Don't give me that look. You knew this was coming. Sonic and Shadow… oh where do we start? First, reviews!

StarlightSparks: Manic is Scourge… I think my brain just vomited. Hate that guy. (I don't! Scourge is best villain! Your opinion means nothing, Era! SCOURGEY, DON'T LISTEN TO HER!) Don't care if you think its speculation, because I'm still going to say: Thank you for the compliment! I'm really hoping we're getting Manic's personality right. Thanks for the support! You're amazing!

ultimateCCC: Sounds like one to me to, but I think Rouge would deny until the day she died.

Zosonils: I love positive reviews! I'd say that three times, but I think Halo might hit me. (I love positive reviews! I love positive reviews! I love positive reviews! Ha, beat you to it.) Anyway, the updates are still going to be slow. I just happened to have this chapter almost done when school started so I only needed about a half to a full hour to finish it. As for the whole, 'stealing each other's hearts'… Have you been reading our outline? *face palm* Mania… Oh Chaos, I'm going to go hit something right now. Hope you enjoy Miles from Home!

gwencarson126: I am doing pretty well in life, thank you. Hope you're doing well too.

Quantum27: Yeah, figured that out. We'll fix it in this chapter.

Autumn: Manic the ladies man… eh, I think I like 'Thief Extraordinaire' better.

Wafflesbelike-NYANCAT: I wonder to! Not. Let's see if you saw this coming.

Um… Okay so how do I put this? I really, really, really, love these two as rivals. And especially in this story. To those who have read 'Miles from Home' you know that in this universe, Sonic has a very similar backstory to Shadow, yet the two are polar opposites. And that's what we're going to focus on this chapter. Also, I get to introduce you into a joke between my sisters and me. You'll see…

And then we have another headcanon of mine at the end of this chapter. Yay!

Recommended song: Elevated by State Champs AND Rise by Skillet

Sonic's POV:

"Ready, Faker?"

Shadow glared at me, "Are we seriously going to do this again?" He asked in his bored monotone.

I just smirked and stretched out my legs. "Are you afraid of losing?"

"No," he folded his arms and glared, "but no matter how many times we race, there is no final outcome."

With my signature smirk, I raised an eyebrow at the hedgehog, "Meaning…?"

"If I beat you, it is most likely that you will beat me next time. If you beat me, then it is most likely that I will beat you next time. It is pointless."

Amy called out from the sidelines, "He has a point! You're tied right now one hundred and two to one hundred and two."

Then I rolled my eyes, "Then let's get this race started! Tails, are you ready on your end?"

A crackled voice came from the other end of the course on my wrist communicator, "You bet! Camera is ready for the photo-finish."

Shadow huffed, "Do we really need that?"

"Duh. Otherwise it just looks like a tie to the naked eye." I crouched down in a runner's position. "Come on, faker. You know you want to."

"I would rather be at the shooting range." Shadow replied dryly.

"Faker…" I pleaded with large eyes, imploring him to race.

"If it will make you shut up, then I will do it. But under protest."

I made the motion of zipping my lips and Shadow sighed, exasperated. On the sidelines stood Amy and Rouge ready to start the race while Knuckles, Tails, and Cream sat at the end of the track.

The track itself was about forty miles. Ten through the city, ten through the forest outside the city, ten on a highway, and finally ten miles through the city again which ended at my house, where we had lemonade and chili dogs waiting (what? I get hungry after a good run).

Shadow nodded at me, indicating he was ready.

I saluted Amy, who raised a starting pistol, "Alright boys, remember. It's a race, not a fight." She looked at Shadow, "Which means no teleporting or chaos powers. Any questions?"

"Can we start already?" Shadow demanded, annoyed.

Rouge fluttered her wings slightly, "Well, there's no need to get crabby. And Shadow," she smiled, "Try and have a good time." Her partner only grunted in return.

Amy smiled, "Good luck to both of you! Take your mark…"

Shadow crouched down next to me and glanced in my direction. I smirked and to my surprise, he smirked back. Before I could comment, the starting gun rang out and the two of us took off leaving only blurs behind.

Can I just say that running with Shadow is one of the strangest, yet coolest things in the world?

Okay, that sounded weird. Let me rephrase that.

