Chapter 2

Shadow, Knuckles & Sally

Date: 9 / 13 / 3287

The bright sun seemingly brightened Mobius. In the high bright skies of the legendary floating island Angel Island, laid two giant mountains around the northwest with a forest growing around the mountains nearly the rest of the island was just lush green grass or healthy soft dirt. And in the center of it all was a shrine. The shrine had seven pedestals surrounding a large Green gem known as the Master Emerald, a beautifully cut green emerald with a source of infinite energy seemingly created by the Gods themselves. And around the Master Emerald where four of the seven legendary Chaos Emeralds on their pedestals. The Chaos Emeralds are legendary beautifully cut gems that contain near-infinity energy as well. The Chaos Emeralds that were their were the Light Blue emerald, the green emerald, the purple, and the silver emerald and the glowed their glorious missing three emeralds are the red emerald, the blue emerald and the yellow emerald. There were two staircases that led to the top of the shrine.

On the left staircase is Shadow The Hedgehog. A dark maroon red hedgehog with crimson red stripes on his quills, arms, and his legs who seemed to lack in height. He has seven quills on his head, three in the center with the top one facing downwards and the other two pointing straight out, he has two on each side that aim straight up, he has several more tiny spines that are usually in between other quills. He has peach skin around his muzzle and his ears, with a small curved black nose like Sonic, speaking of his ears they aren't sharp or pointy at all. Shadow has red-orange eyes with intersecting eyes but it also was sharper than the others. Unlike everyone else, Shadow wears white gloves but it has red and black cuffs with golden cufflinks, however the red extends out of the his cuffs and over the top of his fingers, on the red lines he has five metal pieces on his knuckles that extended down to his fingertips. Like everyone who has them, he to has a communicator but it is on his left hand, it is black and maroon red. He wears white, black, and red shoes with golden cufflinks and two holes on the bottom and one in front. Like Sonic he has long black cuffs that extended up to his fibula. Our great edgelord.

And on the right staircase is Knuckles The Echidna. A crimson echidna with purple violet pupils with nonintersecting eyes. Knuckles has hair-like quills that are the same color as his body that extended down to his tail with two hair-quills that go in front of his arms these two go slightly below his armpits. He has white marking across his body with one in the shape of a crescent on his chest, some stripes on his arms and legs, the tip of his tail has a fade to white end. Around his eyes are white markings as well. He has peach skin around his muzzle and ONLY the muzzle (He doesn't have ears for some reason) and he has a small black nose bud. He is exceptionally tall with his ripped-upper body like WOW, but on the other hand his legs...are small...they are very small compared to his upper body but long in length. He wears white sportes taped gloves so you can see all of his fingers along with his two large spikes on the top of his hands. He has metal around his hand but seemed to only coat his spiked knuckles, he also has sports tape around his hand most of his arm and stops at his elbow. Sports tape is also around his bicep and his tricep. Like everyone else, he has a crimson red and lush green communicator on his right arm this one seemed to be bigger along with bigger buttons. He wears red and yellow blocky shoes with green cuffs and a gray split plate on top. He has sports tape surrounding his leg and goes up to the bottom of his kneecaps. He has a tail that falls down, shoots upwards then falls downwards again. Knuckles seemingly is panting with a bruise on his face. Shadow too was panting then looked over his left shoulder. "Wanna go again?!" Shadow yelled across the shrine.

"Not yet! Gimme a minute!" Knuckles said moving his hand to fan himself.

"Whatever. Really doesn't matter! I'll just win again!"

"Says you!"

"Yeah, I says I win, sure you win in pure strength but you lose when it comes to mobility and techniques or...anything really! All you do is punch left, right, left, right, up and repeat. You don't focus on your speed or anything else at all!"

"Arm day everyday."

"Leg day is the most important day of the week."

"It doesn't matter, you were born to be better than most heroes with your natural abilities."

"Am I using them against you?"

"N...No?"

"Hmmm, maybe I should. Hehehe."

