Thank you so much to the people who gave me such awesome reviews, sonic hero, and phantom86! I hope this installment is just as good!

Shadow the Rock Star

Ch. 2

Loud Announcer Voice: "When we last left our angry, scared, friends they had been arguing copiously when Sonic made a discovery that chilled the hearts of everyone in the crowd."

"Not mine!" Shadow said coldly.

"SHUT UP both of you, I can't find Tails anywhere!" 'Sonic'

"What? Oh, Hi everyone!" called a familiar high pitched voice.

"Tails where were you?" Sonic scolded and reprimanded.

"I was over by the table, trying the lemonade! It's actually quite delicious!" Everyone else ran to try the lemonade, except Shadow, who claimed he already knew it was perfect, and Sonic who, amid the sounds of slurps and gulps of lemonade, called to Tails,

"Well, don't ever scare me like that again; I thought I had lost you."

The slurps and gulps stopped instantly, Shadow, Rouge, and Knuckles looked around at Sonic with raised eyeridges, and slightly slack mouths that hung open.

"What? What did I do?" Sonic asked.

Knuckles grinned and said, "Who knew you had such a maternal instinct, Sonic?"

"You would make a wonderful, caring mother!" Rouge smirked.

"Shut up!" Sonic cried, "Tails is like a little brother to me! You guys are just sick! Besides, Shadow, you never told us why you were running a lemonade stand!" Sonic finished on an accusatory note.

"That's because I couldn't have spoken over your insults!" Shadow looked irritated.

"You were yelling too, Shadow!" Knuckles said pointedly.

"Actually, it was more like he was growling!" Rouge giggled, "It actually sounded kind of funny! Shadow, if you can growl, can you also purr?"

"Shadow purring?" Knuckles laughed, "Can you just picture that?"

"I do not purr," Shadow growled.

"Well," Sonic asked, "I'm getting impatient, why were you running a lemonade stand? Tell me or I'll explode! And this better be good!"

"Actually I wouldn't mind you exploding!" Shadow smirked, "Alright, I'll tell you. I was running a lemonade stand to raise money to buy an electric guitar so I can make a punk/rock band." Shadow finished and took a breath; he had said all this very fast with one breath of air.

There was a long awkward silence, the birds chirped, the wind rustled through the grass, and a far off sound of cars honking seemed unbearably loud.

Rouge seemed mildly interested,

"Really?" she said shrugging, "sounds like fun."

Knuckles was confused,

"Why? What is the point of screaming cuss words and anti- um everything crud at a bunch of hormonally imbalanced teenagers?"

Sonic thought is was funny,

"What is up with you," he asked through his endless laughing, "who are you and what did you do with the real Shadow?" Sonic gave in to his laughing and just stopped talking.

Tails was sitting by the table downing all the lemonade behind Shadow's back.

"You do know that you need more than one person in a band, right?" Knuckles asked. "And besides, how much money is this 'electric guitar' and how much have you actually raised?"

"Well, to answer all of your questions, yes; because it is fun; I am the real Shadow; yes I do know; 400 dollars; and, if you all buy a cup of lemonade, 4 dollars!" He finished smirking.

"So, you are telling us that you have not raised any money at all?" Sonic asked dubiously. "I... I mean, as if I cared!"

"Come on, Sonic," Shadow said smirking again, "You can't tell me you wouldn't love to be on that stage, (Sonic's eyes widened) rocking hard and loud for what you believe in, (Sonic's eyes glazed over and he smiled) millions of fans and groupies screaming your name?" By now Sonic's mouth was hanging open and the star struck look on his face was the funniest thing there.

Knuckles wasn't impressed, "Why do you guys need people to show you you're great? Can't you just believe in yourself, instead of making complete idiots out of your selves to get attention, am I right, Rouge?" he asked looking to Rouge to back him up.

But Rouge was smiling into space, large stars in her eyes (A/N-sort of anime style).

