Chapter 8 – After a good night of sleep

The next day, Silver woke up to the sound of the doorbell. It kept ringing repeatedly. He quickly stood and somehow tidied his quills a bit, then run downstairs to the door. When he opened it, he found Sonic, an urgent expression on his face.

- "Silver! Great, now wake up, we need your help at Saltown, asap! Whoa... bad fur day?" Silver looked down, still sleepy. He forgot his chest fur, it looked all messy.

- "That's not important, what is it? Is there any problem?"

- "No time to talk, I'll tell you on the way!" Sonic said that and took Silver by the hand, dashing away from Shadow's house and across the field.

- "Woah! Easy! What's wrooooong??" Sonic let go of his hand and Silver started following with the help of his powers. Withouth looking back, Sonic started explaining, almost shouting so that he could be heard over the sound of the air that passed through them at high speed.

- "We're helping with the reconstruction of Saltown's main square and this huge piece of concrete fell from a half-destroyed building and trapped two people under it, they're badly hurt...! The thing is the size of a room, we can't lift it from it's place without breaking it first, it's too heavy... but by doing so we risk to harm them even more! They're bleeding too much now, we need you to raise that thing from it's place so that they can be taken to the hospital as quick as possible!!"

- "Allright, let's go then!! I hope we make it in time!!" Without further need to talk, both sped up until they were nothing more than two piercing bullets.

Back at his home, Shadow stood at Silver's room door. No Silver there, no Silver in the bathroom, no Silver anywhere in the house. Just what was all that bell-ringing before? Had something happened? It was no use, he just had to wait. He felt tired of being indoors at this point. He carefully went downstairs, one step at a time. He didn't want to ruin all of Silver's work on his leg by stupidly tripping now. He then slowly walked towards the kitchen. And once he reached his goal, it hit him: Oh, right. I've never prepared coffee before. Too bad I'm getting used to it.

Before spending some time with Silver, Shadow would think he was the best, the most powerful, an all-mighty hedgehog. There was nothing he couldn't do. And now, it was things like this, the small things, that made him wonder... There were lots of things he wasn't able to do. Things Silver seemed to have mastered, related to people, to every day living, to everything constructive. Shadow's power seemed to be of the destructive kind instead; while he had the power to kill, Silver had the power to heal. While he had the power to destroy, Silver had the power to create. And while he had the power to fast, Silver had the power of coffee.

- "UuuhhnnnhyyYYAAHH!!" With all his remaining psychokinetic power (he had travelled all the way to Saltown using it) and a great effort to control the tiniest movement so as not to hurt the trapped people underneath, Silver lifted the huge concrete wall in the air. He moved it over a clear part of the square where nobody could be hurt and then... – "YYAAAHH!!!" – with a swift movement of his arms, he send a shockwave to the boulder pulverizing it mid-air to a paramount pile of dirt. Sonic and Amy where already checking the two men and helped getting them up so that they could be taken into the ambulance. Silver panted, it had been no joke, the thing had been pretty heavy. Cream and Tails ran to him and clapped loudly.

- "Awesome job, Silver!! You saved them!! Way to go!!"

- "Thank you Mr. Silver, you are so strong and so brave!"

- "It's ok, no big deal..." Silver smiled to the kids, or kid and 10-year-old-man, like Tails asked them to call him. He lifted Cream in his arms and stroked Tails head with his free hand. Cream hugged him, she liked to think of Silver as the brave and gentle older brother she never had. And of course, she liked feeling his fluffy chest hair too.

- "Tsk, that chest hair... I need to get some. Seriously, look at that. A chick magnet." Sonic approached smiling.

- "Are you jealous, blue boy?" Silver smiled too. Tails left Silver's side and went to Sonic's. The blue hedgehog absently stroked the little fox's back while talking.

- "You did a great job. Thanks for your help, pal. The two of them will be ok." Sonic gave him a cool pose and a rewarding wink.

- "Really? I'm glad to hear that... And, you know. I just like being helpful" answered Silver, trying hard to hold Cream properly. He was a bit tired from using his powers for so long.

- "So, how's Shadow doing? Was he still alive when you returned home yesterday?"

- "Heh, yes, he was-..." When thinking back, the memories of the night before suddenly struck Silver. He hadn't have the time to think about it with all the conmotion about the wounded workers. He remembered everything that happened: getting home late, waking up Shadow by accident, him asking Silver to get closer, and closer, and closer, and closer...

- "Silver? Are you still with us?" asked Sonic waving a hand in front of his face. Tails stared at him curiously, now leaning a bit on Sonic's side since the last one was resting his other hand (the one he wasn't waving) on the fox's opposite shoulder.

- "Mr. Silver? Your face turned red, are you feeling well?" Cream's little hand touched his forehead to check his temperature and Silver came back to reality.

- "Uh, yeah, I'm fine, I was just saying that... yes, well, I couldn't see him very well because he was already asleep, and I couldn't see him today but I guess he's doing fine..."

- "... Tails, would you please take Cream with you, I remembered I need to talk to Silver about something. It'll be a second."

With that Tails helped Cream down from Silver's arms and they went back to where Amy was.

Silver wasn't sure of Sonic's intentions so he just waited for him to talk first. But Sonic just looked at him. After staring for some seconds, he finally asked.

- "Silver, is Shadow happy?"

- "What? What do you mean?"

- "When you're with him... have you seen him smile? Once, at least?"

- "...I... I have, yes..."

- "...." Sonic looked at him for a moment. Silver stood there, staring at some floor tile over there. After a moment, wondering why Sonic wouldn't say anything else, he finally made eye contact. Five seconds, it took five seconds until he blushed and lowered his head again. Sonic's gaze was making him nervous.

- "Take this."

Silver looked up and saw the purest cyan glow in Sonic's hand. The emerald shone with it's own power.

- "A Chaos emerald? Why... why would you give this to me?"

- "So that you can use Chaos Control to get back to Shadow. I don't think you would survive the trip back in your actual state... And you want to see him soon, don't you? Then go to him." Silver raised his head again and saw Sonic smiling sincerely at him. – "Good luck with Shadow. He's not an easy hedgehog to handle. But I guess you'll do allright."

- "I... ....Sonic, have you ever-...?" Sonic didn't let him finish, he just put the emerald in Silver's still doubtful hand and said the words.

- "Chaos... Control!!!"

When he opened his eyes, Silver was standing in front of Shadow's house, Chaos emerald in hand. Still confused about the whole conversation and the dimensional trip that followed, he only got to ask himself "What the heck was all that about...?"