AN: Sorry this is taking so long, Here's the next chapter! It picks up right where we left off.

(Time jumps! Yayyyyyy...ish)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shadow The Hedgehog

Chapter 12: New Allies, New Enemies

I nodded to Tails. "Thank you, good night."

"It's not a problem, Shadow. Have a good rest, were going to reach the surface soon, though. So don't get too comfortable just yet. You should brace yourself for landing."

I nodded again. "Thanks for the warning. Bye." The kit didn't respond, and I began walking back through to the hallway and in the direction of the clinic.

Soon enough, I made it to the clinic, but I didn't really feel tired, and I knew the ship was about to land soon anyways. I ended up just continuing to walk. I eventually arrived at the cargo bay again. I stopped, thinking about going inside. I could hear someone talking behind the door, but I couldn't tell what the person was saying. I did kind of want to know what happened to Sonic for myself, even though the doctor had already told me what happened.

I decided. I quietly pulled the door open a bit, just enough for me to see what was going on without interrupting the person talking. The only other person in the room was Amy. She was sitting by the cage, and talking to the beast inside. I assumed that was Sonic. He was huge, and his fur was very dark, almost the same as mine, but not quite. From what I could see of his paws, his claws were extremely long. I couldn't see much more than that, because his back was turned to me, and he was lying down like he was resting. Also, the cage's martial seemed to be somewhat fuzzy. I wondered what it was made of.

My ears perked up so that I could hear what Amy was saying better. I was confused at first, and not really sure if I was hearing her right. She seemed to be talking to sonic, but it wasn't a conversation, and she didn't pause to wait for a response from him. More, she was just telling him a string of somewhat random thoughts. One word kept popping up though. 'Love'. I listened for a little bit. I didn't really understand a whole lot of it. It seemed fairly irrelevant and a lot of it was really mushy.

Soon I realised I was probably intruding on something special to her. As quietly as I could, I stepped back through the door and closed it without a sound. I made a silent vow to never mention it to anyone.

I turned around to head back to the clinic, but nearly ran into someone right away. I blinked. "Rouge, what are you doing here?"

She grinned slyly like a fox. "The same as you, I wanted to check up on Sonic... God, Shadow, why do you look so guilty?"

I quickly scowled to hide it. "I don't know what you mean. Just go back to your room, Rouge. There's nothing interesting to see." If she heard Amy say those things, there would be no telling what Rouge would do. Most likely she'd jump out interrupt her or something. I figured Amy was stressed enough about Sonic's situation, she shouldn't have to deal with Rouge too. Unfortunately, that was my job.

Rouge pouted. "Why? What's so not interesting that I can't see?"

That bat is incredibly annoying. I rolled my eyes. "Nothing. Sonic is... Sleeping; you wouldn't want to wake him up." I walked past her down the corridor, hopefully she'll forget about it and follow me. Knowing Rouge, as soon as I stop 'guarding' the door, she'll lose interest in it.

And I was right. She jogged a bit to catch up with me. "Fine. But I talked to Cream, and she told me that you still have to have someone around when you sleep. You aren't off the hook just yet."

I closed my eyes and sighed. "And I suppose that means I'm stuck with you again?"

She didn't notice my sigh. "Yeah, so follow me, Knuckles and I set up a two-bed room. I am so not sleeping on a chair again." She jumped ahead of me and headed down a different hall.

Shaking my head, I followed. I never seem to get my way. I really can't wait until people stop treating me like an invalid, but from the look of that X-Ray, that might not be for a while. I followed Rouge silently, not really wanting to talk to her. On the way to wherever she was taking me, I felt the ship touch down, and both of us lost our balance for a few seconds before I regained mine using the wall. Rouge hadn't been expecting it at all, and she nearly fell over completely, but her wings rescued her from an embarrassing face plant. I smirked at her as she got back on her feet.

She turned around immediately to look at me, she seemed worried. But when she saw me smirking at her and leaning against the wall, her look turned into a glare. "You knew that was going to happen, didn't you!"

I shrugged. "I wasn't exactly sure when we would land, but yeah."