"Asking Rouge to back you up?" Shadow asked, "I thought you knew better, Knuckles, we all know Rouge loves attention and admiration." Shadow leaned in closer to Knuckles and whispered in his ear, "You are so pathetic, you know you envy Sonic. You want attention so badly, you crave it. All your work, guarding that emerald, recovering it, facing near-death situations, the same as Sonic. It's all for naught, he gets all the glory and no one notices the last great echidna. You would make a great actor, but I can see through your act, this is a way to show the world how great you are. The road to fame and recognition goes this way. And Rouge is probably going to join!"

"You're wrong," Knuckles said, disturbed and unnerved, "I don't envy Sonic, I love peace, and fighting to keep it. I.. um I don't need p-people to look up t-to me" Knuckles was stuttering a little and having trouble breathing, "And, HEY! What was that about Rouge?"

"You know you want to, Knuckles," Shadow whispered, "Join me and we will all be the greatest force in the music industry!"

"Okay!" Knuckles gave in, "what the hell, I'll do it. But not for the reasons you mentioned. And don't tell anyone else about our conversation."

"Sure, whatever you say, Knuckles," Shadow's tone of voice suggested he didn't believe Knuckles at all, and perhaps wouldn't keep it a secret.

"Okay! Are you guys done talking now? Are we gonna make a band! Huh huh huh?" Tails was jumping up and down excitably, a look of sadness came over his previously overjoyed face. Then he said, "But we can't play any instruments, or have the money to buy them."

Sonic said, "No problem, little buddy, I bet you could build some awesome techno instruments for us." He then gave his signature thumbs up to Tails and the little fox's spirits were lifted almost instantly.

"Yeah, I think if I recalibrated the sound emitter and…" Tails got out a notepad and began scribbleing on it and mumbling to himself, apparently working on plans for the instruments.

"Well," said Knuckles, "We have, or will have, the instruments, except for Shadow's guitar. And then we'll need to learn how to play them, and then we need some songs of our own and we need to get 'discovered' and that should be it!"

"I think this will be fun!" said Rouge, "It'll be a nice change from government work and hunting jewels."

"I thought you said you were going to give that up!" Knuckles accused.

"Well, I sort of did!" Rouge defended, "I don't steal ones that have current owners anymore, I just take the ones that are lost or buried and things like that. Trust me, Knucklehead, I am a bat of my word."

"I said don't call me that," for the sake of being polite, she did keep her word really, he added a reluctant, "please."

"Hmm, let me think about that," she make a mock thoughtful face, "nope, you can't control what I say, but maybe I'll ease up a bit." Rouge gave a signature wink.

"Hey, lovebirds," Shadow interrupted, "Can we get out of here, Sonic and Tails already left and said they were heading toward the Mystic Ruins house/workshop. Let's catch up!"

Shadow ran off before either of them had anytime to reply, Knuckles blushed and, finding no words to express to save any embarrassment, glided off to follow Shadow and Rouge stood for a moment with her hands on her hips then flew off and followed Knuckles.

Tails' Workshop in the Mystic Ruins

(A/N-Well if you are wondering, the workshop is the workshop from Adventure 1, but now it has been built off of to make a larger house with a workshop attached, kay?)

Once Sonic and Tails had gotten there Sonic had crashed on the couch and turned on the TV and Tails went to the work shop room to work on plans for the instruments. Soon after Shadow arrived and told Sonic about what Knux and Rouge said after he left. Sonic grinned and said,

"I think that he really likes her."

Shadow replied,

"Yeah, but who knows how Rouge feels."

"I think she likes him back." Sonic said grinning some more.

Shadow looked amused and said,

"What makes you so smart, and how do you grin like that all the time?"

"It's easy, for Sonic the Hedgehog," He said, you guessed it, grinning, "And go away, you're blocking the TV."

