"Hey, Sonic! I feel like I haven't seen you all day! What's up?" Tails said from the living room couch as he heard Sonic open and shut the door.
Sonic sighed and started walking up the stairs. "Not too great, Tails. Just got into it again with Shadow. Nothing too serious."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Sonic. You know he is so quick to anger. Just don't take it personally - that's what Rouge always tells me too," Tails replied, looking up with a smile at Sonic.
"Yeah," Sonic replied with a soft smile at Tails. "I'll have to remember that." He waved to Tails with a good night and retired upstairs to his room. He let out another long sigh and took off his shoes before laying face down in his pillow. He groaned and tensed his muscles, clutching his sheets.
'Why did I think it would work with him? He hates everything… including me…' Sonic thought to himself.
Finally deciding not to sulk all evening, Sonic flipped over and turned on his nightstand's light. He pulled out his King Aruther's Tales book and flipped back to where he left off. He figured reading would take his mind off things and help bring him closer to falling asleep. Sleeping off the stress from today would probably be the best medicine, but Sonic couldn't stop himself from at least imagining how much better it would be with someone holding him tonight. Someone behind him, wrapping their arms around him and pulling him close while he read his book…
Sonic's wishful thinking got cut short when he heard a tck sound from his window. Looking over, he didn't see anything, so he shrugged it off. But, as soon as he started reading again, another tck came with another one right after. Sonic sat his book down and came out from under his blanket to look out the window.
The moon gleamed outside, but Sonic's backyard looked the same. Nothing was out of the ordinary and the tree was too far in the backyard to cause the branches to tap on the window. Tck! Sonic jumped back as he was startled by a small wood chip hitting the window. He quickly opened it and stuck his head out to look down. Shadow was standing below the window and tossing chips upward.
"Shadow! What the Hell are you doing?" Sonic whisper screamed.
"I wanted to see you again," he replied bluntly.
"You said you never wanted to see me again!" Sonic said back.
"I did not say that."
Sonic groaned and shut the window. He slid on his shoes and quickly made his way downstairs to talk to Shadow face to face. He jogged to the kitchen and opened the patio door, stepping outside into the cool night air.
"I thought you wanted nothing to do with me. Why are you throwing chips at my window?"
"I did not say that. I wanted to spend more time with you. You are burned into my memory."
Sonic crossed his arms and huffed. "Oh, so now that we are alone in the dark you want to flirt with me?"
Shadow walked closer to Sonic and spoke to him. "You do not understand. I cannot be seen."
"What? Seen with me? Why are you so ashamed about it? You are making me crazy like this!" Sonic threw his hands out and held onto his head.
Shadow grabbed Sonic's hands from his face and held them in his. His hands were cold, but Sonic hated how good it felt to be touched by Shadow. The black hedgehog berated him in public, yet he still wanted him close because he knew how quiet and well mannered he could be when alone like this. Sonic looked up at Shadow with a longing stare. Shadow looked back at him with desire. The space between their faces grew smaller. Sonic's eyes shut and he leaned in closer.
And then, a light turned on in the house. Shadow let go of Sonic's hands and started to run toward the fence. Sonic was in a daze but picked up on Shadow leaving him again.
"What is the matter with you?" Sonic shouted as he chased Shadow to the fence. Shadow was climbing over it and Sonic reached for his wrist. Shadow was falling onto the other side as Sonic's hand connected, pulling Shadow back, except Shadow was too far over. The force of Sonic's pull and the force of gravity caused Shadow's armpit to get jammed into the fence like an ax chopping a tree. Sonic was not able to stop himself before it was too late.
Sonic fell backward onto the grass of the backyard. The wind was knocked out of him and as he opened his eyes, Shadow was gone from the fence and missing into the night. Sonic looked to his hand and saw Shadow's arm still in it, still clutching the black hedgehog's arm at the wrist.
"Sonic! Are you okay?" Tails said running out from the patio door. He heard sounds and shouting from outside and came to investigate. He saw Sonic take Shadow down and ran to check on his friend.
"H-his, his a-arm fell off…" Sonic said in pure horror as he could not bring himself to let go of the limb from the shock.
"Sonic, it's okay. Look at the top, there isn't blood. It's wires!" Tails said, pointing to the shoulder of the severed arm.
"W-what? Wires?" Sonic was still hazed.
"Wires, Sonic! It is an artificial limb! That's why he was still able to run away. This probably didn't hurt him when it got torn off."
Sonic fell silent as he held the arm in his hands. He rubbed on it and poked the wires and metal rods sticking out from the top. 'Shadow… is a robot?' he thought silently.
"C'mon, Sonic. Let's go inside and have some coffee. I'll investigate this arm in my lab," Tails said as he helped Sonic off the ground. The two walked back inside and Sonic sat down at the kitchen table, setting the arm in his lap. Tails started a pot of coffee and got mugs out for him and Sonic. He took the arm from Sonic's lap and went to the garage to put it on a scanner. He was able to find a connection port and plugged it into his system for a full scan. While that was processing, Tails made coffees for himself and Sonic and sat down across from his hedgehog buddy.
"The scan shouldn't take long, and then I can figure out what is going on."
Sonic was silent and then spoke. "Do you think Shadow has been a robot this whole time and we just didn't know?"
Tails sipped his coffee and pondered the question. "Well, that is one possibility, but I have another idea. I am thinking that the Shadow you just saw was built by Eggman and the Shadow you saw earlier today was the real one we usually see."
"So, there is a duplicate Shadow that is a robot? But it looks and moves just like the real Shadow…"
"Eggman's technology has come a long way since Metal Sonic. It is not out of the realm of possibility that he could create a near-similar robot to mimic any of us at this point."
Sonic drank a gulp of his coffee hoping the caffeine would help him think better. This was all so sudden. If there really was a second Shadow, could that be why Shadow would sometimes be nice and other times be the biggest prick Sonic has to deal with? More importantly, was he falling for an artificial lifeform disguising as the ultimate lifeform?
"Oh my Chaos, this is all too much," Sonic groaned as he laid his head on the table.
"We will have some answers soon. My scan should be finished by now. Let me go check on it and I'll call you in a moment with what I find out."
