The OCs are mine, the characters that Sega, SatAM and Archie developed are not mine, they are thiers. ONCE AGAIN, NOT MINE, THEIRS.

Now here's the chapter that Shadow fans all around the world have been waiting for-him. But he's having a little bit of trouble. I'm hoping to lighten the mood here and not have OCs layered all over the place, so this is mainly going to revolve around Shadow and his (hilarious) struggles, for pie, and for peace.

Warning: It will be a tad bit long, but it will be the good long. Not the textbook long though.

Chapter 8: Pie

His favorite dish was pie. And peace was his second favorite sweet in terms of when and where you would describe peace. He walked down the muggy streets of Central City he did. In his long, gray scarf, his old timey detective hat, his gray bathrobe, and his gray sandals. He walked with a slump, his head hung low because he was in a deep depression.

A depression so great, even his breathing was sad. He was not emo, no, but instead, he was on a quest. A quest for pie. Not just any pie though, a blueberry pie, his favorite, and he was hankering bad for it. He did have a slice of blueberry pie, but tragedy struck! He could remember it like it was yesterday:

Flashback

N.I.C.O.L.E., Shadow's nagging wife that was all the time inviting Sally Acorn over, who all the time visited, decided to wake him up, nagging him about his kids having the stomach virus and needing to go to the doctor.
"Fine," Shadow yawned. "Just let me eat break-" "Now!" screamed N.I.C.O.L.E. Shadow yawned one last time and kissed his wife in the cheek before going to get the kids.

They were two little cuties, them being brown and black hedgehogs and all. One he named after Silver, who had his red eyes and was only a year and a half old. The other was a only four with white fingertips and toes like a friend he used to know, who he called Winter. Both were boys.

They could be a little rowdy, but they weren't half bad. They just liked to keep him up for days, bouncing up and down, chanting, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Cute, but gets annoying after some time. At least he had a fresh blueberry pie to look foward too at the end of the day.

Blueberry pie was one of the few things he enjoyed as much as his wife and children, and since he'd be cleaning up puke for the rest of the day, that pie, as well as some loving from his wife, would help relax him at the end of it.

He went to grab his coat, but lo and behold, baby Silver was sitting on it, with a dirty diaper, vomit flowing all over himself, and peeing all over his jacket. "No! No! No!" he remembered himself saying rapidly as he grabbed Silver the Hedgehog's namesake off of his jacket, which would need an honorable mention of coming from the most expensive designer store ever-La Rouge. Rouge the Bat does not own La Rouge surprisingly, but it was named after her though, for mob reasons.

He looked down at the destroyed coat that was covered in green, soupy feces, baby vomit, and a huge yellow stain that made Shadow question his son's peeing ability. "Damn," he recalled himself saying. "I'll get you cleaned up and then I'll get your brother and we'll go to the doctor."

Silver's response: Puking all over him. Shadow flattened his ears and just said, "Oh."

After cleaning up Silver, he grabbed Winter, just to learn that he has to bathe him too. So in about three hours, they were ready after several throw ups, clean ups, with N.I.C.O.L.E. nagging him the whole time, and Sally, surprise surprise, coming over for drum roll please, another unexpected visit.

Then as he loaded the car, he came back in to Sally eating the last piece of pie. The last reprieve of this hectic, puke-scented day that he prayed that he would get to enjoy in peace. But no, the daughter of King Bitch, a.k.a., King Max, took it upon herself to eat that pie, then get all smug with him, delivering the final blow that made him pick up both kids and use his super speed, that ultimately scared both children and sent them into a crying-puking frenzy, "Oh, was this your pie?"

End Flashback

That was the beginning of that mess. After they had gotten back from the doctor, he had to once more, clean himself up again, kiss his wife, and head out the door, once more.

He came to a small bakery, family run by Locket, Concrete, and Legend, three swift siblings who he swore were aliens from another planet. They were just so unreasonably happy, and it freaked him out. Even his wife smiling at him freaked him out, but that pie at the back of the store looked so good. But why did it have to be at the other end of the store? Reluctantly, he opened the door, and surely enough, all three swift siblings poured out from behind the counter, grinning like possums.

