the side, staring at him in bafflement.

"He's fine. We're all fine."

"Stop looking at me like that. What did Dr Lantroe have to say?"

"No clue," Sonic shrugged, "we never met up. To be honest with you Shadow, theres a few gaps in my memory the past few days. It's what got me in trouble with the police. Something screwy's going on."

"Are you sure it's not simply your knack of getting into trouble that got you into trouble?"

Sonic chuckled and ended up snorting into his bottle of water as he finished his drink. He caught the ghost of a small smile on Shadow's face. It was kind of nice to see and he wondered if he could conjure up a bigger smile.

"Sooo….not to be the butt of the joke here…" he stood up, half turned his back to Shadow and pointed to the bandaid covering his right cheek below his tail, "…but what's this all about huh?"

The expression on the Ultimate Life-form's face was priceless. He spluttered into his coffee, face turning as crimson as his stripes.

"C'mon Shads don't leave me behind on the details now."

Shadow, after recovering from choking into his drink, forced his smile into a scowl, which amused Sonic further.

"It was either the bandaid or me having to see that hideous baboon butt of a swelling underneath it. You got hit twice in almost the same spot. Thought you were faster than that."

"Yeah… I get to swap my speed for brute strength at night," Sonic scowled a little before grinning, "…so can't keep your eyes off my butt eh?"

"I see ….and it was hard to miss your backside looking like a great big target last night."

"It doesn't look so bad…" Sonic pulled at the edge of the bandaid and winced.

"I am a qualified first aider you know." Shadow stated, immediately regretting his own words. He pressed his lips into a thin line, stood up and excused himself for the bathroom.

"Hey…"

The agent paused to look over his shoulder at the hero.

"Thanks," he had the biggest grin on his face, "for saving my butt last night. Literally!"

"Don't mention it," Shadow muttered under his breath, feeling the heat rising from his muzzle to the tips of his ears.

How did he allow himself to feel so perturbed in the presence of that faker? He hadn't seen Sonic in months so he must have forgotten how much the other enjoyed winding him up. And he was tired. Too low on chaos reserves to keep his guard up efficiently. Yes that was it. He had given up the only bed to Sonic last night so, after eight hours of sleep, he was full of sunshine and puns as usual. Shadow had tried to sleep sitting on the chair with his head on the table. It had not sufficed.

While Shadow was making use of the facilities, Sonic glanced around the room. It was pretty bare, nothing that seemed to belong to his rival was on show. He wondered how long the agent had been staying here. He seemed to be alone here. He poked his nose into the bedside table drawer and found Shadow's GUN ID badge stored in there. The dark hedgehog looked kind of bewildered on the photo, as if he hadn't been prepared for it to be taken. Sonic couldn't stop a grin from spreading across his face, thinking even the Ultimate Lifeform isn't immune from a bad photograph. It made him seem more relatable in someway. Then he caught a glimpse of something metallic at the back of the drawer. Pulling it out further, he was a taken aback by what he found. It was a gun. He knew Shadow was a pro with them and sometimes his work involved using firearms but the hero could never feel at ease with the idea of using lethal weapons. Perhaps the agent was currently on a mission of some sorts. That would explain why he seemed more tight-lipped than usual. He quickly shut the drawer and hopped onto the bed to reach the window. He pulled the curtains open and sunlight cascaded into the room. It must be nearly an hour past sunrise by now.

"Get away from the window. Anyone could see you."

Shadow had stepped out of the bathroom and Sonic gasped silently at how sallow his complexion looked in the natural light. He could have sworn he caught a quick flash of something metallic hiding in the tuft of snowy fur on his chest.

"We're in the middle of nowhere aren't we?"

"Do you really want to chance it?"

"Ok, ok," Sonic plopped down onto the bed and sat still.

"So what brings you here, Shadow? A mission?" He'd done most of the talking thus far so time to start prodding the other for information.

"That is none of your business."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Ok well if you're not gonna share information with me how about a second breakfast?"

"No," the dark-furred hedgehog replied flatly, "there's no room service here and we can't exactly pop down to the restaurant for a continental."

"Haha I guess not."

Sonic stared at his feet. Was he actually pouting? Shadow sighed, feeling a little bad. He knew the hero's fast metabolism needed refuelling often and, if he was being honest with himself, he was getting sick of drinking mediocre instant coffee and while his own stomach was starting to growl at him, the thought of those wretched protein bars or junk food from the vending machine was quite nauseating. He'd been eating too much of that crap lately. Besides he probably wouldn't be able to sneak out to said vending machines without being spotted by hotel guests now anyway. He'd given up his own share of their makeshift breakfast this morning to Sonic, since he had seemed especially ravenous. Not that the faker needed to know that.

"Fine. Maybe theres something I can do."

Shadow picked up the telephone receiver on the bedside table but before he could press any buttons, there was a rapid knocking on the door.