Shadow Saves Them All

Chapter 5

I got out of the cab with Amy on my shoulder. I paid out the cabby with cash and he drove off. I turned to look at the hospital, I could see how it got its name, it was near the edge of a large cliff. The edge looked loose, like if some large force pushed it, it would all crumble down… Ominous.

I walked into the place and it was filled with bright lights and lightly painted walls. I saw doctors and nurses running around doing who knows what. I felt Amy starting to struggle on my shoulder so I let her down. She was starting to realize she was awake so it took her a minute to get her bearings… and balance. She nearly fell over until I grabbed her and kept her from falling.

"Hmmm, what? Hey! Where am I?" she said looking around at her surroundings. She saw me and then her face grew suspicious. She glared at me which felt surprisingly uncomfortable. She leaned closer to me trying her best to figure something out.

"You look… familiar," she said.

"Did you bring me here?" she asked.

"Yup," I said.

"In case you forgot, I'm Dylan," I said with a smile and thumbs up, similar to Sonics. That rang a bell in Amy's head and she remembered me from the Sonic CD story. I was never really seen but I was there trying to slow down Metal Sonic whenever the real Sonic was having trouble.

"Oh Dylan! Now I remember you! You were so brave and strong to help fight Eggman all those times!" she said with her usual cheerful attitude. That's when she recognized the building she was in as a hospital.

She asked; "Why are we at the Station Square Hospital?"

"I brought you here because you wanted to see Sonic right?"

Her eyes lit up at the sound of the opportunity.

"Oh yes! Thank you thank you!" That's when her face became a little glum.

"But, if he's here at the hospital then…" she looked at the ground with a sad face. I hated seeing any of my friends sad, I wanted to make her feel better no matter what.

"Well, he was hurt pretty bad in a fight against Eggman robots," this only made things worse. She put her hands up to cover her mouth and I saw her starting to tear up.

She really did care about Sonic.

"But, I'm sure he's gonna be just fine!" I said with confidence. She looked up suddenly surprised.

"He's Sonic the Hedgehog! He's the blue streak! The fastest thing alive! He'll bounce back from this in no time! I guarantee it!" Amy's eyes were rekindled with hope. I was glad I could make her happy again. I smiled proudly, beaming with confidence with Amy watching awe. That's when I noticed people walking by were starting to stare. I quickly returned to normal posture and calmed down.

"So, we should probably see where he's being treated," I said awkwardly. We walked up to the service desk and asked about the room he was being kept in.

"Oh," the service woman said. "Yeah he's being kept with Silver in Room 511 on the top floor," I was relieved Silver was okay too. I don't care what anyone says, Silver is awesome, I mean, he can use psychokenesis! How many hedgehogs do you know that can do that? Then again how many do you know that can run past the speed of sound? Or that could survive a fall to earth from space? But I'm babbling now.

We entered an elevator and Amy pressed the button for the fifth floor. We stopped on the third floor and a woman pushing a baby in a stroller entered and stood next to us. The elevator continued to go up while the baby giggled. It threw it's rattle on the ground and started to drool.

"Oh!" Amy said picking it up and giving it back to the baby.

"Here you go," she said smiling at the baby. The baby started to smile back at her when the elevator beeped and the number five was displayed on the floor screen. The doors opened and we all walked out. The woman continued in the same direction as me and Amy for a little bit until we turned left while they continued down the hallway.

"Cute baby," I said as we walked.

"Yeah, I hope my babies are that cute," she said beginning to fantasize.

"For Sonics sake I hope she's right," I muttered.

I kept looking at the room numbers. 515, 513, aha! 511! I opened the door and walked inside with Amy, Sonic and Silver both looked over and spotted us. They were both still very cheerful despite their current situation. They were both in hospital beds and Sonic had some bandages on his head and arms. Silver had a cast on his left arm and some bandages on his left leg. They both didn't seem to be in any condition to fight or even move. Silver was in the bed on the far left, closest to the window, and Sonic was to the left of his. Across from Sonics bed was a T.V. and there was a small table in between the two beds. Just a quick layout of the room. What really drew my attention was the third person in the room.

