A/N: Hello, readers! Sorry for the wait, but I hope you enjoy this next chap. And I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
Btw, just watched the cutscenes of Sonic Frontiers, and has anyone else noticed how sad it actually is? I won't give any spoilers, but it hit close to home for me.
ANYWAYS, happy reading! Don't forget to leave a vote and a comment to let me know what you think!
...
Sonic and Shadow rocketed towards the scream before anyone else could blink, the two hedgehogs disappearing in streaks of blue and black.
"Shadow! You got a point?" Sonic yelled through their wind stream.
The dark agent tilted his head slightly before pouring more power into his strides.
"Two o'clock! Hard right!"
As a single unit, the two hedgehogs turned sharply and navigated around the labyrinth of metal buildings. The frantic child's cries acted as a homing beacon for the two, but with the city made completely of metal, it was hard to find a direct location with sound constantly bouncing off the walls with a frustrating echo.
"There!" Sonic yelled and pointed to his left, and the two brothers raced to the scene.
All Sonic saw for the next few seconds were Swatbots as he and Shadow tore through them like paper with their spindashes. His ears rang with the sound of metal bending with a deafening whine every time he slice through them. He always hated these old designs; now he remembered why.
"Chaos spear!" Shadow commanded, and a bolt of golden light decapitated the last Swatbot, rendering it useless. The onyx hedgehog curled his hands into fists, ruby eyes searching the now deserted public space for more combatants.
"I think that's the last of 'em," Sonic said carefully, "We're good."
"If the doctor didn't know we were here, he does now," Shadow growled but forced himself to calm down.
The fight's over, he thought and took a deep breath, The fight's over. Focus.
"Do you see the kid anywhere?"
Sonic frowned at the older hedgehog but then he started scanning the impromptu battlefield for the one that first alerted them to the scene. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of red fur ducking behind a stack of crates, and the azure prince gently made his way over.
"Hey, it's okay," he said softly to the small form hiding in the shadows, "Those dumb bots won't hurt you anymore. They're all gone now."
"Promise?"
Sonic gave him his most winning smile, throwing in a wink and a thumbs up for good measure. "Promise. Why don't you come on outta there and let me and my bro make sure you're okay?"
Sonic backed away and waited for several beats of silence, wondering whether the kid would actually come out of his hiding place, when he heard the telltale shuffle of sneakers on the concrete ground.
He was a wolf pup, his red fur matted and covered in soot in some places. His amber eyes were red from crying, though there was also a certain cloudiness to them Sonic couldn't quite understand. Standing up, the kid was maybe a few inches short than Tails.
But instead of the customary white gloves most mobians had, his were green and black, matching his scuffed up ankle boots and the frayed belt hanging loosely off his too-thin frame.
The kid took one look at Sonic before his eyes strayed to Shadow, and he immediately took a step back in fear. Seeing his hesitation, Sonic quickly stepped in.
"Aw, that's just Shadow. He won't hurt ya. In fact, he actually helped me take down some of those big bad robots."
Shadow slowly walked up to the two and followed Sonic's example of kneeling in front of the frightened child.
"It's okay," he reassured him, "I'm here to help."
The little wolf sniffed and rubbed his nose. His eyes going wide as he gaped at the agent. "You talk."
For some reason, Shadow found himself smiling. "Not as much as Sonic here, but, yes, I do."
"The others didn't talk," the pup mumbled, and the two hedgehogs frowned.
"What others?" Sonic asked.
The wolf hugged himself but didn't answer, shaking his head forcefully.
"It doesn't matter," Shadow stated, catching both of them off guard, "Let's make sure you're okay. Did any of those robots hurt you?"
"One of them grabbed me before you got here," he answered slowly and held his arm out to show a rapidly forming bruise. "But you took them out before they could take me to the roboticizer."
Sonic's ears perked up in surprise while Shadow examined the kid's injured arm.
"Why would they try to roboticize you?!"
"I tried to steal an apple from one of the food carts. One of the Swatbots saw me, and I ran," he explained, wincing slightly when Shadow pressed lightly on the bruise, "But then it called for reinforcements, and they cornered me."
The young wolf started to whimper as he realized just how close he was to losing the only life he ever knew. Shadow instantly looked up at the sound.
