Sonic Boom
Mobius
Hedgehog Village
Rated M
Season 3
Episode 2: Beatdown
SHADOW
The droning noise of robots and artificial wasps woke Shadow from a peaceful sleep. His eyes burned with fury as he walked out onto his porch.
"Good morning Shadow!" Eggman called jovially, "We didn't get to talk much last week so I brought a welcoming committee!" His maniacal cackle was drowned out by the sheer number of Badniks and Bee-bots encroaching his lawn. The entire village was screaming and running in panic.
"Not so fast, Eggman!" Sonic yelled as he skidded to a halt in front of Shadow, "You think you can get away with this?"
Eggman laughed, "Get away with it? Oh no, you misunderstand me. This is a test drive."
By this time the rest of Sonic's posse had shown up with similar quips of protagonist bullshit. "Get out of my way," Shadow growled.
Sonic smiled, "Nah, let's do this gang!"
Shadow grabbed Sonic by the throat, brought him within inches of his face and repeated, "Get out of my way." He threw Sonic into Tails and Amy, knocking them over. Sticks and Knuckles had opened their mouths but didn't get farther than that.
Shadow rained hell fire on all of Eggman's creations. Flashes of speed and destruction exploded in seconds, devastating the land around them. Eggman screamed and ordered a retreat but not before Shadow caught up to him. He sent the Egg Mobile into the ground in a smoldering heap, Eggman not far from it. Shadow stood over him with a ball of power in his fist, "Now I'll do what I should have done a long time ago."
Shadow was hit in the head by something very fast and very solid. He rolled several yards away and fought to clear his vision. "How dare you!" He spat at Sonic.
"This isn't how we do things, Shadow!" Sonic chastised him, "Not in Hedgehog Village."
Shadow cracked his neck and hovered several feet above the ground, power regained in his hands, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't finish this."
Everyone started yelling at once. Amy was on a rant about morals and fairness. Tails about justice. Knuckles had started talking about the luck balance in the universe and Sticks seemed to have missed the entire point. None of it even resembled something Shadow cared about. He had just started to move when Sonic's voice broke through the ruckus, "The Contract!"
Silence.
Shadow froze and then let himself back down. He could feel the confused stares but only looked at Sonic. He felt like he was swallowing bile and the rage built up in his fists. He spun at Sonic, sending him across the village, spun at Eggman one last time and vanished.
SONIC
"Oh my god, Sonic are you alright?!" Amy rushed over, "Are you hurt?"
"Yeah, but it's not that bad," Sonic winced as he sat up, "What about Eggman?"
"He's alive!" Knuckles yelled, "He looks more like an egg now. Kinda works for him."
Orbot and Cubot were hovering over Knuckle's shoulder, "We should take him back to the lair. He won't be very happy when he wakes up."
Sonic chuckled and waved them off, "There's a silver lining in everything I guess. Good luck guys." He swayed a little trying to stand. "Guess we need to clean this up."
"Nu-uh!" Amy said, "You're not doing anything. Tails, can you find the villagers and let them know they can come back? Knuckles, Sticks you should start on the cleanup and I'll take Sonic to my place to get him bandaged up."
Sonic groaned, "Amy, I'm fine!" Though quietly he wasn't sure if he was groaning from pain or her bossiness.
"No, you're not," Amy insisted, "Let's go."
The gang finally returned to Amy's place late that evening. Sonic had an ice pack on his head and a large glass of water in front of him. They found spots to sit around him.
"He's got a really bad concussion but otherwise he's fine," Amy informed them before Sonic could say anything. "How's the village?"
"It's pretty much back to normal," Tails said, "The villagers helped out a lot."
"And I found this!" Sticks held up a shining, red crystal, "It's my new shiny!"
"Uh, we don't know what that is," Tails said hesitantly, "I think I should run some tests."
Sticks started to pout but Sonic cut her off, "Tails is right. Eggman may have been stepping it up because Shadow's here. He might have found something more powerful."
Tails eyed Sonic wearily, "So… we all want to know… what did you mean by the contract? Why did Shadow stop?"
"Hm?" Sonic groaned while he was trying to think, "Oh. That. It's something I heard once that was like a codeword or whatever. I didn't think it would work." His friends hemmed and shrugged, finding it to be a good answer. He could tell that Tails was skeptical, but the others seemed to have bought it. He hoped that Tails wouldn't press the issue later. He also hoped that Shadow wouldn't press the issue later. "Anyway guys, I'll be fine in the morning. We should play volleyball after lunch."
The suggestion of something normal and fun restored their dynamic and the rest of the night was spent poking fun at Sonic for getting a concussion. They started a scoreboard of Sonic VS Shadow and gave one point to the competition. Amy was the only one who objected on the grounds of Sonic getting seriously hurt. She was immediately overruled by Sonic's competitiveness, ego, and overconfidence, plus their friends' unconditional enabling. Sonic knew it would turn out just fine.
SHADOW
Shadow was taking out his fury on a mountain as far away from civilization as he could get. The mountain range had shrunk to a few mole hills.
Why.
Freakin' why.
It made no sense!
This entire dynamic with Eggman had gone on too long. It was formulaic, exhausting and boring. How many days could they actually spend doing this? What did they do when Eggman wasn't attacking them? Live in peace and tranquility?
Since his existence began he'd been at odds with the world. The life he desired wasn't this. He didn't want a carefully mowed yard or matching curtains. He wanted…
Wait.
What did he want?
Shadow stopped his relentless attack on the landscape and sat on the top of the rock pile. What did he want to do with his life? Hadn't he ever thought about it before?
He did know he was going to punch Sonic in the face again for his reason about the Contract and threaten him that if he tried to control him with it again that he would take Sonic closer to death than he'd ever been.
What would he do after that?
EGGMAN'S FORTRESS
"Dr, you're awake!" said Orbot cheerfully.
"Welcome back boss! We thought you were a goner!" Cubot said loudly.
"Shut up you useless bags of bolts," Eggman snapped, "Ow… that really hurt."
"Um, Dr Eggman, sir, I'm afraid Shadow isn't as… heroic as Sonic," Orbot said very carefully, "Perhaps next time—"
"I'll tell you what to do next time!" Eggman yelled, regretted and laid back down, "Now go away."
Orbot and Cubot looked hesitant at each other and left Eggman to rest. "Cubot, maybe we should do some research on Shadow and see what he's capable of."
"Uh… I don't know Orbot. Shadow could dismantle us. Permanently!"
"You're right. We'll just observe from a distance."
They left with the spy bots in tow to stake out Shadow's house.
