SherryHedgehog, :), Ashley3, Alyssacookie, Jacklethekitsune: Thanks for your reviews! And now-
"silverdawn, we need to have a talk."
What? Shadow? I thought you were hanging out in your capsule.
"I was, but there was a lot of noise in the Egg Carrier last night and it woke me up."
Oh, that was Sonic and co, sorry 'bout that. :) Anyway, what's up?
"I want you to add me to this story."
OH *fangirl scream* did you find a girlfriend?
Shadow winced. "No, I don't need one."
Fine. Then I'll find you one.
"..."
What? You'll like her, I promise.
"That's the thing, I know you'll make me like her"
Well, don't worry just yet. I can't squeeze your love life into this story, because it's hard enough balancing out 4 couples, not to mention I'd have to change the summary. But maybe I can put just you in this story, but not her. Although I'm warning you, you're really hard to keep in character...
"Just don't make me try and steal someone's girlfriend"
Oh, as if. You know I hate ShadAmy. I prefer Rouge with her Knuckie. I actually like Shadaze but there's no way I'm doing that to Silver. And Shadream...is creepy.
"As I said, I don't need a girl. I don't want a girl."
Shadz, I'll have enough time for your emo-ness when I finally do write about it, ok? Now get back to your capsule, you're ruining my story!
"No can do. Now you have to add me to this story. CHAOS CONTROL!" *disappears*
O.o Well, looks like I have no choice, folks...
Chapter 15: In His Shadow
"I really, honestly don't think he'll mind," Sonic said as he flicked on the lights of the hangar.
"You're thinking of taking the X-Tornado?" Rouge asked.
"I think it's a good idea," Amy said. "That way we can stay together."
"And go faster," Sonic said. "Plus there's the Emerald tracker already in it..."
"But," Knuckles blinked. "Who's going to fly it?"
"I am," Sonic said.
"Oh no, I'm not riding with you," Knuckles said. "You'll get us all killed."
"You big wuss," Sonic said and rolled his eyes. "The X-Tornado doesn't even go that fast."
The echidna huffed, but Sonic wasn't done. He knew how to handle Knuckles.
"You're not scared, are you?"
Knuckles frowned. "No, unlike you, I'm not scared of anything," he said and jumped into the plane. Well, that settled it.
Sonic jumped into the pilot seat and turned to smile at Amy when she hopped in behind him. He was once again reminded that he needed to take this girl on a date. It was simply amazing how she was so patient about it.
"You know Amy, you're pretty amazing," he said casually.
She blushed. "Really? Why do you say that?"
"Because I haven't taken you out in about a week and you haven't bugged me about it."
"What are you talking about? We're together now aren't we?"
"Yeah but-"
"Sonic, you know I've already taken this into account. I know you have to save the world. I'll just be here to go along with you, whether you like it or not."
Sonic laughed. "Well, loan me some of your patience, will ya?"
"Are you two lovebirds done so we can finally take off?" Knuckles grumbled from the compartment back.
Sonic rolled his eyes and then turned them back to Amy. "Thanks, Amy...For being the best girlfriend a guy could ask for," Sonic said with a wink, making Amy's heart flutter.
"Alright everybody, hang on, Sonic's in control now," the hedgehog said and laughed cockily. He started the engine and then guided the X-Tornado up the runway and into the sky. Yes, he certainly did fly faster than Tails.
Silver turned to look at Blaze, not surprised at the masked fear on her face. He knew she was scared of heights, no matter how much she tried to hide it.
"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked her softly, then remembered it was Blaze he was talking to.
"I'm fine, Silver," the cat said. She hated her irrational fear so much, but she just couldn't stand to be up so high and there be a chance that she would just fall and fall and fall with no one there to break it...
"Don't worry Blaze."
Silver's words broke her nightmare.
"If anything happens, I'll be here to catch you. With my psychokinesis," he added awkwardly, blushing like mad.
Blaze couldn't help but smile at that. He was right; Silver would always be there for her.
His heart melted at her smile. On those rare occasions when she did smile, Blaze was overwhelmingly pretty. Maybe, then, it was a good thing it was rare: it wasn't good for the heart.
"Silver-" Blaze said and her heart clenched. Tell him. Tell him what? That you love him. Now? No, now was not a good time, although his gold eyes were watching her so expectantly...
"I'm picking something up, guys," Sonic said from two compartments up.
"A Chaos Emerald?" Knuckles asked.
"Looks like it. Coming from down there."
"Well, bring her down and let's have a look."
"Way ahead of ya, Knux," Sonic said. As always, he added silently and started looking for a good place to land. His green eyes scanned the foresty terrain below, and then stopped. It couldn't be.
"Hey, is that..." Amy asked.
"Shadow?" Rouge said, confirming their suspicions.
Sonic guided the X-Tornado down and landed right next to the black hedgehog. His intense red eyes regarded the team coldly as they all jumped down.
"Shadow," Sonic acknowledged evenly.
"What do you want, Sonic?" Shadow snapped.
Sonic narrowed his eyes. "You have a Chaos Emerald, don't you?"
The black hedgehog ignored his blue counterpart and turned to Silver and Blaze. Since neither of them seemed overly willing to introduce themselves, he turned back to Sonic and shook his head before turning to leave.
Oh no, he wasn't getting away! Sonic rushed to block his path.
"Shadow, we need that Emerald."
"I didn't know they had your name on them."
