Edited November 22

All characters belong to Sega.

Reincarnate
Chapter 5: Seeking Names

"You know, Shadow's kind of a stupid name for you now," Sonic says, a trace of a scowl on his face. "You're as yellow as a buttercup."

It had been almost two hours since what was already known as "the incident", and Sonic is trying to make up for the embarrassment by taking every opportunity to make some sort of wisecrack about Shadow's condition. The formerly male hedgehog is ignoring him, staring at the T.V. and changing channels so rapidly it's impossible to see what's actually on before it goes to another show. Amy glares over his head at Sonic, whose brow is furrowed in annoyance. She sighs and says, "Sonic, it was an easy mistake to make – it's probably going to happen again."

The channels stop changing as Shadow freezes. Open horror crosses his face for a moment before he composes himself and keeps channel surfing.

"So are you going to decide on a channel or what?" Sonic asks irritably. "You've been going through the same channels for an hour."

"I'm waiting until something interesting comes on," Shadow says slowly, as if talking to a toddler. "You know…something I want to watch. Not this soap opera crap."

Sonic flushes red in anger at his tone, and Amy buries her face in her hands and sighs loudly in frustration. Tails wanders into the room, looks around and asks in a weary tone, "What's going on now?"

"Nothing, nothing," Amy says, getting to her feet and walking towards the door, announcing to the room in general, "I'm going to get some fresh air."

She stomps out of the lab and groans loudly at the sky from the small porch. She hops off the porch and runs around in a small circle. She doesn't know why she's so annoyed and confused. For some reason Sonic liking Shadow (even if it was only for a few minutes) has shriveled her hopes of him ever asking her out. After all, he's known her for years, and yet he took on look at Shadow the Female and boom – asked him out. Why doesn't he ever notice her? She's doing everything she can!

She starts to pace, a slight breeze blowing her pink quills out of her face and making the fabric of her dress rustle. She hadn't even thought about what it would be like once Sonic arrived, even though she knew he had to show up sometime. It's pretty clear that he and Shadow aren't going to be getting along, especially since Sonic seems to be blaming his embarrassment on Shadow. It's an immature thing to do, but then Sonic is, has always been, sort of…she shakes her head. What is she doing? Insulting Sonic, her hero? She had never seen him as anything but perfect, but something about spending time with Shadow has made her entire perspective go awry. She notices clouds in the sky.

She paces to the end of the cliff, looking down over the wooden fence separating her from the drop to the foamy sea. She leans her arms on the fence and sighs heavily, watching the storm gather on the horizon. She can hear thunder in the distance.

She also hears the door of the lab open and close, but she doesn't turn around. But in a second she sees a flash of pale yellow out of the corner of her eye and looks over to see Shadow sitting on one of the fence poles, dangling his legs in the air above the sheer drop.

"Careful," she says, straightening up and watching him. He casts an amused glance at her and says, "Are you all right? You've been tense today."

Amy runs a hand through her quills uneasily.

"I'm fine, just…jumpy."

"Why?"

She stares at him. Isn't it obvious? She's had her heart set on Sonic since she first saw him and he goes and chooses someone who's not really even a girl, who he had only known about half and hour before deciding he liked them! Despite these thoughts she only shrugs and mutters, "Dunno. But you're the one Sonic's harassing – getting annoyed yet?"

An odd expression flits across his face, but he shrugs and grins – one of the few times she's seen him do so – and says, "It's pretty easy to ignore it, actually. It makes a nice background whine."

She giggles in spite of herself and looks out towards the horizon again. Thunder rolls across the sky again, and a cool wind whips both their quills around.

"Whew!" she exclaims. "It's getting cold. We should probably go back in."

"If you're sure you're okay," Shadow says, something akin to concern in his eyes as he glances at her again.

"Yeah. Thanks for coming out to find me."

