sequel to "Just Being Us" I don't think i'm going to have a set schedule with this story. When I finish a chapter; I finish a chapter. i'll try not to take too long though :) Also if you enjoy this series please check out my other story, "Me and The Boys: a team dark story" i've been working on that one as well and will probably interchange which story I work on from week to week.Thank you as always.Please leave a comment and tell me your thoughts or any critiques.

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Ch 1. Of Love and Lost

The sun was rising early in the morning over a cute, beach side cottage. The ocean breeze that wafted in from the waves just outside, kissed the nose of a mischievous blue hedgehog as he stood out in the hallway that led to his shared room. Sonic snickered to himself and gained a running start as he hurtled himself toward the open door. The male leaped into the air and crashed down onto the bed below him. He landed directly on a shape in the covers concealing a familiar black and red lump. Sonic's attempted hog-pile was not met however, because the lump underneath had been ready. Shadow Chaos controlled under the blanket a foot to the right, catching Sonic off guard. The dark male then revealed himself while the blue one was down and wrapped his arms around his love. They wrestled each other for a bit before Sonic admitted that Shadow in fact was stronger than him,

"Alright I give, I give!"

Shadow collapsed on to Sonic putting his full weight on the helpless hog. Sonic flailed his arms and legs while making muffled cries for help. Shadow propped himself up on his elbows and stared lovingly into his lover's emerald eyes; Sonic gasped for air dramatically. Once the blue hog had finish pretending to catch his breath, the hedgehog above him planted a kiss on the blue one's mouth. They continued to silently give each other pecks for about a minute until Sonic spoke,

"I'm gonna grab some breakfast then go for a run, you want to join?"

This had become their routine. Either Sonic or Shadow would wake up first and then they would wake the other up in various cute, silly, or romantic ways. Then they would go for a morning run if Shadow was free. Typically, it was Shadow who woke first, but not as of late. Shadow had been pulling all-nighters recently. Commander Topaz had asked for his assistance in an investigation regarding Eggman's next move. The dark agent could decline, but he trusted Topaz's judgement on the matter, even if she was unintentionally running him ragged. She did have good reason to be concerned however. The Dr. had not been seen or heard of in over a year. Sonic had said that maybe egghead had finally retired, but even he knew that was unlikely. Shadow was about to answer the question but suddenly his wrist started to beep. Shadow looked at his communication watch and then groaned,

"I'm sorry Sonic. Topaz says that they have an eye witnesses claiming to have seen Eggman near the city."

Sonic frowned,

"Come on! You got home last night around two in the morning and it was only a false alarm. She is sending you out on wild goose chases."

Shadow kissed Sonic one last time before speaking,

"Oh hush. She thinks we need to be prepared and so do I. besides Eggman's activity has picked up even if no one has seen him in person. He has even taken to hiring mercenaries for some reason."

"Who would willingly work for Eggman in the first place, just for money?" Sonic added rolling his eyes.

"Pathetic wastes of life, that's who."

Sonic laughed,

"Yeah well, either way you're a worry wart, you told me you kicked those guys butts worse than the robots. If it happens, its going to happen whether, we like it or not."

Another set of beeps rang out,

"Shit, she wants me in ASAP. This must be important."

Shadow jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom leaving Sonic alone laying on his back.

"Sonic. What did I tell you about leaving the lid off the mouth wash," a disgruntled hedgehog said as he wiped liquid from his drenched night shirt, "and you left the light on in the bathroom too."

Sonic took a bite of his breakfast chili dog that he had heated up in the microwave and gave an apologetic look,

"I'm sorry, Shads."

"Sonic you say you're sorry every time but you don't do anything to make it better." Shadow said rushing to throw the old garment in the laundry as his comm watch was beeping mercilessly with new messages, "You can add mouth wash to the grocery list."

"Shadow it's just a little spill, chill."

"It's a spill today; tomorrow you'll leave your dinner plate out over night with the window down and we will have bugs again."

Sonic rolled his eyes,

"That was one time."

Shadow pulled out a box of cereal and then went to the fridge,

"Where is the milk?"

"The milk?"

"Yes, the milk I asked you to pick up yesterday... That you said was no problem."