"Hey handsome." greeted Locket, a blue and purple girl swift that looked like a byproduct of Sonic, Wave, and Cream's personality. She wore several lockets around her neck, in the flowered hairpiece she wore, her bracelets, her anklets, and in her toe and finger rings, which were many. And by many, as in there were like 7 rings on each finger.

She wore a pink tanktop that was very revealing, making Shadow shudder in his place and ask himself why her two older brothers would allow her to wear such nonsense. They had to be stupid, as any man wouldn't mind staring at those bedongas boinging in their face, and they didn't even bother telling her to change such a warming outfit. The tramp stamp, garter, and booty shorts didn't help much either, but at least she wasn't a hussy.

Like Rouge. Sexy, but not a hussy. A tease, but not too far. Except Rouge creeped him out with her not only being in the mob, but wanting everybody to call her, even her kids, Mama Rouge. And Lightning was in the mob too, so guess who came over to his house regularly? If you guessed Lightning, you just won one bored look from Shadow.

That woman had some antic always happening; stealing things, pissing off Nic, or having a "Shiny Tea Party" with Bean. Why in the hell was Bean even at their house? He was a jewel thief too, but then again, Jewel Thieves Unite! And speaking of Bean, this led him to Legend, the walking cosplay of him, only giddier.

He didn't believe in personal space, or showers for that matter, and loved the idea of touching everything he saw. Concrete was the hyper version of Marine, never shutting up for more than .0000000000000000000000000001 of a second.

The three swifts stood close to him, Legend breathing the volitale puff of Carbon Dioxide he calls air back into his face. "I just want pie." Shadow stated, unleashing a fatal mistake. Concrete went wild throwing up ideas of blueberry, strawberry, blackberry, cherry, peach, grape, and even lemonade pie! But to Shadow, his rambling came out more as, "We've blue-pie, st-blackbe-yummy yum. Cherry-peach, grap, 'nd lemnade pee."

Shadow sighed and walked out of this madhouse, knowing where it would lead to next. His stay with Bean and Marine both wisened him of that; and Bark, that polar bear was eager to cause mischief. When he asked where the bathroom was, Bark pointed to a bush outside and wrote out, "Hedgehog Bathroom." Bean and Marine got a kick out of that and made him a "Hedgehog Bed," a "Hedgehog Bowl," a "Hedgehog Hamsterwheel," and a "Hedgehog Meal" consisting of dogfood and glitter (Which Bean was covered in). But that was when Bark and Bean were 17 year old kids and Marine was an 8 year old, wannabe-now-is pirate.

The three siblings were pressed hard to the glass, smiling at him, eagerly awaiting him to turn around and revisit their shoppe. He just kept walking, his head low, ignoring them. Shadow continued to walk down the street, gloomy as ever, as he came to a small band of robots in great disrepair. They were rusty, and shortcircuiting, holding up a sign that read, "Robots for hire." They looked up at him and squealed in the best robotic voices ever, "Shadow!"
It was no lie that these were his brothers, given that his last name is Robotnik. And it was no lie that Uncle Chuck (I'm not using Black Doom) was his dad when Dr. Robotnik's grandfather managed to clip a quill or two off of the spiny, Sonic look-alike and made him.

And it was no lie that there were probably others like him too. And it was no lie that he should probably put these robots out of their misery, but he didn't. It's not that he didn't want too, it's just that these were nothing but faded memories with curtains on them, smothered in dust. An adventure once had, then ended. It probably didn't help that these robots reminded him of Sonic either.

Sonic, who sits high upon that castle, filing divorce papers and trying to hire a lawyer. He actually pitied Sonic. It was a shame and a scandal Sally turned out the way she did. She was beautiful and kind, and now she's beautiful and a bitch- the living embodiment of King Max, not that he was pretty anyways. Why did Sally want a divorce? He could remember the soul destroying reason why:

Flashback

It was a cold, snowy, miserable day when Sally knocked on the door. N.I.C.O.L.E. and he were watching both the baby and Mobian Nightwatch, a super cool show about cops in other countries.

N.I.C.O.L.E. got out of her seat and opened the door. Before she could take her next breath, Sally bursts in there slamming, with her three kids in tote behind her, bawling thier eyes out as she screamed her hateful words, "I want his money! I want his job. I want his honor! I want his kids! I want his house! I want his friends! I want his everything!"