Thanks for actually caring, she says to herself. Why couldn't it be Sonic who had worried, or even noticed, that she wasn't feeling like herself? Not that there was anything wrong with Shadow being nice, of course. She feels confused again. Shadow hops off the post, and a loud boom shakes the ground underneath them.

"What was that?" Amy yells over the howling wind.

Shadow shrugs and reaches out, grabbing her arm and holding on to it tightly. Another loud crack nearly deafens them and she grabs onto him without thinking, burying her face in his neck. Wait – she's supposed to be showing some independence here! Before she can start, however, a huge wave of water off to her right catches her attention. She looks around and gasps in wonder as a huge, rocky structure settles in the water, sending a tidal wave over part of the area. She disengages herself gently from Shadow's grip and walks a few paces towards the new addition to the ruins, a place she had only seen once before: Angel Island.

A few seconds later the door bangs open again and Sonic speeds out as a blue blur, skidding to a halt a little ways in front of Amy, taking on an attack stance.

Oh, great, now he wants to protect me – us, she thinks bitterly.

"Angel Island fell again?" Tails asked, his young face troubled. He draws level with Amy, and Shadow does likewise on her other side. They seem to wait, although Amy doesn't know what for. But the tense air is broken when a red speck hurtles towards them from the direction of the Island.

"Knuckles," Sonic says, shaking his head and taking on a more relaxed stance. "What's he gotten himself into now?"

The red speck grows steadily larger, and soon Amy can make out the Guardian's face and white symbol on his chest. He slowly descends and lands on the ground about ten feet away from them, jogging a little until his momentum runs out. He glances over at them, piercing them all even from a distance with his violet gaze, and folds his arms.

"Hey, Knuckles," Amy says, a little shy of the echidna. She doesn't know him very well, had only talked to him a few times when they were on adventures, but she is aware that he isn't one to be messed with and that he's a little, well…antisocial. But he waves a barbed, gloved hand at her in acknowledgement of her greeting and says, "Something's up, guys."

"Nooo," Sonic says sarcastically, and Knuckles' eyes harden. The warning signal is obvious to Amy, but Sonic continues on obliviously, "Really? 'Cause usually your island just drops out of the sky randomly. I bet you have a little button that you push when you want to – erk!"

Knuckles had zipped over to Sonic with speed reminiscent of the blue hedgehog's own, and now has an enormous fist clamped around Sonic's neck. The blue hedgehog's feet leave the ground and dangle in the air as Knuckles raises Sonic to his eye level.

"Something," he repeats slowly, "Is wrong. I saw its shadow and it made the island fall."

Sonic wheezes something that Knuckles seems to accept as an apology, for he puts the smaller furry down and folds his arms again.

"Is the Master Emerald still intact?" Tails asks, and he earns a brief nod from the Guardian, who produces it out of seemingly nowhere: whole, large, and very shiny. Amy is captivated for a moment by its beauty.

"Well, I for one am willing to bet this is Eggman's work, as usual," Amy says confidently, and there's brief murmur of assent. Tails' twin tails wave through the air thoughtfully and he says, "What happened, exactly?"

"There was a rustling sound from the air, like the beats of large wings, and I saw a huge shadow gliding over the mountain. But when I looked up, I couldn't see anything," Knuckles tells them, and Tails nods.

"Maybe it's some kind of cloaking device," he says, his tails waving faster as the wheels of his mind churn. "What direction was it headed?"

"Over the sea, away from the Ruins," Knuckles answers, and they all look at each other with the same expression on each of their faces.

"Towards Station Square," the Guardian finishes, and Tails says, "I'll get the Tornado." He takes off running towards his lab, his tails swishing wildly behind him.

"All right!" Sonic says with his famous grin, "I was worried Eggman was taking a break. Let's go, guys."

They all run after Tails, Amy with the usual fluttery feeling in her stomach that always comes before a new adventure. She had been counting on something of a break from the action. She glances towards Shadow, who nods at her reassuringly. All right, then.