She glared at me, then took a step forward and shoved my shoulder, causing me to take a step back to keep my balance. "Jerk." She said, just loud enough for me to hear. Then she turned around and kept walking, shoulders stiff.

I just kept following her, not bothering to say anything else. We arrived at the room soon enough.

Rouge went in first, and I stepped in a bit after her, taking my time before I was stuck in a room with a ticked off bat for the rest of the night. I was thankful for my reflexes as I walked over the threshold, because as soon as I put a foot in the room, something came flying at my face. I caught it in one hand, and then took a look to see what Rouge threw at me. It was a pillow, and as soon as I lowered the first, another came flying at me, and I caught it too. I looked at Rouge, who was out of pillows.

I cocked an eyebrow at her, then smirked. "Thanks for the extra pillows." I tucked them under my arm and sat down on the other bed. I glanced over at her to see her fuming on her, now pillowless, bed. She flopped back on her flat bed and I shook my head and tossed one of her pillows onto her face. She sat up and I smirked again. "There are easier ways to tell me that you're angry." I tossed the other one back as well. It's not like I need four.

She looked at me funny, but just shrugged and put her pillows back where they belonged. "Good night, Shadow." She sighed, turning her back on me.

I didn't respond, instead staring at the ceiling with my head back on my pillow. I still wasn't quite tired, so I was laying on top of the blankets. The room wasn't too terribly interesting, which I kind of liked. It was simple, and functional. It reminded me of the room I shared with Maria on the ARK. I was perfectly content to just lay back, stare at the ceiling, and think for a while, but eventually I did get tired, and I kicked off my rocket boots before getting under the covers. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Miles 'Tails' Prower

