In Cosmo's Shadow
By Kellie Fay
Disclaimer: Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Cosmo, and the others all belong to SEGA, Team Sonic, 4 Kids and other people not me.
Please Review! I think nobody likes this story. :(
Chapter 9
Visitors
He knew his visitor long before she arrived. Her footsteps were high pitched, and quick. Rouge, if she walked at all had slower footsteps. The Fox moved almost silently through the forest, and in contrast Knuckles, sounded like one of those giant horses from the human world that Maria loved so when he wanted to announce his presence. When Knuckles wanted to sneak up on you however, he could equal Tails in stealth. Cream skipped wherever she went, and you never heard Sonic's footsteps. You only heard the high pitched whine that followed in his wake when he ran.
He knew she stopped just behind him, so before she could make her demands he asked, "What do you want?"
Amy sputtered for a second before settling down. "How did you know I was here?" She asked.
"You sound like Knuckles tromping around in the forest like that. Even the fox cub is quieter than you in the forest."
"What did you do to my Sonic?" Amy demanded.
Now Shadow looked over his shoulder to glance at her. "Is Sonic aware that you consider him to be your property?" No wonder he runs at the least indication she's around.
"Never mind that," she said with her arms crossed in front of her. "What did you say to Sonic? He's been using that think talk to argue with Rouge for most of the afternoon."
Now she said something that captured his interest. He stopped adding the hinge to the door. "Think talk?" He asked.
Amy sighed. "It's something Espio taught Sonic a while ago. Only the three of them do it well. They can think at each other and hear it. I only hear them a little. Being around them when they're arguing about you like that gives me a headache."
Shadow wondered why they would be arguing about his sleep walking when suddenly he realized a reason Sonic would be angry. He couldn't help but chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Amy asked.
"Let's just say Rouge can't blackmail me anymore."
Amy frowned looking at him. "Rouge was blackmailing you? Shadow what happened here? Last night Sonic blasted past the village, today he's arguing with Rouge in their heads, and now I see you repairing stuff from your house." Without asking Amy went, and peeked into the window of Maria's room.
"Leave that alone!" He said pushing away from the window. Amy fell in a heap on the ground.
"Hey!" She said indignantly. She might have said more, but then she stared at three little bushes under the window, and closed her mouth. She then got off the ground dusted herself off, and said, "Fine be that way! I'm going home."
Shadow shrugged and went back to his work. He halfway expected the visit he got that evening from both Sonic and Rouge. He thought Sonic would be angry with him for shoving Amy. To his surprise Amy didn't come up in the conversation until much later. Sonic brought dinner from Cream's mom again, and Rouge started to explain what happened.
"…The moment you realized you were in the room you…you just collapsed and started crying. You forgot about me and the chip, so I calmed you down got you back asleep and tucked you in right there." Rouge said. Shadow nodded. He couldn't say anything he didn't remember any of it.
Sonic then looked at Shadow directly. "Rouge and I were going over it for the better part of today trying to figure out why you switched gears going into that room. Shadow, I know you don't like to talk about it, but maybe you could tell us something about that room that would help us understand."
Shadow winced. He knew they both were right, and after attacking Rouge last night he was desperate to rationalize his actions. "You looked in there after you put me back to bed," He accused Rouge.
Rouge blushed something Shadow never saw before. "Just a quick glance, but yeah, Shadow, who do you expect to use that room?"
The idea almost made him angry. "That room isn't for anybody but-" He couldn't' get the words out. Not that word. It wouldn't make sense to them. "I need it," he changed his words. When Sonic and Rouge looked at him puzzled he added. "Just like you need to run, and she needs jewelry. I need it." Sonic was still giving Shadow this odd look, so he decided to say, "and don't try to read my mind!"
Sonic looked annoyed, but Shadow had the feeling that it wasn't directed at him. Instead the blue hedgehog went back to the original topic. "Shadow, all we're trying to figure out is why you stopped dead when you entered that room, and started crying.
"It would be better to read the data chip and figure out what might have set me off in the first place," Shadow countered.
"I intend to," Sonic said firmly. "Last night while you were sleeping off your midnight romp, I woke up Tails, and had him copy the data chip. If you want to look at the original again I'll let you, but I think you should let us hide it at night so you don't go after it again."
Shadow nodded, he couldn't argue. If he couldn't look at the data chip without getting violent, someone had to find out what was on there. He thought they left after that, but going out onto his porch that evening he found Sonic sitting out there, much like he found him at his table this morning. Leaning back in his chair balanced on the back two legs, resting his legs on the rail of the porch, eyes closed.