"No, no, no. It's already hard to even catch you."

"If you're not gonna fight me then i'll go hunt Sonic or even Tails because at least the two of them know how to put a challenge up." Shadow put his right hand on the stairs and left his whole body up while twisting his body so he stood straight up. Shadow placed his arms on his back and pressed forward causing his to grunt.

"Well you have fun with that."

"I will." Shadow walked up the stairs and got to the top of the altar and saw the great gem itself, the Master Emerald, a beautifully cut and polish gem which seemed to be several times bigger than Shadow. The mahogany hedgehog placed the bottom of his hand on top of the Master Emerald and in a split second he turned pure blue and white and warped away in a second with any trace of him completely gone! The red echidna in fact was looking up the altar and saw what Shadow did.

"Show off." Knuckles said shaking his head left and right. Knuckles stared straight forward and looked at the forest ahead. "Oh, it's time." Knuckles pushed himself onto his two feet and jogged down the stairs to the vast dark green overgrown forest.

SHADOW

Atop the large gray rooftops of Mobotropolis were very plain, flat and simple roofs. In a split second a blue and white light flashes atop one of the rooftops closest to main Central Plaza. Shadow The Hedgehog then spawned in. Shadow looked around the rooftop to catch an eye of the city. "Doesn't change after all this time." The red mahogany hedgehog then started walking to his left and got to the edge of the building and looked over at the Central Plaza and something caught his attention, he saw his rival Sonic The Hedgehog and Amy Rose outside a restaurant, at a two person table, chowing on food and laughing together. Shadow scoffed and smirked. "Looks like the cat has found his fish. Well…" Shadow stretched out. "Better go say hi to them." Shadow grab the ledge with his right hand and flung himself over the ledge and his shoes landes on the building, he looked down to ser quite a large opening. He let go of the edge and right before he landed his shoes fired rocket-like fire spewed out of the holes on the bottom of the shoes but not the front hole but anyways it made him slowly descend down to the ground until he was safely on the concrete. Shadow pattes his legs off for dust. Shadow smirked and moved his legs forward and towards the intersection. A white glove with a black top grabbed Shadow and an evil grin went across someone behind him. "Gah!" Shadow jumped and turned completely around and raised his fists. Getting a look at who grabbed him was an acquaintance of his.

In front of his eyes was Sally Acorn. She was a light brown chipmunk with tan markings around her unconjoined eyes with light blue pupils and her muzzle which had a black bud nose with a small double-tipped tail. She had ruby red hair that went down to her neck and covered most of her forehead but left a little space between the ears. Her ears were very similar to Tails' but shorter in length. She wore a black sleeveless tight shirt that exposed her midriff with white outline around the shoulders and the neck AND the bottom of it. While not important her bosom seemed to poke out as a whole. She wore tight black pants with white around the top of them and if you can see them, white on the bottom of the legs, she also wore a white holster belt around the waist of the pants with nothing attached. Along with that she wore an open azure blue vest with two small pockets on the side. She wore azure blue boots with gray soles on the bottom and white markings around the center of the boots, and they went up to the bottom of her kneecap. She wore gloves like everybody else but on the bottom of it was white and on the top was black and on the top again is a gray plate that connects to the large azure blue ring around both of her wrists. Below her left wrist was a communicator exactly like Sonic's. "Surprise." Sally said smirking.

"...Hmph, good one." Shadow said crossing his arms.

"Jumped like a frog." Shadow glared at Sally with her glaring back.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, I just came to talk-yeah sure. Don't you have an tower to run?"

"I do, but it's my day off, I got my team running the place."

"Your team is a joke. If you think they can run take care of themselves, then you must be as much of a joke as them."

"Yes, well i'm confident my team can take care of themselves unlike some surprise hog frog."

"Yeah well...well you got me there but is that really a problem?"

"Not it my book."

"Okay then, why are you talking to me? Got something on your chest?"

"No. I just saw you on the rooftops and thought we could chat."

