Chapter 3: Airplane Flight Part 2

When the dizzy feeling was gone, everyone opened their eyes.

Sonic looked at the screen, and the very corner of the mini television was a multicolored hole. Sonic nudged Amy to get Tails' attention, and Amy tapped Knuckles' shoulder and asked the same thing. Tails looked up from the guide and tilted his head to the side. "What's wrong, Sonic?"

"What's that smudge on the screen?" Sonic asked, pointing at the swirling hole.

"Oh, that," Tails said. "You know how Earth and Mobius are completely different planets?"

A nod.

"And the kid, Chris?"

A look of recognition lit in Sonic's eyes and he nodded again.

"Well, time passes differently on Earth, and he's already grown up. He wanted to see you again, and maybe see more of our kinds so he worked on a portal where it will send us right into Earth's atmosphere when we cross it. It's kind of like a different time zone, or the International Date Line. You cross it, and we're somewhere else."

"Ah. Alright, sounds reasonable," replied Sonic.

"Wait, Tails, how do you know all this?" questioned Amy, suddenly taking interest.

"Oh, heh, you see, before we left to go back to Mobius, Chris and I both made a little device that can send messages. It's kind of like texting, except you can do it even with the long distances of planets apart. Sorry for not telling you earlier."

Seeing that the conversation couldn't go on any longer without being awkward, the blue hedgehog turned and looked to see what Silver was doing. He was quietly conversing with the lavender cat. Nothing much interesting there. He turned the opposite way. Shadow looked serious again, and with the half lidded eyes that Rouge had with the mysterious glint in her blue eyes, it had turned her from beautiful to seductive again.

This time, his eye left this dark double with ease. Finding nothing better to do, he took a different magazine from his seat pocket and flipped it open. Sonic sweatdropped. The pages were all filled with pictures of make-up and girls. The azure hero didn't find it very interesting. He figured that since he's already loving someone, he won't be able to set his eye on any other woman. He believed that Amy was the most pretty and nice girl he'd ever meet. Well, at least for now. But, as satisfying and logical that explanation was, it just didn't feel…right, complete. But seeing no better explanation, he just stuck to it and assured that the feeling was only the excitement he had in his guts for visiting Japan for the first time.

The same sound before the safety presentation was heard again, and the man's voice came on. "Hello passengers, welcome aboard on the Universal Airline. You may use your electronics now." a lower tune of the right tone sounded, that announcement was over.

Someone whispered the blue hedgehog's name. Said 'hog let his gaze settle in the direction it was heard. Silver.

"You want to finish defeating Marx Soul?"

"Mark-the-what?"

"Marx Soul. You know, the 'freakish-monster-boss'?"

"Ooooh. Sure," Sonic scooched over a bit and patted the space next to him.

Silver carefully stepped over the three pairs of feet before reaching to the space provided and sat down, paying extra attention not to bump into Amy or sit on her hand. "Here," he snapped open the dark blue DSXL and handed it over to his companion.

Clicking the True Arena, Sonic went into a series of pressing A's and punching B's. After clearing all the minor levels, he reached the four final bosses and defeated the four, Marx Soul appeared. Sonic shifted in his seat and became more concentrated. He kept on dying on this level. He's going to defeat this monster. He's going to.

"Shizz, that was so close!" Sonic muttered as he averted his eyes from the top screen to down below to his HP gauge. Only half full, while Marx still had 3/4 of his HP left.

"Block," Silver said. "Now. Now!"

Sonic's heart clenched and time paused for a second. He almost got sucked into that big hole. He'd been there once, and he never wanted to go there again. You get killed if you don't have full HP, and he doesn't right now…

Finally damaging the boss enough, the fight became faster and the monster started attacking faster. Sonic's hand got moist. "Chaos…I got this…"

"Oh my fraud. You won!" Silver whispered after another few minutes of 'clean' swearing, and patted Sonic on the shoulder, who was lying back in his seat, exhausted.

"Hah…take that…Freakish-Monster-Boss…" Sonic said.

Doo-ding. The sound made an appearance again. "Hello passengers. We are now sending out packets of snacks and drinks. Please wait for a flight attendant to come by." Doo-doo. It was over.

