Author's Chapter Notes:
I still do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, nor do I believe I ever will.
After the boys had been calmed down and the three children had been sent to the couch to watch Spongebob reruns, Cream helped Shadow clean up the mess in his kitchen that was left over from breakfast.
Shadow didn't really mind when she decided to strike up a conversation; while Cream was far from adulthood she could at least, comprehend something of logic, and that was like a refreshing drink after a day and a half of nothing but toddler thoughts.
"They sure are cute at that age, aren't they Mr. Shadow?" Cream asked as she drew water to start the dishes.
"Humph," was Shadow's reply, looking up from the table he was clearing to check on the three toddlers, who he felt for sure would sooner or later become convicts.
Although he had to admit, when they weren't screaming, whining, hitting, running away, demanding things, or breaking his stuff, they could be kind of cute.
Like now, for instance. They were sitting perfectly still listening to Patrick Star mistake a bubble of an elephant for a giraffe. Knuckles still had a death grip on his Master Cantaloupe, and Sonic had his thumb in his mouth. Shadow had heard somewhere that you shouldn't let kids put their thumbs in their mouth, but he decided that was one rule he could ignore. With that thumb in there, Sonic couldn't blab to the world.
"You know something, Mr. Shadow? We should do something special with them today. It won't be long before Mr. Tails finds a way to change them back to normal and they'll be much too busy to do anything fun."
Shadow's eyes widened and he looked over at Cream, who was doing the dishes without a care in the world. He'd wanted to turn them back to normal, of course, but certainly that meant that everything would go back to the way it had been before, right?
Shadow went back to work, his stomach twisting in a decidedly painful manner. He didn't want things to go back to the way they had been before! Sonic had pitied him half the time and despised him the other half, Amy had been terrified of him, and Knuckles had just flat out hated his guts.
The thought that any of them feeling that way about him again was…
Shadow took a deep breath and pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. So he'd lose them. Big deal. He lost everyone he cared about. He'd get over it.
Cream was right. He'd better find as many ways to make these next few days as wonderful as possible. It would be over far too soon.
"Where should we go, Cream?" he asked her, hoping she would have some more ideas.
Cream looked up thoughtfully. Then her face lit up and she said, "I know! Let's take them to Twinkle Park!"
Shadow remembered seeing the amusement park before. It always seemed that no matter what time he had gone past, he had seen Amy trying to drag Sonic inside, usually pointing to a large sign that read, 'Cute Couples Get in Free!' Sonic had always managed to evade her though, once even going so far as to use Shadow as a decoy. Shadow had found him and had 'convinced' him to never do it ever again.
Kids liked amusement parks, didn't they? Shadow smirked, remembering how Sonic had run off yesterday to play on the slide. Wait until he saw the size of the slide at Twinkle Park!
"Twinkle Park sounds good," Shadow agreed.
"Yes, they'll like it," Cream continued. "And we'll be able to tell everyone that Amy and Sonic went into Twinkle Park together!"
Shadow's smirk grew slightly wider. Yes, that certainly would be worth a trip to Twinkle Park.
Shadow hadn't realized how big Twinkle Park actually was, or just how many people were there. He hoped he could keep track of his three little hooligans in this place. The last thing he needed was another disappearance act like the one they pulled at the grocery store!
Cream, the Super Care Taker, had an answer for that, though. As soon as they went in, she pulled three rope-like objects out of her backpack.
"What's that?" Shadow asked her.
"Well, you put one end on the child's wrist and make sure he can't get it off, and you hold onto the other end," Cream replied, strapping Sonic to one.
"Baby leashes?" Shadow mused, raising an eyebrow. Apparently, he was not the only one to have cared for children who could be considered animals. Perhaps Sonic's original parents had thought up the idea.
When Cream finished 'hooking up' the children, she handed Sonic and Knuckle's leashes to Shadow, holding onto Amy herself.
Shadow followed Cream because she had been here before and would know what rides the little one's would enjoy. He nodded to himself with approval (and slight relief) when she led them away from the roller coasters and towards an area of the park that had smaller kiddie rides.
The children rode several merry-go-round type rides that featured motorcycles and cars. There was even one with boats that floated on actual water. Sonic didn't care to go on that one, but Knuckles and Amy went three times.
The thing that amused Shadow the most was the child's 'roller coaster,' a flat round piece of track that had two small humps on either side. Sonic was thrilled to be able to go on such a 'big kid' ride, but Amy stated it was 'too scary.'
They had lunch in an over-priced pizzeria and then headed out to ride some more rides.
As they left the pizzeria, Shadow noticed that Sonic, who had practically been pulling him forward all day, was now trying to pull against him. The ebony furred hedgehog was getting tired of having to be dragged along or dragging Sonic along, so he turned around and snapped, "Sonic, get over here!"
"Wooky, Sadoe! Wooky at dat pwetty wock!"
Shadow looked at where Sonic was pointing, and saw a sparkling purple gem under some bushes to the side. Shadow recognized it immediately.
"A chaos emerald?"
Shadow called for Cream, and the five of them (Well, six if you count Cheese) walked over to the emerald, which Sonic snatched up and hugged.
"I keep it!" Sonic said matter-of-factly.
"We'd better get the emerald to Mr. Tails quickly," Cream said seriously.
Shadow cocked his head to the side. "Why?" he asked.
"Because I remember Mr. Tails said that Dr. Eggman was looking for them to power his new doomsday weapon," Cream explained. "And that Mr. Tails wasn't sure how to stop him if he couldn't find a formula to change Sonic back to normal. Mr. Tails said Dr. Eggman already had five."
"But if he has five emeralds and they all show the location of other emeralds, and I have one and the other one is here, then that means—"
Shadow was cut off when part of the outer wall of the amusement part blew apart. Shadow instinctively grabbed the three children and covered them to protect them from any shrapnel that might be flying around.
Amy grabbed his fur and whimpered. "What's happen, Mr. Addow?"
"Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, you three hide here with Cream," Shadow ordered them, pushing them all into the bushes. He looked over to the horizon, where Eggman was piloting a giant, egg-shaped robot, firing missiles around Twinkle Park and laughing manically.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow yelled, throwing the said object into the robot, who was so powerful because of the Chaos Emeralds Eggman already had, that they didn't do so much as scratch the paint.
"Ah, Shadow, it's so nice to see you," Eggman said malevolently. "To bad you can't stick around."
Shadow's eyes widened as more missiles came toward him. Just great.
Why couldn't he have a normal day at the park?