Chapter 14:
Chaos Kerfuffle
*Warning*: mention of blood. And a swear oh my!
"Wooooohooooo!"
Sonic cried out in unrestrained joy. That familiar and heavenly feeling of air rushing towards him as he cut through it like a blue blade was pure ecstasy. He felt like he hadn't been able to run for aeons, though it had really only been hours. He was riding his highest vibe, legs pushing him forwards as he glided above the ground, moving almost as fast as his he could if he was wearing his own sneakers.
"Stop now!" Shadow yelled into Sonic's shoulder as the force of air rushing against him forbade him from lifting his head up.
The landscape passed by at hundreds of miles per hour in a stream of greys, browns and vivid greens. The blue body he clung to felt like a beacon of energy in world devoid of it.
The chaos energy he sensed within Sonic was still potent, retained within him from his last encounter with a restored chaos emerald. Now it was vigorous and raw, as the hero channeled it through his body, converting it to pure speed. As Sonic moved, it radiated from every fibre of his being, and seeped into Shadow giving him new life. He didn't want to take it from his rival, but he couldn't stop it. His body was designed to absorb and thrive on chaos energy whether he liked it or not. He really hadn't anticipated this happening and it left him feeling so undignified and helpless, that it frustrated him to the point of rage. Especially since he'd called out for Sonic to stop at least five times now. He knew the idiot was enjoying himself too much to care.
"Stop! Stop! Will you just stop!"
Sonic felt the other's mumbles against him but the wind carried any sound away. He kept moving, not wanting his high to come to an end just yet. Channelling chaos energy hadn't been as simple as he'd expected it to be at first, but now that he'd got the hang of it, he was having a blast. Besides, he had to make sure they were far enough away from the hotel and the police.
The ebony hedgehog was determined to make him stop so he did something he would probably regret later. He bit, perhaps a little too hard, into Sonic's shoulder. The skating speedster yelped and skidded to a halt. There. That got his attention.
"The heck, Shadow!?" Sonic pushed him off his shoulder to the ground, and rubbed at the offended area.
"Well, you wouldn't stop." The agent spluttered, furiously. "And what the hell was that?"
"What?"
"You over-did it."
"I got us out of there fast didn't I?" Sonic said, still holding his shoulder.
"That was reckless."
"You just didn't think I'd be able to do it, did you?"
"Oh I knew you could do it. I just expected you to be able to stop as well!"
Shadow roughly yanked off the yellow rubber gloves and grabbed the bag Sonic was still holding. It was a miracle the thing had remained in one piece and all its contents were still in there. He took a quick glance around. There was no sign of life other than nature; a few trees, patches of tall wild flowers, the sound of birds. Good; Sonic had at least brought them somewhere relatively safe and quiet.
"We must be on the other side of the island by now." He muttered.
Sonic frowned as he watched Shadow aggressively shove the rubber gloves into the bag and replace them with his own. He had hoped he might have impressed him with their speedy escape, considering it was his first time channelling chaos energy like that, but clearly that was not the case.
"Not a problem," Sonic tried to keep the mood light, "With these babies I can get us anywhere fast." He placed his hands on his hips and bent over to admire the air shoes. "They really are somethin'…"
"You need to work on your focus," Shadow sniffed, "You'll burn out too quickly."
"Burn out…?"
Shadow crossed his arms and pressed his lips into a smirk, ready to give the novice skater a lecture in chaos channelling, but a squelching noise interrupted him before he could start. He felt wetness seep into the fur on his chest.
"For the love of-"
Sonic bit his lip and winced to stifle a snicker, as Shadow removed the very squished oranges from the, now very stained and sticky, dress and dropped them on the ground.
Shadow saw through the hero's grimace and scowled. He grabbed at the dress roughly, intending to rip the damn thing off, but remembered who it belonged to and let out a frustrated huff instead. He pulled at the garment gently, forgetting about the buttons at the back.
"Need some help?" Sonic asked.
Without waiting for a reply, he moved behind his struggling rival and proceeded to undo the line of buttons in between his back spines. Shadow, despite the murderous glare he sent his way, didn't seem to object and, instead, tilted his head forwards.
"Fiddly things…" Sonic muttered. He pulled his gloves off with his teeth so he could get a proper grasp of the delicate fastenings with his finger-tips. Pausing, as his bare fingers lightly touched Shadow's back, he realised just how how intimate their positions seemed right now and his heart did a weird little flip flop manoeuvre. He shook his head at himself and huffed, feeling a little silly.