"Hey, kid," he began, his voice lowering to a softer tone that Sonic had never heard before. The pup looked up and barely held eye contact with the Ultimate Lifeform.
"You're safe now," Shadow continued, "We won't let them get you. Now, why don't you tell us your name?"
"People call me Gadget because of the cool junk I find in the scrap yard and this grappling hook I made," he added, holding up his uninjured arm to display his homemade grapple, "That's the only name I've got."
Shadow nodded and rubbed his free hand behind the pup's head. "Okay, Gadget, I'm gonna need you to listen to me very carefully. You know those bright lights I used to take down the Swatbots?"
Gadget nodded mutely, and Shadow gave him a tiny, encouraging smile.
"Those lights can also help me heal someone when they get hurt. I'm going to make your arm feel better, but you're going to feel a little bit of pressure right here," he rubbed his fingers behind the pup's head to show where, "It won't hurt, but it might feel a little weird. Just try not to fight it, okay?"
Gadget sucked in a sharp, ragged breath and gave him a determined nod.
Shadow closed his eyes and activated his chaos powers. Healing a bruise was a light enough task not to drain him, and it gave him the perfect opportunity to also get some answers from the pup's frazzled mind.
As soon as he established a temporary link, he could see everything through Gadget's eyes. Unfortunately, almost every memory and image was a blurry clump of colors and shapes. Shadow tried going further back, hoping that maybe the pup had just hit his head, but all of the images stayed the same.
Being careful not to follow the issue too deeply, he quickly sought for one specific incident two years ago, when the Black Arms invaded Möbius. As he suspected, the nightmarish creatures were hulking masses of black and red, bearing a sickening resemblance to himself.
Shadow instantly knew why Gadget had been afraid of him, and he quickly extricated himself from the pup's mind. He had to blink forcefully several times to get his eyes readjusted to his surroundings after seeing nothing but blurs, but thankfully neither of the other two saw.
"Wow, thank you, Mr. Shadow! This is the best I've felt since…well, ever!"
Apparently, he had let his chaos healing do much more than heal a single bruise. Gadget's fur, while still dirty, had a relatively healthy sheen to it, and his body no longer looked like he was on the edge of starvation. Only the slight opaqueness remained in his honey-colored eyes, but that was something even Shadow couldn't fully heal.
Shadow grunted slightly when the young wolf glomped him in a tight hug, and Sonic snickered. The older hedgehog huffed and rolled his eyes, feeling a little sick after giving up so much of his own energy. With how tired he was feeling, he suspected that Gadget must have had some internal issues that his chaos powers took care of.
"No, problem, kid, but you're kinda choking me," Shadow coughed and patted the pup gently.
Gadget pulled back and laughed sheepishly, "Whoops, sorry. But thanks again. I can't remember the last time I felt this good."
Sonic and Shadow stood, and the blue hero was surprised that he had to help steady his former rival. A look of concern flickered in his emerald eyes that Shadow ignored.
"You have anywhere to go, kid?"
Gadget scratched his ear thoughtfully. "Um…"
Shadow sighed, "Thought so. Come on."
"Wait what?" Sonic choked. There's no way Shadow just—
"We're on our way to a Resistance base. I'm sure we can find you a place to stay and hopefully some food."
Gadget laughed giddily, unaware that his tail was wagging enthusiastically as he stumbled after the hedgehog.
Sonic smiled to himself and shook his head. Shadow always had a soft spot for kids, he realized, not just Cream.
The kid's half blind, Shadow's voice echoed in his mind, I'm surprised he's lasted on the streets as long as he has, but I don't want to take any chances.
Understood, he thought back, smirking slightly at his ebony brother, I always knew you had a heart under all that fluff, Shads.
Get blunted, Faker.
Sonic shook his head with a light laugh before turning his gaze to the newest addition to their team.
"You're going to love our other friends, Gadget. There's my other brothers and sister, Tails, Manic, and Sonia. They're way past cool. Then there's Uncle Chuck and Muttski the Robo-dog, who's actually really friendly," he added after seeing the grimace on Gadget's muzzle. "Then you've got Knuckles and Amy and Rouge. You'll definitely like Cyrus and Tails though."
"Why's that?"
"Because they're both really smart with all kinds of gadgets and gizmos. Just like you."
"Wow! I can't wait!" he exclaimed. His foot accidentally clipped the edge of destroyed Swatbot leg right in front of him, and the pup went careening forward. He would have landed on his face had Shadow not caught him by the arm.