"Yeah sorry but i'm gonna go chat with Sonic." Shadow turned his body towards where Sonic was. "Now if I can excuse my-." Shadow looked at where Sonic and Amy were but they disappeared from sight. "Self…hmph." Shadow turned back to Tibleam. "Well Sally, seems you have caught me in a predicament that I wish I wish I was not in, nor would I say out loud."

"Good. Well then let's chalk (Chat and walk for verification) together."

"Hmph." Shadow and Sally started to walk across the sidewalk passing an intersection along the way.

"So...Is Shadow your real name?"

"Dunno is Sally a reserve name?"

"Touche. Well your's is so...edgy and isn't normal. Why don't you tell me your real name."

"Shadow IS my real name."

"Seems more like a title."

"A title is just a title, it means nothing more."

"Guess you see it that way."

"You got a problem with that?"

"Not a single problem is with me"

"You got a lot of Sonic in you."

"Really? Well you hang out with him a lot. Especially with your band of...whatever."

"What? The Band Of Misfits? Still proud of that title. Well that's what we are, a band of misfits and we protect the city or the world."

"We might as well just merge are teams but instead you make…...THAT."

"Well you have strict rules that we break ALL THE TIME."

"That's why you all need to be put on check."

"Hey did you form the Band Of Misfits? No. So you have no jurisdiction with us."

"But you all-."

"No, no, no. I don't want to hear it." The two went silent for a while.

"But you all went through the ABES program, which is funded by the myself, with all of us being the same we should merge."

"Yeah, we only took it the Augmented Body Enhancement Surgery to protect to make protecting the world job much easier and so did you."

"Is that why you won't take your check-up? Cause you only need to toughen up your body?"

"That's why so many joined it! That's why you made it! So we can get tougher! But I didn't sign up for check-ups!"

"Shadow. You NEED your check up-."

"Now imma stop you right there and say no, I don't know what's going on in that building over there." Shadow said pointing to his right, towards the center of the city where a large skyscraper was laid out. "No one is pushing ME in there."

"Shadow you NEED THIS. You could die if you aren't given these check-ups!" Sally said walking in front of Shadow.

"Yeah, like I need unknown chemical liquids inside of MY body." Shadow said crossing his arms again. Sally than did the same.

"Fine. Prove me wrong."

"Sonic had the same procedure right?"

"Yes they did, everyone who signed up had the procedure.."

"Well me and Sonic's recovery were nearly four times faster than any other patient. Think about it, Sonic has his speed and I have my Chaos powers, that's why we have accelerated healing and such, they all just made it stronger. And when I asked Sonic about it, he was already given the green light so I only assumed naturally that I had the green light too."

"Fine, you say that when your are in the hospital."

"I will because that is not why i'll be in the hospital."

"Fine, fine, fine. You're right Shadow. Let's just drop the subject and talk about something not related to work. If we continue it's gonna make me a bit angrier than usual." Sally turned around and continued walking we Shadow lagging behind. Shadow shook his head and his pupils shot straight up. "You still watching those...shows?"

"Yeah, they're quite enjoyable seeing all the unnatural abilities and weapons and scenarios. They're also really colorful."

"Their so unrealistic."

"Their not meant to be realistic, is that why you don't watch them? Because they're unrealistic?"

"Yes."

"Fine, your choice. I mean the whole Band gets together JUST to watch one of those 'Unrealistic Shows'. What does your team get together and do?"

"Well the soldiers get together to spare for the day."

"...Really? That's what you do for fun? Fight? I mean that's what I would do…..but do ANYTHING else!"

"This coming from you?"

"You know it doesn't matter anymore. Your team, your life, while it may not be a very interesting life but it surely is one….."

"You're judging ME on MY life style?"

"...Ummm, yes?"

"..." Sally heavily sighed. "The TWO of us are impossible...can't even have a normal enlightening conversation….."

"Does it matter if we have a conversation?"

