Chapter 2 - The big surprise

The last days of January were as hot as every other year in the Southern Hemisphere. Silver woke up, stretched and yawned. It was half past seven in the morning, and he had to get ready to go to Saltown's celebration event. They were organizing a party of some sort in honor to Sonic and company (including him), who had saved said place about two months ago. The invitation didn't give out much information about what the event would be like, so Silver just thought it was some kind of surprise party for them.

He finished putting his gloves and boots on and tidied his quills and fluffy chest hair. I guess this is enough, they didn't say anything about formal-wear in the invitation...

He arrived just a bit early, like he used to do. The main square was crowded, but people were all standing behind some fences. On the other side, a little two-tailed fox and a black hedgehog stood near to what looked like a stage. So Tails and Shadow were already there... Knuckles would probably arrive 5 to 10 minutes later than expected and Sonic always liked to do the just-in-time type of entrance. As for the girls, well, they always would arrive about 15 minutes late. Seeing how he still had some time, he went on to greet his two friends.

"Hello Shadow, how are you?" – Silver extended his hand waiting for Shadow to do the same but received a plain cold "Hello, Silver" in return. At least the black hedgehog had looked at him while saying the words. That was more than you could expect coming from Shadow, Silver knew that, but he could never manage to put his polite manners aside anyway. He quitted the hand-shaking and put his hand down.

- "I wasn't sure if you would come, since you haven't last time... I-I mean, it's nice to see you around again" Silver added. He didn't want to sound like he'd rather not see him there or anything.

- "Had nothing better to do." – Shadow just looked somewhere else and Silver decided that the black hedgehog must've had enough social activity for the rest of the week. He turned to his other friend instead.

-"Hi Tails!" – he greeted the two-tailed fox.

-"What's up, Silver? It's been a while." – the little fox seemed concentrated on something and didn't look at his white interlocutor as he spoke.

- "Is something bothering you? You look a bit too serious."

- "Oh, I hope it's nothing. It's just this feeling I've had since I came here, see that people over there...? They are whispering things and giving us that strange look. They smile but it's like they're faking..."

- "You think so?" – Silver looked at the people Tails was talking about and saw nothing wrong with them. Maybe they were a bit stiff, but it was probably because they were hiding a surprise from them. – "I think they're just excited about something, probably something to do with the celebration... We shouldn't worry. I believe they are alright."

- "It's not about their safety I'm worried about..." – Tails' words were completely erased by a whooshing sound just as the Blue Blur landed on stage after creating a huge air current between them, which ruined their morning quill and fur grooming.

- "Hello everyone! Here's your man. The Fastest Thing Alive at your service. Been expecting me for a long time? Hehe."

- "Oh, certainly, it's you we've been expecting-" said a deep voice. A man with a black suit, white shirt and red tie, wearing a black hat, stepped forward. He was sweating under those formal clothes, but his fat lips formed a big smile. –"If you would be so kind, would you please come over here?"- He pointed towards the thing which looked like a platform -"I'd like to personally introduce you to the people of my town so that everyone will know who the saviors to which they should be thankful are."

Sonic appeared by the side of this man in less than a millisecond and stretched his hand warmly. He loved feeling that his work had this kind of results, with people being all safe and happy. And a few dozen free chili dogs once in a while didn't hurt either.

- "Hey guys! Come over here so everyone can see you!"- shouted Sonic and Silver, Tails and Shadow started walking towards the platform. It was decorated as a stage, there were a couple of microphones on a lectern, and what looked like a table with some flowers and food on it. Everyone around started clapping and cheering them, yet they didn't jump madly, like fans used to do. Sonic was too excited to notice though.

- "Shouldn't we wait for the girls?" – Silver whispered to Tails' ear. But the fox didn't even listen to him. He had noticed something was very, very wrong about the stage. And the engine sound coming from underneath it.

- "Wait, Sonic, may I talk to you for a second?" said Tails out loud so that he could hear. He just hoped he would come down from there as soon as possible.

- "What's wrong, buddy? Why can't we just start enjoying the party already?" – Sonic started waking down the stairs of the platform to show he was pissed about his friend stopping all the fun. Walking was Sonic's way of pouting. Suddenly the man in the suit turned awfully serious and shouted "YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" and pulled the microphone like he would've done with a lever. The whole stage started rumbling and instantly several metallic tentacles burst from untherneath and started whipping everything around. People started screeming and running like crazy, some sounded like they'd been hit by those mechanic arm-like machines. Silver managed to stop one that was coming their way while he heard the man from before say, in a hysterical voice: "This was not the deal!! You said you wouldn't hurt my people!!!"

