AN: Meant to have this done a while ago. Sorry. That might happen a lot. At least it's summer now, so I have more free time.
When the yellow fox opened the door, Sonic was grateful. His chest was on fire from all the running, burning more than a hit from the Death Egg. He could barely speak, making it difficult for Tails to understand why Shadow the Hedgehog appeared to be invading his workshop, doubled over in pain. In a few minutes, thankfully, he'd recovered enough to start explaining, and managed to convey his message to the perplexed fox without too much difficulty.
"Tails," Sonic wheezed, "I'm stuck in Shadow's body."
Chapter Two: Your Fears and Pain
"I don't think I understand," Tails said, his face scrunched up in contemplation. "You tried to take the emerald, Shadow tried to warp away, and you ended up going with him?"
Sonic, seated on a chair and longing for a power nap, nodded. "I think I touched it at the last possible second or something."
"And then when you were back on solid ground, you were in Shadow's body?" Tails frowned.
"And he was in mine," Sonic added. Did Tails not see the importance of that particular detail?
The fox sighed, his two tails swishing. "Okay…" he said, turning around to a worktable. He began picking up various devices. "That's pretty weird. But the emeralds have done weirder things before." He turned one of the gadgets on, causing it to start beeping.
"Tell me about it," Sonic muttered, his eyes narrowing. "So, what do we do?"
"First of all," Tails said, "we figure out if you're really Sonic."
"What?" Sonic shouted, his voice still hoarse. "You don't trust me?"
"Of course I trust you, Sonic! I just want to make sure," Tails grinned.
Sonic opened his mouth to protest, but Tails's machine let out a quick beep and Tails turned it off. "I'm just taking a couple tests to see if I can determine what really happened."
"I've already told you the story," Sonic said, eyebrows raised. Tails shook his head.
"No way! Sonic, there's a lot more detail than what you've told me, there's got to be! For example, did you and Shadow swap bodies? Or did you swap minds? Or is it something else entirely?" The fox pulled machinery from every nook and cranny one could possibly cram something into and waved them in front of Sonic's face.
Crossing his arms, Sonic sunk lower into his chair. "Bodies or minds, it's the same difference. The most important thing is finding Shadow and making sure he doesn't muck up my reputation."
Tails punched some numbers into a keypad. "Any idea where he is?"
"No, he disappeared and took the emerald with him. Thinks he can figure out everything by himself," Sonic scoffed.
Tails chuckled. "You're a lot like that too, Sonic."
"Shut up," Sonic said, but Tails's smirk was enough to keep him from taking the comment seriously. Well, that was good. At least Sonic knew one way to keep his crazy emotions in check.
"Well," Tails said, "for now, we should try and get another emerald. Maybe even a few more, just in case. There's no doubt in my mind we'll need them to fix this situation."
"Got it," said Sonic.
Tails nodded. "I'd also like to take a look at those shoes you're wearing, if that's okay. I'd love to see how they work."
Sonic shrugged. "Sure," he said, reaching down to undo them, but Tails beat him to it with a speed that was impressive, even by Sonic's standards.
"Thanks Sonic!" Tails said giddily. "Oh! I almost forgot. Why were you trying to take an emerald from Shadow in the first place?"
Grinning, Sonic held his hands up in the air. "What, forget already? You needed an emerald to power that sweet little Tornado of yours. I was just doing you a favour!"
Tails blinked. "Sonic."
"Ya-huh?" Sonic grinned.
"I… I asked you that favour a month ago," The fox's tails flicked.
"I said I'd do it eventually," Sonic replied.
Shaking his head, Tails walked to the doorway. "Sonic, sometimes… Come on, let's figure out how to work these things, okay?" Tails said, gesturing to Shadow's shoes. Sonic nodded, following him deeper into the workshop.
"Are you ready for this, Sonic?" Typical Tails, always concerned. Sonic couldn't help but give him a cocky grin along with a thumbs up.
"Tails, I was born ready," Sonic said, already stretching in preparation. He wondered for a second whether he should change his stretches from his normal ones – he wasn't going running like he usually was, after all – but he figured legs were legs and the right muscles would be warmed up regardless.
"Right," said Tails. "Okay. You know where we are."
"Central City, Main Street," Sonic said, taking a glance around. "I've only been through here a million times. Couldn't we have gone somewhere interesting? Like… I don't know, Mazuri?"
Tails shook his head. "No, Sonic. The point is that you've been here a million times. You know the city by heart, meaning you should be able to adapt to Shadow's running style more easily. Familiar terrain, right?"
Sonic shrugged casually. "It's not like I haven't been to Mazuri a lot, either."
"It's late, though," Tails said, waving at the darkening sky. "I don't want to fly there and back just to do a two minute test."
"Imagine that. You, not wanting to fly?" Sonic chided, closing his eyes and putting his hands behind his head. He frowned, feeling Shadow's more rigid quills getting in the way. How did Shadow sleep comfortably, anyway? On his stomach? Sonic didn't sleep on his stomach. He sighed internally.
Tails rolled his eyes. "Are you going to start running or what?" asked Tails in irritation.
"No need to ask twice," Sonic said, and before Tails could blink, he was off… sort of.
Truthfully, Sonic didn't have that much experience with skating in general. Aside from places like Ice Cap and the like, he didn't go far enough north to be near ice. Amy had dragged him skating once, but even then, he was wearing his regular shoes. (Speaking of, he needed to get those beauties back. Shadow didn't deserve to be wearing them.) Shadow's shoes, while not regular skates, did control like them, at least according to Tails. Apparently the only trick to them was to do it right.