"...Uhhhhh, maybe?" The two went silent for a long time. The two glanced at each other from time to time but wouldn't word anything. Sally scratched her chin and opened her mouth but nothing came out. Shadow started slagging. The two noticed Amy and Sonic laughing and crossing the road and were heading towards them, completely unaware of anything.

"Hey Sonic!" Sonic stopped laughing and looked away from Amy and looked at Shadow. Sonic grinned and all Shadow did was frown. Sonic patted Amy left arm and pointed towards the two. Amy grabbed Sonic's hand jogged over to the two. Sally started talking to Amy and Sonic started chatting with Shadow.

"Hey Shady, how's the lord status going?" Sonic cheekily said.

"Hello Sonic. Your jokes never amuse me." Shadow said boredly.

"And they'll never end!" Sonic laughed out. "So you and Sally also on a date or is that an understatement?" Shadow glared at Sonic. "My fault, my fault, I should understand that Shadow the edgehog won't go on a date cause it-a-waste-a-time. Hahaha!"

"You wanna fight?"

"Are you triggered bro?! This is WAR!"

"No, seriously do you want to? Knuckles won't cause he's a pu-."

"Don't ya see what i'm doing right now? I'd rather see your rage then Amy's rage but i'd also rather be with Amy then fight you cause it's relaxing! Shadow I need to know something."

"What?"

"When is the next meeting on ze magical cartoon…..I know what it's called….."

"This Saturday."

"Good, good, I got two days, causing making plans is hard when you don't know when a tradition is happening." Shadow nodded. Sonic then jumped to the right, switching places with Amy.

"Uh, oh! Hi Shadow."

"Hi." Shadow said in a dark tone.

"Still as gloomy as always."

"Still as cheerful as always…"

"Hey gotta keep up an attitude."

"Makes sense. You are a singer and you need an attitude to just bust out a song."

"Hey it can happen. And it is fun."

"For you all I guess…"

"Well this is a very one sided conversation."

"It usually is…..you are getting a bit of Sonic's jokey demeanor aren't you."

"It attaches on to you after a while."

"It really does."

"Well...uhhhhh."

"I'm not much of a talker."

"Yeah…..I can see that."

"C'mony Amy, I got like…..9 more hours in me!" Amy turned to Sonic, nodded, and hopped over to him. "Bye Shadow!"

"See ya….."

SALLY

Amy Rose walked up to Sally who smiled in return. Amy returned the smile. "Hello Ms. Rose."

"Oh that's too much." Amy giggled out. Sally laughed.

"Sorry. Couldn't help it. So how you doing."

"Not very well in the morning. But now that we are on the date, much better."

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Is Sonic treating you well?"

"Wh-what?"

"Is Sonic treating you-."

"I heard you but that's kind of a…..he's treating me fine, why would you ask that? You know Sonic."

"I know but you need to be careful around his dangerous behavior."

"Doh i'm used to it. Makes our dates more energetic."

"Hey, as a friend I need to watch out for you."

"Awwwww, thanks Sally ." Amy reached out a hugged her. Sally returned the hug and patted her on the back.

"No problem Amy. Enough for a friend…"

"Thanks. So whatcha been up to. Having a little 'Free Time' with Shadow huh. You like the edgy ones huh?" Sally scoffed.

"Edgy guy but not my type."

"What is your type then?"

"The tough, strong ones that know what they're doing or something along the lines of that."

"Makes sense."

"Hey have you met Miles' new assistant yet?"

"No I haven't."

"Paired a GIRL up with him myself."

"Oh, you naughty squirrel you."

"Hehe. Autta brew something." Sonic hopped behind Amy and pushed her to Shadow.

"Go talk to the edgehog."

"Alright, alright!" Sonic turned to Sally and he grinned.

"Shake on it!" Sonic said bringing out his hand. She shrugged and shook it. "You having fun with the edgehog or is it an understatement?"

"Understatement. Wish it could go better."

"Hey, you do whatcha do to get whatcha want." Sonic quickly noted.

"That's an excellent point. So what are you expecting to do this week."