Shadow is… well, Shadow. That's really the best way to describe him. If you ever question why Shadow does something, the answer is almost always, 'Because he's Shadow.' I know that sounds completely crazy, but seriously! Why did Shadow punch the chili dog vender for no apparent reason? Because he's Shadow.

Okay, bad example.

Better example, Why does Shadow sometimes fight for GUN, but other times he works with Robotnik? Answer: Because he's Shadow.

So running a race with him is as random as rolling a twenty-sided die. Sometimes, he doesn't really care and just follows me. Other times… well, as you probably know, it wasn't really a race but more of an, 'I'm going to kill you' situation. And why is he like that? Because he's Shadow!

Alright, I'm done asking that question.

Anyway, back to the race!

The black hedgehog stayed in pace with me throughout the whole track. Whenever I began to speed up, he matched the speed and I had to move even faster to keep him from getting ahead. In other words, Shadow obviously wasn't looking to win, but knew I'd be annoyed if he didn't give me a run for my money. You have to say, at least he gives an effort.

But… I still won. By a nose. Literally, the picture Tails took at the end showed me ahead by a nose. And of course Shadow didn't act like he cared, but I'm pretty sure next time we had a little jog, he'd end up not letting me win whether it was through bribery or cheating (not at all that he's as fast as me).

Amy and Rouge joined us at the finish line about two minutes later, Amy to congratulate me and Rouge to scold her partner for letting me win. Shadow only grunted and I had to gently push Amy away from me. I can hardly breath sometimes when she hugs me, and it's not always because she's squeezing me too tightly.

Then all of us sat down at a picnic table and ate hot dogs. Amy had a hot dog with ketchup, mustard, and relish, sort of your average dog. I, of course, had a chili dog (shocker). Tails did like chili dogs, but more often than not leaned towards a cheese dog. Rouge chose a plain old hot dog with no condiments and Knuckles had a hot dog with shredded beef on top covered in barbeque sauce. How he hasn't had a heart attack yet is beyond me.

And then there was Shadow. The hedgehog would never admit it, even if you threatened him with death, but about a year after he 'returned from the dead', Rouge somehow dragged the depressed little guy out of whatever cave he lived in and brought him to a GUN barbeque. There, after he unceremoniously rejected everything that could possibly fit into the hot dog family (weirdo), I introduced him to a little something called hamburgers. So I guess you could say that Shadow is to hamburgers as I am to chili dogs. If you think I'm kidding then you see how he acts whenever I give him one of those things. No, he doesn't go all animal and gorge it down in two seconds and his eyes don't glaze over. In fact, he looks pretty normal. The guy just takes the burger without question and eats it. But still, no complaints, no annoyed looks. His expression is neutral the whole time.

Weird, right?

So while the faker ate his lunch in silence, everyone else laughed and joked around. Rouge and Knuckles were arguing about something, Amy and Cream were chatting with Tails and I, and Shadow was Shadow. After the meal, Cream suggested we played Frisbee and since no one can refuse her, we all started to play.

Shads stood on the edge of the area, but did participate (if only to make Cream happy). Every once in a while, I'd glance over in his direction, but didn't really think about anything in particular. But once, when I hit Knuckles in the head with the disk and the echidna chased after me around the park, I could have sworn he smiled.

We played a few more games in the park, and then Amy suggested we head over to her house and watch a movie. Since none of us had anything better to do, we all hopped on whatever vehicle we had and headed on over. I wanted to race Shadow again, but he insisted on taking his motorcycle.

Amy and Knuckles had their Extreme Gear while Tails and Rouge were just going to fly. Cream had flown over with Amy (how she flies with her ears…? I'm sure Tails has some explanation, but I don't want to listen to it), but now she asked Shadow if she could ride with him.

I sort of froze during my warm up stretches and listened in.

"Uh… I don't think that's a good idea, Cream."

"Please, Mr. Shadow! I'll be very good. Even Cheese will sit on my lap so you won't have to worry about him."

"Uh…"

Cheese chaoed gently and Cream looked at him with these pleading eyes.

"... Fine."

The two cheered and ran over to where his bike was parked.

And to my great surprise, I watched as Shadow allowed a small smile and joined the two. Yep, Shads has a soft side, especially when it involves Cream. Didn't matter how many times I saw it, it still surprised me. After a moment, I shook my head and sped off after everyone else. I did not want to be last.