"Careful."
Gadget hung his head. He knew he should have been able to see the shrapnel and step over it, but he also knew that his eyes didn't work as good as everyone else's. He sniffed. These nice people would leave him as soon as he found out he wasn't useful to the Resistance just like the last person that helped him.
But they had saved him from being captured and roboticized, so maybe they wouldn't throw him out. He didn't want to hope though. He'd learned the hard way that just because someone was nice to him now didn't mean they stayed that way.
To his surprise, the dark furred mobian held out a blurry hand to him, and Gadget hesitantly took it.
"I gotcha, kid. Don't worry."
"Thanks," he mumbled before yelling out in surprise when he was suddenly lifted into the air and balanced on one of the man's shoulders.
"You've been running for a while," he explained simply, "and you weigh almost nothing. I can do enough walking for the both of us."
"You sure you're okay, Shads?" Sonic asked. He hadn't missed the way his brother had stumbled or how he looked a good deal more tired than he had even after fighting the Swatbots. Shadow was strong; he shouldn't look that exhausted so quickly.
The ebony hedgehog glared sharply at the blue blur and readjusted his hold so Gadget wouldn't fall off.
"I'm fine. Besides, I need the exercise."
"Since when?" Sonic laughed, "We just took on a whole squad of bots."
"A worthy warm up," he shrugged, making Gadget giggle and hold on to his quills to keep from being dislodged. Shadow smirked.
"Why? Feeling tired, Sonic?"
"Not on your life, Shads."
"I told you to stop calling me that."
"And since when did I ever listen? I thought you'd give up by now. You're stuck with it."
"Sonic! Shadow!"
All three pairs of ears perked up at the sound, and they turned to see Amy waving at them with the rest of their friends and family behind her.
"There you guys are!" the pinkette cheered, though she tilted her head in confusion as she watched Shadow take a little red wolf off his shoulder and set him on his feet.
"Who's that?" Rouge asked.
Sonic grinned. "Team, meet Gadget. He's going with us to the Resistance's base."
"Was he the kid we heard back at the warehouse?" Cyrus asked, and Gadget lowered his gaze.
"Yeah," Sonic replied.
Knuckles held out a hand to the wolf and smiled. "You got one powerful set of pipes, kid. I'm Knuckles."
"Hi," he answered shyly and took the hand. When he let go, he surprised the group by running back to Shadow and hiding behind his legs. Said hedgehog raised an eyebrow at the pup.
"Hey, little dude, it's okay. We ain't gonna hurt ya," Manic called to him. Gadget poked his head out at the familiar accent but refused to budge.
"These are the friends Sonic told you about," Shadow stated, "They won't hurt you. I promise."
Muttski, oblivious to the rising tension, barked and scampered up to the kid, wagging his tale and playfully licking the wolf. Shadow took his chance to back away from the pair, and Sonic crossed his arms with a light chuckle at how easily his old pet got along with the kid.
Gadget would open up to the others eventually. Sonic was sure of that. It would just a take a little time, that's all.
He still couldn't believe Shadow had metaphorically and literally just picked him up off the street. But at the same time, it kinda matched Shadow's personality.
The way he looked after Cream back in Green Hills. The way Charmy seemed to idolize him. Sonic just wished he could figure out the reason why kids seemed to gravitate to the one even whole government agencies were wary of.
"We need to hurry if we're going to make it to the base in time," Shadow stated, "Manic, you take point."
"Take what now?"
Shadow sighed audibly. "Lead us to the base. We're burning daylight standing around like this."
"Oh! Uh, right. Come on, gang. This way!"
"Manic," Sonia interrupted, "the base is the other way."
"I knew that," he replied a little too quickly and adjusted his course, "Just makin' sure you knew that. This way, everybody."
Tails pumped his fist in the air. "All right! Headquarters, here we come!"
……
A/N: There we are, folks! Hope you enjoyed that little surprise I threw in there for you.
If you didn't already know, which would actually really surprise me if you didn't, Gadget is NOT an OC. He's one of the characters from the game Sonic Forces. I know he's around the same age as the main heroes in the game, but hey, my story my rules.
Anyways, don't forget to let me know what you think. My internet diet consists mostly of your feedback. Thanks for reading!