"Well this week I expect to finish another cartoon with Shadow, but THIS month I expect Eggy to attack the city."

"Your relationship with him is complicated….."

"Yeaaaaah. Not something I usually talk about." Sonic said slouching and crossing his arms.

"Anything you do in the free time? Haven't learned this yet."

"Usually I learn something related to music. I learned to sing, play the guitar and NOW i'm plan on learning the violin. It is really awkward….."

"I see….."

"And you?"

"Try to boost my team's or the city's morale and security."

"You don't do ANYTHING in your free time? You take your job to seriously. You need to let loose and do something!" Sonic said hopping up and down and shaking his hands.

"Well….."

"Yesssss?"

"I dance." She said lifting her right leg up onto its tip and bending her left leg for her to bow.

"Whaaaaat?" Sonic said surprised, he put his hand under his chin and over his mouth and took a look at Sally. "You don't look like the type to dance."

"Well it's apart of my fight style and it is fun."

"It surely is. I should take you out to a dance then and we'll see who the real winner is." Sally wished her hand at Sonic.

"Oh stop it now."

"Hey maybe i'll finally figure out what you are-wait that sounded slightly sexual...forget what I said."

"Not in three years."

"Doooooh…..fine."

"You should head out. Your lover is getting a biiiiit…..what's the word….."

"Alrighty then. See ya Sal. C'mony Ames I got like…..9 more hours in me!" Amy turned to Sonic, nodded and hopped over to him. "Bye Shadow!"

"See ya….."

"See ya blue britches!"

"Ayyyyy!" Sonic said snapping his fingers at Sally. The two of them then jogged off back to the city. Sal's smile went away and she looked at Shadow.

"Did you even sleep?"

"..." Shadow then stretched his arms out and silently yawned. "No….."

"Okay. That makes sense. C'mon." Sally grabbed Shadow's tricep. "You. Are gonna get some sleep."

"No, let go of me you insufferable woman." Shadow said struggling. "The drowsiness only hit me right now! I still got another couple hours in me."

"Too bad." Sally started to drag Shadow.

"Damn you….."

"Hey, hey. Language."

"Grrrrrr."

"Hey don't you get angry at me boy!"

"I can get angry at whoever I damn well please."

"Anybody can…"

"Alright fine, you caught me." Shadow shook her arm off of his. "I have been doing nothing but training my physical body for a couple days straight." Shadow confessed.

"Well you are gonna have a nice nap at the tower."

"You suggestin-."

"NO!" Sally's voice cracked. Shadow snorted in response.

"Shut up. Be proud you're getting even permission to be even NEAR the tower."

"So why are you allowing me IN the tower?"

"A friend has to help out another friend….."

"You're as nice as Sonic and I don't want that…"

"Me nice?" Sally thought for a second. "I guess I am…..by the way...your feet."

"What about em?"

"Have they been bleeding? Hurting? Any pain?"

"No. Every since they've been augmented they've been fine."

"Good to hear."

"And you?"

"Like Sonic I don't have any missing limbs like ya'll."

"Who else had augmented body parts?"

"Tails has his right arm, you have your feet, Cream has her right pinkie, and for you all that's it."

"How did they lose theirs?"

"Tails I believe was working on a project, he had to reach far into the wire frame and then a large metal sheet on the project slammed down and started crushing his arm, the other workers were forced to saw it off."

"Damn he a tough boy. My feet were lost when Tails' prototype hover shoes short circuited and blew up."

"Cream lost her pinkie in a kitchen accident, so funny how she lost that."

"Fair enough."

"We're almost their, so have fun."

"Whatever…" The two continued to walk until Shadow saw the skyscraper in the center of the city, the Mobian Spire, the main base for a lot of operations including Augmented Body Enhancement Surgery. Which also was apparently Sally's home. Aaaaand there goes Shadow and Sal who are gonna have a nice nap…..

Eggman, Orbot, Cubot, Metal And Synthia Are Next