A/N: Thanks to Crazy Muffin Assassin.
Shadow's POV
I'm detecting a pattern. I've seemed to develop the bad habit of getting injured, then waking up somewhere unfamiliar feeling like I've been run over by a tank several times over and dragged for several miles. Ugh…what happened to me? I couldn't really see much, my eyes didn't feel like adjusting to the newfound light, but it didn't appear to be one of the Doctor's many hideaways. Rather, from what I can tell, I'm lying on an uncomfortable couch.
First I tried speaking. "Mmmmmhlp" Never mind, screw speaking. Even my tongue hurts.
Maybe I can go find someone to help me. If I could roll over, and get a better look at this place, then maybe I can determine where the hell I am. I tried to roll over, but my arms did not feel like moving. I felt like my muscles had been melted then frozen, then melted again. My right arm is completely numb. I tried again; this time, I got a little twitch from my left hand. That's a start. In my frustration, I kicked the sofa. Wait! My legs work! Ok, I might just get out of here yet.
Carefully, I pushed myself to the left with my right leg, so not to fall off the edge. Finally, I got a good look at everything. Apparently, I'm in Silver's living room. Then I looked down. No wonder I feel so terrible, I'm wrapped in bandages. My entire torso and right shoulder are covered. What happened to my? I strained to remember what left me in such a damaged state. Slowly, like a small leak in a dam, memories came trickling back. I was in a hurry…to get back from the future…because of something Mephiles said. And then it hit me; Sky! Oh, jeez, Sky must be an emotional train wreck if half of what Mephiles said is true.
My train of thought was interrupted by the fact that my jacket was missing. Damn, if my jacket's gone, so is the spare inhibitor ring. I scanned the room for any remains of my clothing. There was a trail leading from the door. My shredded jacket was about halfway from the couch to the door. My plan was roughly along the lines of this: Get my jacket, check up on Sky, go kill Mephiles.
Next step: getting off the couch. Sounds easy, right? Well, yeah, it is pretty easy; it just hurts when you fall on your face without anything else to break your fall. Once again, I rolled over on my back. Great, how am I supposed to get up?
After approximately ten minutes of trying to do that thing from the martial arts movies where you jump back to your feet from a lying position, I gave up and decided to crawl over. This has to be the most pathetic thing I've ever done.
I was starting to regain feeling in my arms again, although my right arm is still incredibly sore. With my left, I started rifling through the pockets. Finally, when I looked through all the pockets, the ring was nowhere to be found. I am screwed. I will die a pathetic death. I will no longer be remembered as the hero who stopped the ARK from crashing to earth, or the hedgehog that single handedly defeated Black Doom and destroyed the Black Comet. People will spit on my grave and laugh at me for generations to come. Shadow the Hedgehog: died because he lost his inhibitor ring. Loser!
Sky's POV
Today's my birthday. Another birthday come and gone. Whoopdie-freakin-doo. I just hope Shadow will be ok. He's been lying on that couch for a day and a half without so much as shifting in his sleep. I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. I've been spending those past few days avoiding Silver and Blaze and their wedding craziness. But seeing as it's Silver's birthday as well, I can't very well avoid them forever. Maybe, I'll go check up on Shadow.
Lazily, I hauled myself from my bed and got up. You can get pretty stiff from lying on a bed for eighteen hours. I raised my arms over my head and stretched my back. Walking quietly, I padded down the stairs. Silver and Blaze were elsewhere, discussing details about the wedding. Yuck. When I walked into the living room, I nearly had a heart attack; I expected Shadow to be passed out on the couch. Instead, he was lying on the floor, swearing, and doing what appeared to be trying to get up.
"Shadow?" I asked meekly. The swearing stopped. He rolled over to face me. I could tell he was embarrassed, a trait quite uncommon in Shadow.
"Sky?" he responded. His embarrassed expression was replaced something just as uncommon: concern. "Sky! Sky, are you all right?" he asked, uncharacteristically worried. His red eyes looked up at me from the floor with anxiety and fear. Not fear for himself, but for…me.
"I think the better question is are you all right. You were out for nearly two days without so much as twitching and now you're rolling around on the carpet"
"So…so you're ok?" he asked again. I nodded. He relaxed noticeably, but the worried expression persisted.
"Shadow, what's wrong?"
"This might seem kind of weird, but have you seen my inhibitor ring? I seem to have misplaced it" he wouldn't look me in the eye, and his kept fidgeting with his hands.
I tried to suppress a smile. "Have you by any chance misplaced it on your wrist?" he rolled his eyes, but looked down anyway.
His expression was a mixture of relief and annoyance at the same time "Well, that just figures"
"So," I changed the subject, helping him up and into the kitchen. I figured he'd probably be more comfortable there. I had at least a million questions swirling around my brain, but I managed to tone it down for his sake. When I heard myself say it out loud, it sounded desperate and worried. I was going for caring, but not too much. "What happened to you? Where did you go?"
"It's a long story," Shadow said.