Five minutes after everyone else arrived, Shadow and Cream walked in. Cream ran over and began to excitedly tell Amy about her drive. Apparently, Shadow did exactly what she wanted all the way over, including speeding through traffic and jumping off a ramp. Who knew Cream was such a thrill seeker?

Amy pulled out some movie that none of us had ever seen before. Knuckles wasn't happy because it was apparently a musical. Honestly, I didn't mind musicals that much, as long as the singing wasn't cringe worthy. So she popped in something called The Sound of Music. Maybe it was about a rock band or something.

For what happened next, I take full responsibility.

To everyone who has seen this musical, you know who the main character is. Her name is Maria. Yes, Maria. I know, we're idiots. Tell me something I don't know. So when the first 'Maria' popped up, nobody really thought much about it. But I noticed out of the corner of my eye Shadow tensing up. I glanced over at him just in time for the next 'Maria'. Remember how I said his eyes hadn't glazed over for the hamburger? Well, now they were.

And then it clicked in my brain. Oh Chaos.

I should have turned off the movie. I should have just flipped the switch and said, 'Let's watch something else!' But I didn't. Why? I was too angry with Amy for not thinking of this. I mean, Maria! That's like the taboo name! You say it in front of Shadow, YOU DIE.

So when the song, 'How do you Solve a Problem like Maria?' started, I had time to grab Cream and dive behind the couch as the TV exploded.

I peered out in time to see Shadow's back leave the room. No one moved.

Cream popped up and looked at the now obliterated television. "Miss Amy, I think we need to replace our TV. We must have been watching it too much." Leave it to Cream to find a strange, innocent explanation to any given situation. I patted her on the back and told her to go tell her mother about the TV. When she was out, I whirled around and pointed at Amy.

"Amy! Why would you turn on a movie where the main character's name is… ya' know!"

Her face went a shade paler. "Oh. My. Chaos. I completely forgot!"

Face palm. "How do you forget about that? I mean, he almost blew up the planet over that one thing."

Rouge examined the smoking heap that used to be Amy's TV set. "Well, at least he only killed the TV and no one else."

"I think we're all thanking Chaos that he didn't completely snap," Knuckles mumbled under his breath. Tails agreed wholeheartedly and went to go help clean up the mess.

Amy grabbed a broom for the broken glass, "I am so sorry. It never even entered my mind. I swear, I didn't mean anything by it."

I rolled my eyes, "Don't apologize to us. Apologize to him." I jerked my finger towards the hall.

Rouge said something about letting him cool off and I heard Tails mumble to Knuckles, "I knew we should have just watched a war movie or something. He seems to like those."

While everyone else started to clean up the mess of twisted metal and shrapnel, I slipped out of the room and onto the back porch.

Shadow was standing on the top step, his arms folded. His gaze was locked on the horizon as the sun started to set. Quietly, I slipped up beside him and sat down. Neither spoke nor moved, but just stared out at the sunset in silence.

Shadow sighed softly, refusing to look at me. "...Sorry about the TV."

"No need to apologize." I replied, "It's my fault anyway."

"I should have just left without a word. Didn't really think."

I smiled, "Hey, I would have done the same thing. Although, I think I would have picked the thing up and thrown it out the window. Not blow it up. But hey, that's just my preference."

"Didn't mean to. Emotions sometimes... take over."

Again, there was silence. My thoughts drifted from the actual incident to just Shadow in general.

The guy had been through a lot in his… long life. Although fifty of those years he had technically been in hyper sleep. But still, he had watched his best friend, and in some ways his sister, die right in front of him and he couldn't do anything about it. She died to save his life.

And I knew what that felt like. I still had nightmares about my parents being engulfed in flames and Uncle Chuck's house in ruins. If I had been watching a movie that sang about my siblings or parents… well, I'd want to destroy something too.

Think that was when it hit me how much the faker and I were alike. No, not personality wise, but in terms of our actual backgrounds. Both of us had lost our families to something out of our control, and someone had sacrificed themselves to save us. Both of us had witnessed that death and were unable to stop it, Shadow being trapped and I being too young. In our own special ways we lost our personalities, or at least original personalities. I had no idea what Shadow was like before ARK was shut down, but I had changed, mostly small changes, but they were still changes. Shadow… I wasn't sure if I wanted to see what he was like. He may have liked the color pink. Now, that would be terrifying.

