Sonic Boom

Mobius

Hedgehog Village

Rated M

Season 3

Episode 4: "Restaurant"

SHADOW

Shadow had to admit that he felt a bit better after Tails helped him add security around his house. Tails was a touch hesitant at the brutality of a couple traps, but built them anyway. He had several monitors that showed all sides of his house including the foundation and the roof. Shadow knew better than not to prepare for underground assaults. With his house secure, Shadow turned his attention toward a different problem.

Shadow used a snap of chaos and appeared next to Sonic's hammock, where he was deeply asleep. "Get up, Sonic."

Sonic's eyes snapped open with a surprised scream, jumping to his feet. He cleared his throat and looked like he was trying to gain composure. "Oh, hi Shadow. What's up?"

"We need to talk," Shadow said threateningly. He grabbed Sonic's hand and snapped them both to a cliff outside the forest.

Sonic played it off casually, "Sure. About what?"

"I need to know what's in the Contract that you're not telling me," Shadow felt some of his anger from yesterday creep into his voice. "I'm not going to let you control me by withholding knowledge."

"Control you?" Sonic looked confused, "I was never trying to control you. You just can't kill Eggman."

Shadow stared at him, his expression unreadable.

"The Contract dictates that Eggman is the primary recurring antagonist. He and I fight on a semi-regular basis with formulaic expectations. We can do significant damage to each other but nothing that permanently maims or alters our physical well being. Eggman's robots can be destroyed without restriction," Sonic explained, "Permanent death of Eggman, myself, Knuckles or Tails is forbidden."

Shadow frowned, "Just the four of you?"

"I asked the same thing," Sonic sighed, "apparently in negotiations it had to do with the origins of the Sonic Team from 1991-1994. Earth years, not Mobius years. Our rating has been changed from TV-Y to Fiction M. That means we can do pretty much anything else."

Shadow felt a sinking sensation, "What about the usual hijinks and repulsive half-ass plots?"

"We have to participate in them."

"Do I?" Shadow growled.

"I'm not sure," Sonic answered, "We can find out."

"You have a way to contact the Contract?"

Sonic shook his head, "No, but they seem to know shit like that."

"Who else knows?"

"I suspect Eggman knows, but if he does, he's not allowed to confirm it with me. No-one else."

Shadow was surprised at Sonic's lack of sass and witty quips. He seemed to be taking this seriously. "Thank you."

Shock spread on Sonic's face, "What?"

"Don't make me say it again," Shadow glared, "See you later."

"Wait! You can't—"

SONIC

"— Leave me here," Sonic groaned. He looked out over the horizon. Nothing had changed, but somehow… it felt like everything had changed. It was actually kind of cool that Shadow knew about the Contract. He didn't feel like it was a huge secret anymore. Shadow had thanked him. He wasn't sure Shadow knew the words let alone was willing to express gratitude. Sonic chuckled and said to himself, "Season 3, huh? This will be fun." He stretched and ran back home.

He found the gang hanging out on the beach. Amy seemed to be explaining something with her ranting-face on. Sonic sat on one of the lounge chairs, "What did I miss?"

"Meh Burger has messed up my order for the last time!" Amy said halfway between tears and anger, "I ordered fries not a basket of worms!"

"Ekgh," Sonic said in disgust, "That's pretty lame."

"I'm going to rebuild Chateau Amy and bring some real food to Hedgehog Village! And you're all going to help me," Amy put her hands on her hips.

"We are?" Sonic said shakily, saw the look on her face and said, "uh, yeah. We are. What do we need to do?"

Amy beamed at him, "I'll have you guys start building while I go through the unnecessarily ridiculous process of opening a business in this town."

They had their instructions in minutes and were working on gathering materials.

"You guys think she's serious about this?" Sonic asked, "Like, going to stick it out and keep up a business serious?"

"She did seem pretty serious," Tails said, "I guess we'll find out?"

"Sticks, what are you doing?" Sonic asked almost not wanting to know.

Without stopping her work on carving sigils into the floorboards she said, "I'm building traps and wards in the foundation of the restaurant so Amy will be safe from thieves, mind control, angry spirits, water shortages, curses and bad haircuts."

"Ooh! Need help? I can give good haircuts!" Knuckles said excitedly.

"It's to protect against bad haircuts, Knuckles," Sticks rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh," Knuckles considered, "Cool!"

Amy ran up to them, breathless with a maniacal glint in her eye, "Guys! Guys! You won't believe it! I got the business approved and I know who I'm going to hire as the chef!"

"You're not the chef?" Sonic asked, "You love cooking."

Amy smiled, "I'm going to be the manager. I can't manage if I'm cooking all the time. I'm going to hire Shadow!"

There was a moment of silence and then they all laughed raucously.

"Good one, Amy," Sonic laughed.

"Like that would ever happen!" Knuckles agreed.

Amy glared, "Just you wait. I'll get Shadow to be my chef with or without your help!"

