Chapter 6: Celebration Gone Wrong
"Oh Star!" Sonic sniffed happily, hugging onto her once the song was over. "That was the best surprise ever!"
"And it's not over yet." Star smirked. "There's still one more part to it."
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked, a few people in the audience murmuring in question as they also heard that there was another part.
Star chuckled and playfully ruffled Sonic's quills before looking back at the crowd. "People, you all heard that this is my very first tour, and you are all aware that New York City was my last stop, correct? Well, there's a reason I requested that this city be my last stop. It's because I knew my brother lived in this city… and I have decided to permanently take residence here to be with him." She wrapped an arm around Sonic's shoulders, pulling him close to her. "After four years, it's time for the twins to reunite!"
Sonic's eyes widened, frozen on the spot as he blocked out the sound of the cheering humans and the gasps of excitement from his friends.
Was he dreaming? Was this actually happening? Was he really about to get his sister back for good?!
"Star… are you serious?" He had to be sure.
"As serious as a heart attack."
Tears of joy came to Sonic's eyes and he jumped into her, hugging her tightly, as if afraid that if he let go she would disappear. Star chuckled and hugged back just as tightly as she spoke one last time into the microphone. "Thank you everybody one last time for coming to my show tonight. I'm off to celebrate with my brother and his friends. Goodnight!"
And as the curtains lowered back down, the crowd cheered one more time before they started to disperse. Amy turned to the others. "Come on guys. Let's go meet them backstage and take them out to celebrate the big news!"
"I couldn't agree more." Mrs. Thorndyke nodded. "Let's go."
As the residence of the Thorndyke Mansion started going backstage, Shadow turned to leave, but Rouge grabbed onto him, stopping him in his tracks. "And where do you think you're going?" She asked him.
"What do you mean? I'm going home." Shadow frowned at her. "I came to the concert. I stayed for the whole thing. I survived being social. Now I'm going home."
"Oh for crying out loud, Shadow." The bat rolled her eyes and pulled him along with her as they went backstage. "Come on, we're celebrating with the others."
"Why?! It's not like we're invited, let alone wanted!"
"We could still ask."
"As if simply asking is going to change anything."
Rouge chuckled slyly as she witnessed the gang trying to figure out where to take the celebration party. "Au contraire, my friend. Watch this. Hey Star! I don't mean to intrude but Shadow and I were just wondering if we could join in on this little party."
"She's wondering," Shadow quickly corrected. "I am not. I couldn't care less if we were allowed to come or not. Not that I want to."
"Sure! I don't see why not." Star chuckled. "The more the merrier, I say."
Rouge smirked and looked back at Shadow, who grumbled beside her.
"Say nothing, bat."
…
Later on, the gang was back at the mansion, celebrating Star's wonderful performance and her decision to stay in New York with snacks and fruit punch, some of it spiked for the older participants. Sonic was giggling like a child in a candy store, overfilled with joy with how the night had gone.
He got his sister back. He couldn't be more happy.
"So Star, where do you plan on staying?" Tails asked the light blue hedgehog. "Did you get a lease on an apartment or do you have a trailer that you're staying in?"
"Actually I haven't quite figured that out yet." Star chuckled sheepishly. "I mean with my career I'm sure I can afford an apartment so I might try checking some out tomorrow. Until then, I'll just kick it in the tour bus. I'm sure Drake won't mind."
"Oh nonsense! As Sonic's sister, you are more than welcomed to stay here." Mrs. Thorndyke assured.
"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to intrude."
"You wouldn't be intruding at all." Mr. Thorndyke chuckled. "We'd be happy to have you."
"Besides, we're always so busy with our own careers we're hardly around anyway, unfortunately. So it's not like you'd be getting in the way of anything." Mrs. Thorndyke added.
"Well if you're sure, then I humbly accept."
"Hey Star," Sonic suddenly interrupted. "Just out of curiosity, did you date a human recently and that's why you came up with Batttlefield?"
"I dated ONE human. Never again." Star rolled her eyes with a shake of her head. "It just felt way too weird. Plus, everyone around us kept accusing us of beastiality. Don't look that up. You don't want to know. Let's just say that after I found out what that actually was, number one, I wanted to rip the tongues out of those people. And number two, it kinda did put a little rift in our relationship. We started fighting a lot and I myself even accused him of beastiality. That's pretty much what ended the relationship."
