D&S Chapter 4: Scanning the Situation

"Did you do this to me?" It growled. Or rather, he growled. Sonic held his stance. He knew he would have to protect Tails if this hedgehog decided to get violent. He had had cases like this before, but was really hoping this wouldn't be one of them.

"Of course not, my roommate and I found you at our door and have been trying to fix you up…which wasn't easy, by the way." Sonic said matter-of-factly.

The hedgehog finally blinked and turned to look at his bandages.

"You…helped me?" He muttered, poking at the bandages on his arms. Sonic winced.

"You might not want to do that. Those were tricky to place and the wounds…" He didn't want to finish, or have the hedgehog freak out while imagining what the bandages were hiding.

"I…so you really helped me?" The hedgehog asked again, looking back up at Sonic. His stare was blank but there was a sense of urgency in his tone.

Sonic nodded.

"Like I told you, it wasn't easy but we got you cleaned up. I did want you to see a doctor though. I don't know if you have any internal injuries." Sonic explained honestly.

The hedgehog nodded in response but said nothing more, leaving an uncomfortable air to settle in the room.

"Well…the pancakes are almost done." Tails said with a smile, causing the two hedgehogs to turn to him.

Noticing their stares, the fox blushed with embarrassment and ran back into the kitchen.

"His pancakes are the best, trust me on that." Sonic said with a laugh, turning back to the hedgehog in front of him.

The hedgehog's blank stare never left, but he proceeded to get up when Sonic did.

"I'm Sonic, by the way!" Sonic said with a smile. The black hedgehog simply nodded.

"Shadow."

"Huh?"

"My name, it's Shadow. Shadow the hedgehog." The hedgehog said, crossing his arms.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Shadow. I'll introduce you to Tails in a sec. He's shy but he's a nice guy." Sonic said as he brought Shadow into the kitchen.

The hedgehog followed with no reply.

/

The secretary of the city's police HQ was having a boring day. Blaze the Cat couldn't help but sigh at the overwhelming pile of reports she would have to stamp and file before the week was done. It didn't help that the only one she considered a friend there was Sonic, who hadn't been in for the last couple of days.

Speaking of which, why hadn't the hedgehog reported in? A call would have sufficed. Even though Sonic refused to take on a higher ranking position, his importance to HQ and the city made him a top priority regardless of his rank.

She would have to call him; which she didn't mind considering she would have done anything to dodge paperwork at that moment.

Within a few seconds of typing, she had pulled his number from their registry. Grabbing her work phone, she dialled the number and waited.

It rang twice before Sonic picked it up.

"Uh, Hi?" She would have recognized the hedgehog's voice anywhere, but the questioning tone in his voice told her something was up.

"Hello Sonic the Hedgehog, this is Blaze from the police department." She said quickly. They were friends, but protocol forced her to give him the script introduction.

Not that her personal introduction would have been that far off the grid.

"Oh, hey Blaze! How can I help you?" He responded. Blaze raised an eyebrow. Why was he acting so suspicious?

"You haven't touched base with HQ in the last couple of days. You know how the higher ups are, Sonic." She responded flatly.

"Oh right! I was going to come in today, but something came up…" He trailed off, and Blaze resisted the urge to roll her eyes and sigh. She really didn't want to get in the hedgehog's business but now she was undeniably interested and his excuse would not leave a good report for her to give to her commissioner.

"Sonic, if you have a viable reason for your absence you'll have to take that up with your superiors. You don't get to choose not to call in." She said calmly.

She heard him sigh on the other end.

"It's something…out of the ordinary Blaze. Are you on the office phone?" He asked, whispering towards the end. Blaze's eyes widened. This was getting more confusing and she had a sinking feeling she would have to get more involved than she wanted to.

"Yes I am, Sonic."

"I need your help with something, but I'll need you to come to my place. You have it on the registry right? My address I mean." He said quickly, causing Blaze to automatically turn back to her monitor.

"I'll come during my lunch break." She said softly, looking around to make sure no one was listening in.

"Thanks, see you soon." Sonic said before the line went blank.