"Silver, you should head back. Thanks for the time, man." Sonic fisted his arm and smiled.

"Hey, least I can do for assuming you were the Iblis Trigger for the last few months." Silver laughed sheepishly, remember the time when he kept on knocking Sonic out by flinging him to a wall. He still didn't get why rings fly out of him when he did that…

A flight attendant came into sight and asked Rouge what she would like. "Mmm, orange juice will be fine," she replied. The woman poured a small cup of the requested juice and handed it to the bat and turned her attention to Shadow.

"Sprite, please," Shadow tried for a smile that turned half way up.

When she was finished serving Shadow, Sonic asked for coke with ice. He liked it when the cold solid water splits into a million pieces when he bites on it and fills his mouth of icy coldness. It gives it a good edge.

Amy got lemonade, Tails got plain water, and Knuckles got…tomato juice? What? Why would he want that? Well, it's not really anyone's business what the tomato colored echidna want anyway.

Sonic pulled out his tray table and set his cup on the little shallow circle that was meant especially to put the cup. Taking out his notebook and the pencils he'd brought, he turned to a brand new page and started doodling. It was of him and Tails on the X Tornado 2 with Sonic on the left wing with Tails controlling. He paused. Then scribbled some clouds around them.

Sure, Sonic was professional, but he's practiced. It didn't look half bad. It's just that he has some trouble with his hands…it's hard! You have to like, turn it and bend it, then do these weird angled, wiggly shape as the tip of the fingers. It was frustrating for him, so most of the time he just left it alone.

Then he was just about to draw Knuckles, but he had an urge to be challenged and draw someone or something he'd never done. His mind clicked. Shadow. Maybe add Rouge in there as a bonus.

He pictured the two as close brothers and sisters. They teased, they fought, they argued. Yet, when one of them is in need of help, they'll always be there to catch their fall. Shadow was folding his arms across his chest with an annoyed look. Rouge was flying around with a smirk. The combo was a very interesting one. Then Sonic got another idea. He wanted to try to draw the girl Shadow had described. That blonde little girl, the first friend he had.

He turned the page. This wasn't a doodle. He wanted to try his best on this one. Shadow was on the bottom left of the corner with a sad but calm expression on his face. His arm was stretched out, grabbing the little girl's hand with his own. She was on the top right corner, her body bent in a 'come on' way with wings wide behind her back. The girl was caught with her eyes closed, and her long lashes stuck out beautifully. She wore a small smile, and her cheeks were shaded a little for the effects of a light blush that all the kids had when they were young. Her hair flowed freely and had a fluid feeling.

Shadow was engulfed in darkness while the girl looked as if she were shining. The picture depict of an angel pulling her friend out from the darkness and welcoming him into the light, where he belonged.

Sonic worked hard on the hands and even tried to model it with his own hands before resuming to finish the piece. In the middle of the process, he realized how thick his strokes were compared to when he started. Switching another pencil, the artistic hero refocused.

The azure hedgehog leaned back and studied his work for any mistakes or anything he forgot. Not anything that he knew of. 'I need to name this…' Sonic thought. Then, it hit him. Shadow still hasn't recovered from the loss of her existence. If he were back in time, the girl would be the light he needed to guide him.

In big letters, Sonic's gloved hand gripped the pencil lightly and let the graphite scratch on the paper. In cursive letters were, I saw Light.

"Who's that?" Amy asked, peeking over his shoulder.

"Shadow's first friend," Sonic responded, a soft smile made its way unconsciously to his lips.

"That's so cute…" she whispered.

Sonic chuckled, "Hey, so are you," and he wrapped an arm around Amy.

"You should show it to him. He'd be happy to be able to relive a moment in his past."

"I'm not really sure…I don't want him to be mad at me or anything for reminding him of such a painful past."

"Well…it's your decision."
Sonic sighed and looked up at the screen. Only 11 more hours left. Sheesh…it took him two hours? And he didn't even notice…Then he realized something. It started getting darker and darker outside the window. He looked at the screen again. They were approaching the hole.

Rouge tapped him on the shoulder. "What?" Sonic asked while taking a sip from his forgotten coke.

"Look at this," Rouge shoved her phone in front of Sonic and snickered. He saw pictures of Shadow. "He doesn't know I have these."