I looked at the end of Sonics bed and saw Shadow sitting down on it facing Sonic and Shadow. He had a pair of sunglasses on his head and a red scarf around his neck. Sunglasses at night… huh… odd.

"Dylan!" Silver said, brightening the mood.

"Dylan!" Sonic said.

"Dylan?" Shadow said to me, wondering what I was doing there.

"Sonic!" Amy said running up to his bed and hugging him, making Sonic blush a bright red.

"Amy!?" Sonic shouted.

"Amy?" Silver said looking over to Sonics bed.

"Amy," Shadow said closing his eyes in indifference.

Amy started to really constrict Sonics breathing from the hugging, as shown through his bright blue face.

"Amy!" I said rushing up to her and pulling her away.

"Dylan!" Amy said looking back at me with rage in her eyes.

Hell Hath No Fury Like An Amy Scorned. That's what flashed through my head at the sight of her in that state. I let her go but she stopped before hugging Sonic again when she saw him starting to breath heavily and cough.

"Sorry," she said shyly. Sonic saw she was getting sad and thought quickly. He put his arm up in an attempt to do his signature thumbs up wink look, but instead just coughed some more.

"No problem," he said after a coughing fit. He smiled a little awkwardly at her and she smiled back. That hedgehog always knows how to make her happy…

"So, what are you doing back here?" Silver asked. The last time I saw him was during the Sonic Next Gen story. When he had started to fight Iblis with Blaze I was there, mainly helping to get people to safety when Iblis first arose. I met with Silver for a little while and then when he went forward in time to attack Sonic I was watching him, making sure he didn't actually kill Sonic.

"Same thing as always Silver, power issues," I said scratching my head.

"Humph," Shadow said as he hopped off the bed. He approached me slowly with his eyes shut and then stopped in front of me opening them saying;

"Well I hope you do a better job than you did in my story," (Shadow the Hedgehog, the Game,) I sighed, I couldn't do anything in that story. That was a problem that only Shadow could deal with, if I interfered then he wouldn't have learned to try and put the past behind him. Nothing would've changed.

"Shadow, I'm actually very glad you're here, Sonic and Silver too,"

"Hey! What about me?" Amy said. I looked down and saw how determined she was to be of use.

"Yup, you too Ames," I said patting her head. She closed her eyes and nodded in approval.

"Good," she said smiling. I returned to my serious manner. I pulled out the two Chaos emeralds from my pockets and laid them on Sonics bed. Everyone but Shadow looked at them in awe.

"I'm looking for the seven Chaos Emeralds. There's a serious timeline interference that's going to occur, and I need them to stop it. Shadow, it mainly involves you," I pointed to him.

"Me?" he said with little interest.

"I know for certain that during this time of year, you isolate yourself from everyone else and remain very quiet. That has to be part of the timeline interference," he turned to me with a look of irritation.

"Are you saying that I can't be left alone?"

"No," I said quickly trying to avoid a brawl.

"I'm saying that you are not going to be there when someone or something needs you, and what happens to that someone or something is going to vastly alter the timeline!" I said concluding my mission statement.

"Now, using that information, what do you think is going to happen?" I asked Shadow. A moment passed and he didn't answer.

"Anyone?" I asked more desperately. No response as everything was thinking.

"If that's the case," Shadow said breaking the silence.

"Then your problem has already occurred," he said looking right at me.

"What?" we all said in unison.

"Sonic and Silver were both injured severely by Eggman robots, If I were there to help them then they wouldn't have been hurt as badly…"

"But because you weren't we got hospitalized!" Sonic said putting the pieces together.

"So I bet that means something's going to happen to us while we're here in the hospital that'll alter the timeline in the future!" Silver said.

With the pieces put together my mission was now clear. I pulled my jacket away from my waist and grabbed my belt buckle. It was a computerized one with hardware visible through safety glass.

"Update mission status," I said pressing a button on it. A hologram was projected into the middle of the room. A woman with shoulder length blonde hair was displayed wearing a dark uniform. Everyone in the room looked at her with amazement.

"Dylan, what's the current status of your mission?" she asked.

