Chapter Six

The portal closed behind the hedgehogs and they stood together in the middle of a city. It was lacking life and city sounds which confused the three as it looked like a regular city with buildings intact, roads not broken up and sidewalks all perfect like they should be.

"Ok I give what's wrong with this picture apart from the lack of life here?" Sonic said with a small frown, now completely recovered from the shocks from that other dimension.

"I have no idea, everything looks peaceful enough so why is it empty?" Shadow said as they looked around.

"Maybe if we take a wonder around we might find something out." Silver suggested with a frown.

So with that agreed they walked forwards while all keeping their guard up just in case something jumps out and attacks them. They wondered about for an hour yet nothing happened, no one jumped out and attacked, no one happened to appear and no signs of life anywhere.

"I don't like this, it's far to quiet and dead." Silver muttered with a worried expression.

"Yeah no good comes from a very quiet place. Something very bad is bound to happen soon." Sonic agreed with concern for their safety.

"I am sure if that was going to happen then it would have by now. We've been here for just over an hour walking about therefore if there is life around here then they would have seen us." Shadow said as he kept looking around as they walked while also trying to believe his own words for he too was growing concerned.

"Hey look over there, there's a newspaper on that bus bench. Maybe it will tell us what is going on." Silver said as he pointed to said bench across the road.

The three crossed and Sonic picked the newspaper up.

"Ok wow the date is Friday 14th June 2537...so future city, cool." Sonic said with a cheerful tone.

"Yeah, so cool and exciting this empty city is." Shadow sarcastically said with an overly cheerful voice.

"Yeah, yeah I get ya." Sonic rolled his eyes to his boyfriends sarcasm then opened the paper.

"Bla-bla-bla something about a missing person. Bla-bla-bla something about an election. Bla-bla-bla something about an active volcano. Bla-bla-bla something about..." Sonic indifferently said as he turned pages then was interrupted.

"Wait active volcano, go back and read the article." Shadow said with concern as this volcano could be the reason this city was empty.

"Ok it says...local volcano due to erupt and an evacuation is being organised to get all citizens out and to a safe location. Highly trained scientists are monitoring the volcano and will be reporting back any and all active of the volcano. They predict it will blow it's top on Tuesday 18th June so the evacuation process will happen on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June. No one is to stay in the city and no one is to return until the safety checks have been done and the all clear has been called." Sonic read and worry began to be heard in his voice the more he read.

"So it hasn't blown it's top yet, that's good I guess." Silver said with a sigh.

"Either today is Monday or they got the eruption day wrong." Shadow casually said with a shrug for if things did go bad they could always get the hell out of here by jumping to the next zone.

Sonic placed the paper back on the bench then ran his fingers through his quills as he took a moment to think about this.

"I say we either stay and look around some more and risk this volcano thing or just go to another alternate dimension and play it safe." Shadow seriously said as he crossed his arms and looked at his boyfriend and friend.

"What's the likelihood today is Tuesday? Judging by the clear sunny skies and the sun being at its highest point, I say this volcano isn't going to blow today." Sonic confidently said with a grin at his overly cautious boyfriend.

"Sonic has a point I mean look around us, not a single sign the volcano is erupting or about to erupt." Silver said with a smile at Shadow.

"Oh and I suppose you both are experts in volcanoes and telling when they will blow and knowing the signs beforehand. I say we leave now." Shadow said with some frustration in his voice.

"Two against one babe, we stay." Sonic smugly said with a wink at Shadow.

"Fine but that volcano could blow at any time and if it does while we are here then I'm blaming you both if we end up trapped or injured." Shadow mumbled as he turned his head away from the two, clearly delusional, hedgehogs he was with.

"Chill babe it ain't going to erupt today." Sonic chuckled as he looked at his boyfriend.

"I wonder if this worlds versions of us were evacuated too." Silver said in wonder.

"I say we go check out that volcano." Sonic grinned then before either Shadow or Silver could protest he grabbed their wrists and shot off, dragged the two with him.

"Sonic let go, this is a stupid idea even for you!" Shadow called out as he was practically flying while he was pulled along at super sonic speeds.

"I agree!" Silver called and, like Shadow, was flying as Sonic ran very, very fast.

"Ok!" Sonic called then skidded to a stop.

It was only thanks to Sonic holding onto their wrists that both Shadow and Silver didn't fly forward and crash at the mountain base.

Meanwhile...

"Hug back Zhadow, you know you want to." Zonic said as he laughed at Zhadow being hugged tightly by Black Doom.

"No, he is not my father so why should I. Now unhand me and put me down!" Zhadow shouted out with frustration as he struggled to break free.

"I will not until you hug back Zhadow." Black Doom said with amusement in his voice.

"Zhadow and Shadow from a different dimension are very similar." Maria giggled as she held baby Shadow and feeding him a bottle.

"So they were here. Did they appear to be looking for someone or just visiting?" Zonic asked as he went all serious while looking at Maria and Gerald.

"Erm...they didn't mention they were looking for someone but then again they weren't here for that long." Maria said in thought while looking down at baby Shadow suckling on his bottle.

"Right thanks, Zhadow it is time to go." Zonic said with some frustration in his voice then turned his head to look at his colleague.

"Seems like he is enjoying that hug." Gerald said with a grin as Zhadow was cuddling into Black Doom with a huge smile on his muzzle.

"Give me a minute here Zonic, it's been a while since I last hugged someone." Zhadow softly said back making Zonic groan.

"At least Zhadow admits when he is enjoying something." Doom said softly as he looked down at the Zone cop he held in his arms securely.

Back with the Zone hoppers...

"You just had to drag us to the volcano didn't you, you just couldn't stop yourself from..." Shadow began to rant with frustration when suddenly the ground began to shake and thick black smoke began to leave the volcano's head.

"Oh look at that guys it's volcano day." Sonic said with a chuckle as he looked up.

"So you dragged us both here in hope it was going to blow it's top just to say some cheesy line." Silver dryly said with an unimpressed expression at Sonic.

"Sue me besides we will never get an opportunity to say that line back home." Sonic replied as he stopped looking up and over at Silver and Shadow.

"We are..." Shadow began but paused as a loud explosion cut him off.

"Yeah time to go." Sonic said as the volcano was officially active and very dangerous now.

Sonic and Shadow very quickly got their chaos emeralds out, crossed them and said chaos control. They all ran in fast then the portal snapped shut just in time to avoid a large boulder from smashing down on them.