Once we landed, I just went to sleep in my room on the ship. Everyone else had gone to bed, and I wasn't going to wake them all up. We've all had a long day. Unpacking and visiting everyone on Mobius can wait until morning.

~~~Later~~~

My alarm went off, and I was the first one up, as usual. The sun hasn't risen yet, so I figured I might as well go check on Sonic. I got out of my bed and put on my shoes and gloves and things before leaving my room. I jogged down to the cargo bay. I found Amy and Sonic curled up against the same wall of the cage. They were jut on different sides of the wall. Sonic looked harmless while he was curled up and sleeping. I still can't believe that this happened to Sonic. He's my hero. How could this happen to him? He's always so nice, and he always does the right thing. What the heck has he done to deserve this? I can't think of anything.

I wish I could do something for him. But I have no idea what to do. I know we need to restore the chaos emeralds, but what do we do after that? Somehow his dark side became tied to his Werehog transformation. Does it just disappear once we bring him back to normal? Or will he just be stuck like that? Too much about this is unknown to us. The only way we can truly find out what will happen is to try it and see.

I went over to Amy and shook her shoulder a little. "Hey Amy, good morning."

She opened her eyes sleepily and blinked herself awake. After a little bit, she sat up and stretched. "That definitely isn't the most comfortable place to sleep. Good morning Tails."

I smiled and helped her up. "Do you think we should wake Sonic up too?"

She yawned. "No, just let him sleep. He could do with the extra rest."

Knuckles came in with a granola bar. It had raisins in it, of course. Knuckles and his grapes... He was also carrying a boy of Cheerios. How hungry is he? "Hey guys!" He greeted us. "How'd you two sleep?"

Amy stretched again. "Like a sack of potatoes."

I yawned. "I slept well, and you?"

"I slept okay, but I had a weird dream." He answered.

"What was it about?" Amy pried.

Knuckles shrugged. "Another echidna. She looked kind of old fashioned, like she was part of a tribe or something. She said something about the master emerald, but I can't remember what it was now. I think I've seen her before..."

I shrugged. "That's weird. Hey, we're on the planet now, so you can take the emerald back to angel island if you want. Maybe you can figure out what's wrong with it there!"

Knuckles nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But I'll wait for Sonic first. I brought him some breakfast." He held up the box of Cheerios.

I smiled. "That's nice of you. The sun should be up soon, so you don't have long to wait."

Knuckles was about to say something, but he was interrupted by Chris coming in with Cosmo, Cream, and Cheese behind him.

I waved to them. "Good morning, guys!"

Chris nodded. "Good morning to you as well. How's Sonic?"

"Still sleeping." Amy glanced over at Sonic, then did a double take. "Or not..."

Everyone looked at Sonic. He was sitting up straight in the cage, wide awake and staring at us all. His eyes were green, not red like they had been last night.

I waved. "Good morning Sonic, sorry we were so loud..."

He just yawned in response. He looked longingly at the box of cereal in Knuckles' hand.

Amy giggled. "It looks like somebody's hungry!"

Knuckles chuckled when Sonic flopped his tongue out the side of his mouth. "Just wait a bit, man. You can have as much as you want when the sun comes up."

I smiled. Sonic's managing to communicate with us without talking. It's actually pretty impressive. Only his second transformation, and he's already figuring out how to talk to us without the ability to speak. Sonic always was a fast learner.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sudden light streaming through the windows. It shined in my eyes before making its way towards Sonic.

As it hit him, he closed his eyes, and was quickly surrounded by a purple aura. When it faded away, Sonic was back to normal, and sitting cross-legged on the floor of the cage. He looked at the light, then at us, then back to the light.

He sighed. "So I guess this means I changed again... Can I have some of those Cheerios, Knuckles?" He got up and walked over to the door of the cage.

Good 'ol Sonic. I jogged over to the door release. I pressed the button and said the code. "Miles Prower." With a hiss, the door opened.

Sonic stepped out carefully, then smiled at us all. "So what happened to Egghead and the others?"

Knuckles tossed the cereal box to him. "Eggman left. He went back to his ship, but Shadow and Rouge are staying with us. They're probably still asleep right now. How are you, man?"

Sonic shrugged. "I'm fine. I don't remember sleeping, but I feel really well rested. How about you guys?" He grabbed a handful of Cheerios and tossed one in his mouth.

"I'm good, but I'm gonna go take the Master Emerald" Knuckles pointed to it, "back to Angel Island and try to figure out what's wrong with it there."

Sonic nodded. "Sounds good. I'll help, if you want."

Knuckles shook his head. "That's okay. I'll just go by myself. See you later, man." Knuckles walked over to the huge emerald, and picked it up.

Sonic waved. "Later, Knux." He tossed another Cheerio in the air and caught it in his mouth. He turned back to us. "So how about all of you? What's up?"

I shrugged. "We landed, and Shadow and Rouge decided to join us, but that's about it. I slept well."

Everyone else agreed, saying that they were fine and whatnot.

Sonic nodded. "Okay, well, who wants to go wake up Shadow and Rouge with me?"

Someone else answered from the doorway. "That won't be necessary." We all turned to see Shadow and Rouge walking in.

I waved. "Good morning, guys!"

Shadow shrugged. "If you say so."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Someone isn't a morning person."

Shadow sighed. "You say that every morning."

Rouge grinned. "And every morning, its true."

Sonic chuckled. "So how are you two doing?"

"I'm fine." Shadow said.

"I'm spectacular!" Rouge grinned, throwing up her arms dramatically.

Sonic smiled again. "Great, does anybody wanna go for a run with me? I've been waiting far too long to stretch my legs."

I jumped up. "I'm coming!"

Shadow walked over. "I'd like to go as well."

Amy smiled. "You guys have fun, I'll start getting what we need, and I'm sure Cream wants to see her mom."

Sonic grinned and hugged Amy. "Thanks, Ames. Your great, I'll see you later!" He let go, and motioned for me and Shadow to follow him out of the bay. I waved to everybody and started running, getting my tails to start spinning behind me. Shadow jogged next to Sonic, who was running at a normal speed until we got out a bit more.