The hedgehog almost blasted his drink out of his mouth. "I didn't know Shadow had those kinds of dresses," Sonic whispered to Rouge, who was scrolling through her secret collection of pictures that Shadow would never have forgiven Rouge for taking. "And Chaos, those skirts are short!"

"Yeah, I know. Hey, mind switching seats with me for a while? I want to show Amy these pictures and talk to her about something."

Sonic agreed and swapped seats with Rouge. When he sat down with a sigh, Shadow turned towards him. Sonic returned the gaze but couldn't help but remember the pictures he'd just seen earlier and snicker.

"What do you want?" the black hedgehog's eyelids lowered and a small frown settled comfortably on his muzzle.

"Nothin' much," replied Sonic as he stretched. He studied the person across from him. A black earphone covered one ear and the other was halfway covered to hear what's happening.

Shadow sighed, "Whatever. Go to sleep or something. Time passes faster. I'll call you up if there's an announcement."

Can't argue with that. Ten minutes slipped painfully slow. How long will eleven hours feel? Going to sleep would be best. But hearing faint sounds coming from Shadow's earphones sparked his curiosity and it couldn't be ignored. "Do you happen to have two earplugs on that iPod?" the possibility was slim, since he'd never seen a phone that had two plugs, but hey, this is Shadow the Hedgehog you're talking about. Working for G.U.N. can earn you some pretty cool stuff.

Said hedgehog nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"Can I plug mine in?"

"I'm 'emo' as you call it."

"Pssh, all music is good on their own levels. Yours couldn't be that bad."

"Suit yourself."

A new song began just as he plugged in his earphones and slid them on. Down you fell deep into your mind, off to Wonderland, leaving what's real behind…

This was a pretty good song to fall asleep to. The consciousness should slip slowly if he kept on listening to it. You're a riddle I can't seem to read, your love a fairytale, too hard to believe…Then it broke into the chorus, which was blasted pretty loud. Sonic jumped inwardly a little as his relaxed state was broken. Broken and sad, as the tarnish on your crown. Nowhere to go, but down. As the loud music played, his ears adjusted to the volume and he felt good for some reason. Shadow does have pretty good music…

Caught up in yourself, nowhere to be found. No other way but down…down, down, DOWN…Say farewell to what's real, like the pain that you feel.

The chorus went on, but then it trailed off back to the soothing deep voice. Yep, he could sure fall asleep.

The words and electric guitar faded as his eyelids closed on its own. The muffled booms from the drums in the song was all that he heard as he fell asleep.

After the song ended and another three songs were done playing, Shadow turned and looked at his doppelganger sitting next to him sound asleep, with his earphones a little crooked. He smiled inwardly. It made him feel calmer than usual, adding a little hint of satisfying feeling. Shadow looked out the window again. It's completely black. He was about to doze off as well before feeling the fur next to him shake and he turned to find a shivering hedgehog.

Hedgehog's cold…Shadow thought.

Rouge didn't take the provided blanket from the seat pocket when she left. The ebony spike ball looked over Sonic. Their friends were all asleep. Seeing that, he took the blanket and ripped the wrapping open, cloaking the sleeping hedgie next to him. Seeing that there was nothing wrong with putting a blanket over himself as well (so he wouldn't have to use that much Chaos Energy to keep himself warm) he repeated his earlier actions and wrapped himself in the cozy fabric.

Shadow returned his attention to his iPod and cut off the current song he had on and scrolled through his play list. Shadow only had this song because it reminded him of someone. Someone that Sonic had drawn not too long ago…

The slow lullaby of Reach for the Stars sung by a female played and rang both the hedgehogs' ears. It was soothing.

With that off his mind, Shadow laid back and relaxed. However, there was still something bothering him. He looked over at the hero's hand. It was right there…even if he held it, Sonic wouldn't notice, right?

Shadow covered the hand with the fabric and reached for it under the covers. Feeling the warmth seeping through both gloves, Shadow relaxed completely, and he fell asleep to the soft sounds of the hero's snores and lullaby.

Lullaby: watch?v=FO2h-QK-fA4

Where's my Wonderland: watch?v=11g-L3CGcoU