"Well, I've got time"
…Roughly twenty minutes of useless storytelling later…
"Wow, that is without a doubt the weirdest story ever. Why didn't you just correct us when Silver called you Lance?"
Shadow shrugged. "I figured it would just be better if I went along with it for fear that I might change the future, or something"
"Silver still wonders about what happened to "Lance", you know," I laughed. Speak of the devil and he will appear. I could hear Silver and Blaze, still talking about the impending wedding. They were immediately shocked to see Shadow up and about again. Silver was faster at overcoming the surprise.
"Shadow, great to see you again! How are you feeling?" Instead of answering, Shadow glared at him. The room suddenly got cold. Silver made a joke once about how Shadow's glare can lower the room temperature by five degrees. I guess it wasn't a joke. "Sha-Shadow?" Silver slowly backed away from the black hedgehog.
"If you ever call me Lance again, I will cut you" Silver was perplexed.
"Yep, he's fine" Blaze interjected.
"Oh, Shadow, before I forget, here" Silver tossed the green chaos emerald over to Shadow. Instead of catching it, the gem bounced off his chest and landed on he table with a small ping.
"Wow Shadow, great reflexes" Blaze scoffed.
"How did you get that?" he asked, snatching it up and looking around suspiciously.
"It's a long story," Silver answered.
"We'll explain later. We should probably start celebrating soon," the lavender cat said.
"Celebrating what?" Shadow was obviously confused.
"Today's our eighteenth birthday" I gestured to Silver and myself.
"Oh. That's not really my scene" Shadow said, rather aloofly.
"C'mon, at least stay for a little while. I made cake" I insisted. On the inside, I was hoping that he would stay, just so I could be near him. The others don't seem to see it, but he has this…charisma, if you will. Reluctantly, he gave in. Reluctance, not a good sign, but at least he'll stay.
Shadow's POV
Why does she want me around? I asked myself. Better question: does she want me around? Is it a coincidence, or does she want to be with me? What could she possibly see in me that's appealing? With her, it's obvious; she's beautiful. Me, however, am an entirely different matter. I'm just that anti social person with no friends. I felt an uncomfortable tingling in the pit of my stomach. Did my wounds re-open? I don't think I have any injuries on my stomach. Suddenly, the room got very hot. Damn it, is there something else wrong with me? Did I catch a cold? That's pathetic; the Ultimate Life Form brought to his knees from an insignificant bacterial infection.
Silver and Blaze wanted to know what had happened to me as well, so I told them. I left out the things that Mephiles said about the present time as I had before; no need to anger Silver and Blaze over something unimportant. I think my injuries are extensive enough without Blaze burning me.
Silver's eyes were the size of dinner plates "So you were Lance?"
I nodded. "Dude, that's amazing! You took out Iblis by yourself!"
Blaze was less than impressed. "Yeah, great, you saved Sky" Sky frowned slightly at that last comment.
"Blaze, come on" Silver groaned. "Would it kill you to be nice to Sky?"
Silver's POV
"Shadow, are you feeling all right? You look kinda pale"
"I am pale" he scowled. Inwardly, I smiled. Crisis City life is not for the faint of heart. After hearing Shadow's account of what happened to him, we decided it was time to eat the cake.
The cake looked absolutely delicious. It was vanilla with vanilla frosting and nineteen candles. Eighteen for our eighteen years and one for good luck. Together, Sky and I blew out the candles.
"Oi! Lemme in! Pointy! Blazey! Can ya hear me? Open up!" a muffled shout echoed followed by frantic banging on the door.
"Finally got a lock for the door, I see" Shadow noticed.
"Doesn't Marine have anything better to do than constantly drop by here?" I complained. Reluctantly, I got up to see what Marine wanted.
I twisted the lock and opened the door. "What do you want now, Marine?"
Then I took note of her appearance; her face was dripping with tears and her usual happy demeanor had all but vanished. Her gloves were covered in blood, and it didn't appear to be her own. "It's Miles," She said in between sobs. "He's-" her gaze fell on Shadow and her body went rigid.
"You bastard! Miles thought so highly of you! He said you were a good person!" she snapped.
"What are you blabbering about now?" Shadow asked impatiently. Surprisingly fast, for Marine at any rate, she ran forward and punched Shadow. Shadow, not expecting this, took the full brunt of the blow and fell backwards on the couch.
"Marine! What are you doing?" I demanded. Marine went to punch Shadow again, but I stopped her hand with my telekinesis when she drew it back.
"Lemme go, Silver! That bastard hurt Miles" She screamed. She called me Silver; she must be serious. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what probably happened (or else I'd be clueless), and by the look on everyone's faces, they were thinking pretty much the same thing, save for Marine, who was still blaming Shadow.
"Marine," Sky asked. "Did you see "Shadow" attack Tails?"
"No" she replied sarcastically. "Of course I saw him, you bloody twit!"
"Well, did he…take anything?"