We got out to the hills pretty quickly, and Sonic began putting on the speed. Shadow activated his rocket shoes, and I went from a mixture of jogging and flying to full out flying just behind my best friend. When we reached about 30 miles per hour, Sonic threw both his arms back and leaned forward. He really sped up, and I started to have trouble keeping up with him. Shadow kept pace just fine though, and he skated quickly right next to Sonic.

"Woohoo!" Sonic grinned like a madman as we went over sixty. He sped up even more as we hit flat land, rather than hills. I pretty much fell back right there. Shadow and Sonic both kept speeding up and going faster, and faster. Far away from me, I heard two Sonic booms at the same time. I didn't really stand a chance of keeping up, so I turned around and flew back to the Blue Tycoon. I'm just glad that Sonic is happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sonic the Hedgehog

Geez, running is amazing. There is honestly no better thing in the universe. All I can do is smile as I kept going faster. I looked over my shoulder to see that Tails fell behind, but surprisingly, Shadow is keeping pace with me exactly. I thought he might get tired from his injuries or something, but he was still right next to me, head down, looking very determined. That guy is really impressive.

We kept laying on the speed when we hit the flat land. We both really sped up, and not long after that, we both broke the sound barrier. I love the feeling of the wind rushing through my quills, nothing can beat it. Not even chilidogs, but they come close. I felt like the faster I ran, the farther I left my problems behind. Anything can be outrun. I could outrun nighttime if I really tried. But then we got close to the city, and we had to slow down, or we could run into something. Like a car. We'd come a long way, we were several miles away from Station Square, where my friends and I live. We're in Apatos, which is two cities away. (AN: Yeah, I don't really care whether it is or isn't. It's the only other Sonic city I can think of right now, so deal with it.)

I slowed down to a jog, and Shadow deactivated his Rocket Shoes. I laughed happily from the run. Shadow was breathing a bit heavy, but I could tell he had enjoyed himself. He was even smiling a little.

I put a hand on his shoulder and grinned wider. "What a rush, right? You wanna grab something to eat?"

Shadow twisted his shoulder out of my grasp. "That was... Exhilarating. Yes, I'm rather hungry after that."

I grabbed his arm and dragged him behind me. "C'mon, I know a great place to eat here!"

Shadow followed reluctantly. "What is with you and grabbing me?" He complained.

I laughed. "Sorry, it's a habit. Anyways, you're part of the family now! You'll get used to it." I pulled him towards the shops. I would rather have chilidogs, but I figured Shadow might like this more.

"Family... Huh." Shadow mumbled. He sped up a little and jogged next to me rather than be dragged behind. "So where are we going?"

I smiled mischievously at him. "You'll see." We crossed the main road and walked up it a bit until I got to the shop I wanted. In red, cursive, neon letters, the sign read 'Plaza Pizza' I turned back to my companion as I pushed the door open. "Have you ever had pizza before?"

He shrugged. "Not that I can recall, what does it taste like?"

I grinned. "It's good, you'll like it." I ran up to the counter. The cashier guy recognised me.

He dropped what he was doing. "Sonic the Hedgehog! What an honour! Which pizza would you like?"

I put my elbow on the counter and gave the guy my best smile. "Chill, dude. I'd like a triple cheese pizza, please. Medium size. And do you do stuffed crust?"

He wrote my order down. "Yes, we do stuffed crusts, is that what you want?"

I winked. "Wouldn't have it any other way. So how much is that?"

He finished writing the order and handed the paper to someone in the kitchen area. "That's thirty rings, but you don't have to-"

I cut him off. "No, man. I'm paying for it." I pulled out thirty rings from my quills. I had plenty left. I handed them to him, and then dragged Shadow over to a table to wait.

Shadow sat down across from me. "What's stuffed crust?"

I laughed. "Only the best thing to ever happen to pizza! They put cheese in the crust, and then cook it. The cheese is all melted, and it tastes great!"

"Sounds good." He replied.

I shook my head. "I can't believe you've never had pizza before! Everyone eats pizza."

He smirked. "Yes, but I'm not everyone."

I grinned right back. "You will be soon!"

Then our pizza arrived. It was still steaming hot, and it made my mouth water just looking at it. The guy cut the pizza up eight ways, then told us to enjoy it and left.

"Thanks!" I told him, then turned to Shadow. "First-timer gets first pick. Go ahead and choose a piece!"

Shadow chose the one with the most cheese on it. I went for the one with the thickest crust. We put it on our plates, and then Shadow looked at me, seeming confused.

"Uh, how do you eat this? I don't see a fork anywhere..."

I know its mean, but I couldn't help myself, I laughed. I laughed a lot. When I finally stopped, I looked to see him more confused than before.

He sounded perplexed. "I don't understand, did I do something wrong?"

I grinned. "No, no. You're funny Shadow. You don't use a fork to eat pizza! You just pick it up with your hands and bite it. Like this." I took a bite of my slice.

He shook his head. "I don't get what's so funny..." He picked up his slice like I had and took a bite as well. He looked like he was trying too hard. I ended up laughing again because when he went to put it back down, he ended up pulling all the cheese off with it. He gave up and put his pizza down. "I don't think I like pizza. It is by far the weirdest thing I've ever tried to eat."

I rolled my eyes. "You just have to get used to eating it right, but come on, it tastes good, doesn't it?"

He shrugged. "I suppose so."

I had an idea. "Here, try this." I folded my pizza slice in half, so all the cheese was on the inside. "That should make it easier to eat."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll try it." He folded his pizza like mine, and bit it without any problems. "Wow, when its not being a pain, this stuff tastes really good!"

I smiled. "I knew you'd like it." Once we got past that issue, the whole pizza was gone in less than ten minutes.

Shadow leaned back. "That was really good. I'll have to have that again sometime."

I grinned and licked my fingers. "Yes you do. Pizza is great! Next time we'll have a different topping." I got up. "C'mon, let's go back to the others. They're probably wondering where we are."

Shadow looked around. "I just noticed, where did Tails go?"

I shrugged. "He fell back, he probably went back to the ship. Don't worry about him, he's fine."

I walked out of the shop, and Shadow followed me. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Yup. Tails usually does that when I get going really fast."

"Okay." He started jogging out of the city with me.

