Shadow Saves Them All

Chapter 3

Cream's house was abuzz with happiness and holiday cheer as members of the sonic team had gathered there for a Christmas party. Tails was standing next to the Christmas tree talking with cheese as he floated next to him. Cream was in the kitchen with her mother Vanilla helping to prepare desserts while her mother handled the food. Amy was the only one at the party not conversing, she was waiting at the front door to greet and smother our blue hedgehog hero.

Creams house was a small town house in the square of Station Square. Across the square was a red echidna standing on top of another town house, watching as if looking for someone.

"I don't like this, I don't like leaving the master emerald alone this long," Knuckles said to himself. He was shivering despite having a red and green scarf on, and being on top of a building covered in snow in the middle of a winter night didn't help either.

"Oh well, maybe I should just go back to angel island before I come down with something. No sign of that bat anyway," Knuckles turned to leave but stopped immediately when he saw a large figure towering above him. He stepped back to get into a fighting stance but slipped on the snow and fell down. The figure bent down to see knuckles face to face. Knuckles was slightly frightened until he recognized the face of the interloper.

"Dylan!" Knuckles smiled in relief and joy.

"Sup Knuckles?" Dylan said standing up straight again. He smiled at his friend and they pounded fists.

"Where've you been? I haven't seen you since…"

Dylan quickly interrupted him; "I know the master emerald incident. Rouge said the same thing to me." Knuckles eyes widened at the mention of the thieving bat. Knuckles jumped up to Dylan, grabbing the collar of his jacket and looking him dead in his brown eyes.

"Rouge! Where is she? Was she headed for the master emerald?! Well huh? Huh? ANSWER ME!" Knuckles was freaking out on Dylan until he stopped him. Dylan grabbed Knuckles and put him down on the ground while he was flailing his arms around saying; "WHERE? WHERE? WHERE?" Dylan finally answered.

"Relax pal, she was at her apartment. Why? Are you looking for her?" Dylan put on a sly smile and asked; "Worried about her?"

Knuckles face turned a bit red for a second as he turned away from Dylan.

"What are you nuts? I couldn't care less about that thieving bat!" Knuckles said trying to get himself under control.

"Really?" an unknown voice said. Dylan and Knuckles both looked around for a second searching for the source of the voice when Dylan looked up and saw a silhouette directly above him. He jumped backwards quickly and landed on both feet as the silhouette landed where he was standing. The figure faced Knuckles and said;

"Well that's a shame, I was actually a little worried about you Knucky,"

The figure was really Rouge… go figure. She looked the same as usual except with a red Christmas bow on her left ear with two small bells on it. Knuckles was still a little in awe from her sudden appearance and was just now recovering. He cleared his throat and said hello to her under his breath. There was a moment of silence until Dylan broke it.

"So Knuckles, were you waiting out here for Rouge?" At that, Knuckles face got even redder than before. Rouge was actually thinking the same thing, why was he waiting on a cold rooftop just across from the party? Rouge asked the same thing with her usual look of slyness.

"Yeah Knuckles… were you waiting for me?" she moved closer to him and was an inch away from his face before he looked up and saw how close she was. He freaked out and began to step backwards, only to discover there was no more rooftop there, and he fell clean off the building into a large pile of snow on the sidewalk. Rouge and Dylan both looked over the edge to see Knuckles head pop out of the snow. He looked up with a face as red as Rudolph's nose and shouted; "You're BATTY!"

Dylan and Rouge both snickered at the embarrassed Knuckles as he dug himself out of the snow, to the entertainment of the people walking by.

"Well I'll get Knuckles the snowman and get him a coffee or something on the way to the party. You go on ahead and do what you gotta do," Rouge smiled at Dylan and jumped off the edge of the building and floated to the ground next to Knuckles.

"C'mon you big oaf, lets warm you up," she said helping him out of the snow. He was silent as Rouge brought him a few stores down to a 'Starbucks' and hastily entered.

Dylan gave a short laugh, it was good to see the happy characters he had seen before were still as merry as usual, at least so far. He stopped chuckling and regained his serious mood. He jumped off the building and in an instant was across the square in front of Cream's house. As he knocked on the door he said; "Knock Knock it's party o clock," A little girl from the other side of the door said coming and opened it. Cream was standing in the doorway in a Christmas dress that was like her usual one, except the yellow and orange was replaced with a brown and white with a Rudolph face on the front. He knelt down and smiled at Cream saying;

"Merry Christmas Cream," Cream's face lit up with joy as she hugged Dylan saying;

"Oh yay! He's here! Cheese he's here!" her little voice carried through the house to her little chaos ears. Cheese perked up and looked around for a second until he realized where Cream was. He saw her just over Tail's shoulder in the doorway. He flew over to her and saw Dylan, making him even happier. Tails was startled by Cheese flying right past him and followed him to the door way where he saw Cream and Cheese. Dylan saw tails and lifted Cream up on his shoulders.