Her children cried even harder. He didn't know what to say or do, all he knew was that Sally was being an unreasonable bitch as always. He looked at N.I.C.O.L.E., and she looked back at him, her eyes frought with worry, her features turning older by the second. "Ok Sally, I'll talk to you," N.I.C.O.L.E. had said, standing up. "Shadow will watch the kids for you." "No," Sally blasted. "I want these children to learn what a bitch their father is!" "Sally don't." N.I.C.O.L.E. begged.

And no matter how hard N.I.C.O.L.E. tried, Sally could not be persuaded. At one point, she even looked at her children, at eye level, and said, "Sonic is not your father, Monkey Khan is." Now who in the hell tells thier kid that? Sally Acorn, the spiteful bitch.

Truth be told, Jessica was Scourge's daughter, and Sonic had to kill him, who had also killed her mother, Fiona the Fox in cold blood when she was only a few minutes old, but Sonic, being the kindhearted man that he is, didn't want her to know that and took her in, using the shared features of his anti to his advantage. After all, "But he was still my father" conversations end so well, but fact remains, is that none of them were bastards of Monkey Khan's making.

N.I.C.O.L.E. and Sally had left later that night, the kids coming with her, as she hollered down the street. Later that night, N.I.C.O.L.E. returned, her face red with sorrow. For a minute, Shadow was scared. Scared that his wife had been exiled, or sentenced to death, but instead, she did the hardest thing ever- broke ties with Sally Acorn, her best friend since the beginning of her creation. N.I.C.O.L.E. cried profusely that night, and he learned why Sally wanted a divorce: to be with Monkey Khan.

End Flashback

Monkey Khan was a Japanese lover of Sally's who had asked her to marry him some time ago when they were teens. Sally, being 16 and all, couldn't decide if she wanted 19 year old Monkey Khan, or 16 year old Sonic to be her "One True Misfortunate Love."

As such, and she's the one to talk about Fiona being a whore (Fiona didn't know that whilst Sonic and Scourge were one in the same, they were still two seperate people), sneaking around with Monkey Khan like some sort of ninja impersonator. She married Sonic instead of running away with Monkey Khan, and well, drove him away when, as N.I.C.O.L.E. tells the story, after promising Monkey Khan that she would run away with him after breaking Sonic's heart and they would be happily married in Japan, and lo and behold, comes Sonic, waltzing in there with the big news, he was going to marry her!

Sally, overcome with happiness, screamed yes to the top of her lungs, and the two consummated thier engagement while Monkey Khan watched with bitterness from the curtain Sally had hid him in.

How did N.I.C.O.L.E. know all of this? She's a computer afterall. And she had told Shadow that Sally got a nasty surprise when she hit the shores of Japan and knocked on the door: she was greeted with Monkey Khan's wife, River the Lynx, the younger sister of Lightning the Lynx! Sally soon found out that River was everything like her brother when he was mad- rude, impulsive, loud, and gifted with the uncanny ability to drag everybody into her mess. Monkey Khan and River exchanged a few nasty words to her and sent her scrambling back to America with haste.

He huffed at the robots and left them there to rot, thinking of Sonic, who is remarried now to a kindred soul, not Queen Bitch the Chipmunk.

Flashback

He was home alone, just finishing up dinner when he heard a knock on the door. Thinking that it was just N.I.C.O.L.E., returning from her errands, he called, "In a minute!" Little did he know what was in store for him. He pulled the hot pizza from the oven, layed it on top of the stove, and headed towards the door. When he did, he almost fell backwards at what he saw.

There was Sonic, his eyes bloodshot and red, tears falling down his face, his clothing disheveled, and very apparent that he hadn't shaved, eaten, slept, or showered in a few days. "S-Sonic?" Shadow studdered in disbelief, having to double take to see if this was really him. Sonic didn't say a word, only staring. He stared on and on at Shadow, until he invited him in, in which Sonic fell foward on top of him, not crying, but wailing, "She took it all! She took my baaaaaaaaabiiiiiiiieeeeeeeesssssssssssss!"

All Sonic could think about was his children, as everybody knew that he would die for them. This was the hardest blow Sonic was ever going to take in his whole life, but wait, there's more.