"Alice," I said. "Mission has become clear. New target, the Seven Chaos emeralds for healing Sonic and Silver," Alice nodded and said; "Confirmed," The hologram turned to static and then deactivated. I let go of my belt buckle and sighed. Everyone's eyes, even Shadows were turned to me. I smiled and said;

"Okay, if any of you know where I can find any Chaos emeralds now's the time to start squawking," I said. Shadow looked me dead in the eye and asked;

"And just what do you plan to do with the Chaos emeralds?"

"Didn't you hear me a second ago? I'm gonna heal Sonic and Silver," I said looking at him with the same look he was giving me.

"In that case," I heard Sonic say as he opened a drawer in the table next to his bed.

"You're gonna need these," Sonic said holding out the blue and silver chaos emeralds. I looked at them in awe, it was never this easy to obtain them before.

"Where did…" I began to ask still gazing at them.

"Isn't it obvious?" Amy said interrupting me. She hugged Sonic again and smiled.

"He's Sonic the Hedgehog, he can do anything!" Amy's unwavering faith in Sonic was unmatched.

"Actually the blue one's mine, the clear one belongs to Silver," he said brushing off Amy's comment, ruining her mood. He tossed the two to me and I tossed em both in my pocket. That makes four, too easy. Suddenly something was shoved right in front of my face, it was glowing purple. I took a step back and realized it was the purple Chaos Emerald, Shadow was holding it up to me.

"Just take it, before I change my mind," he said avoiding eye contact with me.

"My," I said taking it and putting it in my pocket.

"How unusually generous of you Shadow the Hedgehog," I said amusingly. Sonic and Silver both giggled a little but stopped when Shadow glared at them.

"Bear in mind I'm the only healthy hedgehog in this room," he said threateningly to everyone except for Amy.

"Alright alright," I said putting my hands up to calm him down.

"Shadow I need your help to find the remaining two Chaos emeralds. We should each search for one. If doctor Eggman doesn't know I'm here then he won't go looking for them with me,"

"I'm also the only Hedgehog not on painkillers, so the Doctor will probably be looking for me too," That was a good point, if Eggman cornered Shadow he would be dead, and we would be short a chaos emerald.

"So…" Silver said. "Why don't you guys come up with a place where Shadow can drop off..."

"QUIET SILVER PEOPLE ARE TALKING!" Shadow shouted in anger. Silver cringed and hid under his covers.

"SHADOW!" Amy shouted back at Shadow. "BE NICE!"

"Watch it Amy!" Shadow's fury began to boil over. "Just because you're a girl doesn't mean I wouldn't…"

"Hang on Shadow! Silver might be on to something," Sonic said defending his friends and lowering the tension.

Shadow crossed his arms and closed his eyes; "Humph, fine. Continue Silver," he shot a dangerous glare at Silver as he was coming out from under the covers which made him cringe again.

"O-okay." He said nervously. "Well if Shadow dropped of a Chaos emerald somewhere where Eggman couldn't find it, then Dylan could retrieve it later," I thought about it for a moment. It was a really good idea aside from the fact that I had no idea where to hide an emerald from that mad Doctor.

"I have no idea where to hide it where he wouldn't find it though," I mentioned.

"I do," Amy said. We all looked to her with surprise.

"Why don't you just give it to someone in Eggman's base, someone who he trusts, but someone whose on our side…"

"Hiding the emerald right under Eggmans big fat hairy nose huh? Sounds like the perfect plan!" Sonic said with his usual confidence back.

"And I think I know just the person we need," everyone knew exactly who I meant.

"Maria Robotnik the Hedgehog!" everyone in the room said at once.

"That's a crazy idea!" Shadow said interjecting.

"I don't wanna put Maria into the middle of this! Who knows what Eggman would do to her if he found out!" he said worriedly. Shadow never really worried about anyone, and if he did he didn't ever show it. I put my hand on Shadow's shoulder, he looked up at me with anxiety in his eyes.

"… Trust me Shadow, it'll be okay," I said. I was as serious as I possibly could be.

"…"

"Well Shadow?" I asked him. Everyone in the room was waiting for his answer.

"…"

"Please Shadow…"

"…" he finally spoke.

"Fine," I sighed in relief, the plan was set and I was ready to go.

"But you'd better get to her as soon as I let you know I left it with her!" he said to me warningly. I smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up.

"It's a promise,"