Shadow tensed up as Sonic's fingers and breath brushed against his back and neck. At the softest touch, a warm tingling rippled through him and he felt himself melt with the heat it sent coursing round his body. He couldn't tell whether it was the chaos energy within Sonic causing it or something else but he was sure his cheeks were about to burst into flame. His heart started beating a little faster and his throat suddenly became as dry as burnt toast. He internally berated himself for ever thinking that it had been nice having Sonic for company. The faker was really pushing it.
Once again, the air had become strained around them; something, they both realised, was happening rather frequently lately. Even the chirping birds appeared to have stilled to a silence as if in anticipation.
Sonic opened his mouth, wanting to break the weird tension with a humorous quip but it spilled out in a shaky ramble, "I gotta admit, Shad, "blue looks good on you." Was he even joking?
That was it. Shadow was done with his rival; the physical closeness, the teasing that felt like it was bordering on flirting. And did the faker really just dare give him a nickname?
"I changed my mind. Get off." He tried to snap, but it came out sounding more like sandpaper against a cheese grater.
The agent stepped away from Sonic, dress half undone, leaving the blue hedgehog with a puzzled expression and gloves still hanging between his teeth. He found he was able to breathe again once he was a few feet away from the hero. Yes, he could best deal with that speedy nuisance being at arms length and not a damn hair closer.
"Huh?" Sonic questioned, removing his gloves from his mouth. "You want me to do the buttons back up?"
Shadow simply growled in response.
Sonic watched, a little dumbfounded, as Shadow tried to twist his arms backwards in an attempt to grasp the buttons. It was an impossible feat really, since they were dead centre between the two piles of quills on his back and his arms obviously didn't have enough bends in them to move around the sharp spines.
He looked a right mess, Sonic noted, feeling a little guilty. The white powder Sonic had brushed onto him that morning had mingled with sweat and was now caked into his fur, leaving patterns in it like a cracked desert. Once neat make-up had now smudged into muddy streaks across his face. He seemed to look somehow smaller as well, now Sonic was getting a good look at him in daylight. The flat-soled loafers made him lose a bit of height, yes, but…there was something else…his body frame appeared to have shrunk, making him seem a little too thin. He wondered, briefly, if perhaps Shadow had not been taking care of himself properly but shook his head. He must be mistaken. After all, up until now, he hadn't even seen the GUN agent for a very long while.
His spines were still wound up tightly in their wire restraints. That's gotta be uncomfortable Sonic hissed to himself, rubbing at his own head, where fur met quills, in sympathy. No wonder the agent was getting so irritated. It hit him then just how much Shadow had done for him in such a short space of time. He felt a sudden, strong urge to wrap his arms around the agent and squeeze him into a tight hug. It caught Sonic by surprise and thankfully the logical part of his mind thought better of it. He figured he was just extremely grateful for Shadow's help. He would owe him big time for this, and that was more than cool with him. If Shadow needed help, for whatever reason, then he would be there for him. Maybe he could see them being more than just allies now. Friends even. He really liked the idea of that.
Realising he might have been staring a bit too long, he turned away quickly, and pretended to find something fascinating in a nearby tree to stare at. Shadow, while grunting and muttering curses, continued to try and undress himself.
"Hey listen," Sonic said, without taking his eyes off the tree, "I..uh…really want to say thanks for this. For everything. It means a lot that you would do all this. For me."
When he received nothing but silence from the other, he turned and saw Shadow was staring blankly at him, arms still twisted behind his back. It took a few seconds for the ebony hedgehog to snap out of the daze he seemed to have entered.
Why the hell he doing this for him? Sure, at first it was because Sonic had been helpless and Shadow wanted information. But now he'd got his answers, he could ditch the hero at any point and be on his way. The whole situation was beyond irritating, Sonic included, so why hadn't he left yet? Shadow didn't have an answer.
"Gratitude is not necessary," was all he could come back with.
"Huh? Well it's deserved!" Sonic exclaimed. "Look, you're struggling." He took a step towards Shadow. "Just let me help? It'll be quicker. And the wires-"
"No!" Shadow jumped backwards. He raised raised his quills defensively, and inadvertently dragged his left hand across them.
Blood pooled through white cotton and onto sky blue fabric, as he quickly drew in his hand and cradled it against his chest. He hissed. Between the orange juice and now the blood, the dress, that he was meant to return to his friend, was pretty much ruined.