Sonic had told him the faintworthy news of losing his children, but now he's been dethroned, stripped of his heroic title, exiled, flat broke, and to add insult to the blow, he was granted the castle, but with a price, and he owes $356,897.91 in castle rent, as well as $20,000 in alamony and $15,965.83 of child support to his two biological children, except for Jessica, she was worth only $10 in Sally's eyes, but he couldn't live there because he was banished.

Shadow gave Sonic a hug, doing the last thing he ever saw himself doing- comforting Sonic. Jet and Nack didn't know yet, and as much as he hated their guts, he called them for Sonic and invited them into his house.

By now, N.I.C.O.L.E. had returned from her errands with the kids, and well, that was a whole other story to tell.

End Flashback

Oh yeah, Sonic's now a bad guy. This shocking revelation also defeated his purpose with Nack and Jet, two newly changed men, who would follow Sonic to the ends of the world if he asked him too.

Which doesn't help the fact that Jessica and Treenuts snuck out to see their father when they became old enough, which earned them banishment. He was just glad that he wound up with N.I.C.O.L.E.

He took another sigh and continued walking down the street, eventually finding himself at the condemned building of the Chaotix Cafe, the hideout of the Chaotix. If those three still ran the place, they'd make him a pie, but he remembered that he had been banned from the place after an open doored hoopla with Espio for Sonia's entertainment was overheard by a curious Charmy, who became scared and had to sleep at Vanilla's for awhile as he was chased out of the restaurant by a tempermental crocodile.

At that time, he and Espio were aware that they were the other man in their relationship, and Sonic, her triplet brother, was aware of that also, but they didn't care. All they knew was that if their weener did tricks, Sonia's legs opened for them.

It wasn't the relationship that got banned, it was the fact that Espio, even though that he didn't look the type, would nonstop talk about sex, or, if Sonia was around, make sexual advances towards him, and Shadow couldn't spend a minute in that store without hearing, "Remember that time I touched your nuts and you tickled my neck," or, "Touch me down there, it's ready for you, and for Sonia too." And all of this dirty talk was scaring away all the customers, so he was inevitably banned, because of Espio's appetite.

And that the door was always opened during their dirty dancing with Sonia, and somehow, Vector would walk in after hearing Charmy whine about weird noises coming from upstairs and how it was scaring him.

They had to sneak from then on, Shadow inviting Espio over to "Play with the Dog," and more. Knuckles and Antoine joining in, Sonia's other lovers and more men to fling with, curious themselves of what to do, but horrified in the same token. He never exactly envisioned himself hving sex with other men, namely Espio, but he did, for a night in Sonia's bed.

It makes him sick just thinking about it, and even sicker that he would have even agreed to be something like that. A whoremonger sleeping with men for the meager attention of a whore.

His last fling ended with Sonia was when he had a shotgun held to his throat by Sonic, Nack and Jet trying to convince him not to shoot him, after Sonia got pregnant with Espio's baby. According to Vector, that day didn't end pretty when he found out. And of all the things in the world, Espio betrayed him, screaming, "Rape!" He had the right mind to kill and skin that traitor alive with his own bare hands if given the chance. Does he not know that actual people are raped? Seriously, that was no laughing matter, and any respect anyone had for him, namely Rouge, was destroyed after that.

Even worse, he was forced to attend that hellatious wedding of Espio's and Sonia's... as Espio's best man. Sonic was a great example of Lunatics Gone Wild then. He was scared shitless, and so was everybody else. Plus, he wasn't good with crowds, so there he was, 1 of 11 men at that wedding, surrounded by 500 women, all gossipping away, as he, Antoine, and Knuckles had to wear a demeaning sign that read, "My small dick fucked Sonic's sister, and I was awefully bad at pleasing her." The humiliation he suffered that day was unlike any he had ever experienced, and it was broadcasted on live, international television for all to see.

Did Sonic not understand that they had been played by his sister? She may look like Miss Heroic Innocence on the outside, but on the inside, that playful kitten had some serious demons. Only Manic and a few others knew that he had been played, everybody else looked at him as if he'd shot a child for no reason at all after the incident had taken place.

At least Rouge woke up and came through for him in the end, but any form of trust that they had ever had was shot all to hell and very strained. She's also the one that set him up with N.I.C.O.L.E. in the first place, after stealing her from Sally, which did not end well, but still, who could complain with a friend like her. Shadow gave another huff and walked down the street, and turned a left. He walked a few more feet and stopped at a pie shop. Instead of being able to walk in like normal people do, a guy dressed up in a bright yellow suit, rubber gloves and boot, with a gas mask came bounding towards him.