Sonic growled, and tried to keep himself from losing his patience. He really, really wished he had Tails here right now to be able to explain what their problem was. Well, Sonic, you would either get him or Amy right now. Sonic realized he wished Amy had decided to go with Cream. Atleast then she'd be safe and get some time to just have fun. Especially if they were going to have to deal with Shadow now.
"Look, Shadow, you don't have any use for that Emerald, and we need it. Now hand it over."
"What do you know?" Shadow snapped again, and took a more offensive pose.
"Oh you wanna fight me huh?" his patience was shot. "Well, bring it on, faker."
Shadow hurled a Chaos Spear at Sonic, who dodged, and it was on. The others wanted to help, but they couldn't; the two hedgehogs were just blue and black blurs to their observers. After less than 20 seconds, Sonic was suddenly hurled through the air and landed in a heap. Amy was about to run for him, but Rouge grabbed her.
"Don't Amy."
The pink hedgehog bit her lip, but her eyes welled up involuntarily.
Sonic forced himself to his feet, but his right leg crumpled. No, no he was not going to let a bum ankle let him lose to Shadow...He had to dig deep here.
Shadow stood over Sonic. "Just because you decided to go easy on me doesn't mean I'll return the favor. Hero." And with that jab, the ebony hedgehog turned to leave, but then he froze.
"Hold it!" Silver demanded. "You're not going anywhere, punk." Silver raised Shadow up just a few feet and turned him to face the team. It was hard, as Silver still had that headache from yesterday.
"Let me deal with him, Silver," Rouge suddenly said.
Silver glanced at her quizzically, but she just nodded and flew over to the ebony hedgehog.
"I can handle Shadow."
Silver dropped his hands, but Shadow remained motionless besides the fact that he turned to face Rouge.
Knuckles narrowed his eyes as he watched the hedgehog and the bat quietly converse from a distance. What was she doing? He felt pangs of jealousy run through his heart. That dang hedgehog...if he tried anything with her, his head would be on a platter.
"Sonic..."
Amy of course. Sonic really didn't want her sympathy right now, he was embarrassed enough from losing to Shadow so easily. And he didn't want her to discover how hurt he was.
"I'm fine Amy," he said roughly, and pulled out his Chaos Emeralds, hoping they'd help heal him. Sonic clutched the gems in his hands, waiting for the familiar power to flow through his bruised body. He bit his lip in concentration. C'mon, c'mon, what was wrong with these dang things?
Slowly, way too slowly for someone like Sonic, he felt the power of the Emerald seep into his arms and flow up and into his heart where the arteries and veins carried it through his bloodstream and healed his pains. Why hadn't he thought of that sooner?
Sonic stood back up, testing his ankle. It felt a little better but for some reason was still hurting him. Were his Chaos Emeralds fakes? Sonic looked back down at them. They looked and felt real enough...
"Stop being a jerk, Shadow. You don't have to do everything yourself.," Rouge said.
"That coming from you. You're one to talk about team work."
Ouch.
But Shadow wasn't finished. "But you've turned over a new leaf, is that it? Because you're with Knuckles now."
"So what? Are you jealous?"
Shadow huffed. "Just because you decided to join Team Sonic doesn't mean I will. I have no desire for their 'friendship'."
"You don't have to become buddies with Sonic and them. But there's no point in you fighting against us." Us.
Shadow regarded her coldly, as always. "You know nothing. They'll just get in my way. We don't see eye to eye, you know that."
"But what are you even trying to accomplish? Do you even know what the problem is?"
"I know more than they do. But I've had enough talk." he said and pulled out his Chaos Emerald. Rouge tried to snatch it from him, but he was too fast. The hedgehog concentrated on the Emerald.
Chaos Control.
Shadow braced himself for the bending of the fabric of space-time that always came from teleportation, but he remained standing there, in front of Rouge. What? He looked down at the Emerald. Normally he could even use fake Emeralds for Chaos Control, because even those had some energy. So it didn't matter if this one was fake. But that meant-
"Wait a minute," the bat suddenly said. "We have all 7 Chaos Emeralds together."
Shadow looked at her. She was right. And yet...
Rouge left the obstinate hedgehog standing there and flew back to the group. Shadow realized he could take off just then, but was curious as to why the Emeralds didn't seem to be working and followed her.
"Knuckles, how many Chaos Emeralds do you have?" she asked, trying to confirm.
He was glaring at her. What was his problem? The echidna slowly pulled out his Emeralds. "Four." He said coldly.
Rouge tilted her head at him, and then it hit her all of a sudden. He thinks me and Shadow-
"And I have two," Sonic said. "And Shadow has one. So that makes..." his eyes got big. "Seven? But-"
"One must be a fake," Rouge said and grabbed Knuckles' Emeralds to examine them.
"Well, mine aren't," Sonic said. "They just healed me, although a little slowly."
"These aren't fake either," Rouge said and handed them back to Knuckles, letting her hand gently curve around his during the transfer. The echidna pulled away from her.
"If mine were a fake, then I could use it," Shadow said.
"Yeah, and our scanners picked it up," Sonic said. The 7 of them exchanged confused glances.
Now the group was left with the curious conclusion that all 7 Chaos Emeralds were together, and yet Sonic and Shadow's fur was still conspicuously not turning golden...
...xxx...
Before you all flame me, it has been confirmed that Blaze is afraid of heights. She says it very clearly in Sonic Rush and in SR Adventure she's nervous when they're on the flying island thing. I thought I'd play it up a little and use it as an excuse to add another Silvaze moment, how he would catch her. ;)
