A/N: This is a comedy chapter. Knuckles invites Shadow and Sonic to stay the night in his dingy old truck, and what trouble ensues...? Read to find out! This is actually something that really happened to me and someone else at a friend's house during the Fourth of July in sixth grade. ~PierceTheBre

March 19, 2014 update: I fixed some errors and I made Sonic and Knuckles's dialogue sound more in-character. ~PierceTheBre


Endless Shadow Oneshots, Chapter 8 - A Night to Forget

Shadow glared at the pitiful pick-up truck. The paint peeled off, the fender seemed about to fall to the ground, and cracks danced across the windshield. "No," he muttered.

"What, buddy?" Sonic asked. He slapped Shadow's shoulder and grinned. "Are you afraid of getting dirty?"

Shadow made a disgusted face at Sonic. "I'd just rather not sleep in that contraption for a entire night." At that moment, Knuckles walked over and leered at Shadow.

"You are not calling her a 'contraption!'" Knuckles snapped. "She's perfectly fine, just the way she is."

Shadow snorted. "If you say so. Now, why do we need to stay in a truck?"

Knuckles replied, "Because it's something to do, instead of watching the Master Emerald every night! It could be fun."

"And why should I sleep in a disgusting pick-up truck overnight, just because it's 'fun?'"

Sonic laughed loudly. "Ya need to loosen up, buddy!"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Pfft. Whatever."

"Why don't you live a little, Shadow? Quit being so boring all of the time!" Knuckles chuckled.

Shadow clenched his fists. "Yeah, okay. I'm a hell of a better time than you."

Knuckles laughed harder, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Fine. I'll have a little 'slumber party' with you in your sickening vehicle," Shadow sneered.

That caused Sonic and Knuckles to fall over in glee. Shadow flatttened his ears against his head in irritation. He silently walked over to Knuckles's truck (which was sitting in his yard, for some peculiar reason), and yanked open the door. He hopped into the passenger seat and turned around to glare at Sonic and Knuckles. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get in!"

The two of them crawled into the truck silently. Knuckles demanded that he sleep in the backseat, since it was his truck, so Sonic and Shadow were left to sleep in the uncomfortable front seats.

"I hate ya, Knux," Sonic said. "You didn't even bother to bring in pillows and blankets!"

"Oh, yeah, um...I forgot..." Knuckles murmurred. He opened the door and dashed into his house to go get the supplies.

Once they were both completely alone, Shadow said to Sonic, "Why would you need blankets in the middle of July?!"

"I like to cuddle," Sonic muttered.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "You are stupid, Faker." Sonic rolled over on his side and put on his headphones in reply. Shadow saw a silver glint of Sonic's iPod glisten in the moonlight. The device undoubtedly contained a plethora of Avril Lavigne.

Finally, Knuckles returned with pillows and blankets. After he climbed in, he threw two of the pillows at Sonic and Shadow and tossed a large purple satin blanket up to them. Shadow shoved it away, annoyance showing in his face, yet Sonic immediately grabbed it and held it close to him as he dozed off.

Shadow glared at Sonic in disgust. He turned away and looked out the window, and into the next-door neighbor's house. Through the house's window, he could see a seemingly abandoned old bedroom.

"Knuckles, who lives in that house?" Shadow asked.

"Huh?" Knuckles looked up. "Oh, uh...um...no one lives there."

"Okay."

They sat in excruciatingly boring silence for about 30 minutes, when Shadow noticed lightning flashing down from the sky. Immediately after, an immense rumble shook the vehicle.

Knuckles leaped up and hit his head on the roof of the truck. "What?! Ahh! You can't have my baby Master Emerald!"

Shadow turned and glared back at Knuckles. Knuckles didn't pay attention, and instead just sat there rubbing his head. "Oh, uh...what was that?"

"It was thunder. We're having a thunderstorm, you idiot. I'm going in the house now."

Knuckles grinned diabolically. "Oh, you scared? You wanna go in the safe, warm, dry house and sleep?"

Shadow leered at the red echidna. "You are ridiculous." Yet, he didn't make a move to leave the truck.

After about another hour of boring nothingness, Shadow began to doze off. The lovely pitter-patter of the rain soothed him...

"Oh my gosh!" Shadow suddenly heard Sonic exclaim. He looked over at him, and when he did, all he could see was a blinding yellow light.

"Ahhh!" Shadow shouted. Sonic put his hand over Shadow's mouth to muffle his screams, and then turned the flashlight off. Shadow pulled Sonic's hand away in anger. "Faker! What the hell?! And where did you get the flashlight?"

"Shh, shh, you guys," Sonic whispered. "And I found it in the glove compartment. Anyway, I saw something moving in that house next door!"

"What?" Knuckles just woke up, and had missed out on all the action.