"Do you eat here?" he asked. "Sometimes." Shadow answered. "Well, did you know that this store was using uranium in its food?" asked the radiation guy. Shadow just about fainted. "What?" Shadow asked, astonished. "You've been eating radiation, so you need to come with us, sir." the guy said. And moments later, Shadow found himself, alongside several others, in a white room strung out with needles.

The only people he knew personally in that room with him was Vector the Crocodile and Tippey the frog, two compadres he hasn't seen in a long while, especially Tippey, who he hasn't seen since the boy was 15, and that was at least 15 years ago. He had to squint at them, but at least he recognized them.

Tippey the Frog was Flying Frog's baby brother who was quite odd in his own way. He used to mentor him, alongside Silver the Hedgehog with Predator Hawk helping him as a mentor, who was also the one with the pure white fingers, who inspired Winter's name. Tippey sometimes would live at his house, or Predator's, and they'd mentor him and just hang out. Well, time passed and everyone got older, minus him, and well, they split off into their own lives. They didn't hate each other, no, it's just that they became adults and moved on in life..

The last time he saw Vector was after Espio's wedding. Vector didn't say much, but he was awefully mad and muttering to himself, "Never again. Never again." He tried to say something to him, but the crocodile was in one of his moods where nobody was going to be able to talk to him without some kind of an attitude being blasted at them. He remembered him hopping into his brother's car, and setting off to who knows where. Where was Charmy though? He'll never know.

Tippey and Vector stared at him for a few moments, as if trying to recall a sweet memory that required the squinting of the eyes, before they came to the light. "Shadow?" Vector asked. "Vector?" Shadow asked at the figure. "By damned! It is you!" Tippey shouted.

They all hopped up and gave each other a hug and a manly pat on the back. The radiation people came bursting through the doors, shouting, "Do not touch the other contaminees! I repeat, do not touch the other contaminees!" Vector, Tippey, and Shadow sat back down in their seats as everyone eyed them. The man left through the white door and the three men returned to conversation.

"I was just gettin' to know Vector over here when suddenly you walked in. So how's it goin' brothah?" Tippey asked in his relaxed tone. "Just trying to get some pie to eat because my wife's friend ate it today." Shadow explained. "Ah man, that's deep." Tippey swayed. "Pie is deep?" Vector asked. "Yeah, when you walk in on your wife giving pie to her best friend." Tippey answered. "Tippey, I didn't mean it that way." Shadow blinked. "You didn't." Tippey gasped.

Awkward silence passed between them all. "So, how's it been goin'?" Vector weirdly asked. "I've been great, I got a couple of kids to call my own. Fillet and Jamboree the Hawk. Twins." Tippey replied "I've got a son neamed Argyle," Vector answered. "You Shad?" Shadow cringed at that name, he hasn't heard it since the accident over several years ago. Terrible memories swirled in his brain like mouthwash to his mouth.

Flashback

Amy was scared for her life. Sonic had just banished her, her husband left her pregnant, and now a year later, pregnant with Silver's child.

He could understand her predicament. The rose-colored glasses finally coming off as she realized all that she had done, waking up lonely and afraid. Friendless, beaten down like a smushed flower under a foot. Silver, though suffering from Time Travel Sickness, which drives people mad, gave her the love she's always dreamed about. Then he left her naked in the bed, alone again. The penalty she would have to pay for not adhereing to being exiled is death, and she's still here. Of course she was scared.

And now she was 9 months pregnant with her child, frightened, with nowhere to turn but him. His relationship with N.I.C.O.L.E. was budding at this point, and he wanted her to be with him. Him being near a pregnant Amy would spark the biggest blow-up ever concocted on all spectrums. Everybody knows how women are:

She'll think Amy's baby is his, that he's been cheating on her with Amy, Amy's not even suppossed to be here to begin with because she's banished, and with Sally's new bitchification, he's a dead man walking right now, and N.I.C.O.L.E. is powerless against Sally's commands (She was programmed for only Sally's voice. Sally could deactivate her any time she wanted to), Sonic is likely not in a very good mood and won't be happy to see her with him, which is a whole new wrecking ball in itself, and the people he's suppossed to bring her to are felons. Awesome right?

