Shadow X Sonic (Chapter 5)

Sonic arrived at the mansion 5 minutes after leaving Shadow. Sonic was happy to have a few minutes alone, after what happen with Shadow, he needed time to think. He still couldn't understand why he let himself get carried away back there. It wasn't like him. Despite what everyone thinks, Sonic had always been careful with the choices he made since most of the time, they just didn't affect him but everyone around him. Sonic sighed, there was no point in looking back now. He would just have to act like nothing happen. Sonic walked in to find the gang talking. "So it would seem that thanks to Eggman..." Sonic coughed letting everyone know he was there, everyone turned towards Sonic's direction. Chris smiled and walked over to Sonic, hugging him.

"Sonic, I'm glad you're here." Sonic hugged Chris back. That hug was what Sonic needed. Chris pulled away still smiling.

"It's good to see everyone here." Sonic was smiling himself. Chris was one of his closest friends. He would do anything for him, and he knew Chris felt the same way. Sonic looked around to see everyone really was there, everyone expect for Shadow. As if Chris could read him mind, a confused look came over Chris' face.

"Where's Shadow? Wasn't he with you?" Chris looked around. At the mention of Shadow's name, Sonic felt his heartbeat speed up a little. Sonic turned away.

"We ran into some trouble." Sonic hoped that was enough; there was no way he was going go into detail about what happened.

"What kind of –"Chris was interrupted by Shadow, who was just walking into the room.

"It wasn't anything that we couldn't take care of, Chris." Shadow came in and stood a few feet away from Sonic. It was only a few feet but Sonic felt the pressure as if Shadow was standing right on top of him.

"Yeah what Shadow said." Sonic couldn't look at Shadow after what happen. Luckily it seemed that none of the others notice. It was quiet until Tails spoke up.

"Well we're glad that you guys are okay." Tails really did mean it. Sonic smiled. Tails was another friend that Sonic could never be without.

"Thanks Tails." Sonic knew that he could always count on Tails. Knuckles stepped between the two of them.

"We're all happy that both Sonic and Shadow are okay, but right now we need to figure out what Eggman did" Knuckles pointed to himself to show off Eggman's handy work. "And if there are any side effects." Knuckles gave a look towards Tails as if he was waiting for an explanation. Tails nodded his head.

"He's right." Tails walked to the front of everyone so it would be easier to face everyone at the same time. "It would seem that the plan that Eggman had for us, was for us to be turn completely human." Tails waited till someone spoke up, and it was Knuckles that took that challenge.

"What do you mean completely human? Aren't we already human?" Knuckles stood with his arms crossed, facing Tails. Tails shook his head.

"Not quite, as we already know we still have our powers or most of them." Tails looked down. Everybody grew quiet; they all knew that without Tails' Tails he couldn't fly. The room was filled with an awkward silence. Tails snapped out of his daze and looked up. He cleared his throat to continue with the lesson. "Anyway, thanks to the meddling that I did with the machine it seems that the effect wasn't as bad as it could have been. Our forms just changed." Now it was Sonic's turn to talk.

"So that's why Shadow and I still have our speed." Tails nodded.

"And why Knuckles still has his strength." Knuckles flexed to show off his strength. I'm glad that I still have my speed, and Shadow does too. Sonic thought to himself. Sonic turned to look at Shadow. Shadow was standing with no real emotion on his face. Sonic turned away; he didn't need to start feeling the heat on his face while everyone was there in the room.

"So now what?" Shadow caught everyone's attention. Shadow had a point. Right now, Sonic had to keep it together; If Shadow could, than so could he. Sonic pushed his feelings away and spoke up.

"What we need to do right now, is to find out what Eggman's planning." Knuckles nodded to agree.

"He's right. We need to find out why was it so important for Eggman that he had to turn us humans so we couldn't interfere with his big plan." Right on cue, Tails spoke up.

"I'll get right on it. I'll look around and search for any Eggman activity." Tails turned to Chris. "Chris will you help me till your grandfather comes back from vacation?" Chris smiled and gave Tails a thumb up.

"Sure, you don't even have to ask. I'll do what I can." Tails smiled back. Chris faced the other guys.

"We'll be in the lab, if you guys need us." Sonic gave Chris a thumbs up of his own.

"We'll be fine Chris. Don't worry about us." Chris smiled, and both Tails and Chris walked off to the lab. Knuckles waited till the two were out of the room.

"That leaves the three of us." Knuckles faced the two hedgehogs, and walked over to the exit.

"I'll go look around on my own, and try to dig up what I can with my old connections. Sonic, why don't you and Shadow go look together; since the two of you are the only ones that are able to keep up with each other." Without waiting for a response Knuckles left. Sonic just stared at the door, couldn't Knuckles just wait. Sonic sighed; it was like Knuckles to just leave. Sonic was wondering what to do next when he felt the pressure of someone staring at his back side. It was then that he realized he was left alone with Shadow in the room.

"Oh man." Sonic said to himself. There was no way around this, Sonic thought to himself. He might as well get it over with. He took a deep breath in and turned to face Shadow, who was standing right in front of him, Sonic realized. Sonic automating took a step back. "Uh Shadow, what are you doing?" It was bad enough that he were left alone together, but for Shadow to be this close to him. It was pure hell; he didn't think it could get worse than this. It was then that Shadow wrapped his arm around Sonic pulling him closer. Oh Great, Sonic thought to himself. He was wrong. Shadow bent down to whispered in Sonic's ear.

"Are you afraid that there is going to be a repeat of what happen earlier at the hot spring?" Sonic gulped. That was what he was afraid of, but it wasn't like he was going to let Shadow know that. Sonic tried pushing Shadow away.

"Of Course not, why would I be?" Shadow's hold on Sonic just tightened.

"Is that so?" Shadow bent his head down letting his lips hover over Sonic's. Sonic felt the heat in his cheeks. Was Shadow going to kiss him again? He could feel Shadow's breath on his lips, without realizing Sonic started to close his eyes as if he was going to accept the kiss. Shadow stood there holding Sonic in his arms. Sonic thought that Shadow was going to kiss him, when Shadow pulled away. Sonic was left standing there feeling the lack of heat that was there only seconds ago. Shadow walked a few feet away from Sonic and cleared his throat. "We should start looking for Eggman." Sonic felt a sense of disappointment. He knew Shadow had a point, but still. Sonic stepped back as he hugged himself, trying to replace the warmth he felt only a second ago.

"Yeah, you're right." Shadow waiting for Sonic to lend the way out. Sonic sighed. "Alright let's get going." Sonic walked past Shadow without giving him a look. He knew that he shouldn't get involved with Shadow, but he couldn't deny that there was something there, that he felt something. As they stepped outside, Sonic thought the breeze felt good on his face. He only took a minute to let everything in, and then he did what he does best. Sonic took off in high speed run. Sonic could feel Shadow right behind him, there was only one person in the world who could keep up with Sonic and he knew that person was Shadow, no one else could understand the feeling or the freedom that he felt. Maybe that was the reason as to why he felt a connection to Shadow. Sonic realized he was smiling. Shadow ran right next to Sonic. Sonic spoke to Shadow. "Where shall we look first?"

"Let's look to the Northeast Mountains; Eggman has a secret base there." Sonic nodded.

"Alright, let's get going." Both took off that they left a sonic boom in their tracks.