Blaze stared at the phone with a raised eyebrow before shaking her head and turning to the clock. She had another hour before her lunch break, but she knew she wouldn't get a lot of work done now. This situation with Sonic was too confusing and intriguing to focus her attention elsewhere.

She would just have to see what he was talking about.

/

"Who was that?" Tails asked as he took Shadow and Sonic's plates to the sink to be washed.

Sonic put down the receiver and turned to the blonde fox.

"It was Blaze. She's a cat I work with. She'll be coming over in a bit."

"Oh that's cool. I don't get to meet a lot of your work friends." Tails admitted, turning back to the sink to clean the dishes.

"That's because I don't have a lot of work friends…" Sonic muttered as he went back to sit at the table.

Noticing Shadow's staring, Sonic smiled and winked.

"Don't worry, she's trustworthy. She works with a lot of private information regarding things in the city daily. You can't get that job without criminal and background checks, not to mention a handful of examinations…I guess the pay is worth it." He rambled, trying to reassure Shadow.

Shadow merely nodded and turned back to the window beside the table they were sitting at. He failed to notice Sonic was still staring at him with a sad smile.

The blue hedgehog had failed to mention that Blaze was coming to examine Shadow's injuries. Blaze had a medical background from training she had taken with police HQ. He knew she would be able to give an accurate analysis of Shadow's condition as well as help Sonic figure out what they should do to help the hedgehog recover.

"What do you do again?" The black hedgehog muttered loud enough for Sonic to hear.

"Wha-?" Sonic fumbled, still lost in thought.

"What is your profession?" Shadow asked again, turning back to stare at Sonic blankly.

Sonic, for some reason, was at a loss for words. Before he could recover, Tails had already beat him to the punch.

"Sonic's the best police officer in the city, he's practically a celebrity!" The fox said with pure joy.

Sonic turned back to Shadow after staring at Tails and gave him a sheepish grin.

"He's exaggerating, but yes I'm a cop." He admitted. He had no idea why this was so embarrassing to admit when even he knew it was public fodder. Sonic would never admit it, but he did know of his fame and popularity in the city. It was something he tried to ignore, but it was something he could never really tune out.

Shadow opened his mouth to speak when suddenly he was hunched over, holding his head and moaning.

"S-shadow? Are you okay? Where the hell is Blaze…"

"Sonic, you get him comfortable and I'll get him some water and painkillers." Tails shouted as he dropped the dishes in the sink and turned to one of the many kitchen cabinets.

Sonic threw an arm around Shadow and stared at the hedgehog. His eyes were shut tight and he was wincing as if in excruciating pain.

"We'll get you help, I promise." Sonic muttered, turning back to look at the clock on the wall.

/

Blaze smiled at the clock.

12:10.

She cleared her desk and grabbed her handbag. She planned to go straight to Sonic's and then maybe grab lunch.

She felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket and pulled it out to see who it was.

The number was private, but the message seemed like it came from a familiar person.

NEW MESSAGE:

UNKNOWN NUMBER

Make sure you bring your scanner.

"Why would I bring my scanner, Sonic?" She asked aloud. She didn't know for sure if it was Sonic, but she really didn't have any other leads to where the message was coming from.

Scanners were high-tech x-rays that could be carried around in a small bag or box. Blaze had one because of her medical training, but many officers and security personnel carried scanners as well. You could easily scan over a body and figure out if it had any diseases or internal trauma. It was a secret weapon used by upper level officers, but Sonic had always known about it as he had worked with officers who carried them.

If Sonic needed the scanner, the situation had to be worse than she'd thought. She trusted him though, so it was only a moment's hesitation before she picked it up from under her desk and placed it in her bag.

/

Sorry this took so long! I've been so busy with other creative projects, but I always try to make time for this one. Enjoy! Please R&R!

-GeminiMercedes-

A/N UPDATE: As some of you may know, Blaze is one of my favourite characters in the Sonic franchise (which I do not only in any way, shape or form!). I always try to incorporate her into my stories and with the new sonic games excluding her and Silver, I feel like I have to make up for it here. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Who is sending these mysterious text messages? Could it be more than one person? Keep reading!

-GEMINIMERCEDES-