Sonic looked sheepishly to the side,

"Oh um. You see I went to go get it but I got a little... side tract."

"Is that why you came home with all those horrible tasting sodas?"

"Yeah, you see I saw a video about people taste testing weird sodas and guessing what the flavor was, and it looked interesting, so I thought I'd try it..."

"Sonic!", the hog paused his thought and looked at the interruption, "Did you take your medicine.

Sonic's normally jovial expression turned to a frown,

"You know, just because I do something like that doesn't automatically mean I haven't taken it. And I would appreciate it if you didn't act like I'm some child that needs looking after."

Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose,

"I would not need to if you didn't act like one."

"Oh? And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

The comm watch went off again causing Shadow to huff, annoyed by the tiny device,

"It means, that it seems like I'm the only responsible one around here."

Sonic put his hands on his hips as his tail twitched back and forth in anger,

"Look you need to chill; you knew what you were signing up for when you decided to date me. I try really hard for you. I know I'm annoying and impulsive, but you already knew that. I think you're mad because you've been paranoid about egghead's shady business for the past week and it been eating away at you, so you're taking it out on me."

Shadow growled. He hated when Sonic was sort of right. They had been getting thousands of tips from people, to the activity of the good old doctor and it was stressing Shadow out. The watch alerted him again and this time Shadow looked at the message.

"That still doesn't mean you're in the right."

"Well neither are you. Gods! Why are you so stubborn when you're mad?"

"I... Sonic, that is like the pot calling the kettle black. Whatever, I don't have time for breakfast anyway."

Sonic threw his arms in the air and then went to strap on his shoes. Shadow watched as the blue hero opened the door,

"I'm going for a run, when you cool your jets and actual want to talk like we usually do, I'll be in Green Hill."

"You're going alone? But Eggman…"

"Yeah, I can take care of myself contrary to popular belief," Sonic sneered at being treated like a baby, "You may be worrying yourself sick over Eggman's imaginary attacks, but that doesn't mean I have to."

Sonic slammed the door and was gone. Shadow was now alone stewing in his thoughts. He and Sonic didn't often fight but when they did it was over something stupid.

On the outskirts of Westoppilis, the air was hot and oddly humid. The sky was hitting its golden hour and rays of yellow sun tinted every corner of the city. But off in the distance charcoal clouds approached. A storm was coming; in more ways than one. Dr. Eggman had been far too silent for far too long. The mad man had placed small Brigades of badkniks peppered around the city waiting for a G.U.N agent to appear from the shadows to take them out. Shadow rushed through the city. His comm watch was going crazy with alerts and warnings. Rouge came over the receiver to inform him that plans had changed and that he was now in hot pursuit of the Dr. Well it's about time you showed your mug, Shadow thought to himself. Wait till he rubbed this in Sonic's face.

"Worry wart, my ass." Shadow the hedgehog said as he sent five Chaos spears out simultaneously, causing the enemy robots to violently shake then explode.

The hog then pressed a small button on the side of his wrist device,

"Commander! Come in Commander! The last of the forces seems to have been taken out."

A female voice came over the other end of the device,

"Excellent work. Now await new orders."

"Topaz," Shadow caught the woman's attention, before she turned it to something else, "the attack is not normal for the Dr."

"We will figure that out later rig- ow-we-to-"

The call was cut out by static caused by a large pulse of energy that sent a shock wave throughout the city. Shadow turned off his comm watch and glided along the streets, looking for any sign of trouble; no Eggman either. This was strange, Shadow thought to himself, it's almost like these small attacks are only distractions. He wondered what Sonic was doing. Did Sonic know about the attacks? Knowing Sonic, yes. And he was probably excited about it too. Shadow lightly chuckled to himself. It had been about eleven months since Sonic and Shadow had started dating and nine since they had started living together. Some might think that to be fast, but he was dating Sonic the hedgehog, what did people expect. When you love someone not much thought goes into your decisions. He hoped Sonic was okay out in Green Hill. He knew his boyfriend was more than capable of taking care of himself, but Shadow couldn't shake this bad feeling he had. And now the blue hero was alone out there because of the dumb fight they had. The wrist devise came to life once more causing Shadow to stop and pay close attention. A different female voice was now heard,

"Shadow this is Rouge! Omega is ahead of you. Meet up with him and help investigate the strange electrical disturbances. I've sent the coordinates. Sonic is on his way too."

