"Wait! This thing can fly?!" Sonic exclaimed as Jimmy went into the cockpit. Martin nodded.
"Yep! Today we're heading for the African savannah! You say you're the fastest thing alive, and I want to see you prove it."
"Is that a challenge?" Sonic smirked with his arms crossed knowingly. He could've sworn that he heard Shadow chuckle at Martin's mention of a race. He has no idea what he's getting himself into, the darker hedgehog thought.
"You bet!"
"You mentioned something about a creature power suit," Shadow said, turning his attention to Chris, "What do they do exactly?"
"They basically let us turn into animals. Not completely, but we can use their cool features on our adventures."
"I know of Africa," Shadow stated, "The habitat of the cheetah, fastest earth land animal. If what you say is true, then I'm guessing Martin is planning on using its power of speed to race Sonic."
"You're right," Chris smiled, "But how do you know so much about Earth if you've never been in this dimension?"
Sonic had listened to their conversation, but at Chris's question, he shot a nervous glance in Shadow's direction, not knowing that Martin noticed. Said hedgehog didn't show any signs of discomfort, or any other emotion really, something that worried Sonic.
"I was...born in an alternate dimension of Earth. That was why Sonic asked about Station Square. It was where he had stayed when he and his friends had landed in that dimension," he explained calmly, never letting whatever he was feeling to be seen.
"So you're not originally from Sonic's world?" Martin probed. Shadow's blood-colored eyes hardened.
"I'd prefer not to talk about it," he answered coldly. There was a rumbling noise as the Tortuga lifted off the ground, just the distraction the mobians needed.
"Can we ride on top?" Sonic asked excitedly, quickly, and purposefully, changing the subject.
"Sure," Martin replied and grabbed four safety harnesses and handed two of them to the bewildered hedgehogs.
"Why would we need these?" Shadow asked, promptly discarding it after he had glanced at it. And by discarding, he ment tossing it aside rougher than he thought he would. Sonic quickly followed his example, except he set his down gently.
"To keep you from falling off," Chris replied as he retrieved Shadow's harness from the other side of the room, "We're going pretty fast, and we don't want you to slip."
"And by 'pretty fast' you mean 500mph?" Sonic asked sarcastically with a set grin. The two men stared at him dumbfounded.
"How did you know that?" Martin exclaimed. Sonic rubbed his nose with his eyes closed.
"Can feel it through whatever this thing is supposed to be," he answered nonchalantly as he stomped his foot on the floor, "and I'm a pretty good guesser."
Sonic and Shadow shared a knowing glance before finding their way up to the hatch on top of the giant turtle ship, leaving the bewildered brothers behind. The Kratt bros put on their gear carefully, deciding not to take their chances.
"Chris?" Martin asked.
"Yeah, bro?"
"What do you think their hiding?"
Chris raised an eyebrow at the question, "What do you mean?"
"When you asked Shadow about how he knew so much about Earth, Sonic started looking a little nervous."
"I wonder why. They don't have any apparent reason to hide something from us, unless..."
"Unless what?"
"Unless it was something bad. I don't know about Sonic, but that Shadow guy is definitely hiding something serious."
"Think we should ask them about it?"
Chris immediately waved away the question, "Nah, whatever it is, they have their reasons, and besides, I'm more interested in learning more about those two cool creatures."
"Yeah, I'll bet they have some other pretty cool creature powers!"
The two bros high-fives and started climbing up to the roof.
Meanwhile with Sonic and Shadow
"WOOHOO!" Sonic yelled, as he balanced on the top of the flying turtle's shell. He stole a glance over at Shadow, "Hey, Sourpuss! You gotta admit this is awesome!"
Shadow rolled his eyes, "Whatever you say, Faker."
Sonic's chipper smile dropped, and he carefully made his way closer to the other mobian, "Hey, I'm sorry about Chris's question. I know it probably struck a couple of close cords. It can be hard to be reminded of your old home."
"Don't bother," Shadow replied. He was in no mood for any sort of consolation. He looked over at Sonic, seeing emerald eyes full of genuine concern, which he shrugged off. The younger hedgehog, seeing that nothing he could possibly say about the subject would help, changed tactics.
"Are you sure about what you said last night? About the Chaos Emeralds?"
"Would I have told you if I wasn't?"
"True," the blue blur admitted; then he grinned with excitement, "When we get to Africa, I wanna show you a couple of good spots for a race. If this place is anything like, well, y'know...," he finished uncertaintly. Now it was Shadow's turn to keep the conversation on a positive note.
"I look forward to seeing the shock on their faces," he smirked. The expression was surprisingly contagious.
"They won't even see it coming!" Sonic chuckled, "And Martin was so excited, claiming he was the fastest Kratt on the globe!"