"WOOOO-HO-HO-HO!™" A new machine appeared, soaring the air over the stage. As expected, the round, personal mini-airship was carrying the infamous Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Everything turned into chaos. "Get that hedgehog! I don't care what happens to the rest!" Behind Eggman's shouting Tails voice could be heard, he was screaming. Silver could see Sonic for a second, cutting the tentacle that had caught the little fox, setting him free. People were now yelling and screaming out in terror, scattered everywhere. Pieces of the stage which had been covering the machine started to fall, threatening with hitting the people still close enough, and it was in a blink of an eye that Silver felt his body being attracted brutally until it crashed painfully into what must've been a metallic surface.

When he opened his eyes Silver couldn't see the ground, just sky and more sky, as far as the eye could see. His metallic shackles in both gloves and boots were stuck to this 'wall' beneath him, it had to be a kind of giant magnet which was facing upwards so that he couldn't see the floor. He moaned in pain and, still panting, tried to use his powers to get free, but the magnetic field was so strong that it was probably the reason why he couldn't get his powers to work. The magnet shifted a bit and Silver could see how high up he was, at least 7 or 8 meters above the ground level. He could jump from there. While trying desperately to move he heard a loud 'KLANG' sound and a curse coming from his right. He turned his head and saw Shadow, shoes stuck to the magnet, which had fortunately turned facing up again so that he was almost in a standing position.

- "ARGH!! My legs!!" Fury invaded Shadow's face, he looked like he was about to kill someone, Silver just hoped that it wasn't him. With his free hands, the ebony hedgehog managed to take one of his metallic-soled shoes off and put its matching ring in one of his already ringed wrists. It was then when Silver saw something huge that looked like a robotic claw covered with blades coming towards him.

- "Sh- SH-SHADOW! LOOK OUT!" His shout made Shadow realize the imminent danger Silver was in and made it just in time to take his other shoe off and jump over him, in an attempt to protect his body from the attack with his own. The claw would've hit them directly, but Shadow grabbed Silver by the sholuders and, shifting his body, put all of his remaining strength in a ferocious kick to the side of the claw, making it miss it's target by a few inches. The claw hit the magnet right by their side with a loud 'KLONG'. Shadow turned to Silver again, still grabbing him by the shoulders. During a second, all Silver could see was Shadow, his ruby eyes opening wider than ever. He then closed them as hard as he could and his grip on Silver's shoulders tightened, as he cried out the most painful moan he had ever heard.

- "YAAAARRRGHHHH--! AH, DAMN!! AAARGHH!" Silver's eyes were wide open now too, as Shadow howled in agony right on top of him. The scent of the darker hedgehog's blood quickly reached his nostrils... He had to get them out of there fast, but he just didn't know how. Starting to get desperate and almost in the verge of crying, he saw Shadow open his eyes again. The black and red hedgehog quickly scanned Silver's arms and legs before shouting "Stay still!"

With that he violently punched his four shackles, in attempt to break them and letting Silver free to move again. Yet, being charged with Silver's power, he couldn't make a scratch on them even after several punches. He was just hurting his hands in vain. Silver looked at him in desperation as he saw the claw getting ready for a second attack.

- "It's coming back!!" Shadow's eyes looked absent for a second in quick, intense thought and then came with the solution. He took the red Chaos Emerald from in between his quills and exclaimed "CHAOS CONTROL!" When the claw hit, the only things left on the magnet where Shadows and Silver's shoes, and Silver's gloves.

Shadow yelled once he hit the floor. His leg was covered in blood, apparently the claw had blades where it hit him. Deprived from his garments, and a safe control over his psychokinetic powers with them, Silver took Shadow in his arms and just ran as fast as he could. They weren't in a position to do anything else at the moment, or so thought Silver.

- "CHAOS SPEAR!" - Shadow still wanted to destroy the bastard robots that had hurt him. His attack hit the mechanic arm supporting the magnet and it fell to the ground, finally deactivated. It looked like the girls had finally arrived, because Rouge, who apparently had decided to return earlier than it was expected, was screw-kicking the shit out of Eggman and Amy was helping Sonic out with the power of her mighty Piko-Piko hammer. Cream suddenly appeared in front of Silver, who almost crashed with her for not being looking to the front.

- "Woah! Cream!" – She and Cheese had came to the celebration, and given the situation had decided to help in any way the could. When she saw the blood on Shadow's leg, she got awefully worried.

- "Are you alright?!" she asked.

- "I am... Shadow is wounded though-"

- "Don't worry about me, just get someone to bring the boy his gloves and boots, he really could use them now, they're over there!" interrupted Shadow. Cream ran as fast as she could and told Amy about the fallen stuff, and when she got back to where Silver and Shadow were, a huge explosion made the three of them fall to the ground. Sonic had just pierced the core of the tentacle robot and Eggman's Egg-mobile was sent plummeting into the sky.

A.N: An anonymous reviewer pointed out many grammar mistakes. Sorry about that, it's been years now since I last attended an English class, and sadly, I can't practice it much on my own. This reviewer sounded disappointed, too bad they didn't leave a name so that I could answer them properly.

Does anyone want to beta-read this fic? But this will mean slower updating... is it really necessary? Sheesh.