"Jeez, Shads, dude," Sonic took a step towards him, "that looks nasty. Let me-"
That was it. Shadow's composure up and left without any more warning. Searing hot pain and Sonic trying to be helpful and get close to him again were the final straws. He barged into the hero, full force with his shoulder, sending him flying into the tree. The next second he was on top of him, blood stained glove around a blue throat. His eyes bore into Sonic's fiercely, lips pulled back into a fang bearing snarl.
Sonic gulped, frozen against the tree trunk. The realisation that Shadow had been designed as a very capable and very efficient weapon hit him like a hard, rude slap to the face. How could he have forgotten that?
"What the heck is wrong with you?" He managed to choke out. Hot blood from Shadow's wound trickled onto his chest.
"Wrong with me?" Shadow barked.
"Yeah."
Sonic drew his knee up to his chest and launched a foot into Shadow. The ebony hedgehog fell onto his backside, skidding in the dirt and grass. Sonic saw that flash of something metallic on Shadow again, as it bounced up and dropped back down into white fur.
Sonic jumped to his feet. "You got something you need to tell me?"
Shadow growled and lunged forwards, fist first but Sonic quickly stepped aside. The agent skidded, turned and went for Sonic again, this time thrusting a foot towards the hero's head.
Again, Sonic dodged. He didn't really want to engage in a fight with Shadow, so avoiding being hit was his preferred tactic.
After more unsuccessful attempts at contact between Shadow's fists or feet and Sonic's body, Shadow was seething. Why was the idiot just evading blows instead of fighting back?
Sonic wasn't sure how much longer he could keep dodging Shadow's attacks. The agent's temper was beginning to rile him. Weren't they starting to get along better not too long ago?
Shadow kept coming at him fast and each time, harder. Sonic needed to throw him off balance to try and end this nonsense. Normally he'd be cool with a bit of friendly sparring, but this was complete hostility from Shadow's end. He feigned his next dodge, and grabbed Shadow's arm. He swung the agent round, let go, and stuck his leg out for good measure. Shadow tripped over the hero's foot and went flying.
"Are you done yet?!" Sonic growled.
Instead of falling face down onto the ground, as Sonic had intended, Shadow landed on his hands and pushed himself back up. He answered Sonic's question by launching both feet at his face as he twisted his body around and upwards. Sonic avoided the kick by spinning sideways and ramming an elbow in Shadows midriff as he landed.
Shadow hit dirt with his 's more like it, hedgehog.
Several more punches, kicks and throws were exchanged to the sound of breathless grunts, as the birds in the trees tweeted frantically at the ruckus.
As Shadow threw himself into one final, furious lunge, Sonic saw anger in his eyes give way to desperation. The hero hesitated, and Shadow took full advantage, propelling his lunge into a forward roll. He grabbed the speedsters right leg, pulling him face down into the dirt, then swung round quickly and positioned himself behind Sonic, pinning an arm and a leg behind him before he had a chance to recover.
How ironic, Shadow thought. Sonic is the only reason I can pull off these moves against him…
"Nothing is wrong with me..," he growled into a blue ear. Without letting go of his arm, he flipped him over onto his back, causing the hero to give out a small yelp. If he had broken Sonics arm with that move, he really didn't care.
And he's also the cause of me doing so.
He sat on top of the blue speedster, allowing all of his weight to settle on a peach chest to stop Sonic from kicking him off. His other hand grasped Sonic's free wrist to keep him from pulling any punches.
Really, I should be thanking him for unknowingly sharing chaos energy. But instead, cruel words clawed their way out of his throat.
"..and the only thing I need to tell you, Sonic the hedgehog, is that you are the most infuriating creature on this planet. Why I made the mistake of bothering to help you escape from the hotel, I'll never know, but I've had enough now. You may think it's ok to tease and flirt with your friends the way you have with me but I am not one of them. Do you understand?"
He could feel Sonic's heart pounding against his inner thighs. Chaos energy began to trickle into him again, only faintly this time. He was now physically closer to Sonic that ever but he didn't care about that right now, either. He was absolutely going to get his point across and into that thick obnoxious skull of his.
Sonic lay still, catching his breath (which wasn't easy with the equivalent of his own weight trying to flatten him) as his brain processed Shadow's words. Flirt? Did he really say flirt? Surely he'd misheard that. However, the comment regarding their friendship or lack thereof had been as clear as glass. And it cut him like a shard.