Sonic almost felt bad as she huffed off and sighed, "What color paint did she want on the trim?"

"Pretty Pink Petals," Tails said as he passed the can over, "Do you think she'll really get Shadow to work for her?"

"Not with this color," Sonic said as he opened the can and grabbed a brush.

SHADOW

Shadow sighed and walked away from the merchant selling the vegetables. He was still being told to take whatever he wanted so he didn't hurt anyone. In truth, he didn't attack that many people. He had a long list of enemies and a longer list of people who wanted him dead, but he didn't go seek them out. He wasn't going to attack the villagers while he was out grocery shopping. He was happy to pay for his items and generally didn't wish anyone harm. He spent most of his time minding his own business. Maybe it was the effect of living in the same city with Sonic? Sonic did bring senseless destruction upon the villagers at least once a week. Shadow was known as a villain, but he was Sonic's enemy. Not the people's enemy. At least when they weren't trying to kill him first. He had a few more things to buy but they were specialties from Opossum City and would be a longer journey. He looked over the remaining items on his list and nearly tripped when someone stood in front of him.

"Hi Shadow!" Amy said cheerfully.

Shadow felt anger rise in his chest, "What do you want?"

"Can we meet later? I have a business idea I want to talk to you about." Her smile was obnoxious.

"No. Now move," Shadow ordered.

"Oh, um, ok! Later then!" Amy waved cheerfully as he walked away.

For the love of Chaos.

He put away his groceries and started cooking. What business idea could she be talking about? He set some oil to heat on the stove and chopped up some garlic. What skills did he have that she could possibly want?

He turned to sweep the garlic into the oil and froze. The oil in the pan had formed three, delicately scrawled words, "Just do it."

Shadow cooked the rest of his meal feeling suspended between fury, disbelief, resignation and self pity.

Later that day, Shadow went up to the new storefront Sonic and his friends were building. It was painted in pale pinks and purples, with dark purple flourishes. The sign above the counter said "Chateau Amy '' with roses on either side. He felt dread weigh down on his shoulders.

"Hey Shadow!" Sonic waved, "Like it? Amy's been looking for you."

"I know." Shadow made sure his expression betrayed nothing.

"Sh- Shadow!" Amy said from behind him, "You came! Oh! Do you like it? We will make and sell real food! Fresh made, organic sandwiches so you never have to eat at Meh Burger again!"

Sonic frowned, "Well, I mean… it's still Meh Burger…"

"Oh shut up, that's not the point!" Amy scolded him, "The point is there will be an alternate restaurant for people to choose from. And," Amy smiled toward Shadow, "I need a chef! Would you be interested Shadow?"

Shadow swallowed and managed to say, "Sure."

"I mean, it's ok if you need time to think—" Amy stared at him, "You'll do it?"

Shadow gave a very tiny, very reluctant nod.

"Oh my god, thank you!" Amy ran up to hug him but remembered who he was. She tripped and fell on her face. "We will open tomorrow! Let's talk about the menu!"

Shadow followed her to a table and spent the next couple hours in a waking nightmare.

SONIC

Sonic's jaw dropped to the ground.

Shadow was actually sitting at one of the new restaurant tables talking with Amy about the menu. How had she done it? She couldn't have threatened him into it. Or blackmailed him. The gang wasn't going to believe this. Sonic told them on their communicators to meet at his place.

"Guys, she did it. Amy actually got Shadow to be the chef!" Sonic wasted no time in getting the words out.

His friends looked at each other with sideways glances and then started laughing. "There's no way," Knuckles laughed.

"I saw it. They were right in front of me!" Sonic protested.

Tails scratched his chin, "Hmmm… This would be the second preposterous claim Sonic has made about Shadow in the last week. The first one was true… Let's do this the scientific way!" Tails procured a white board, several markers and was writing on the board in different columns.

"This column is reasons Sonic wouldn't lie about anything Shadow is doing. I'll start with 'can't handle competition'."

Knuckles put his hand in the air, "Oh! Shadow's more handsome! Not as handsome as me, though."

"Hey!" Sonic protested, "He is not!"

"Deep down Sonic is afraid that Shadow is actually a really good person and his quintessential hero package gives him a frail ego and sense of self. Due to no fault of his own. If Shadow turned out to be a good guy, Sonic may be the village's second favorite. But that would only happen if the stars turned upside down under the blood moon on the spring equinox after a robot monkey invasion," Sticks said like this was the only truth.

Sonic liked this idea less by the minute.

"Alright," Tails said, having translated their answers, "Sonic wouldn't lie about Shadow because he's too tough of competition, would upset the balance of our village, and could potentially become more popular. Now, let's go with why he would lie about Shadow. I'll start," Tails wrote on the board and said out loud, "to save his ego."

Sonic groaned, "I don't like this anymore."

Sticks jumped on the table, "Don't worry Sonic. The sooner we get down to the bottom a-this, the sooner we can defeat injustice!"

"In-what?" Knuckles asked.

