Sonadow: 'Cause it's fun (A/N: How? Did it get this long?)

Requested by Tocky

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There was a blue idiot here, destroying everything. That was Shadow's first thought. And he meant it in the literal sense, seeing as that other hedgehog who shouldn't be here had just crashed through and destroyed two doors, taking down a stack of crates too like it was an afterthought. The only reason the alarms weren't already blaring was because Rouge, Shadow's partner at GUN, had disabled them all so that he could finish the mission in peace.

No, of course not, the universe chided Shadow. Of course there had to be complications, what did you think?

Shadow watched the scene from above, crouching on a bridge and hidden in the shadows of the ceiling beams. The hall was large, dimly lit, had too many doors with crates stacked everywhere, boxes and shelves and unfinished projects. The blue menace seemed to take great delight in bumping into every, single, stack of boxes.

-How had he even gotten inside? Shadow couldn't see if he had any equipment from here – nor could Shadow see his face. Shadow thought for just a second of quitting the mission right here – but Shadow did not give up, dammit, and there was no way he was going to let that blue hedgehog be an obstacle…

That's when he heard a series of very suspicious clicks from behind him, and turned slowly – to see a whole squad of robots standing there, guns pointed at him. He didn't think, just leapt off of the bridge and into the empty half-darkness-

Curling into a ball, thinking how did they manage to sneak up on me, and a second later he crashed into the floor. Dust rose like a cloud around him, the echo of gunfire like an explosion above, and he drew himself to his feet, legs shaking. He had gotten ambushed, and all because he was distracted by that-

"You," Shadow hissed, as a certain blue hedgehog stepped out from the smoke.

"Me?" he asked. He looked Shadow's age, with sneakers, gloves, no equipment whatsoever, and youthful green eyes. He also looked dumb, but that might be because of the situation.

"Why are you here?" Shadow angrily threw out his hands. "This is a dangerous facility-"

"That's what makes it fun," the guy interrupted. "And no, why are you here?"

Five different, snappy responses flashed through Shadow's mind, but instead he just took out his ID and shoved it at the guy. Bewildered, the other hedgehog accepted it, and glanced over it…

"Special Agent Shadow the Hedgehog of GUN?" First he frowned. And then he grinned, but that looked mostly evil. "So GUN decided to take a go at this place? Figured something was up when the alarms didn't go off."

"Why are you here?" Shadow asked again, patience running out.

The guy was just messing with him: "Here? I wondered who took a dive at the floor headfirst, so-"

"Why," Shadow punctuated slowly. "-the hell, are you in this base?"

"Same as you, I'd wager." He answered, sobering up. Slightly.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Who do you work for?"

"No one!" he said brightly. "I only work for myself."

…What was wrong with this guy? He looked and acted like he'd fit better in laying on a couch with some celebrities, drinking expensive beverages with fruit slices and parasols, than… here. Standing here and negotiating with Shadow about the rights of nothing. Stupid civilian.

I can't let him get injured. Behold, the reason Shadow could do without a conscience.

"Hey," The guy said. "Why don't we team up?"

Shadow just – blinked. No. How about no? How about you're not supposed- "No."

"Why not?"

"You, are a civilian."

"So?"

"'So?' You-"

Boom!

They spun around. A door (which the guy yet hadn't destroyed) had been blown off of its hinges, robots upon robots swarming out and toward them. Just great. Shadow looked at the guy, who looked back, and then they both bolted for another door simultaneously, bullets peppering the ground behind them…

They ran inside of the corridor, went left, right, right again, and then the blue guy took the lead and Shadow went after, speeding up two sets of stairs, down another corridor and blasting through a door into another grand and over-sized hall. Immediately, several guns were pointed at them – and the guy barely missed a beat before launching himself at them, curling into a ball and smashing into them brutally.

A split-second of wait what- and then Shadow followed.

Jump, jump, smash – land on the ground, duck for a sword, kick robot so hard it breaks. Shadow threw a chaos spear, ducked another sword, stumbled back… and found himself surrounded. He raised an arm – and then that guy leapt through, kicking a robot so it smashed into two others. Shadow felt (surprise, awe, gratitude, anger?) something like annoyance, and blew the last two bots to smithereens-

That guy whistled, already moving to look over the area – there were more robots there, and there, and- "You alright?"

"Obviously," Shadow snapped. Sounding a bit too mad.

"Okay, okay!" Blue guy held up his hands, starting to run again. "Name's Sonic, by the way!"

Sonic. Shadow didn't reply, and then they were already fighting on opposite ends of the room again. Sonic was getting more interesting by the minute. He could fight (there's no way he's just a civilian) he was fast, and he was obviously used to doing this. Raiding the bases of Dr Eggman, of the most dangerous man on the planet. How- Shadow found that he had questions which he really wanted to ask Sonic. And that… just didn't happen.

-The robots were so many. (It was so ridiculous, the Doctor fighting a war with only his creations on his side – it was ridiculous how sometimes it felt GUN only lost) (It was ridiculous for a civilian to fight this good, to just-) The robots were like a tide at first, a consuming mass, but eventually the last one fell for Shadow's hand. He felt tired and exhilarated, and for a few seconds he and Sonic both just stood and gasped for breath…

Shadow took a deep breath, and spun around to face Sonic. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Me?" Sonic chuckled breathlessly, and Shadow started walking towards him, past all the broken machine parts. "Sonic the Hedgehog, just your… local adventurer? …Freedom-loving guy who can pack a punch? Neighbourhood hero, just fifteen rings a day?"

