"Okay, Silver," Metal Sonic said, a few minutes shy of the dining room opening, "time for your performance assessment."

"My what?" The hog felt his body tense up. There was a glint to Metal's dead gaze that said lasers and math was involved, and his fur stood on end. Would pencil and paper be provided alongside an energy shield of somesort-

"How well you can do the job on your own," he elaborated. "Worst-case scenario, some super-hacker gets my system infected and Haku is leading the anti-zombie resistance and you're left on your own in a rule-less, manager-less, unsupervised future with a line out-the-door for coffee."

Silver tilted his head, scratching behind his ear. "That... that is pretty worst-case scenario."

"Glad you understand. Okay, Haku, give him the situation."

"We're out of napkins and somebody has painted the tile red with someone's innards."

"Oh my go-"

"Don't panic. What do you do?"

"Uh-uh... ca-call nine-one-one, and get someone to put pressure on the wound-"

"The assailant is still armed, Silver! You have to disarm him before he does someone else in. Pull the gun out from under the cash register and aim for his shoulder and thigh-"

Silver woke up, making Venice jerk back, almost sending the bowl of popcorn sailing across the room.

"Geez, Silver!" Venice hissed, "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!" Sssshhh!-es came from around the dark room, some punctuated by candy thrown in their direction.

The clock said two thirty-two am, and the only light was that coming from the television showing a hostage situation with a guy with a bloody knife standing off with a shaky rookie cop.

So that's where that came from, he sighed, looking around. Right, Ven's Swim Team and company, celebrating their wonderful sports season with slasher and thriller movies. At least it wasn't his upcoming performance assessment.

He rubbed his eyes and peeked behind the couch for the least inconsiderate escape route for the others. Avoiding tipping the couch over and crushing a sleeping MVP, Silver swung over the couch and tiptoed into his room before machine gun fire lit up the room like a rapid fire strobe light.

He curled up in his own bed and prayed that his performance assessment had nothing to do with his biological father walking in on him working rush hour behind the counter.

Shadow wiped down the last remains of Mrs. Fukui's social gathering that evening. Exotic scents still lingered and fought with each other half an hour after they had left with Haku in tow. At least they didn't treat Metal and him like some sort of lower-class workers and as family. Many of them had endearing broken English and petted and cooed over them like they were the club puppies or something like that.

"So, you're going to give the new intern his assessment tomorrow?" he asked, going off something Haku had said earlier about getting rest for preparation.

Metal was stacking up the chairs on the other side of the room, but he looked towards Shadow before saying, "Yes, his performance assessment. He's shown promise, just hoping he can retain it."

"So what's he like? Not a #%#, I hope."

"No, the opposite, really. Sweet kid."

"Hmm," Shadow started to tilt his head. "Is he getting used to the hours?"

"He's been on for a week now, so I would think so."

"And... he's learned all the correct procedures and names?"

"Names, no... procedures, mostly."

"Right," Shadow puffed as he straightened up from wiping the counter. "Any chance he's the son of some girl I happened to know about sixteen years ago?"

"Hmm?" Metal buzzed. "Why would you ask?"

"Something about silver fur in chairs and a sense you don't really want to tell me about the new intern."

Metal didn't respond, he just beeped.

"So, Silver's working here now?"

"This was before your panic attack, mind. And he wasn't very excited about working here. Just so happens runaway kids don't really get jobs months after incident, and he was a bit hesitant about this being his last option."

Shadow nodded, letting it set in. "Hmm... imagine that. The shrink tells me to talk to my son, voila, he appears."

"Fate is funny, isn't it?" Metal Sonic buzzed. "But I'm not so sure that shrink knows the situation."

"I think she does," Shadow retorted, huffing. "I saw a newspaper clipping at her desk from last year's adventure, and an old stack of newspapers. I think she knows about 'Gladio-'"

"Narkissos, Narkissos would have fit better, I'm telling you."

"Why?" Shadow wondered aloud. "You keep saying that, but I don't see the connection. Isn't Narkissos the kid that fell out of the sky and drowned?"

"No. Narkissos fell in love with his own reflection, when the goddess Nemesis bewitched a pond to be as smooth as glass. Though most myths agree his parents were a river god and a fountain nymph, a few say that he was the son of the Titan goddess Selene, and her Endymion."

Shadow hummed, though he never thought of himself as Endymion. It was a cruel way to live forever, to be asleep- but that was Selene's fate. Forever asleep with eyes wide open and a snapped spine, hands clutching at a bundle too innocent to know he was freezing to death. He shuddered and shook his head fiercely.

Stop.

Shadow took a deep breath and sighed. "I guess I'm coming into work tomorrow, too."

"What?" Metal almost dropped the chair he was holding and turned his head towards him. "That's not such a good idea-"

"I think it'd be good for me."

"I wasn't talking about you," Metal buzzed. "I'm worried about him. His request when he signed up that I agreed to was that you and he not share schedules."

"Really?"

"Yes. I told you, he wasn't happy about this being his last option for work."

"What does he want to work for? It's the start of summer. If I had one summer to myself, I'd be hitting the town, the beach, the entire world if I could. He doesn't owe anybody anything, does he?"

"Not that I know of. Something tells me it's a big-ticket item, like concert tickets or maybe a scooter."

Shadow puffed at scooter. "Scooters are for girls. If he is, like you like to say, me, he wants a motorcycle."

"I don't know how you did it, Watson," Metal whirred. "Is that so?"

"What? Were you honestly going to let a kid have his first motorcycle ride on a new bike as a coffee-delivery boy?"

"I'm not stupid. I've calculated the factors, and knowing how unlucky his father's life has been, I know it will take practice and time. I'm going to the bike shop the day after to look at the models. Come with?"

"#$%& it, let's all go."

"Ah... Miss Aurora..." a man on the other end yawned. "What is it? Why are you calling so late?"

Aurora sat at her kitchen table with bags around her sharp blue eyes. "Mr. Fukui. Where does your daughter live?"

"Hmm? My Haku? She lives with her boyfriend."

"And where does she work?"

"She works at a coffee shop in the city. Why do you ask? Is this about Silver-kun?"

Silver. She wrote that down- was that the father or the son? She shook her head, then said, "Where is the coffee shop?"

He said the address, which she copied with haste, then Mr. Fukui mumbled, "Miss Aurora? Do your parents know what you are doing-"

She hung up on him and stared at the paper before her, with a series of numbers and letters that pointed her to Selene. Aurora wasn't letting her get away this time.