"Oh wow! Dylan's here," Vanilla came over from the kitchen and saw him and smiled.

"Well it's certainly been a while hasn't it young man?" Dylan smiled and nodded.

"Yes it has, Cream really has grown," Cheese puffed his cheeks in slight anger as he flew right in front of Dylan's face. Dylan quickly said;

"Oh and you too Cheese! So buff looking, have you been lifting?" he said smiling. Cheese drew back from Dylan, satisfied with the compliment and began to flex his imaginary muscles, to everyone's amusement. Cheese was punching and flexing until he lost balance mid flight and bonked right into Tail's head. They both hit the ground rubbed their heads, and then everybody laughed. Dylan hadn't felt the comfort of good friends and a warm fire in a long time, it was almost therapeutic for him.

"Well, please come in," Vanilla said closing the door and heading back into the kitchen.

"Gladly, thank you," Dylan said walking into the living room. He picked Cream up off his shoulders and put her down on the couch and sat down in a loveseat. Tails flew into the room and sat down next to Cream and Cheese.

"So, what're you doing back here Dylan?" Tails asked.

"Well Tails, I was actually sent here on a mission from my higher ups," he said contently taking in the atmosphere.

"Oh really, what for?" Tails' curiosity was brimming, he knew Dylan was involved with some big stuff, Universal stuff.

"Yeah, what're you back for?" Cream asked.

"Sorry, I can't disclose my mission information," he said sternly.

"Awwwww," Cream and Tails both said. Cream looked up at Dylan with big cute eyes. Those eyes and the 'awws' were too much for Dylan, if you didn't react to it you were stone cold.

"Alright alright I'll talk, just please stop it with the eyes," he said to Cream. She blinked a few times and she was back to normal. Tails and Cheese both leaned in closer to listen.

"My mission…" Dylan paused for suspense. Cream, Cheese and Tails were all on the edge of their seats.

"… Is to stop a time alteration involving Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Tails Cream and Cheese all oooohed and ahhhhhed at the mission and even applauded a little like it was the end of a performance. Dylan rolled with the applause saying "Thank you Thank you,"

"Oh, well if it involves Shadow, then you should go look up by the hospital, that's where he said he was going after he heard about the accident involving Sonic and Silver," Sonic and Silver…

"Wait a minute! That reminds me, where's Amy?" Dylan jumped out of his chair. They all looked around for her but she was nowhere to be found.

"I'll go check upstairs!" Cream said hopping off the couch and running towards the door, once she was out of the room she made a right and ran up the stairs, but she tripped on something lying on the first one. Dylan, Cheese and Tails heard the thud and ran over to see Cream getting up, but what drew their attention was what she tripped over. On the bottom stair Amy was lying down, sleeping. Dylan sighed.

"I guess waiting for Sonic has really worn her out," he said. He picked her up and started for the door, until Cream stopped him.

"Wait!" she stepped in front of him like Rouge had.

"You're going already?" she asked, her eyes were starting to get bigger.

Dylan knelt down and patted her on the head.

"Don't worry, as soon as my mission's done I'll come and hang out, but my mission is important and I need Sonic and Silver to do it," he smiled at Cream and then the rest of them.

"I'm pretty sure this one's gonna be excited to see Sonic," he said with Amy over his shoulder. He walked out of the door waving goodbye to everyone and saying "Merry Christmas!"

He knew if he ran with Amy in tow it would wake her and freak her out, so he needed a ride. He ran to the roadside and hailed a taxi. He put Amy in first and then got in the other side and they were off. The cabby in front was smoking a cigarette with the window open and asked;

"Where to Mac?"

"Station Square Cliffside Hospital please," Dylan responded. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around Amy, she looked so calm when she was sleeping. He looked out the window as they moved out of traffic and were on their way to the hospital. It had been a while since he was in a cab, too long.

"Well, I guess Sonics getting an early Christmas present," he thought looking at Amy.

"I guess Amy's getting one too," he smiled and thought looking out the window waiting to get to the hospital.