Chapter X:

Being the Witness


"Thank you, have a good day ma'am."

"Thank you dear. You as well."

The elderly woman waved as she walked away. Sonic returned the wave back to her. Once she was gone he started cleaning up the checkouts.

While cleaning his mind turned to the night when Tails and him had that fight. He was still angry at Tails talking to Knuckles about personal issues.

He will admit he shouldn't have been upset with Tails for wanting to talk to Knuckles instead of him.

'I might have been too hard on him. And we really didn't talk about boundaries. I guess that's my fault.' he thought sadly.

Before he let it go deeper a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"EPP!"

He turned to see a familiar robot standing behind him. He felt himself getting smaller when the security robot loomed over him.

He shook it off and spoke.

"Oh hi Omega."

"Hello Meatbag."

"Um, do you need something?" he asked, feeling a slight urge to get away from the robot.

"Shadow requested a male witness for this apprehension. Come with me." the robot then added. "Please."

With that the two headed to the Security Room.

Before they could enter the room, the robot halted, making the blue hedgehog stop.

"Before you go in. There is one rule that you have to learn."

He pointed a lone claw in the air.

"Don't speak. No matter what the situation."

The blue hedgehog nodded to the robot before entering the room.

What waited in the office was a couple of male mobian teenagers and the head security was sitting in a chair with a stone resting bitch face.

'Great better play the act then.' the blue hedgehog reminded himself.

He closed the door and stood by the black and red striped hedgehog. He held his hands behind his back and stood ready for this task ahead.

"Now we can begin."

"What do you mean man? We just missed scanning the training cards. It's not that big of a deal. We were going to rescan them." a male bear teen protested.

Sonic couldn't help but feel angry and annoyed by this teenager's lack of lying. He turned to Shadow to see what his reaction was about this pity excuse.

The black and red striped hedgehog took in the teen's statement. He clicked the security camera and dragged the program into a bigger screen.

They watched the video of the same two teens scanning some items. The bear teen placed a package of training cards on the side table and started to pay for the items, that were already scanned, but left the cards aside.

"That shows your true character." Shadow turned to the teen with an unfazed look. "Look's like the camera showered the truth." He placed his hands on his lap. "You didn't scan them and are wanting to walk out of the store just to see if you can make it out without getting caught."

"I set them aside to pay them in a different transaction!" the teen protested.

The black hedgehog turned to the scan again and fast-forwarded the scene when the teens walked away with the cards stuffed into their pockets.

"You can stop with the lying. It won't look good for you." the black and red striped hedgehog spoked.

"You know you can be a bit of asshole dude! Accusing us for stealing items!"

Sonic snapped.

"Actually he isn't an asshole." the teens turned to the mild enraged hedgehog.

"He's just doing his job."

The teen protested again.

"That doesn't mean that he has the right to accuse us of stealing. Even the camera could have been edited to make it look like we were stealing."

"That doesn't have to do with anything that's happening here. The camera speaks the truth and you lying and trying to weasel your way out of trouble and blaming the security guard just so you can get away with stealing again."

The bear's friend stood up and defended him.

"Hey this isn't your job either."

"Well, in this office 'kid'," the blue hedgehog growled having enough of this childish play. "You need to listen to what he says. He has the right to ask questions."

The black and red striped hedgehog stood where he was at. He didn't even stop the blue hedgehog. He let him continue giving the 'Talk' to the teens.

So he watched.

"And thinking that you guys can get away with stealing and all that stuff. You're wrong. You will go to jail where there is no mercy for petty thieves like you. You will get beaten or worse."

The teens didn't argue or protest.

Just then the door opened to reveal Omega and a couple of mobian cops walking into the office. Sonic felt his heart stop. He was starting to feel very nervous; especially near the cops.

He shivered from experience with them from a Bumper Accident, which was not a big accident. If Tails wasn't there at the time he wouldn't have had a panic attack.

"Thank you Omega." Shadow thanked the robot. "Officers."

"Shadow," a middle aged lion mobian greeted back. "So these two are causing trouble sir?" he asked.

"They are. An item wasn't scanned."

The lion officer nodded. He turned towards the teens but was eyeing on one of the teens.

"We are going to have a talk when we get home."

The lion teen looked down in shame. The bear teen scoffed as he turned his head away.

Sonic felt sorry for the lion teen. The feeling of being lost in a world that doesn't understand you.

'I guess the bear teen is no good for him, I hope that loin sees that the bear teen is bad news.'

All he can do is watch and listen.

~~Thirty Minutes Later~~

"We'll contact the bear's parents so he'll be seen too." the lion officer explained.

The black and red striped hedgehog nodded. "I'll have the reports ready for Towers and a copy for you to have."

The old lion nodded.

"What's going to happen with your nephew?" Shadow asked.

The officer turned to his nephew, who was crying softly under his hood. The blue hedgehog stood where he was. Fidgeting his fingers.

"My nephew will get in trouble like the bear did, but I'll handle it." he answered.

With that the officers and the teens left, leaving the three workers alone.

"Alright, I need to get these in. Omega go back to the floors. I'll be right there." he ordered.

The robot nodded before turning to the blue hedgehog.

"What about him?" He pointed a metal at Sonic.

"He'll be out soon. I need to have a word with him." Shadow answered.

The robot nodded and headed off.

"You know hedgehog," the black and red striped hedgehog spoke as he turned around. Red meets green and the blue hedgehog felt his body starting to shake.

"That action of telling them off was quite impressive."

"Look! I-I didn't mean to speak out of line! I just got tired of that bear acting like-"

"No need. I got it."

The blue hedgehog turned to the black and red striped hedgehog with a shock expression.

"That teen was acting dumb so we would fall for it. However, I've been through with a lot of people to know the difference between a liar and an honest person."

Then he added.

"But what you did was impressive and *sigh* I want to say thanks."

Sonic looked at him with eyes widened with a surprised look. He rubbed the back of his neck while avoiding eye contact. Too nervous to look at him.

"Um, you're welcome I guess…" he stuttered while fidgeting his uniform's ends.

Shadow chuckled. 'Cute.' he thought softly to himself. His cheeks were starting to get warm.

"Anyway, thanks for your help earlier. You can go now." the black and red striped hedgehog waved him away. While hiding his flushed face.

The blue hedgehog felt his cheeks warm when he noticed tan cheeks turning slightly red with a hint of green lining.

He gave the security a classic thumbs up trying to hide his red blushes.

"No prob."

With that the associate left with the feeling of appreciation lingering in his heart.

He smiled and so did the security guard.