"Oh… I'm sorry sis."
"It's ok. It's not your fault. He just wasn't the right guy for me."
Sonic smiled and chuckled slyly. "Ok, I have a second question then, and this has nothing to do with your relationships… Are you still as fast as me?"
Star smirked at him. "Oh trust me, I haven't lost my speed, little bro. I can still keep up with you."
"Wanna bet?"
"Oh you are so on. Your call."
Sonic chuckled and looked over at the other male hedgehog in the room. "Hey Shadow. Wanna get in on this?"
Shadow frowned at him. "No thank you, I'd rather not get in the way of you two. Racing against one arrogant hedgehog is enough. Besides, we all know that I'm the fastest anyway."
"Really? Is that true?" Star looked at Sonic curiously.
"No, of course not." The blue male scoffed. "He's only saying that because he's afraid that he's gonna lose. But who cares? This is between you and me, sis."
"Alright, what's the finish line then?"
"How about to the beach and back? Surely you know where that is."
"You're on."
And in just a few seconds, the twins were standing outside the mansion, both set in a runners position as they sized each other up for the race. Amy, ever beautiful, decided to be the one to start the race.
"On your marks. Get set. GO!"
Immediately, both blue hedgehogs took off like a rocket. The gang, including Shadow, were actually surprised to witness Star leaving behind her own light streak just like Sonic. She really was just as fast as he was.
Not even five minutes later, both streaks returned to the mansion, but it was clear to anyone watching that Star's streak was lagging behind by just a few seconds.
"And the winner is Sonic!"
"Whoo! What a rush!" Star laughed when they both skidded to a stop. "I haven't ran like that in ages. You're still faster than me, bro."
"Yeah, but you can still keep up." Sonic chuckled. "And that's all that matters to me."
"By default I am faster than Star, since I am faster than Sonic." Shadow piped up.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Faker." Sonic laughed.
"I will, because it's true."
"Alright, let's not get into another argument, you two." Star rolled her eyes playfully as she accepted a drink from Rouge. "Besides, we're here to have a good time right now."
"You're right. You're right." Sonic held his hands up as he accepted his own drink. "I don't wanna fight right now. I wanna spend time with my sister and celebrate that she's staying."
"Got that right." Star chuckled as they clinked their glasses together.
"So Star, do you have any other powers?" Amy asked. "Like, can you go super and spin dash too?"
"Well I never tried going super, I don't even know what that is. Spindashing… no, I never tried that either." Star smirked. "Buuuut, I do have a new power that I grew into, and it's all thanks to my singing. I call it Song Blast."
"Oh my gosh! You gotta show us!" Sonic gasped, grabbing onto her shoulders and shaking her a bit. "If you got a new power you have to show us now."
"Ok, ok." Star laughed and pulled away. "I'll do a small blast because it's pretty powerful. At full potential it's able to destroy buildings and landscape and cause people to go deaf. Get behind me."
Everybody quickly got behind her, except for Shadow who didn't really think she was being serious about her power as he stayed to the side, sipping his own spiked fruit punch. Star turned down to the driveway, took a deep breath, placed one foot forward, and let it out in a loud single note.
Almost immediately, everyone covered their ears from the pitch of the sound as it resonated through the air. The ground started to shake and some rocks cracked apart from the frequency, and even though Shadow was standing to the side, he was still blown back a bit. He was almost impressed with the soundwaves as he could practically see them flying through the air.
"That is so cool!" Sonic shouted excitedly, accidentally jumping too close as he knocked into her.
Star stumbled a bit. She stepped her foot out to catch herself, but in doing so, she accidentally directed the Song Blast towards the black and red hedgehog. Shadow got hit with the blast, and even though the frequency had dissipated, it was still enough to knock him over onto the ground, his punch spilling directly on top of him, almost completely covering his white fur.
"Dammit!" He shouted as he looked down to his stained chest.
Star's eyes had widened in shock, her Song Blast long gone. "I am so sorry, Shadow." She said as she ran up to him and offered to help him up.