Sonic had a right to be angry due to Amy's incesstant stalking and using his brother to get him to run to her because of jealousy, despite the constant string of restraining orders against her, plus all the trouble she causes everyone by purposely getting captured left and right just to be rescued by Sonic, but he could be a real ass sometimes, and banishing a pregnant woman does not place him high on the Heroic Spectrum within the moment.

He had so much to lose since he'd finally moved on from that Sonia and Espio fiasco he was trapped in and Amy had genuinely woken up to reality at last, and she had nobody to help her except him, Rouge, and Marine's loyal crew. Plus, she has nothing, so Shadow, being the kindred, yet hateful, soul that he is, decided to help her.

"Do you have money?" he racalled himself asking her, as she stood there in her baby blue maternity gown. "A little." Amy spoke. "Baby supplies?" "Few." "Would you like something to eat?" "Boy would I."
S

o there he found himself rolling around a drive-through, ordering Amy a taco supreme laden with cheese, sour cream, onions, pickles, tomatoes, and an orange juice with fries. She ate all of that disaster, and as he pulled out of the drive-through, to whom should he meet-N.I.C.O.L.E.!

He was lucky that she didn't saw him, or if she did, she didn't say anything about it. Either way, he sped out of there like a wild lightning bolt to avoid her entirely. The last person he wanted anywhere near him was N.I.C.O.L.E., who was bad news if she caught him with Amy.

Nonetheless, Amy was not pleased at his erratic driving and asked him what the hell got into him to do that. His cringeworthy response: "You damn lunatic! I just got out of a damn legal fiasco with Espio and Sonia and finally found true love and your sorry, pregnant ass is gonna ruin it for me!"

Needless to say, Amy told him some very unkind words and got out of the car saying, "I'll walk damn you!" And she did too.

The hardest part was watching her get ran over by some drunk, wannabe NASCAR driver. "Amy!" he recalled himself screaming. "Amy Speedway!" he called, using her married name. She wouldn't wake up, and there was blood leaking out of her uterus.

"No! No! No! No! No!" he found himself repeating over and over, afraid that she and her baby were dead. He had to be strong because there may be a slight chance that the little baby was still alive, even if Amy wasn't, and prepped to the hilt Shadow pulled out a hunter's knife and started slicing, screaming as he did.

Amazingly, Amy woke up, screaming, but much to both of their anguish, nobody helped them. Not a single. Solitary. Person. Helped. Them. Nobody. He could've swore that he heard a few of them laughing too.

When Amy's baby was delivered, and her placenta out, she stripped herself nude in public to give her new daughter, little Kiwi, warmth. Shadow offered her his clothes, but Amy had told him that she understood his predicament and that N.I.C.O.L.E. would be awefully suspicious of the blood and a missing shirt from him. The two had another second shared together, baby Kiwi just ooing at him as he loaded her and Amy into the car and drove towards the docks.

When he got there, he seen Marine's ship; a rather bulky ship with plenty of legroom, and huge green flags on them. The name- S.S. Sailor.

He also found out that Amy had another little girl, Taren, who was with Bean and Bark, who were just peering at him, as if they didn't recognize him at all. Marine only watched him intently, saying nothing. She had a gorilla with her as well.

Amy thanked him and kissed him on the side of his cheek before walking towards the S.S. Sailor with her newborn baby, and he hasn't seen her since.

End Flashback

Are you still here, because you're fazing out on us." Tippey waved. Shadow blinked a few times before moaning, "What did I miss?" "Uh, 2 minutes." Vector answered. "Ah, really?" Shadow asked. "Yeah really." Tippey refrained. "Oh, I was just thinking about my family." Shadow lied. "Ooh, do tell." Tippey swooned.

"I have two young sons, Winter and Silver." There was a reason he named Silver, Silver. Silver reminded him so much of Mr. Silver Future that it was hard to resist the urge not to name him that, and now that Silver's in all that trouble, he started to rethink his decision. But based on how his life's turned out, and all the pages that he's written in his story, that's a reason he needed to keep to himself.

They looked at him oddly, silently asking, "You have kids?" They probably thought that he was still with Sonia and banging every whore known to Mobius. He wasn't.

