"SHADOW."

Shadow's lip curled as he lowered his book of sudoku puzzles (and no, he wasn't stuck on puzzle 153, shut up). "What do you want now, tin can?"

"QUERY:" Omega continued, showing no obvious signs of offense. "ARE YOU CONSIDERED A VILLAIN?"

Shadow rolled his eyes, picking his book back up and twirling his pencil between his fingers. "Take a guess."

"NEGATIVE."

The pencil stopped in place. "Excuse me?"

Omega gestured to their- to Shadow's cave, with some kind of flippant gesture that made Shadow's blood boil. "A TRUE VILLAIN WOULD NOT LIVE LIKE THIS."

"I don't know about that," Shadow snarked back, venom in his tone. "I think that foolish doctor you call a father knows a thing or two about having two parasites following him around at every minute of the day."

There was a moment of silence.

"HARSH DUDE."

"If you consider the doctor a villain, then I'm a supervillain," Shadow explained flippantly. "I nearly tore apart the space time continuum. He can't even take over a village. Not even with a team of low tier drivel antagonists."

"FATHER HAD A TEAM OF LOW TIER DRIVEL ANTAGONISTS?"

"Correct." Shadow sneered at Omega. "He even invited me to be a part of his nonsense, with an embossed invitation and everything."

"THAT SOUNDS LIKE HIM."

"Yet he didn't even have crackers for his cheeseboard."

"THAT ALSO SOUNDS LIKE HIM."

"So clearly," Shadow concluded, "not only am I a villain, but I am the greatest villain in this village, the surrounding area, and the island as a whole."

There was another short silence.

"SECONDARY QUERY: WHY DID YOU FAIL?"

Shadow's eyes widened and then hardened. "What did you just say?"

"EXAMPLE 1: THE SPACE TIME CONTINUUM IS INTACT. EXAMPLE 2: THE VILLAGE IS NOT UNDER YOUR RULE. EXAMPLE 3: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG HAS YET TO BE DEFEATED IN A WAY THAT MATTERS. EXAMPLE 4: YOU LIVE IN A CAVE WITH MYSELF AND ROUGE-"

"You forced your way in here!" Shadow interrupted, spines flaring defensively.

"NEGATIVE. YOU GAVE UP ON KICKING US OUT LONG AGO." Omega's occulars flashed as Shadow's eyes widened in what looked like panic. "BY THE DATA PROVIDED, IT IS HARD TO CLASSIFY SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG AS A VILLAIN."

"Get out."

Omega scanned Shadow for a brief moment, calculating exactly what kind of a "Get out." that was supposed to be, but a louder, more urgent, more furious "GET OUT!" had Omega deciding that there wasn't much point in sticking around and pushing his luck.

He did, however, try his luck again by re-entering the Brood Cave a couple of hours later after a relaxing afternoon setting fire to driftwood on the beach and composing a short apology song.

Shadow allowed him back in but didn't say a word otherwise.