"Okay, that's one order of chili dogs and one small soda. Here you go, sir." the food attendant checked off and handed the tray of food to Shadow, who paid and took the tray.
"It was either this, or the nachos and I'm not in the mood for cheese dripping onto my shoes." he muttered as he sat down and started eating ravenously. Food! Food! Blessed food! It felt like ages since he'd had a decent meal. Demon Chao didn't leave much in the way of leftovers, what with their constant food fights, but whatever was left behind in their wake usually wound up on Shadow's dinner plate. In a few seconds the two chili dogs were gone and Shadow contentedly slurped on the soda straw, feeling full and sleepy. Ultimate life form my foot, if I don't get a second job quick, I'm gonna starve to death in the attic of a schoolhouse, he thought to himself with a wry smile.
"My, weren't we hungry today?" a voice startled him back to alertness. Shadow looked over his shoulder at a light green hedgehog girl who watched him with a grin. She wore a safari outfit of dark green colors and a hunter green headband, quills down in the fashionable hairdo that seemed to be all the rage. Shadow remembered Amy Rose wearing the same style. The stranger smiled wider at him. "Hi! My name's Cammy, what's yours?"
"Um.... Shadow." the black hedgehog replied warily, suddenly feeling a bit warm. Cammy looked at the duffel bag.
"Are you here with somebody?" she asked.
"Um.... My class. Well, not really my class, they're the Chao kids and I'm their chaperone for the field trip." he stammered and turned back to his drink to avoid looking at her.
"Uh huh. So where are the little tykes?" Cammy asked sweetly, walking around the table to face him. She sat in the chair opposite him, never moving her sea-green eyes away from him. Shadow played with the straw.
"Drawing the zebras." he replied softly. Cammy giggled and he glanced up at her. "What?"
"You're blushing. Shy? Are you scared of a girl like me?" she teased. She winked at him. "Bet you don't have a girlfriend, huh? That's all right. I don't have a boyfriend." Cammy smiled wider, "But I think I might have found one." Shadow swallowed another gulp of soda and winced as the bubbles made his ears burn. He bit down on the straw and tried to think of a way to get away without drawing attention to himself when Omochao blazed in and landed on the table.
"Shadow! The Dark Chao are on the loose! They're racing around like maniacs!" he wailed. Shadow grabbed his bag, gave a little sigh of relief and raced away from Cammy.
"Gotta go! Nice talking with ya! Bye!" he called back and then looked up at Omochao, "Omochao, you are a lifesaver."
"Don't flatter me! Catch those little demons!!" the robot snapped, "I told you this was a bad idea!"
Cammy watched them run off and grinned, pulling out a short green rod from behind her back. It clicked and expanded in length to form a long pole. She gave it a twirl, then shortened it and laughed lightly. "You're not getting away that easy! I've got my Tiki Rod to help me!" she declared and ran off after him.
Sonic and his friends were at the same zoo, mostly to try to cheer Sonic up. He was in one of those depressed moods again. They would strike every now and then, often to the point where the blue hedgehog would just stop what he was doing and look glum for days. He sat at a table, a plate of chili dogs sitting, untouched, before him. Amy Rose, Tails, and Knuckles all looked worried.
"Come on, Sonic! Just a bite!" Amy pleaded. Sonic rested his chin on his arms on the table, looked at the plate and sighed, gazing sadly at the red and black band around the cuff of his glove. "This isn't good. He won't eat."
"Sonic, you love chili dogs! Come on, eat something!" Tails urged him, "You can't be sad forever about Shadow! We all miss him, but we have to move on!" Sonic glanced at him, then looked away, silent.
"It's no use. The two of them go into super forms together just once, and Sonic starts thinking Shadow could have been his long lost older brother or something." Knuckles grumbled, "Accept it, Sonic. He's not coming back."
"But he was supposed to be immortal." Sonic mumbled, sitting up and toying with the torn cuff. He tried to save Shadow, grabbed onto his glove before he fell into the earth's atmosphere, but the cuff had torn away and a bright flash of light erupted where Shadow had been, a ball of flames in space. "We were both in super forms, why did he get weaker? Why did he lose that form in space?"
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting thirsty. Who's gonna buy me a soda?" Amy declared, looking at each of the three boys for an answer. They all gave her a blank stare, then looked startled when a small black Chao jumped onto the table and gobbled up the chili dogs.
"Whoa! A Dark Chao! Cool!" Tails exclaimed as the Chao stomped around on the messy plate and laughed at them. "Sonic! Grab it so I can study it up close!" Sonic reached out and grabbed it by the tail. It jumped around angrily and tried to bite his hand as a mechanical Chao flew up to them.
"We seem to be attracting a lot of strange Chao." Knuckle remarked, peering suspiciously at the robot. Tails looked excited and pulled out a pair of tools.
"Neat! Somebody made a mechanical Chao! I'm gonna study that one, too! Grab it, Knuckles, and I'll open it up to see what it's made of!" he cried happily. The robot flew out of reach.
"Oh, no, you won't!" the robot Chao snapped, "I'm Omochao, the teacher's aide's assistant! And that's one of our Chao students! Keep him still while I go get the chaperone!"
"This mechanical Chao sure is loud." Amy remarked as the robot turned to yell out loud. Sonic held the Demon Chao away from him and hoped it didn't decide to chew on his fingers.
"Shadow! I found one! It's over here! Hurry up and get it before it runs away again!" Omochao yelled. The friends looked at each other in shock and disbelief.
"Shadow?! Here?! Alive?!" they all cried and turned to see if it was true. Soon enough, a black hedgehog came running up, stopped before the group, then bent over, gasping. "It is Shadow!"
"It's about time, Shadow! You take forever to go anywhere! Why didn't you use Chaos Control?! Never mind! Look! This guy caught the first Demon Chao!" Omochao scolded him. Shadow fell back and sat down, trying to catch his breath.
"Give me some time to rest a bit, Omochao! My leg still isn't at full strength! And as for Chaos Control, I don't want to pull the Chaos Emerald out yet!" he yelled back and looked up at the group of people who peered over the table at him. He came face to face with Sonic. "Sonic? Here? Uh oh."
"Shadow! You really are alive!" Sonic exclaimed joyfully. Shadow grabbed the Chao from his hands and gave it a chew toy before shoving it into his bag.
"No, I'm not! I'm dead! You're hallucinating!" Shadow snapped at him and scrambled to get away, "Come on, Omochao!" The two of them fled from the scene. Sonic looked confused.
"What? But, Shadow...." he called and stopped when a second hedgehog came up to them, green and sporting matching colored clothes.
"Did you guys see a tall, dark, handsome, black hedgehog run by here? Goes by the name of Shadow? Is available for little ole me?" she asked them quickly. They stared at her.
"You're chasing after Shadow?" Sonic asked her, "Who're you?"
"My name's Cammy Hedgehog and yes, I'm chasing him down. So, did you see him?" the green hedgehog replied and blinked at Amy, "Hey, you have a pretty wicked looking hammer. You're not chasing Shadow, too, are ya? 'Cause I saw him first! I got dibs on him!"
"No way!" Amy replied and pointed at another direction, "Shadow ran that way, but watch out for his Chaos Control. He can warp out of sight if you don't be careful." she warned. Cammy nodded and ran off, darting among the people in the crowds.
"Why'd you do that for?" Sonic demanded to know from Amy. She smiled and didn't answer. "Oh, forget it. Girls.... Come on, Tails! Let's go and find Shadow ourselves! I have to ask him why he never talked to us all this time! If he made it through okay, why didn't he try to contact me?" he asked as he raced away.