"You… the guy at the Station Square incident?"

"…So?"

"That was you?"

"Yeah." Sonic looks like – he's got an unreadable expression for a second. And then he just makes a motion, a quick beckoning, and dashes off. Shadow follows, activating his skates.

There was this: Shadow was both incredibly selfless and very selfish. He wanted answers. First he wanted to be rid of Sonic, now he wants him to stay put, right here. This mission is getting more complicated – except really, they are doing what Shadow went here to do… just in a completely different, nonsensically difficult way. Sonic is intriguing, because he's here, doing the same thing as Shadow, and because Shadow doesn't know why?

(Shadow's barely heard of Sonic before, how is that even possible?)

They shot through the corridors, wind whipping in their wake. Racing through a mile's worth of corridor, down stairs, deeper down into the basement, through sharp turns, and past traps starting to belatedly wake. "Egghead isn't here," Sonic said at a crossing. "But there's a reactor-thing in the basement." Egghead? Shadow contained a snort, and so they went.

It was all very simple after that – down, find reactor, explosives up, set timer, leave.

They were nearly out when they ran into another ambush…

Robots, armed with swords, suddenly crowding the room and slashing at Shadow's arm before he can react. Blood wells up, Shadow promptly punches a hole through the robot with his other arm, and then he stumbles back and presses his hand onto the wound. It barely stings – but Chaos, it bleeds-

Sonic destroys the robots in front of him, and then he destroys ten more, and Shadow feels ashamed of himself, lets go off his arm and joins the fray. A slow sort of panic takes hold – they put a bomb in the basement – and this time he doesn't hesitate to unleash a chaos blast when he's surrounded. He gets a bit of time from that, but when he looks up – Sonic has blood on his face.

-It takes all but three seconds for Shadow to think, teleport, and jump into destroying the robots in front of him. Sonic kicks at one, Shadow throws a chaos lance (my, my, you're sure wasting chaos energy) and then- then there's only a few robots on the other side of the room, so Shadow turns to Sonic instead and looks at his face.

There's a cut on his cheek. That explains things.

"You can teleport?" Sonic asks, a bit strained.

"We need to get out of here," Shadow replies, back to thinking in plans and actions.

Ten, five, zero – leaping out onto the grass, running away until they hear the explosion. A crack of thunder, a rumble as the building falls apart, a cloud of smoke rising… They collapse on the grass, panting. Shadow… Shadow should return to HQ soon, yet he doesn't know what to do. About Sonic. About this – this weird, crazy stranger who is too good at this to not belong to the military…

"How's your arm?"

Shadow retorts, "How's your face?"

"What's wrong with my face?" Sonic jokes. "I'm good. And how are you, Special Agent Shadow the Hedgehog?"

"Fine." Shadow pushes himself up on his unscathed arm, and looks Sonic. He's starting to sit up too, and it is such a strange picture – Sonic, blood smeared over his cheek, looking so at ease compared to the flames of the explosion in the background. (You should not be sitting here and thinking this, Shadow, because you have to be at HQ in an hour to report back.)

"This was fun," Sonic states, and looks at Shadow like he's challenging him. "And I know you've heard of me – saviour of Station Square, et cetera – this, is my job."

Shadow doesn't have anything to say to shut him up, so he's silent.

"GUN doesn't do anything useful," Sonic says. Shadow glares. "Yeah?"

"So? You don't care for the authorities." I think we've established that.

"No. You're right, I don't give damn about GUN and their stupid ideals." There's a pause, when they just look at each other, quietly. Something crashes in the distance – probably the base.

Sonic says, finally, "So do you agree with GUN?"

"Depends."

"Okay, can work with that." He glances at Shadow, like he's considering. "…Can I have your number?"

Hell no. Shadow considers, and then he takes out his communicator, and hands it to Sonic. He looks delighted, and starts messing with it. After a minute, Shadow snatches it back, and after a weak protest Sonic says, "I'll call you! And I added my number too – though who's Rouge and Topaz?"

"Colleagues."

"Alright!" Sonic says a bit too happily. He takes out his phone, and Shadow thinks of leaving – and then Sonic says, "Can I take a picture?"

Shadow… agrees. Sonic wraps an arm around him and holds up the phone with the other, Shadow doing his best to look disinterested. And then Sonic leans into him, tilting his head, and Shadow looks at him – click!

"Thanks!" and in a flurry of motion, Sonic stands up and does away with his phone, turning to leave- "I'll call you, bye!" –and then he darts away. Just a blue line pointing at the horizon, an after-image. Shadow feels a lot of things, most of which are related to annoyance, and eventually he too gets up, taking a look at his arm. It's finally stopped bleeding. And then, then Shadow just stands and stares at the explosion, because he doesn't feel like going to GUN HQ just yet. Because-

A text.

He thinks, he's an idiot, and opens the message.

SONIC: not a call

SONIC: go out w/ me?

Shadow stares at the text for five long seconds.

SHADOW: when & where

SONIC: tomorrow? 7 pm

SHADOW: ok

SONIC: it's a date!