"You'll crush his little dreams," Shadow added in mock despair, as he dramatically laid a hand over his heart. Sonic openly laughed until his sides hurt, and he wiped away an imaginary tear.
"Poor guy, and he had such high hopes. Wait!"
"What?" Shadow asked, confused.
"Did you just make a joke? I knew it! I knew you could be funny!" Sonic exclaimed, as if it was the most astonishing thing in the universe. To anyone who knew Shadow, it was.
Chris's POV
We hoisted ourselves up onto the roof, and I nearly fell back down into the Tortuga. Sonic and Shadow were casually standing on top of the ship as if they were in the middle of the street. Martin and I clipped our lines on the safety hooks that would hold us steady. Speaking of steady, I had to help my big bro keep his balance when he saw them too.
"How are you doing that?!" he asked. Both of them shrugged, like it was perfectly normal for them to be standing on top of a ship moving at 500mph. I added that to my list of observations. I had never seen any sort of animal like the ones before me. They were able to perfectly hold their balance without any sort of safety gear. Sonic placed his hands behind his head and enjoyed the wind blowing through his quills, while Shadow crossed his arms and focused on the fast-paced scenery below them. To me, at least, Shadow seemed to be more observant of his surroundings, always looking around, like a creature that's suddenly been moved out of his habitat.
Shadow turned and saw me looking at him, "You have something you want to say?" he asked, his deep voice was surprisingly cold for such a small creature. His eyes. Deep, ruby, deadly eyes. They sent a shiver down my back. How could something so small be so intimidating? That's when I realized that I hadn't answered his question.
"Uh... No," I admitted sheepishly. He hmphed and looked to Sonic.
"How much further?" he asked. Said hedgehog opened his eyes and glanced down below him.
"If we're heading for the savannah, then I'd say about two hours." He almost sounded impatient with his answer, "Should've ran," he mumbled. I didn't know what that meant, but both he and Shadow agreed on that statement. How could Sonic know how far we were?
Martin was having a blast. It's been a while since either of us had ridden on the roof. And I have to admit it was fun to be back up here. Being the climbing Kratt of the team, I enjoyed the heights and the rushing wind on my face.
"YAHOO!" we cheered. Our guests smiled (or in Shadow's case, rolled his eyes. Doesn't he ever smile?) and enjoyed the ride.
It was during the last hour of the flight that all of us noticed the short patience of these so-called mobians hedgehogs. We had all gone back inside, when Sonic resorted to pacing around the control room at a relatively fast pace. Whenever he stopped, he would tap his foot quickly and act like the room was closing in on him, reminding me of a caged animal. Shadow apparently noticed and began to get anxious too, but he was far more subtle. He would flick his left ear every couple of seconds and rub his paw (or hand?) over his gold bands as if he was rubbing a smudge off of them. He'd glance around the room nonchalantly and sometimes cast a glare in Sonic's direction whenever he started tapping his foot.
"Would you cut that out already?!" he demanded, breaking the empty silence, "You're driving me crazy with all of that noise!"
Sonic turned to face him, "It's not like I can help it," he retorted, "And don't try to act like this trip isn't taking forever either. You and I both know you'd be lying if you said it wasn't."
The black hedgehog glared at him, "At least I don't show it. You're as jittery as Omega before a mission."
Koki was the one to ask the question we all suddenly wanted to know. "Who's Omega?"
"Part of Shadow's team, when he isn't flying solo," Sonic explained, "He's this big robot that turned against Eggman a couple of years ago."
"He's also our heavy ammunition when the Doctor decides to not play fair," Shadow added, "And he tends to get very excited when he hears he might get to use his guns." Martin and I kept detailed notes of everything they said. Aviva spun around from the computer in her hover chair.
"That sounds really cool," she sang, "From the way it sounds, it seems like you two have been on a lot of adventures."
Sonic laughed, "More than I count."
"What's it like on your world?" she asked. That's when I understood that she was trying to keep him occupied for the rest of trip. He was happy to oblige.
"It's called Mobius," he said proudly, "and out of all the places I've been, it's still the best place in the universe. It's absolutely perfect."
"But what about what you said about Doctor Eggman always trying to take over?" I asked. He looked over at me and smirked.
"Well it would get pretty boring if there wasn't any kind of challenge, wouldn't it?"
"If you two aren't...," Koki began, avoiding the word brothers, "How did you two meet?"
That's when I noticed that Martin was telling the truth when he said that they were hiding something.
"Long story," they said at the same time. Shadow face-palmed, and Sonic laughed.
"Guess we've been around each other a bit too long, ya think?" Sonic laughed.
"Too long doesn't begin to cover it," he groaned.
After a few minutes of light bickering between the two hedgehogs, we arrived in the African savannah, and Jimmy landed the Tortuga.