"I'm married with two sons by her." Shadow explained.

They looked extremely lost now, and Shadow knew that they probably thought that he had 2 sons by 2 different women, but the women were deadbeat moms, so they gave Winter and Silver to him and he was a deadbeat dad that threw the responsibility on top of Cream and Vanilla. And he never gave them a name, which only begged the question, asked by Vector and Tippey both, at different intervals, "Who's her?" "N.I.C.O.L.E." Shadow answered, his voice swaying with attitude. "Oh, yeah, now I rememer." Vector stated. "Who's N.I.C.O.L.E.?" Tippey asked. Shadow never got to answer that question because they were called out to get their hellatious treatment.

In few moments, everyone in that room was stripped, violently scrubbed, and briskly hosed off with the powerhose. Then they had more blood tests performed on them, urine tests, another bath from Hell, another blood and urine test, a heart test, a nerve test, and after a few more hours of torture, they were deemed clear of any radiation. The hospital had disposed of thier contaminated clothes and gave them an outfit that looked like it hadn't been worn since the 1800s. Shadow sighed and figured that it was already dark, so he'd go home, empty of pie, and hear his wife nag him some more about how late it was and what was he doing, and did you know that Winter did this and Silver did that?

He spoke to Vector and Tippey for a little while, grabbing a coffee from the lobby and drinking it with huge gulps, gingerly walked out of the building, slowly taking short strides with each other, as each man felt that this might be the last time they ever meet again.

On the outside of the hospital, they, alongside all the other unfortunate attendees, were greeted by family. Shadow said his goodbyes to his friends as they did him, and he walked towards N.I.C.O.L.E., Winter, and Silver smiling. He greeted his wife with a kiss, and patted his sons in the head.

"What were you doing near a Uranium deposit?" N.I.C.O.L.E. asked. "I have no idea. I didn't even realize that it was a Uranium deposit till I was being thrown into the back of their van like some wild animal." Shadow answered. "Uh Shadow, we are animals, though a tad bit humanoid." she acknowledged. Shadow sighed and flattened his ears. "Just tell me we have pie at home." Shadow huffed. "Sally ate all of it." N.I.C.O.L.E. answered. "Damn Sally and her need to eat all my pie! The cunt!" The last part came out a little louder than he meant it too.

His kids were now crying, his wife was glaring at him, but was more red with emberassment than anger, and he was in an awkward situation where everybody is just staring at him, as if anticipating a fight, abuse, or him to transform into some mutant monster ready to strike and eat them all in one big gulp.

It reminded him of the time he got so mad at Jet he told him, "I wish I had somebody to wipe my ass too!" Sadly, Sonic and every Freedom Fighter alive overheard that last part of his sentence, and well, it was a year and a half before anybody let that go. Jet even sent him gifts, it didn't matter what: condoms, teddy bears, t-shirts, underwear, a Sonic doll, an autograph, etc., that all said, "Wipe my ass" on them. Shadow made efficient use of them by burning them and eating s'mores from the fire that trash made.

Shadow was in his right mind to tell him that too, because he was being mean to Wave and Storm, ordering them around and calling them names. Those words came out of his mouth when he called Wave and Storm his slaves and told them that they were nothing without him was the straw that broke the camel's back. He may have cared nothing for Wave and Storm, but their submissiveness to some brat made them pitiable, and made him ask, "Why?" But only Wave and Storm knew the answer to that question.

Shadow smacked his forehead and he and his wife, as red as beets, got out of there, fast. Back at home, Shadow helped N.I.C.O.L.E. put the boys, who were now asleep, in their beds, and he and she went downstairs, maybe for a little "fun," but instead of that, Shadow got the surprise of a century: a piece of fresh baked blueberry and lemon merangue pie!

Shadow squealed with delight and rushed at his wife, holding the dish, in an effort to kiss her, but ultimately, he wound up knocking the pie out of her hands and squishing it into the dishwater, ruining his day once more.

The End of Chapter 8

Sorry y'all for such a long chapter, I guess I can get a bit carried away, lol. And yes, I did make Rouge a mobster, because well, I felt like it. Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing, and read more chapters because reading is healthy for you. Make your brains big and strong.

Thanks guys, and come again.

Oh yeah, and for safety, NASCAR belongs to its rightful owners as well.