Sonic frowned at the agent. "Loud and clear."
Not cut, stabbed.
The birds observing from the tree must have decided they'd had enough of this drama. With one colossal flap of wings, they all up and flew off to find more peaceful perches. The silence that remained was thunderous.
Shadow moved himself off Sonic and stood up. He didn't like that frown. There was pain behind it.
He began to feel woozy and placed his hand against the nearby tree trunk to steady himself. He'd been foolish. His limited chaos energy had been prioritised for the fight instead of starting the healing process on his hand, and the pain of the open gash hit him worse a second time.
The hero pushed himself up to his feet and regarded Shadow carefully. Something was definitely wrong with that hedgehog.
Without taking his eyes off Shadow's now very red glove, he held out one of his own. "Looks like you could use this."
With the absence of a response, Sonic lifted his eyes to meet Shadow's. Fury had been replaced with puzzlement. The stained dress hung in tatters off his shoulders, gold rings now fallen back down to dangle about the cuffs of his gloves, and his fur was completely dishevelled. He was now certain that Shadow had lost some of his bulk. There was a flash of some emotion in the agent's eyes that wrenched at Sonic's heart, but it was gone too quickly before he could name it.
"Just take it. It's the least I can do after everything you've done for me."
Silently, Shadow took the offered garment. He suppressed a wince as he peeled off his blood soaked glove, dropping it onto the ground, and used Sonic's glove to blot the seeping wound. It was a deep cut but he shouldn't expect anything less. After all, his spines were like knives, when caught the wrong way, and he'd been careless. Sonic's glove quickly became saturated and blood was still spilling.
"I'm sorry for pissing you off."
Shadow was startled. The blue hedgehog had appeared directly in front of him. He took Shadow's injured hand in his own and used his other glove to continue dabbing away at the cut.
"You... cursed," Shadow stated, not knowing what else to say. Sonic clearly had not understood or had just ignored his need to put space between them, but he found he couldn't muster up any more anger towards him.
"Yeah I did," Sonic nodded, keeping his eyes on his work. He felt the painful sting of Shadow's wound, only it was in his heart, not his hand. "How long till this heals?"
"I've never heard you swear before." Shadow watched Sonic intently, all too aware that his bare hand was being touched ever so tenderly by Sonic's. That the hero was being so gentle after he'd been so vile to him made his heart both soar and sink at the same time. He began to wonder who the real jackass was here.
"Today's full of surprises huh?" The hero said grimly. He lifted the skirt of the dress and tore a strip of fabric from it.
Shadow winced internally but there really was no saving the costume now. The dress was in such a state, one more rip would barely make a difference. Sonic wrapped the strip several times around Shadow's hand and finished it off with a double knot.
"I could have managed myself," he mumbled, "qualified first aider, remember."
"Not a problem. When you've been been hit by as many robots as I have, you pick up a thing or two about dressing wounds. Guess I might be almost as qualified as you. Besides you only have one hand to work with. I'm sorry about the dress. You can tell your girlfriend I'll pay to replace it when I can."
"Jo isn't…you think she's my girlfriend?"
"I could see there was something going on between you. Its cool." Sonic mentally face-palmed. Why wouldn't it be?
"There is nothing like that between us at all. She helped me out when I needed it." Why do I care what you think?
"I see." Sonic sat himself down. It didn't matter now. He probably wasn't ever going to hear Shadow's story. The Ultimate Lifeform would remain an elusive mystery, as usual, just out of his reach. Some people just aren't destined to be anything more than shooting stars crossing each other's paths once in a blue moon. If thats all he had with Shadow then so be it. What right did he have to expect anything more? He removed the air shoes from his feet and laid them neatly in front of Shadow.
"Thanks for the loan," he said, feigning cheerfulness.
He gathered his own shoes from the bag that had been strewn aside and turned away from the agent.
"See you around, Shadow. Take care."
The ebony hedgehog was left without words as he watched Sonic walk, not run, away until he disappeared beyond the horizon.
Somewhere, several countries over, a creature smirked to itself as it hissed and writhed through the dark night. Its loathsome, vaporous form twisted, shifting it's body to mimic the shapes of people as it passed by over their oblivious heads. Some of the people had feelings, emotions so negative, it was compelled to take respite and feed. But a plan had been formed, a deal made, and it was time for the Doctor to make good on his words before the sting of daylight emerged again.
