A/N: Yeah, updates for Manage Thy Anger are highly requested before the 21st, so I'm working on this chapter as a special "shut up and let me write" to Sammie Weisenbach… I have been looking forward to writing this interlude, though, so don't get me wrong. Also, I'd like to announce that I will post a Chapter 13 for awesome fourth-wall breaking action! Its title will be "Ask the Cast," and the IC (MtA wise) characters will answer all of the reviews up to that point. So… if you have anything to ask your favorite Mobian or ISBVI student or teacher from the story, please don't hesitate to comment and inquire!

Chapter 10: A Disturbed Individual

"All you said was, 'it all started about five days ago…'" Jimmy said as Shadow stood in front of the group. At least fifteen minutes had passed since the sentence had been uttered, and there was even enough time for Lexi to cut in and inform everyone that the Egg-sterminator's control tower had launched into what was thought to be outer space.

"Oh, I was actually supposed to talk?" asked the Ultimate Lifeform. "I thought I just made the opening statement and you all got to see the event as it actually happened…"

"Actually, I've just completed a device that could serve such a purpose," Tony intervened.

"Since when do you create devices, Tony?" demanded Mrs. Garvey. Tony blushed profusely and brought forth a large box with a headset attached. He placed the headset on Shadow.

"Now, just start telling the story, and the machine will pick up your memories and show us the event," explained the boy. Shadow nodded.

"As I was saying, it all started about five days ago…" Shadow began. A hole in the box suddenly lit up and projected a screen. Before long, the screen showed said hedgehog walking to a door in the same building as Mr. Schnieders' room. He turned the knob and opened the door, but was almost run over by a student with short dark hair.

-O-

"You're gonna die, too!" the boy screamed. "They'll come and stuff your intestines down your throat, bake you, and feed you to their starving zombie armies!" Screaming inarticulately, he ran in the direction of the dorms. Shadow sighed and walked inside the room.

"Robert seems to be making a lot of progress…" he commented idly as he shut the door behind him and took a seat on the soft couch on the same wall. The room resembled a normal classroom, except for said couch. There was a short man with dark hair and glasses sitting in a swivel chair at the desk in the back.

"And, um… how are we doing today, Shadow?" the man asked kindly.

"Not too great today, Dr. Mathews…" the ebon rodent sighed as he stretched out on the hedgehog-proofed couch. "I'm starting to wonder about my past again…"

"We just discussed this last week," Dr. Mathews scolded. "Your past is… well, um… the past. Your future is what you need to be focused on."

"How can you focus on forever?!" Shadow shouted. "I have an eternity to live and think about the f –" The door opened, and a dark bald boy poked his head in.

"EFF!" he yelled in a very high pitch as he left and slammed the door behind him.

"– king future!" finished Shadow furiously. He clenched his right fist, and it became a mass of green sparks.

"Okay, okay. Let's, um… put the Chaos Spears away and we can talk about your past, okay?" the psychologist suggested. Shadow growled viciously and dissipated the attack. "Now… what is it that seems to be, um… troubling you about your past?"

"It's the whole thing about the GUN guys shooting Maria…" lamented the Ultimate Lifeform.

"I can understand how that might be, um… traumatic for you," agreed the doctor. "I once read a story about some supposed superior being who was friends with a human and –"

"That wouldn't happen to have been the manual for Sonic Adventure 2, would it?" asked Shadow. Dr. Mathews became very red, but the hedgehog just sighed as a tear slid along his muzzle. "I mean, seriously! I'm the Ultimate friggin' Lifeform! If they were trying to kill me, why would they use a gun?!"

"Um… Plot device, if I had to guess…" answered the psychologist.

"Well, I've had enough of stupid plot twists that get my friends killed!" bellowed Shadow. "The only way to make sure this never happens agains is to ruin all of the best plot twists!"

"Shadow, I wouldn't, um… do that…" advised Dr. Mathews.

"Screw you, man!" With a deep breath, Shadow continued his rant. "Snape killed D –"

Several very hackneyed references later…

"Nicole Kidman is a ghost and Rosebud is the sled!" finished the Ultimate Lifeform. "There! I've ridden the world of any desire to watch any more movies, play any more games, or read any more books! Now all of my friends will be safe from plot twists… if I had any friends, that is…"

"Shadow… You really need to calm down, okay?" asked the psychologist.

"Shadow calms down when he pleases!" roared the hedgehog. He jumped up, and his gloved hands were once again encased in the Chaos sparks. Pointing at Dr. Mathews, he shouted, "Chaos… Spear!" Several pointed bolts of energy flew in the young doctor's direction, but time seemed to stop before they could hit. Within an instant, Mathews was behind Shadow. "Hey, you're really fast!" Shadow said admiringly.