~~~Later~~~

We got back to station square, and I headed back to my house. Shadow came too, because he wasn't sure which way the ship was.

We got to my house. It was unlocked, as usual. I told Shadow he could wait on the couch, then I ran up my stairs. I flung open the door to my room, then I flopped down on my bed. I was glad to be back in my own room, I missed this place.

I relaxed for a few seconds, then shot upright. My dresser was shaking. I stared at it in confusion. The only things I kept in there were my extra socks and extra gloves, and...

~To be Continued~

AN: Yeah, I'm really sorry I haven't been writing very fast. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! (PS: I feel like my grammar is getting worse ._. I have a lot of trouble with POV and past/present/future tense, sorry! Please tell me what I should improve!)

MORE OF THE AWESOME LONG ROLEPLAY!

*with envytheskunk on deviantart: *

*blaze sets her fists on fire*

Blaze: Amy, you did what?!

Amy: *waves hand carelessly* cool it, Blaze, he's fine. Vanilla said so. Its his fault anyways.

Blaze: HIS fault?! What I heard is that YOU hit him!

Amy: hey, I can't help it if he's in the way when I toss my hammer! Maybe he should just get faster, like my Sonic!

*blaze's face turns red in anger, her whole arms catch fire*

Sonic: Amy... Maybe you should run...

Amy: No way! I'm not a coward!

Tikal: Girls! Please stop fighting! There's already enough evil in the world as it is! *clasps hands in prayer*

Blaze: *fire dims a little* fine. But only for you, Tikal.

Tikal: Thank you. Maybe you should go to Silver now. He probably needs you.

Amy: yeah, When we left he was babbling about rainbow mushrooms, he needs you more than you need to be angry with me.

Silver: Mama Mia! That's a bigga meat ball!

Sonic: ah! Where did Mario come from?! *looks and sees its just Silver* Silver! What the heck are you doing here?! I thought we left you at Cream's place!

Silver: *imitating tweety* I 'thot I 'taw a putty tat!

Blaze: cat? That's me! Silver, honey, are you okay?! Where did she hit you?!

Silver: I did! I did taw a putty tat *randomly kisses Blaze and let go quickly*!

Shadow: I had enough of this nonsense *sucker punches Silver which makes him faint again*. That's should get Silver back to normal. If not, at least we don't have to deal with that squeaky fern head anymore.

Blaze: *stunned from kiss* wha- what just... *snaps out of it* Shadow! How dare you hit Silver! *bursts into flame*

Shadow: meh, he was getting on my nerves. *finishes Swiss roll and licks fingers*

*More next chapter...*