Third Person POV
Sonic smiled at the familiar sight of a wide open plain stretching out in front of him. He was itching to go for a run. To stretch his legs. Just TO MOVE! But Martin ran beside him with a strange looking vest and gloves on. Chris followed close behind with a similar looking outfit, only where Martin's vest was blue, his was green. He cocked his head to the side, obviously curious.
"They're called creature power suits," Shadow answered before the Kratt bros could. Sonic nodded his understanding, even if he wasn't entirely sure what a creature power suit was.
"Ready for a race?" Martin challenged.
"Are you?" Sonic shot back.
At that exact moment a cheetah prowled up to the two hedgehogs and rubbed against them in greeting. Sonic knelt down to its level and stroked it.
"You're pretty friendly, aren't you?"
"She must really like you," Chris said gently, as he knelt beside him and scratched her behind the ear, "The animals here aren't that social."
"Must be a mobian thing. Animals have always been pretty friendly to us."
Martin pulled out a blue disk and slid it into the center slot on his vest. He then tapped the cheetah's head gently and in a flash of blue light, was transformed into a human-sized blue cheetah. He almost looked like he just wearing a cheetah suit, except for the black and blue tail swishing behind him.
"Last chance to back out," the transformed man smirked.
"Same goes to you," he replied with a similar facial expression. Shadow and the rest of the crew watched on the sideline of the natural race track. It was a simple trek from the Tortuga to the top of the mountain a few miles away. Sonic did his best to refrain from laughing, as he said, "You sure you don't want me to give you a head start?"
"Oh, please," Martin replied sarcastically, "I just hope you'll last the first mile!"
Shadow chuckled to himself as they stood side by side, waiting for the signal from Jimmy. Chris looked down at the black hedgehog, wondering what had amused the otherwise serious and silent visitor. Shadow looked up and saw the question in his eyes.
"Your brother is in for a very rude awakening."
"Ready!" Jimmy yelled before Chris could reply. Martin crouched down into a starting position, while Sonic just stood there and stiffled a yawn. "Set!" Martin's new tail flicked with excitement, and Sonic smirked. "GO!"
The two racers ran ahead, and the onlookers used Aviva's fly cam to watch the race. Martin was going a steady 75mph. Sonic ran beside him, looking bored. Martin and the crew gasped at how he was able to keep up.
"You haven't seen anything yet," Shadow remarked once they said as much.
"What?" they asked, before they nearly collapsed as Sonic began to exhilarate in front of his opponent.
"See you at the top!" Sonic yelled before taking off ahead of Martin so fast he was nothing more than a blue blur. At the mountain, he ran faster, unleashing a sonic boom.
"What was that noise?! Did something explode?!" Aviva panicked.
"No," Shadow answered calmly, "That was just Sonic breaking the sound barrier."
"You knew?! How is that even physically possible!?" Chris declared- confused, amazed, and shocked all at the same time. Shadow hmphed and watched as his hyperactive rival took several laps around the track.
"As I said, your brother was in for a very rude awakening," he remarked slyly.
"I've never seen anything go that fast!" Koki exclaimed and rubbed her eyes, doubting whether or not what she saw was even real.
"A creature that can move at the speed of sound! Incredible!" Aviva added, her voice bubbling with excitement as new ideas began to form, "I have to make a creature power disk!"
Shadow, who had learned about the suits and disks from Chris, immediately glared at her. "No," he stated firmly, to everyone else's surprise.
"Why not?"
"We aren't just animals that you can steal our abilities from," he glared darkly, "And besides, with your tech, those pathetic suits couldn't even hold all that we're capable of. We aren't your guinea pigs, especially Sonic. He isn't one to simply lend his powers, particularly to humans. And specifically to scientists."
In some form or fashion, Shadow had managed to insult each of them personally in only a couple of sentences, something none of them thought possible. However, they seemed to be taking it better than Shadow thought. He had figured they would either: snap back, yell, cry, run, try to hit him, go silent, or mixture of some or all, as those were the reactions he was used to getting.
Instead of asking what his problem was or why he would even say something like that, Aviva knelt down in front of him and hugged him. Shadow's body stiffened at the physical contact, and his quills stood. He immediately pushed her off of him and glared at her before she could explain herself and her team's jobs.
"Don't ever do that again," he growled. She backed away from the angry hedgehog, wondering what she had done wrong. He walked away, not bothering to continue what he considered a useless conversation.
"Where are you going?"
"After Sonic," he replied sharply. He fired up his hoverskates and raced after his blue counterpart in a blur of black and red. The group of humans just stared after him, surprised that he shared the same speed as Sonic.
With Martin And Sonic
"Took you long enough," Sonic yawned. He was napping in the top of one of the trees that marked the finish line. Martin deactivated his power suit and heaved for air. He leaned over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"How?" he wheezed. Sonic smirked and hopped out of the tree, stretching his arms above his head casually.