"You said that house was abandoned, huh, Knuckles? It's not! I saw someone moving in the bedroom, so I found this flashlight and shone it through the window," Sonic said. "There's somebody in there."

"Do you want to check it out?" Shadow asked.

"Oh, no, you don't," Knuckles snapped. "You're just looking for an excuse to get out of this truck!"

Shadow contemplated this. "Hmph. Like I believe there's anyone in there. Faker is obviously just trying to scare you."

"Yeah, sure!" Sonic snarled. "Just wait. You'll see what I mean." Sonic then leaned back into his seat, curled up, and pulled the blanket over himself in anger.

Shadow rolled his eyes. He rested his head against the door of the truck, and then realized how stuffy it was in there. He rolled down all four of the windows, and welcomed the rain that drizzled on his quills...


Shadow's eyes burst open as he heard a barrage of thunder roll continuously around him. He shouldn't have rolled down those windows - the inside of Knuckles's truck was drenched. Even his quills were soaking wet. It seemed like Sonic hadn't awoken because of the blanket, which was shielding him from the rain, and Knuckles hadn't noticed, simply because he was a heavy sleeper.

The wind was going crazy, and now, it was surprisingly cold. Shadow rolled up the windows slightly, but still left them about three-fourths of the way cracked. This was terrible. He was way too uncomfortable and didn't like sleeping in the same vacinity as Sonic and Knuckles.

Suddenly, three continuous streaks of lightning lit up the sky. During the first one, Shadow glanced at Knuckles's house. It lit up eerily. During the second one, Shadow stared at the palms of his hands. Finally, during the third one, he glanced at the house next door...and a face stared back at him through the bedroom window.

"What the...?!" Shadow shouted. "Faker! I believe you now!" He grabbed Sonic's shoulders and shook them vigorously. The cyan hedgehog jolted awake.

"Huh...? What is it?"

"I may have seen a face staring at me through the bedroom window of that house..."

Sonic smirked. "Oh, really, Shadz?"

Shadow stared at Sonic, and sighed. "I guess you're right. Not like Knuckles would believe us. He'd probably think we were teaming up to try and scare him, though I would never do something so childish."

The blue hedgehog chuckled. "Yeah, yeah..."

"Besides, we're both probably imagining things, letting our imaginations get the best of us because we're trapped in this disgusting automobile."

Sonic laughed in response. "Uh-huh."

"I'm going back to sleep now, Faker."

"Okay. Goodnight."

"Whatever."


Shadow woke up a second time, to the sound of a rattling fence. He looked at Sonic, who was once again curled up in a ball, and then at Knuckles, who was sleeping like a baby. Some instinct made Shadow turn around, and he saw someone with a ski mask on climbing over the fence into Knuckles's yard!

"What?!" Shadow shoved Sonic, and then Knuckles. "What in the hell?! Look!" He pointed at the figure. They turned around, looked - and screamed.

"Roll up the windows!" Knuckles shouted.

Just as Shadow and Sonic simultaneously tried to, the creature stuck its hand in through the crack on Sonic's side - and got it stuck!

"Arrgh! Arrgh!" It shouted as its fingers wriggled around in agony.

"Begone, demon!" Knuckles shouted. He punched its hand and it screeched in pain.

Shadow did nothing but stare at the scene in confusion. "Pull off its glove!" He ordered.

Sonic slowly pulled the glove off of its hand...it was a human hand!

"Eggman!" They all screamed in unison.

"Yes! Yes! Let me go!" Eggman ripped off his ski mask and threw it down. Sonic slowly rolled down the window.

"You fool!" Shadow snarled. "What were you doing?"

"Yeah, ya stalker!" Intense irritation showed in Sonic's face.

Eggman feebly grabbed his injured hand. "I knew all three of you were here...I was planning to kill you when you were all asleep!"

Sonic laughed at Eggman's pathetic murder attempt. "Then why would you make it so obvious that someone was in that house?"

Eggman sniffled. "It was...it was a scare tactic."

Shadow stared at Eggman. "Get out of my sight, Doctor."

Eggman sniffled again, pathetically hopped over the fence, and pulled a black coat over his head.

"No guts, no glory," Knuckles randomly said.

"Uh, yeah." Shadow replied. "I'm rolling up the windows and locking the door. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Sonic said.

"Goodnight," Knuckles murmurred.

"Oh, and Knuckles?" Shadow inquired.

"Yes?"

"Never, ever invite me to your house again."

"Will do, buddy, will do."


A/N: ._. That is all I have to say, other than the only difference between this story and what really happened to me was the next-door house was not abandoned, and a younger boy and his sister and mom lived there. Also, obviously, he was not planning to murder us. It was terrifying when I saw him climb over the fence with the ski-mask on, though. o.o ~PierceTheBre