"Silly question huh?" Shadow asked rhetorically as he walked into the kitchen to get something to eat.

Soon after Knuckles walked in, Sonic got a mysterious look in his eye and thought he would play with Knuckles' head for a minute, he stopped him in his tracks halfway across the living room with a short remark.

"You love her don't you?"

"Who?" Knuckles asked, feigning ignorance.

"You know who, Knux."

"No," he said, defiantly.

"Sure, we've all seen the signs, Knuckles. It's true," Sonic said, grinning.

Knuckles temper blew,

"Shut your face, Why would I? She tried to take it, she and I fought, she's so damn arrogant! Calling herself 'Worlds Greatest Treasure Hunter'. What a pain! She tried to take the Master Emerald, she has no idea how important it is!"

"More important than love?" Sonic asked.

"I said Shut up!" Knuckles yelled.

"Fine," Sonic said, "If that's what you believe."

Knuckles looked relieved and smirked, he looked Sonic in the eye and said,

"Shows how much you know!" Sonic grinned and said,

"I know the moon is made of blue cheese!" Knuckles waved him off and started to walk away smirking and saying,

"By the way, everyone knows the moon is made of green cheese"

"Shut up," Sonic said playfully, "it's made of blue cheese!"

"Green"

"Blue"

"Green!"

"Blue"

"GREEN!"

"Blue" Knux lost his temper again,

"Fine! God, why does it matter? Everyone knows the mood isn't even made of any cheese! It's just a chunk of stupid rock!" Knuckles stopped short realizing what he just said could apply to the Master Emerald. Sonic knew too, he said smugly,

"You're right, it is just a hunk of rock, and I'm right, you love her."

Knuckles glared at Sonic and ran out of the house, slamming the door so hard the window near it broke.

A moment later Rouge walked in staring strangely over her shoulder. She saw Sonic on the couch and asked,

"What was up with him?"

Sonic just shrugged, he didn't feel he needed to share that conversation with her just now, maybe someday she would know. She tried to pry him for information.

"Come on, I heard shouting, It sounded like Knuckles. Did you piss him off again?"

"Okay," said Sonic, "In my defense number one, it is hard not to piss Knux off. Number two, you can do a much better job of that that me, though I try, the trophy for getting Knuckles angry goes to you, no contest!" He grinned.

"Well, I do work hard to get my prize, but I wish he wasn't so,"

"So what?" Sonic interrupted, "Stubborn, Over-sensitive, Stupid? Well, I've known
Knux longer than you and he has always been that way, and it doesn't look like he is gonna change anytime soon. So don't hold your breath batgirl."

"Hey, I thought only Knuckles called me that?" She said realizing it for the first time.

"Yeah," smirked Sonic, "It just doesn't come out the same when you aren't bright red and angry. I won't do it again, for my own sake."

She smiled and went to get herself something to eat. Rouge entered the kitchen and saw Shadow fixing a sandwich that promised to have everything from ham to red chilies on it. She walked over to him saying,

"Leave all that out, okay? I'm hungry too."

"Okay, even the red chilies?" He asked smirking good naturedly.

"Well," said Rouge, "you can put those back, spicy foods don't agree with me at all."

Shadow finished his sandwich and Rouge took possession of the sandwich making supplies while Shadow put the red chilies in the fridge.

"Did you get him angry again," Shadow asked, "I heard the shouting."

"I think anyone within a 5 mile radius heard that, and the door slamming!" she said exasperatedly, "And I didn't do it, I had just heard the shouting and saw Knuckles run out of the house. And there was Sonic, sitting there watching TV, and by the look on his face anyone could tell he was the one who did it."

"You just said 'Knuckles'. Why don't you say 'Knucklehead' when he isn't around?"

"I don't know," said Rouge looking a little unnerved, "I guess it is just more fun to make fun of him when he's around to get mad at me."

"That is unbelievably selfish, even for you, Rouge," said Shadow, looking confused.