"No… I'm just, um… cheating, that's all…" admitted the psychologist. He withdrew an orange gem from behind his back. "Chaos, um… Control!" Time slowed as Shadow prepared another attack. Dr. Mathews ran behind Shadow again and wrapped his hands around the Ultimate Lifeform's neck. "Oh, and, um… Shadow calms down when I pleases!" In slow-motion, the hedgehog choked and coughed as the slowed-down versions of various curses escaping his muzzle as he passed out. Time went back to normal, and the doctor breathed a sigh of relief. "I really hate doing that to my clients…" he said regretfully. He made to cross the room back to his desk when he heard muffled, quiet words.

"Chaos… Blast…" Bespectacled eyes looked at the black-and-red rodent, but there was no time to act before the searing scarlet explosion filled the room. The energy burned like living fire; its tongues cutting through Mathews' skin with the ferocity of the hedgehog himself times at least three thousand, and the psychologist screamed as he was thrown back against the wall. His glasses broke, but he was able to see Shadow advancing through the blurring energy field. "Calms down when you pleases, eh, Mathews?" the experiment sneered. He held up a hand, which became blanketed in the necessary force for Chaos Spears. Just as he was about to launch one through Dr. Mathews' skull, time slowed yet again. The doctor rolled out of the way of the slowed Spear. The energy of the user was greatly exemplified by the amount of time the Chaos Control worked for, as he only had those precious seconds to put distance between himself and Shadow.

"Shadow…" tried the young teacher/psychologist again. "You need to calm down." Crimson eyes widened as Shadow turned around to face Mathews.

"How the f –" The door opened again, with the same student shouting "EFF!" into the room.

"Nicholas, get to class…" Mathews advised. The boy slammed the door.

"– k did you get that Chaos Emerald?!" demanded the Ultimate Lifeform, his breathing becoming heavy. He still looked like he had a lot of fight in him, but it also appeared that a good hit to the chest might just knock him out.

"Well, um… I got from a blue hedgehog…" answered the doctor. "He said that if I was giving you therapy, I'd need it… as well as a pair of earplugs for when you start talking about Maria."

"I'ma snap his neck like I did with the bellboy…" mumbled the hedgehog.

"Now, I'll have, um… none of that in my room!" scolded Dr. Mathews. "I'm afraid this is a little too relaxed for you, so I'm going to have you attend six more weeks of Mr. Schnieders' anger management class, okay?" Shadow grumbled and turned to walk out the door, but he was stopped by the doctor. "Hold on, Shadow. Let me write you a pass…" He began writing something down on a slip of paper when the Ultimate Lifeform fainted (be it from exhaustion or exasperation, no one will ever know).

-O-

"And then it was now, and now I don't know what happened…" Shadow finished. The projection disappeared.

"That's it?" Jimmy asked. "All that, and you got placed in anger management?!"

"Dude… I killed someone, and that's what they gave me as a sentence," Shadow reminded him. "I swore several times that when they let me out, the first I'd do is kill again, and they shortened the sentence!"

"Come to think of it, that is kinda broken…" Jake commented.

"Broken but awesome!" laughed Mandy. "I should save the planet sometime!"

"Someday, you will…" Mrs. Garvey predicted. "But why do I have the feeling that it will involve a children's card game?" Jake, Lexi, Mandy, Shadow, and Preston shrugged. Just then, James and Charlie reentered D Dorm.

"They caught 'im!" James cried with glee. "All year, he's been stealing all kinds of stuff from everyone, and they've finally pinned all of it on Donald!" Charlie nodded.

"They searched his house and found Jake's backpack with all the stuff, all the money he'd stolen from TJ, Adrian, and Tyler, Wiltsie's iPod…" listed Charlie. "Not to mention that I'm in the clear, and Donald's been expelled." Everyone cheered.

"I told you he did it…" Preston commented. A giant fist bonked the top of his head.

"We all knew he did it!" shouted Andy.

"And to think it was revealed in a chapter of Manage Thy Anger…" Sienna murmured.

"What the hell's Manage Thy Anger?!" Shadow asked.

Well, there you have it, folks… The infamous Chapter Ten… I hope you all enjoy it, because I'm gonna take a short break from MtA to work on The Ultimate Challenge and a new project I've been thinking of. In other words, keep a look out for my next epic, Trainers' Academy; and my next oneshot, Revisited.

Next Chapter: Last Chapter: Part 3