"You stupid klutz!" Shadow growled at her, knocking her hand away from him. "Do you have any idea how hard it's gonna be to get this stain out of my fur?!"
"I'm so sorry! Really, I am! Here. Let me help you clean it off." Star grabbed a few paper towels, but as she approached him to help again he backed away from her.
"Don't bother! You'll more than likely just make it worse!"
"Dude chill!" Sonic growled at him. "It was just an accident! She told you to get behind her. It's your own fault for being dumb and stubborn that you got your precious chest fur stained."
"Well if you hadn't been acting like an overexcited, unhouse-trained puppy and had knocked into her then this wouldn't have happened!"
"What did you just call me?!"
"You heard me! Or did you suddenly go deaf because of the female Faker's carelessness?"
"Oh you DID NOT just call my sister a faker!"
"Guys, come on! Don't fight!" Star begged them, but her pleas went unheard.
"She's your sister. She's your twin. She's obviously a faker just like you are! I betcha she wasn't even singing and she was just lip-syncing!"
Shadow went flying back a bit as Sonic suddenly spindashed at him, hitting directly into his chest. "How dare you?!"
"Like this!" Shadow shouted back as he quickly got back up at spindashed right back.
"Guys, don't do this! Please!"
Again, Sonic and Shadow ignored Star as they fought with each other, throwing kicks and punches, curling up and spindashing at each other. Shadow even took the liberty of throwing a few Chaos Spears at Sonic, who skillfully dodged them with his speed.
"It's best if you just let them tire themselves out, hun." Rouge sighed as she placed a comforting hand on Star's shoulder. "Once they're at it, there's no stopping them."
"Yeah, and neither one of them are very keen about quitting." Knuckles rolled his eyes. "This might take awhile."
Suddenly, Sonic landed a punch across Shadow's face that sent the hedgehog flying. He skidded across the ground a bit before coming to a stop. When he struggled to stand up again, it was shown that Sonic had punched him hard enough for his bottom lip to be punctured by his teeth, a small hole bleeding profusely down his chin.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Star's shout caused the ground to shake again, finally getting the attention of the male hedgehogs. Star looked directly at her brother with a frown. "You've made your point, Sonic. You won't stand to have someone insulting me and you will fight whoever does for me. I appreciate it, but I don't appreciate blood being drawn on my watch!" She then looked at Shadow with sympathy. "Shadow… I really am very sorry for how clumsy I was. I never wanted this to happen. I didn't want anyone getting hurt and now look at you."
"Oh trust me, I've dealt with much worse." Shadow scoffed, spitting some blood onto the ground before looking at Rouge. "Come on. We're going home."
"Shadow…"
"Don't you dare tell me that we are staying after all this! I came! I stayed! I got beat up for it! I am going home, with or without you!" And he turned and walked away.
"Yeah! Go ahead and run back to Eggman like the coward that you are!" Sonic shouted at him.
"That's enough, Sonic." Now Mrs. Thorndyke was scolding him. "You've done enough, young man."
"I was only defending my sister."
"I didn't ask you to defend me." Star frowned at him. "I appreciate it, Sonic, but I'm a big girl now. I can take care of myself. I've been doing so for four years now." She sighed and looked at Rouge. "You can go ahead and follow him home. Thank you both for coming, even if it did end in a disaster."
"You'll get used to it." Rouge chuckled before she took off in flight after the other hedgehog.
Star sighed again and looked up to Mr. and Mrs. Thorndyke. "I'm a little tired now. It's been a long day preparing for the concert, and I could use a good night's rest in a real bed after staying in a tour bus for about a month. May I know where I will be staying?"
"Of course, dear." Mrs. Thorndyke nodded before turning to Ella. "Ella, would you mind showing Star to her room? She'll be staying in the one with the balcony facing the garden."
"Of course, ma'am." Ella nodded as she sweetly smiled down at Star. "Right this way, honey."
"Goodnight, everybody." Star gently waved to everybody, quickly placing a kiss on Sonic's cheek before following Ella upstairs to her new room.
Sonic watched her silently as she left.
Did he mess things up by fighting with Shadow?
Was she really that upset about it, and why?
He'll have to talk to her later when he gets the chance. Something wasn't sitting right with him.