"As I said, I'm the fastest thing alive."
"You...could've...warned...me," he huffed. Sonic laughed.
"Sorry, man, next time I'll let you know," he grinned and patted the older Kratt on the back.
There was a strange call coming from behind them. Sonic's ears perked up at the noise. It sounded like something was in trouble.
"What was that?" he wondered. Martin glanced down at him after regaining his breath.
"What was what?"
That's when Martin noted that Sonic had much better hearing than he did, and he quickly typed it into his creature pod when Sonic had turned his back to focus on the sound.
"It sounds like something's in trouble. Come on!" and he chased after the call. Martin tried to run after him, but he seriously lagged behind the blue hero, and he radioed the Tortuga to pick him up.
Sonic followed the call until he was on the other side of the mountain. Then the sounds of machinery echoed in his ears. Did Eggman get sent here too? he thought, preparing for the worst. But what he found was something that confused him.
Instead of the classic badniks he was used to, the robots here were v-shaped and black with glowing red eyes and flexible claw-arms. They were trying herd a pride of lions into a large red and black jet. The only human he could see was a tall, skinny, pale man with black hair in a black turtle-neck sweater, gray pants, and shiny black shoes. In other words, Eggman's physical opposite.
Sonic heard the familiar sound of Shadows skates joining the hum of noise, and the charcoal hedgehog stopped beside him and observed the scene before them. Not long after, the Kratt bros landed beside them from the Tortuga hovering above.
"Let the lions go, Zac," Chris ordered. The pale human turned around to face them.
"Oh, look, it's the Wild Rats," he announced sarcastically with a high, whiny voice. Then his eyes landed on the two hedgehogs, "What are those things? Giant rats?"
Sonic and Shadow glared at him. "WE ARE HEDGEHOGS!" Sonic clarified, clearly angry. They had been called rats far more than they normally tolerated by the villains in their own world. Then he turned to Shadow, "Why is it that every villain just automatically assumes I'm a rat?"
Zac screamed, "They can talk?!"
The two mobians decided to ignore the panicking human in front of them. Shadow shrugged but said, "I'll take the ones on the left. You take the right."
"Wanna race?"
"Try to keep up," Shadow challenged before he dashed over to the robots on his claimed side and spin-dashed through them. Sonic followed suite, leaving Chris and Martin literally in the dust. Chris immediately videoed what he saw on his creature pod and livestreamed it up to the girls and Jimmy on the Tortuga.
"I've never seen anything like it!" Martin declared.
Sonic turned to look at Shadow, who was currently tearing into a robot, and ripped off its head. "Do we even have to try?"
Shadow scoffed, "I don't even have a Chaos Emerald! These robots are worthless!"
Sonic agreed, "Yeah, too easy."
"Hey!" Zac whined. Martin and Chris laughed, as the two mobians had no trouble zooming through his hoard of zacbots and freeing the lions. Sonic stood in front of Zac with a robot head held up to him to take.
"You might wanna fix this," and he dropped it into Zac's puny arms and ran back into the fray, "Hey, Shads! What number are you on?!"
"Twenty-seven! Wait. Make that thirty!"
Sonic growled in frustration as he sped up, hitting as many robots as he could, while Shadow did the same. Both of them hit the last zacbot at the same time.
"Ah man, another tie," he groaned. Shadow rolled his eyes, but then he suddenly stiffened. He hadn't noticed it before because of the fight and the adrenaline coursing through him, but now he felt a familiar presence.
"Shadow? Shads, what's wrong?" Sonic asked, snapping his fingers in front of the darker mobian. Said mobian shook his head to dispel the trance he had fallen into and glared at the younger hedgehog.
"There's a Chaos Emerald nearby."
"Can you pinpoint it?" Sonic's voice rose with excitement. Shadow closed his eyes and concentrated on locating the jewel. When he opened them again, he wore his normal scowl and pointed at Zac, who was holding the green Chaos Emerald. Sonic raced up to the human and snatched it out of his hand.
"Thanks!" he chirped and ran back to Shadow. He handed the stone to him. The Ultimate Lifeform raised an eyebrow.
"You can use it better than I can," Sonic explained. The antihero nodded.
Their attention was then turned to the whiny man running back into his now empty jet, shouting, "I'll get you and your ugly cats next time!"
Shadow growled and teleported in front of Zac, who screamed in shock. The dark hero snarled and gripped Zac's sweater, yanking him down to his level, "Hedge. Hog," he enunciated, "Don't ever show your face around me again, or I will not be as merciful as I am being now." And with that, he teleported back to Sonic and the Kratts. He resisted a smirk at the men's reactions.
"I told you. We're capable of more than you know."
That's it for chapter two! Don't forget to review and tell me what you guys think!