Sonic started off practically walking, and soon discovered that he would go nowhere. All he appeared to be doing was dragging his feet along the road, and if anything it made him slower. He muttered something unintelligible and attempted to speed up, but to no avail. He stopped, frustrated.
"Does he— does he just go from zero to sixty in a second?" Sonic said, wondering aloud. "Or, well, more like zero to three hundred and sixty. Yeah."
Tails, who had flown up from behind, had his face in a device. "I'm not sure, to be honest. I never really watched him too closely."
Sonic tapped his foot, stopping immediately as soon as the infuriating clunk made its comeback. "I get how to do that as me. I mean, that's easy. But if you have to skate… the friction…"
"Friction?" said Tails incredulously, and the fox let out a laugh. "Since when have you paid attention to friction?"
"I laugh in friction's face," Sonic agreed, "but Shadow—"
"Probably doesn't give a hoot about scientific impossibilities either," Tails finished for him. "He calls himself the Ultimate Lifeform for a reason."
"Peh! How is this ultimate? My body's way better," said Sonic bitterly. He shook out his arms. "All right. I'm going to speed up. Last time I did that I fell flat on Shad's ugly face, but you leave me with no other options."
"Good luck," said Tails. Sonic nodded.
All right. He'd done this before, plenty of times, he barely needed to think about it. Yeah, no worries, nothing special, just moving at the speed of sound to kill some time. He knew he wasn't going to go that fast, not like this, but the process was still the same. Left right, left right, one two, one two. He was Sonic. Nothing could change that.
Ready… Go, blast off, boost, and start with a bang!
Sonic actually activated the rockets this time, which did help immensely. With a laugh of victory, Sonic began to feel the new rhythm of the run. Okay, so it was skating… Kind of. It felt more like weaving than anything else, considering he moved in a zigzag more than a straight line. Oddly, the only thing that came to mind after thinking that was how strange light dashing would be. He'd have to line up perfectly, or else risk veering off course.
Sonic watched his feet. Well, they weren't blurs yet. That was disappointing. At least he was moving again, though. He glanced upwards and saw Tails filming him from the sky. Smart; it would really help to have a reference to improve off of. Sonic grinned. So far, so good. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad.
Looping the course a couple of times, Sonic began to feel pretty good. Not dragging the shoes along made a huge difference in his stamina as well as his mood. (If he heard another clunk, he was going to hit someone. Hard.) He almost thought he could get used to them, if the time ever called for not running normally. Not that that ever—
Extreme Gear.
Sonic remembered that— a while ago, Shadow had entered an Extreme Gear race for some reason or another (Sonic couldn't be bothered to care). If he remembered correctly, Shadow didn't even use a hover board, instead opting for his regular shoes. They worked, somehow. That was genius.
"Hey Tails!" Sonic called. "Feel like duplicating these things?"
"What?" asked Tails, peeking out from behind the monitor on his recording device. "You want a pair?"
"For special occasions only of course," Sonic clarified, winking. "I think they'd be pretty handy, what do you say?"
"Uh… sure?" Tails said, frowning. "I thought you hated these shoes."
Sonic shrugged. He was far less annoyed with them now that they were working. Obviously he still preferred his one of-a-kinds, but he didn't hate Shadow's shoes. At least when they weren't making the most annoying sound known to mankind. Though, honestly, "scrape-scrape" was just as bad as "clunk-clunk".
"Well… okay," Tails said, shrugging as well, "I guess I'll see what I can do. You'll have to lend them to me for a while first, though, okay?"
Sonic nodded. "Sure thing, Tails. Tell you what, I'll go for a spin and catch up with you at your workshop later. Okay, see ya!"
"Wait!" He heard Tails shout from behind, but Sonic was already long gone. Finally getting into the groove of things, he slid off Tails's course and headed for the heart of the city. He didn't have a real destination in mind, but Sonic had places to go and he was darn well going to see them. Grinning, he rushed down the road.
The street had a relatively steep slope, which did wonders to increase Sonic's speed. Along with a couple of turns to practice his drifting, Sonic was in heaven. Aw yeah, this was his turf. He had so many memories down this particular sun-streaked road, and even if he was Shadow for this one, the thrill was still the same.
Straight, right, left, straight, left, straight, up, over, and grind the rail, dodge the robot that had long since stopped being there, keep going, grind more rails, hop, hop, through that gate and back on the street. Straight, right, up those stairs, straight, left, down more rails (oh man what a rush), on through until the park, breeze through there and round a loop—
Oh yeah, baby. Running straight down a building, that's what he lived for. No quick thinking or remembering directions, just a few seconds of leisure—
Launch off, grab the pole, swing around and shoot for the sun in the sky, a hop, skip and a jump, rails, exhilarating rails, another pole to swing around, and then, the final stretch.
Sonic let out a laugh. This was probably, no, it had to be his best run through Central City ever. There wasn't a single thing short of perfection today. He'd gone through that as smoothly as the sand felt at Emerald Coast. It was brilliant, awesome, outstanding, amazing! If he could keep on doing stuff like this, it'd be like nothing ever changed!
Screeching to a halt, Sonic clenched his fists, feeling pumped. Aw yeah. Pessimism wasn't going to get him down, not now, not ever. There was no way he'd ever be dragged down into misery, just because of something the faker or the doctor or anyone did. Sonic the Hedgehog didn't work that way. Right, he was a lean, mean, speeding machine, and his slick blue strides impressed everyone for miles—
"SONIC!"
Oh, badniks.
(For those wondering, the directions Sonic takes are straight from Sonic Adventure 2. Yes, I actually wrote down the course he takes through City Escape. _ )