Marine thought for a second. "Yea, now that ya mention it, he took somethin' from Miles' plane and somethin' from one a' his worktables"
Sky turned to me. "Bingo"
"Marine, you might want to take a seat," I suggested. Reluctantly, Marine sat down, making sure she sat as far away as possible from Shadow, but still persisted in giving him dirty looks.
…The ineffective, overly complicated explanation of the Solaris fiasco…
Sky's POV
"So you and Blaze came to the past and caused a lot of problems. How does that explain Shadow attacking Miles?" Marine asked impatiently.
"Did you not pay attention? Everything was explained" Blazed replied.
"To recap, Mephiles is the conscious, genial half of Solaris, the sun god. When he was released from the scepter of Darkness he stole Shadow's shadow, in turn taking his look and copying his powers. Understand?"
"So Mephitis-"
"Mephiles"
"I've heard it both ways. So Mephiles is Shadow's shadow? An' he looks like 'em and everythin'? An' he's good at manipulatin' people?"
"Yeah, pretty much" Marine was about as overjoyed as a previously sad person could be.
"Oh, Shady! I knew ya couldn't be a villain!" she ran over and hugged him tightly.
"Didn't stop you from punching me" Shadow grumbled, trying to squirm out of her surprisingly firm grip.
"I don't mean to interrupt here, but what exactly happened to Tails?" I asked. Marine's eyes teared up again and her hung her head low. She mumbled something, while tears began to drip down her face again.
"No, never mind! It's ok! You don't have to tell us!" I said quickly, vainly attempting to stem the flow of her tears.
"Messy breaks and several punctures" she sobbed again, wrapping her arms around her knees.
"But…He'll be ok, right?" my voice trailed off. If Tails died, that would send Marine into an emotional tailspin. I can't quite picture someone so innocent as Tails dying at Mephiles' hands. I heard that he killed Sonic, but Sonic is a fighter, always in the thick of the action.
If anything, her sobbing became more labored. "I…I dunno. Those witch doctors w-wouldn't tell me anythin'. They wouldn't even let me in to see him. They jus' put him on a stretcher and threw him in the ambulance" I wanted to go comfort her, but my tongue was not cooperating and my feet refused to move.
Strangely enough, Shadow stepped up the metaphorical plate, and gave his best shot at being comforting. "Don't worry. Tails is stronger than he looks. He won't let Mephiles, much less anyone, do him in if he's got you to look after" he crying ebbed a little, but she was still vastly saddened.
"Hey Marine?" I walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder.
"What?" she looked up at me. It's so hard to see her like this, after I had been dying to get away from her annoying gleefulness only a few days ago.
I tried to put on my best reassuring smile. "Want some cake?"
"Sure, mate" her response was only half-hearted. I helped the raccoon up and lead her to the other room. Shadow followed us, at length, just in case. Marine can throw quite a punch.
Silver's POV
"Remember when life used to be relatively normal? Without people being constantly injured?" I asked.
"Our lives were never normal, just different" Blaze responded dryly.
"Tell me about it. Can you believe it, Blaze? Only five days until our wedding"
"You don't know the half of it. Amy decided that I would be having a bachelorette party. The girls are going to drag me off to do something feminine, like shopping or something"
"You have my sympathies"
"Your sympathies? I'd rather have you" my fiancée wrapped her arms around my neck and looked at me with her loving eyes. Five days is about four-and-a-half days too long. It's just that weddings are more of a Sunday thing than a Tuesday thing.
Sky called from the other room. "Hey, Silver, you want any cake?"
"Sure. We'll be there in a minute" I called back. I pecked her on the cheek and got up off the couch. Blaze sighed slightly, but went with me. Just as we crossed the threshold to the other room, the doorbell rang.
Blaze groaned. With any luck (or lack thereof) it would probably be Sonic or someone else wanting to know about, or here to tell us about Tails. "I got it, Blaze. You just stay here," I said, sensing her frustration.
I opened the door and was immediately taken aback. The motley crew of five people standing in front of me was out of place and strange looking, even by Chaotix standards.
"Is this the residence of Silver T. Hedgehog?" the one in front asked. He was a black fox wearing a black leather jacket, a V-neck tee shirt, torn jeans, high-top sneakers, and rose coloured glasses. His wavy black hair went down to his shoulders and he had a thick Brooklyn accent.
"Yeah, who are you guys?" I asked suspiciously.
"Yea, we're here! Time to rock n' roll!" some little kid shouted. He was a hyperactive little thing, not unlike Charmy or Marine, climbing all over the guy in the leather jacket, finally stopping and hanging around his shoulders.
The black fox smiled mischievously. "We're Slingshots N' Daisies. We're the band you hired"
A/N: I know that this is the same name as my band, but listen to me when I say I'm not inserting alter egos of myself and my band mates into the story; that would make us cool. Rather, I took one band member from my five favorite bands, (Angus Young, AC/DC, Joey Ramone, Ramones, Paul McCartney, Beatles, Slash, Guns N' Roses, and Neil Peart, Rush) changed their names slightly, and turned them into mobians.