"You know, we can establish Shadow's baseline behavior and how to report on it. We won't have to second guess Sonic every time," Sticks explained.

"Um, thanks," Sonic said, a little shocked. It was really considerate of her to say so. Alright. He'd play along.

Tails smiled, "Great! What's next?"

"Shadow's skill level rivals Sonic's. Sonic usually doesn't engage in battles he can't win in order to preserve the life and health of his friends and the people he protects. If he and Shadow were to have an all out fight, the outcome would be uncertain. I guess it could be something like 'Sonic doesn't want to die'!" Knuckles said triumphantly.

Sonic stared open mouthed at Knuckles. What was happening today?

"I think that's a reason he wouldn't lie, Knuckles. I'll put that in the first column," Tails moved the answer, "I think Sonic would lie because he doesn't want Shadow to have all the attention."

"Tails!" Sonic said feeling offended.

"What? It's true," Tails felt bad, "but, you know, sorry." 'Jealousy' got written on the board.

"Nah, it's fine," Sonic sighed heavily, "I would lie about Shadow so I could keep personal information about him to myself. If he turns out to have dangerous or evil motives, I don't want to start a panic because someone misunderstood what he said." Shadow was complicated and hard to read on a good day.

Tails wrote 'avoid confusion and panic', "I think this is pretty good guys. So, by this chart, we are no closer to deciding if Sonic lies about Shadow or not."

Sonic sank further into the couch, "Can you just take my word for it?"

"Most of the time," Tails assured him, "There is always a certain margin for error when it comes to your image."

"Next time, I'm roasting you guys," Sonic complained. He had to admit that they were right, whether it made him comfortable or not. "Shadow really is the chef at Chateau Amy."

"We should have lunch there tomorrow!" Knuckles proclaimed, "I never thought Shadow was the cooking type."

"I guess we'll find out!" Tails seemed too upbeat for his own good.

The restaurant was packed. There was a line going around the counter and people waiting for tables. The food Amy was serving them looked like art.

"Sonic!" Amy called and waved, "Come help me!"

Sonic groaned and said in a low voice, "Never be friends with the people who run businesses."

Tails patted his shoulder, "It won't be that bad. Let's go help," to Knuckles and Sticks he said, "Wait in line for us and save us a seat!"

In a matter of seconds, Sonic was taking orders and Tails was delivering food to customers by flying above them. Amy was taking surveys and going overboard with customer service.

Several hours later, the restaurant closed and the team had their table to themselves. Sonic and Tails were completely exhausted. Amy was too manic to be tired and Shadow was cleaning.

Cleaning?! Sonic's thoughts broke through his inner narrative. He ran over to Shadow and sat on the counter, "How was your first day of work?"

The look on Shadow's face was terrifying, "I just cleaned that."

Sonic leaned back a little, "It's very—" he yelled as he slipped off the counter and on to Shadow, knocking him to the ground. Sonic was all too aware that he was sitting over Shadow's hips and his brain short-circuited.

"Get off," Shadow growled.

Sonic moved quickly but hit his head on the counter and fell forward, now entirely pressing his weight against Shadow. Shadow grabbed his throat just as they heard Amy, "Oh, Sonic! Are you ok?!" Her footsteps were rushing over.

"Yeah, I'm—" Sonic was sent flying to the other side of the restaurant, "Fine. I tripped." He got up, pretending nothing had phased him.

"Oh, thank goodness," Amy gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Let's hang out at my place! Shadow, do you want to come too?"

Shadow shoved the leftover to-go containers at Sonic and said, "No." Then he was gone.

On their way to Amy's, Sonic asked, "Was Shadow mean to you all day?"

"No, not at all!" Amy said with a bounce in her step, "He wasn't very talkative but he was polite."

"His cooking was delicious!" Tails said exuberantly, "I don't know I've ever had such good food!"

Knuckles nodded his head, "It was amazing. Needed ketchup though."

Amy's face turned dark, "I'll keep a bottle under the counter for you."

"Thanks!" Knuckles beamed at her.

Sonic didn't know what was happening.

SHADOW

Shadow didn't know what was happening. Being a chef and working all day was not something he planned on doing long term. Maybe he could prepare a bunch of food in the morning at Chaos speed and leave it for Amy to reheat. That would have to be his solution. There's no way he was doing that again.

Hoping he had satisfied the powers that be, Shadow went out for a run. Maybe he'd set Eggman's dumpster on fire. That would make him feel better.

Several hundred miles, running over vast amounts of water, a dumpster fire and a bath later, Shadow finally felt like he could relax. He had started to realize that if he didn't let go of his contempt for the situation, that his life was only going to get worse. But damn, was it hard.

And then there was Sonic. The most confusing part of all. It wasn't hate. It wasn't just rivalry. It wasn't resentment or jealousy. It wasn't competition. What was it? Shadow groaned and put his pillow over his face. He would continue to make Sonic believe it was all those things. But he couldn't make himself believe that was what he felt toward Sonic.