Shadow glared down at the serene hedgehog. You are so not sleeping here Sonic even if I have to Chaos Control you halfway across the planet.
To Shadow's surprise Sonic blinked, and looked up at Shadow before rubbing his eyes. "Didn't mean to doze off," Sonic said sounding very sleepy. "Had to wake up very early this morning because someone is so determined to take care of things himself he didn't bother to tell me he sleepwalks."
Shadow refused to back off, "And I told you not to read my mind."
Sonic looked at Shadow still bleary eyed, and a little confused. "You didn't say anything?" Surprised Shadow shook his head no. Sonic gave a little push righting the chair he sat in, and gave his head a little shake. "Man I must have really been out of it to not tell the difference." He looked up and gave a slightly amused glance at Shadow. "You might want to talk to Espio about controlling that. You project like a rock concert. I usually don't hear what people are thinking unless they're projecting for me to hear them."
"You mean you weren't trying to read my thoughts?" Shadow asked.
Sonic shook his head no. "Shadow I was practically asleep. It was the first time I got to relax all day, and like I said I was up early. That was all you buddy, and if you project like that I think you'd better get some lessons from Espio on keeping your thoughts to yourself. "
"I'll consider it," Shadow said. "Now if you're that tired you might want to go home."
Sonic gave Shadow a look up and down. "All right, and I won't fuss about the sleepwalking too much, seeing how it was probably my fault anyway on one condition."
"What?"
"You leave Rouge's tree house where it is," Sonic said nodding up towards the structure shading his front porch. "Call me crazy, but I want someone looking after you if you have problems at night. I tell you I was pretty miffed at her for not telling me about the sleepwalking. When I told Egg-man that you had a few nightmares he asked me if you were still sleepwalking. After last night I really laid into Rouge for keeping it from me."
"Is that what you two were arguing about with your thoughts?" Shadow asked. When Sonic looked at him puzzled he added. "Amy came by and told me you were arguing with your thoughts and it gave her a headache, and she was mad at me for upsetting you."
"So that's where you got the mind reading idea from," Sonic said suddenly understanding. I knew she came out here, cuz she came back all mad that you were rude to her and shoved her to the ground."
Shadow winced at that but then realized that Sonic's tone never changed. "You're not angry about that?" He asked.
"You were awake, so you knew what you were doing. Amy wasn't bruised, had any broken bones, and she wasn't even crying. The only thing that got hurt was her pride. When she finally got done complaining she told us what she did to set you off. Rouge and I went over the very sensible reasons of why we don't ask Shadow about his extra room, and that she got off easy with landing in the dirt." Sonic then gave Shadow a grin, and said, "Mind you if you had hurt Amy I would have been miffed, but If she's gonna come out here and annoy you, she has no one else to blame but herself." Then Sonic looked away from him and said, "It would be of course easier to explain it to her if we understood why you keep that room private."
Shadow wasn't sure if he should be resentful that Sonic brought it up yet again, or try to accommodate him. He didn't know how he should be reacting. All he knew is that he wanted that little room, and he didn't know how to express it if they still didn't understand it. Shadow decided to ignore the question when Sonic snapped around, and gave him the oddest of looks. It only took Shadow a second to realize the problem. "I'm projecting again?"
"Yep," Sonic said rubbing his forehead. "I'm probably not protecting myself too well right now either. I'm gone. Just let me know if you need anything"
Shadow didn't know why he looked up at that moment, but he saw Rouge in the tree watching Sonic run off. "I suppose you hear my thoughts without trying also?" He asked.
Rouge jumped down and shook her head. "I'm not as good as he is," She admitted. "It's connected to my radar. Sonic started doing it a few months before we heard you'd survived. He's actually quite good at it."
Wonderful he can read my thoughts if I'm not careful. Shadow frowned. "I suppose you think I should learn how to control this too," he complained.
Rouge ran one fingernail across his shoulders making him flinch. "I don't know. I kind of like the idea of knowing what's on your mind."
"Right," Shadow said. Then not caring if Rouge could hear him or not he thought. All right, I'm talking to Espio first thing in the morning.
Coming Soon Chapter 10 Espio
Shadow thought he understood what Espio was asking for at that point, but knew that the odd thought that woke Sonic wouldn't be unsettling enough. Instead Shadow began to think about how out of control he felt of both his dreams and of his sleepwalking. Within a few seconds Espio's head snapped up and he gave Shadow the oddest of looks.
"I suppose you heard that," Shadow said with a sigh.
"I believe Sonic's analogy of a rock concert understated the problem," Espio said simply.