It was that time again. Eggman thought up some "new" device that could only be powered by Chaos Emeralds, and it was up to the Hedgehogs to stop him.

"Is this just a weekly thing?" asked Silver, who was obviously not adjusted to the schedule.

"Basically. At least, since Sonic starting being able to drag me along to help." replied Shadow, maintaining his nonchalance about anything and everything.

They were all dashing off to find Robotnik. Not that it was hard; the dipstick built legions and structures you could see half a continent away, sometimes literally.

"Ever since the first time I kicked his ass, yeah." Sonic confirmed. They had just come up on Robotnik. He was in some sort of massive robot fish.

All three of the hedgehogs stopped and just stared, wondering just what the hell was wrong with this man.

"SONIC!" Eggman screamed so they could hear. "I SEE YOU HAVE COME TO FIGHT ME! HOWEVER, YOU HAVE NO CHANCE! I HAVE ALL OF THE EMERALDS TO POWER MY…" Pause for effect…

"EGG SPERM WHALE!"

Three things happened all at once. Sonic fell to the ground and began to die laughing, Shadow smacked himself in the face so hard it left a mark, and Silver said, "What in the holy hell is wrong with you?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? IT'S A GOOD IDEA! LOOK! IT EVEN HAS ROCKETS!" He said, gesturing to the missile pods that were being armed and subsequently fired. "SEE? NOW DIE!"

Sonic stood and Shadow made sure he hadn't broken his nose, and then the three were off. Sonic pushed Shadow, who simply rode on the wheels in his shoes, while Silver kept up. Sonic then fell away and Silver TK'd Shadow upwards, letting the momentum from Sonic's pushing carry him to the Whale. Shadow flew through the air and kicked Eggman in the head.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL!?" Eggman yelled, somehow not dead.

Shadow stood over the detachable pod that all of them knew he was in, and smacked Eggman. "STOP YELLING!" he all-too-hypocritically yelled. "AND GIVE ME THE DAMN EMERALDS." Eggman unslotted them from the dashboard and detached his Eggmobile and began to levitate.

"Here's the emeralds." Eggman stated, obviously not wanting a total asskicking. "By the way, on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this robot?"

Sonic chimed in. "I'd actually give it a solid 6, but you really should rely on energy other than just Chaos Emeralds."

Eggman noted Sonic's comment down on a notepad, waved two fingers, and flew away. As he did, Shadow made his way over to the others.

"There is so much wrong with that man." Sliver said.

"True, so true." Sonic said, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Alright. I'm not carrying all of these damn things back again, so what are we doing?" Shadow said as he arrived with the emeralds.

"I say Silver carries 'em. He's still new so he gets to be pack bitch." Sonic stated quickly.

"I'm good with that." Shadow's reply was even quicker.

"Wait... what?" Silver said as Shadow piled them on him.

"Have fun." Shadow said as he and Sonic left quickly.

Seconds later, they were long gone.

"Shit." Silver said.

As he lugged the emeralds along in a sack that Shadow left, Silver bitched to himself.

Pieces of shit. Leaving me to do the bitch work. They're gonna wish I'm a bitch when I get home.

Unbeknownst to Silver, there was a hole in the sack, and an emerald was poking through and touched him every so often as the sack bounced on his shoulder. This touch was just long enough for the emerald to touch him and hear his thought fragment: "wish I'm a bitch". The emeralds, having no logic, could not interpret his sarcasm, nor could they reason that it was a fragment. No, the so-aptly-named Chaos Emeralds had no logic… so they granted his request.

There was a sudden flash of light, and Silver was enveloped in it. As it faded, Silver saw what it had done to his body. He panicked, dumped the Emeralds from the bag, ripped a hole for his head, and shoved it through. Then, he ran home, screaming all the way.

Shadow and Sonic were watching TV, and looked to the door when they heard Silver coming in.

"Damn, took you long enough." Sonic commented, looking back to the TV. Shadow, however, allowed his gaze to rest on the door for a moment, and he was rewarded with having his jaw dropped. Silver looked different, outside of the fact that he was wearing a burlap sack. His face looked… restructured. His eyes were larger, his jaw narrower, his nose shrunken. He looked… beautiful? Sonic noticed that Shadow was staring, mouth agape, out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't want to look away from the idiot box.

He sighed, breaking the TV's vicious hold over him, and followed Shadow's gaze. While Shadow had been rendered speechless, it would take the force of the Emeralds, God, and Chaos all together to do the same to Sonic. Despite this, he still didn't say much, sounding off with a solid "…the fuck?"

After a second of gaping mouth awkwardness, the blue blur was off to the bathroom to offload his lunch orally. Shadow stood, walked to Silver and began to experimentally examine his face. In other words, he started poking Silver. After a few pokes, Silver swatted away the poking hand.

"I think we need to go to a doctor-" Silver stopped suddenly, realizing the voice was higher. Like a lot higher. A whole octave probably. Both Silver and Shadow's eyes were dinner plates.