"Roger that"

Well that had answered that question.

Shadow rushed over to the next city as fast as he could carry himself. Suddenly a huge robot was spotted by the dark male, looming over the bridge he was currently running on. It seemed to be a death egg robot, but the size of a ten-story apartment complex. The large red, eye lens turned towards the hedgehog and an equal large arm shot out to crush him. Shadow Chaos controlled out of the way but with the bridge destroyed Shadow was left without a place to land. He plummeted to the water below. The dark hero kicked his rocket shoes to life, pushing as much power as he could out of the thrusters. The water below was becoming closer, and even though Shadow could swim he didn't feel up to swimming all the way to shore, especially with a killer robot in the water. Thankfully the shoes had just enough trust to lift him off of the water's surface and hover. The Goliath was not finished with him yet. It slammed its arm down yet again, this time in the water next to Shadow. The hog took this as his opportunity to strike. He raced up the arm, and as soon as he was at the robots dome shaped head he homing attacked the cyclops' eye, square in the middle. But this thing was resilient. Even though Shadow was now inside the innerworkings of the bot it was still running and twisting its body around trying to cause as much havoc as possible. Shadow focused his energy creating a red aura around himself. He then pushed the energy out causing a Chaos blast. The robot's head erupted into bits and Shadow jumped again making it to shore. As he landed, he took note that the abomination was not painted like Dr. Eggman more artistic creations. No, this one looked strong but simple, and easy to mass produce. The dark hero was about to continue his quest when Rouge's frantic voice filled his ears,

"Shadow! Something happened."

Shadow held his watch to his face as he spoke,

"What? What happened?"

The feed was beginning to static as she spoke,

"It's Omega. He- i- not responding."

"I'm on it."

Without warning Omega's voice rang out,

"Systems shutting down, error, delta, vergo, ruby, error, offline, code, error."

The voice had come through strangely distorted as the robot spouted out nonsense, but Shadow didn't waste time thinking. His friend was in trouble and that's all that mattered.

Thing had gotten too weird to handle for the already stressed hog. It seemed like the world was falling apart around him. Between his friends acting completely out of character and this new masked foe, currently standing before him, Shadow felt like he was going insane. The stranger had also acted like the agent had gone somewhere, almost like he traveled to another reality. The landscape was changing before his eyes, was he hallucinating, no, this mysterious figure was the cause. And one of the strangest parts was that this guy claiming to be called infinite, apparently had met Shadow before. How was the dark hero supposed to remember every ass he kicked? Maniacal laughter erupted from the other Mobian, at least he didn't look robotic,

"Not even Sonic will be able to stand against me now!"

Shadow felt the rage build in the pit of his stomach,

"Sonic? What are you plotting?"

Shadow cast out a Chaos spear at infinite, but the energy just went straight through as though he was merely a hologram. Shadow felt like he was at a loss,

"What…is this?"

The figure floated up then turned to dart away from the stunned hog. Shadow was confused; why didn't this infinite guy just finish him off if he was untouchable,

"Stop! Where do you think you're going, infinite?"

The masked villain cackled out more laughter as he disappeared. The comm watch miraculously was back on line and Rouge could be heard on the other end,

"Shadow? Shadow! Finally, the communications back. What are you doing? Where did you go?"

"Rouge?"

"Shadow get out of there! The whole place is going to collapse. Hurry!"

Shadow did as he was told but still couldn't shake the feeling of looming dread in the air hanging over him. Once out of harms way the bat called him again,

"Shadow! Hurry over to the city again! Something's happened!"

Shadow gracefully moved forward dodging enemies,

"What is it now?"

"It's Soni-"

Shadows eyes shot open at the sound of his loves name being cut off by more static,

"What's wrong with Sonic?"

Rouge was frantic,

"Eggman somehow- what- Sonics' been captur- hello-"

Shadow halted his run,

"Rouge give some details, what do you mean... Rouge?"

Shadow did not receive an answer. He was in complete panic. He grabbed a hold of his communication device and violently tapped the screen. Shadow looked around frantic but decided to run in the direction of down town to find his love, wherever he could be.