Chapter Four
They exited the portal and looked around their new surroundings with curious looks. They had appeared in some corridor made of metal all around. The floors were metal, the walls were metal and even the ceiling was made of metal apart from the strip lights.
"Ok we are leaving, lets go Sonic." Shadow said as he knew exactly where they were and did not want to be here another second.
"Shadow chill, this isn't the ARK from our world so what could possible be different? I mean the worst that could be here is that Maria and Gerald are alive and you don't exist." Sonic said as he took Shadows hand then pulled him down the corridor with Silver following.
"That's not a bad thing…I mean the part that Gerald and Maria are alive not the part that you don't exist, that's not a bad thing." Silver said with a calm expression but as soon as Shadow shot him the ever famous death glare he corrected his wordings very quickly.
"Fine but if anything freaky weird happens then I am blaming you." Shadow mumbled as he excepted his fate and allowed Sonic to carry on dragging him further into the ARK.
"Shadow what could possible be here that...forget I was going to say anything." Silver said with confidence but when they walked into a large room he stopped trying to assure Shadow.
"Er hi?" Sonic said nervously at who was in the room, all stopping and standing by the entrance area.
"That is just so messed up, more so than the last zone." Shadow whispered as he was unable to believe his own eyes right now.
"This is impossible." Gerald said with shock as he looked at the zone hoppers.
"Grandpa is that really Shadow?" Maria asked as she too looked at the three nervous looking hedgehogs near the entrance way.
"Looks like my son grows up and makes plenty of friends." Black Doom calmly said as he held an infant version of Shadow to his chest, the infant fast asleep.
"Why is it that every zone we go to that has a version of Black Doom, it appears me and him have a far better relationship than we had our own world?" Shadow said with a deep frown as he was seriously getting a little ticked off about this.
"Actually yeah you have a good point love, maybe you both were supposed to but never happened because he was bent on destroying Mobius and you were bent on protecting it." Sonic said with a shrug then walked further in to say a proper hello and dragging Shadow with him for he was still holding Shadows hand, not letting go until they reached in front of this worlds versions of Gerald, Maria, baby Shadow and Black Doom.
"This is not going to end well." Silver sighed then began to walk over too.
"So." Shadow casually said as he looked up at Black Doom and more specifically his other world self.
"So." Black Doom replied back as he looked down at Shadow with a look of interest in his three eyes.
"You get out much?" Shadow asked with little interest.
"Shadow at least sound like you are interested in talking to your dad." Sonic said as he rolled his eyes and smiled at the three they were in front of.
"It is a little hard to do when he tried to kill me in our world, using me before then. So I am so sorry I cannot find the interest in having a casual conversation with him." Shadow said with some sarcasm in his voice, crossed his arms and looked away from all with a grumpy expression.
"Gerald please take Shadow." Black Doom calmly said as he started to hand the infant over to Gerald.
Gerald took little Shadow into his arms carefully then all watched Black Doom float closer to Shadow. Shadow frowned with a somewhat dry expression as he turned his head to watch Black Dooms movements. Doom stopped right in front of Shadow then brought his arms out and grabbed Shadow into a tight embrace with no escape.
"Ahh! What are you doing? Put me down!" Shadow said as he was lifted off his feet and hugged tightly by this worlds version of his alien father.
"Oh man I so should have brought a camera." Sonic laughed out as he looked at Shadow struggling to break free of that seriously unexpected hug.
"Now, now my son do not fight it." Black Doom calmly said as he kept tight arms around Shadow.
"Yeah Shadow don't fight your other dimensional father and except his hug." Silver teased with a highly amused grin at what he was seeing.
"Oh Shadow, being hugged by your father is a good thing." Maria sweetly said with a smile in Shadows direction.
"I'm not going to let you go until you hug back." Doom said factually and there was a look of promise in his eyes as he looked down at Shadow.
"H-how can he hug back when you have his arms within your grasp?" Sonic asked with sniggers here and there.
"I will not, now unhand me at once!" Shadow shouted as he lent away from Black Doom the best he could while also trying to wriggle free.
"Yo Silver give Doom a hand." Sonic whispered over to Silver.
Silver grinned with a nod then tapped into his powers, concentrating on Shadow.
"Huh w-what is... Silver I swear I will end you!" Shadow shouted out aggressively for he found himself being forced to lean towards Black Doom then had his body and head against Black Doom as he was made to hug back.
"There, there Shadow. I am sure your worlds version of me never meant anything by what he did to you." Black Doom softly said as he moved one hand and patted Shadow on the head a few times while talking.
Both Sonic and Silver were sniggering in the background, mainly because by now Silvers hold on Shadow was dropped and Shadow kept to that hugging position with no movements to break free.
"Why is this comforting?" Shadow thought as he never made any efforts to move and began to relax.
"Aw this is so adorable." Maria said with a smile.
"Oh most definitely adorable Maria." Sonic said with amusement in his tone.
After another minute Black Doom gently placed Shadow back on his feet and floated backwards so he was once again next to Gerald who was rocking side to side with baby Shadow in his arms.
"Wow you made Shadow totally speechless." Silver said with a grin as Shadow had yet to move or say anything.
"I think you broke him. Shads you ok?" Sonic said as he looked at Shadow with some concern now.
"I...erm." Shadow whispered as he kept his eyes locked on Black Dooms.
"Yep he's a goner. Sorry Sonic but you might want to drag Shadow to therapy when we get back home." Silver said with a small frown as now he was growing concerned.
"Well it was great seeing you all but I do believe it's time for us to leave." Sonic said with a forced smile at the three then walked over to Shadow and grabbed his arm.
"Yeah bye and don't worry about Shadow, he will snap out of it." Silver said as he smiled at the three.
After good byes were said, well Shadow was still in his sort of comatose state, Sonic guided Shadow out of the room with Silver following.
"He enjoyed our hug by the way!" Black Doom called out with some amusement before the three hedgehogs completely left the room.
"No I did not!" Shadow shouted as that brought him back and wasn't sounding all that confident with his denial.
"See told ya he will snap out of it!" Silver called back with a smile.
"Sure, you keep denying it my son!" Doom chuckled as he watched Shadow turned around and give him an angered glare.
Sonic sighed and pulled Shadow along, making Shadow walk backwards then they finally left the room.
"How about we go to our next destination, ready love?" Sonic said as they all stopped a little down the corridor away from that room.
"Very much so." Shadow seriously said as he got his chaos emerald out.
Meanwhile...
"That was a close one." Zonic said as he and Zhadow walked out of a portal and only just escaped over a dozen hungry aggressive Black Arms.
"Agreed but where are we now?" Zhadow casually said with a look of indifference.
"Hello!" A female called out as she walked over to the two Zone cops.
"Oh my great God, y-you are a, a girl!" Zhadow laughed and was finding this hilarious.
"Oh more zone hoppers." Sonia cheerfully said with a happy smile.
"There were others here? Where are they, are they still here?" Zonic seriously asked as he tried so hard to ignore Zhadow laughing beside him.
"Yeah three hedgehogs and they left over three hours ago." Sonia said with a smile.
"Right thank you Miss and Zhadow quit laughing, we need to get moving." Zonic said with some annoyance in his tone.
"You're a damn girl Zonic and a very pretty girl at that." Zhadow said with amusement as he began to calm down.
"Good bye and ignore my colleague." Zonic sighed with a shake of his head.
Zonic made a portal, grabbed Zhadows arm and dragged him through leaving a happily smiling Sonia behind.