"Yeah." Shadow said, his eyes not losing any size. "Hey Sonic? Where does Tails live again?"

The blue hedgehog came back out to them, gripping his gut, and said, "Out by the-" he stopped as he saw Silver again. Then he ran to puke.

After they finally managed to get Sonic to stop throwing up at the sight of Silver, the trio made their way to Tail's garage. True, he wasn't a doctor, and had no medical training to speak of, but he was smart, and that was good enough.

"Hey, uh, Silver." Sonic said as they approached Tail's home, "Sorry about my reaction before. It was shock. You're not ugly or anything."

Silver blushed as Shadow spoke up. "Yeah, you're actually kinda hot." Shadow knew he was baiting Sonic and he was enjoying it, grinning as the other hedgehog began to speak.

"Yeah… Wait, what?" Sonic said, not realizing what he agreed to. Silver blushed deeper, then, realizing he was starting to act particularly feminine, screamed mentally.

"Don't worry about it, Sonic." Shadow said as they walked inside.

"Right." Sonic said, shaking his head. "Tails! Get out here!"

After a clang, a deep bang of a head, and a scream of "Son of a bitch!" Tails appeared with a small knot forming on his head.

"You know," He said, not looking up as he approached, "You could call, maybe give me advanced warning."

He looked up and scanned the group in front of him as he spoke. "So why are you here-" His eyes landed on Silver. Shock took him, paralyzing him for a moment. Then, he regained his composure. "Oh, dear God. Alright. Follow me."

Tails walked into an area of his home that had a distinct feel of a laboratory. Tails stopped at a metal bench and patted it a couple times as a gesture for Silver to sit. After Silver was seated, Tails turned to the remaining two.

"Out." He said simply. The gears were visibly turning as both of them looked from Tails to the bench to Silver and realization dawned on them. They were out the door in an instant and Tails shut it behind them.

He turned back to Silver. "Alright. Take off the sack."

"Why?" Silver asked, the higher voice obviously not sitting well with either of them.

"I'm not sure what you did, but I assume it's connected to the Chaos Emeralds, and I need to see how detailed they got." Silver took in the words and understood, slowly taking off the burlap sack.

The two hedgehogs stood silently, moments after being asked to leave, and both were deep in thought, thinking similar thoughts.

Silver's hot. The words buzzed around Sonic's head and no matter his attempts to swat them away, he couldn't stop thinking them. I can't like him though, he thought, he's a guy, I think… no! It's still wrong. That's gay. I'm not gay.

Am I?

Shadow's thoughts took a different path. God, she's hot. How does something like Silver turn into that? I mean, that's 10 out of 10 material. Even the voice. Soft, soothing; higher, but not too high. I wonder if she'll act different than he did? Wait. What am I thinking? It's Silver. I hate him, kind of. Maybe. Not really. He annoys me. Occasionally. Still, I'm not falling for any one. I don't fall in love.

Do I?

The door opened, catching the attention of both hedgehogs. Tails came through with the re-clothed Silver.

"Well. It turns out Silver was changed to a female by contact with the Chaos Emeralds. They were… thorough." Tails said, fairly uncomfortable on the last part.

"Can you change him back?" Sonic asked. It took all Shadow had no to scream no. What the hell? He thought.

"Sure. We just need the Chaos Emeralds."

All eyes fell on Silver once again.

"I, uh, left them behind."

"WHAT?" came the three simultaneous replies.

"Ugh." Tails said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "If you can find them, then I can easily change him back. Otherwise, I can devise an alternate solution, but that might take months. Considering the emeralds are probably gone, I would recommend three things. One, get used to calling him "her". (A/N: I will be doing this even when referring to Silver in the past, to avoid confusion and remain consistent.) Two, get her some clothes, she can't be naked like you two for obvious reasons. Ask one of the girls about that. Three, get her some tampons."

All of them perked up at that. "Yes. Tampons. She's about to start menstruating. There is a caveat to that, however. Silver still has testosterone in her system, and that will take a few days to be worked out, so that's your timeline. Also, side note, maybe you should change her name, since he's a she now? I was personally thinking Gallium." What he said at his point didn't matter much, he lost them after he said "menstruating".

Soon, they left, leaving Tails to his work. Why, he wondered, do my friends have to be so stupid sometimes?

It was dark, given that it was almost ten 'o clock. The trio walked inside of their home, a large apartment on the north side. Despite being quite spacious, the apartment only had two bedrooms, each taken by Sonic or Shadow, with Silver sleeping on the couch. Silver, exhausted and still wearing the burlap sack, which didn't bother her much because of her fur, began to crawl onto the couch and cover herself with the ratty blanket she'd been given. It was all part of the hazing that was supposed to end after Silver proved she was useful, outside of the whole Iblis event. They were planning to buy her a bed, unbeknownst to her. She knew they were hazing her, but didn't know when it would be over.