But what I found interesting was the fact that even though both of us experienced similar tragedies, we didn't turn out the same way. Not at all. When my parents died, I was a beggar on the street for about four years before manning up and fighting Robotnik. I didn't want the mad man to do to someone else what he did to me. No more families could just be destroyed without me doing everything I could to save them.

Shadow woke up and immediately went on the whole 'revenge path'. No stopping to think about it or wanting a better option, but just destroy all humanity. Kinda makes you wonder what exactly went through his head as he supposedly died protecting that same planet he was trying to destroy.

If I had made a difference choice that day Robotnik ruined everything, I could be just like Shadow.

That's a scary thought.

I don't want to be him! He's so… Shadowy. At least I wouldn't be part alien (I have no idea what to think about that whole Black Arms incident). But you don't see me moaning or flipping a table whenever someone mentions the name Sonia, or Manic.

Okay, enough comparing. My brain is about to explode or vomit, and both are bad.

I stood up and turned back to the house. I paused next to Shadow, "See ya around, Shads."

"Don't call me that."

I smirked, "Whatever, Faker." I walked to the back door and swung it open.

"Hedgehog," Shadow called.

I paused and turned around.

Shadow looked back at me, "Rematch next week?"

A smirk slid onto my face, "You're so on." As I walked back in and joined my friends, I couldn't help but think that Shadow was smiling.

Well, that was FUN. No seriously, that was fun. I died of laughter sometimes.

Before I forget: www. .com P.S.-Halo You know you could have just said that it's the same username. Then they could have just looked you up and save us the embarrassment or having a www on the screen. (Thanks a lot, Era. I feel great.)

Okay, so joke with my sisters. Here's the Joke: Sonic loves Chili Dogs. Tails loves Cheese Dogs. Silver loves Hot Dogs. Shadow… likes(?) Hamburgers.

Don't ask how we came up with that. It's a long story.

Another joke: Shadow freaking out during Sound of Music. This one was a little insensitive, but you have to admit that it was kind of funny. And Shadow would totally blow up the TV. No doubt.

Last Joke: A friend of mine and I always were writing fanfiction in our heads and used Shadow a lot. When we had Shadow do something and couldn't really figure out why he did it, but we knew he'd do it we'd just say, "Because he's Shadow."

Anything else I need to explain?

Oceanera's Headcanon #3: Shadow's Personality before Maria's death was very similar to Sonic's current Personality

Um, yeah, I know it sounds a bit strange, but I think that Shadow had a very similar personality to Sonic's before… ya know. And when I say similar, I mean almost exactly the same. Slight differences, but originally, I think Shadow was a thrill seeking, adventure loving, speedy little hedgehog. Yeah, he had his serious moments (Sonic X conversation with Maria), but he was mostly upbeat. Just a little more down to earth and not a complete idiot. I don't know how Sonic is still alive. Halo says she could see him as bookworm. I guess I could see that. Shadow reading books all day with Maria. There's something I'd love to see. I know, it's creepy to think of him like that. But that's what I think. Then one gunshot changed him to that cold hearted angsty guy we all know and love today.

Personally, I love Shadow's story arc, no matter how bad it is at some points (aliens? Seriously SEGA? Just what the Chaos were you thinking with aliens?). But (dare I say it?) he is probably the best character SEGA has made. Why?

One, you know his backstory. I mean, Sonic is a good character, but we have no idea about his past life (unless you count Archie). And that goes for everyone in SEGA. I love knowing about a character's background because I think that your history defines who you are. And despite some of the extreme stretches in reality (ALIENS), he makes sense.

Two, he's a really good anti-hero (we do NOT count Sonic Boom video games… I just cringe every time). I love Anti-heroes and sometimes they turn out wrong (I am personally not a fan of Wario… Is he an anti-hero? I don't really know (He's not. He's just annoying)). But I have to say that Shadow is really well played out in most of the games. He's still this big downer and he still isn't completely over the whole Maria thing (Despite what he says. I don't really think he left his past behind in Shadow the Hedgehog…)

But even if he has all of his problems, he's still Shadow (*face palm* I can't believe I quoted him just there… Didn't mean too. I swear.) and he probably is one of the more rounded characters in SEGA. If you don't agree with me, I'd love to hear why. Just remember that I respect your opinion. Please respect mine.

Okay, enough of me babbling. Review please!