Shadow tapped her shoulder as she pulled the blanket over her. "You don't need to sleep out here. You can have my bed if you want."

"No, I couldn't." Silver replied, "Where would you sleep?"

"On the couch." Shadow said with a shrug. "No big deal. We were going to buy you a bed today, but… well, you know."

Silver nodded. "But still, I can't force you out of your bed."

Shadow shrugged again, but didn't leave. He was not letting her sleep on the damn couch. He wasn't a dick, unlike Sonic who'd already gone to his room and passed out.

"What if we share the bed? For tonight I mean? It's not gay, at least, not anymore, right?" Shadow finally said.

"Yeah." Silver smiled as Shadow took her hand and led them to his room.

Silver'd never been in Shadow's room before. It was about what you'd expect though. Fairly Spartan, walls still the original off-white, and a little messy, a few things on the floor. Silver was a bit surprised when Shadow started to clean up the room, picking up the things on the floor and throwing a few pieces of trash away.

"Sorry," he said as he worked. "Wasn't really expecting company." Silver blushed at the fact that he was going through the trouble for her. Then, her eyes landed on the bed. It was big. Like really big. At least a queen size.

"Ok," Shadow said, finished picking things up. "Which side do you want?"

Silver was confused. "Huh?"

"Of the bed? Which side of the bed do you want?" Shadow explained, not showing his usual irritation at repeating himself.

"Oh. It doesn't matter." Shadow obviously still wanted an answer. "Left, I guess?" Noticing the left side faced a window, Silver decided she wanted to be able to look out of it.

"Ok. Are you ready for bed?" Silver nodded. "Alright. Don't get up in the middle of the night, if you can help it." Silver simply nodded again.

The two crawled into the bed, and Shadow drew the sheets over them. Silver thought she heard him say goodnight, but she was so deep in thought that she couldn't be sure.

She was wondering why he was acting so nice. Well, it was Shadow, so there was the usual necessary roughness, but still this was way out of character for him. There must be a reason, she thought, but what? What's the motive? Then she thought of his choice to let her sleep in his bed.

"What if we share the bed? For tonight I mean? It's not gay, at least, not anymore, right?" Is that a subtext? What's really going on? All these thoughts plagued Silver's mind as she began to drift, the thoughts along with her, away from reality into the messy watercolor of her dreams.

Shadow was similarly confused, although not the same way. He too questioned his motives, not quite sure of himself, but then when was he? His whole life had been a sequence of falling for one person or another who knew the truth, false prophet after false prophet. Who was he to say what he really intended? At this point, he was willing to try a lifestyle change. He was going to try to just go with the flow for a bit. Might pan out, might not, but who cares?

Still, he wondered, why Silver? This cocky kid was just like Sonic, but even worse, he was self-righteous about his "justice" and his goals, kind of a dick if you got in the way. What the hell did Shadow's subconscious mind see in him? Maybe, piped a voice in the back of his mind, it's not what you saw in him, but what you see in her.

Shadow was on the verge of smacking himself in attempt to punish the smartass subconscious he had. Still, a point had been made. Traits unfavorable in men can be seen as favorable in women. For example, Silver has a tendency to hesitate. As a male, confidence is a pre-requisite, but in females, not so much. His shyness when not on a goal-aimed mindset could be contrived as weakness, but her shyness in normal life was attractive and cute. Personalities fit together like slots and plugs, he reasoned, pardon the innuendo. Perhaps, through certain traits of introverted-ness, Silver was born as more of a slot than a plug. God knew Shadow wasn't. He wasn't overbearing, but at the same time, he wasn't anyone's bitch.

Hmm, thought Shadow, maybe going with the flow is a good choice. Soon though, he abandoned philosophy for the night, drifting into a dreamless, purgatorial peace.

All the while, Sonic dozed in the other room, dreaming of chili dogs and a mysterious, androgynous person with a pot leaf stapled to their head.

Most would call it something of a fever dream, but Silver was used to it. Back in the future, Silver's nickname had been pothead, due to his unfortunate quill formation, but given the dreams Silver had, it seemed appropriate. The dreams were always bizarre, yet always had deep meaning, usually about current events. So, it was unsurprising when Silver was found to be a man (hedgehog, whatever) wearing makeup and a dress in the usual backdrop of watercolor that never had a line to guide it which were common here.

Silver stood, embarrassed at noticing his "interesting" garb, and saw that Shadow and Sonic stood in front of him. Sonic seemed slightly repulsed, but Shadow looked intrigued. Shadow approached Silver, with the latter never moving, and the two began to share a smile. After a short time, Sonic appeared to bypass his repulsion, approaching the two and pushing Shadow away, smiling at Silver and getting the same back. Shortly after, Sonic backed away, causing himself and Shadow to stand equidistant from Silver. They both donned a look of impatience, though Shadow less so.

Just as Silver began to decide which he would approach, the dream ended, and Shadow's voice gently entered Silver's mind.