A/N: Hey, crew! Hope you're all having a great day. And I've got a special treat for you as a belated Christmas present besides this little update.

I made a YouTube playlist of all the main songs in Bound by Music, including the male covers of "Into the Unknown" and "All is Found" that I thought best fit Shadow.

Just select the link below and select "open link." If it doesn't work, the playlist is public, so you can probably search it up. Just let me know, but happy listening! /playlist?list=PLU0FN1KMZobh1HzfctedHVFfMwysD005K

...

"I don't remember Robotropolis ever being this quiet," Sonic muttered, his ears swiveling back and forth in a vain effort to catch any sound of life beyond the constant drum of machinery.

"Well, it is the middle of the day, so a lot of people are probably at the factories making Swatbot parts," Cyrus explained, "Everybody else is either a thief, an aristocrat, or in hiding."

"I thought you said there was a resistance," Amy added.

The lion scratched his maw, "Like I said, or in hiding. The resistance doesn't have as much support as it used to."

"Well, some support is better than known," Sonic stated simply as he relaxed his hands beside his head, "And once word gets around that the Sonic Underground is back in business, people will get a little braver. I'm sure of it."

"Sonic Underground? Seriously?" Shadow scoffed, "Just when I thought you couldn't get anymore conceited."

"It's a good name," Sonic argued, "What? Did you want to call it the Shadow Underground or something?"

Shadow ignored the obvious jab. "I don't want my name attached to anything," he grumbled, signaling that his younger brother better drop it. Ruby eyes unconsciously flickered to the little red wolf holding his hand. "And right now, we have more important things to worry about than a name. How much more to go, Manic?"

The green hedgehog grinned. "About two more blocks, and we'll be there."

"It's been a good long while since I've seen the old base," Uncle Chuck mused fondly, "Always a bustlin' with activity. I can't wait to get back into the swing of things."

Sonia laughed nervously, "Uh, about that. It might not be quite as busy as you remember it."

"Bah," he huffed and brushed her off, "If it's not, then it will be by the time we get things cookin'."

Now I see where Sonic gets his boundless optimism, Shadow thought privately. However, his attention was diverted from the conversation when the familiar click of gun being cocked reached his ear.

"Everyone, get down!" he ordered, shielding Gadget under himself seconds before the first shot rang out. Air from the bullet's trajectory breezed past his quills as he narrowly dodged the shot.

"I thought we took care of the last of those monsters two years ago!" an unfamiliar voice shouted angrily.

Shadow winced as a second bullet whizzed past his head. Without hesitating, he grabbed Gadget and teleported to a space out of the fray, depositing him by an empty alley out of shooter's range.

"Now where'd it go?!" a second voice snapped.

"Stay here. I'll be back once I deal with this."

The pup nodded, his cloudy eyes not quite able to fully focus on Shadow's. Gadget sniffed.

"You will come back. Right?"

Shadow, who had been turning to leave, paused.

"I promise. Just stay here, okay?"

"Okay," Gadget agreed and pressed himself against the wall.

Satisfied, Shadow skated back to the empty street where his friends and family were positioned behind anything they could find. The onyx agent didn't bother to hide but instead charged his hands with chaos spears. He was fast enough to deflect any bullets that would come his way if it was necessary.

"The shooting stopped as soon as you left," Sonic explained, "Hate to break it to ya, but I think they were aiming for ya."

"It's nothing new," Shadow sighed, "and I think I know why they were aiming for me."

Being mistaken for Sonic was annoying in its own right, but being mistaken for a Black Arm was enough to justify a Chaos Blast. If he didn't watch his temper, Shadow suspected that he might end up doing just that.

"There it is! Get it!" one of the two voices interrupted, and the shooting resumed.

"Hey! We're friendlies!" Knuckles yelled back, daring to poke his head over the crate he was stationed behind. He quickly ducked back down though as a bullet whizzed over him.

Shadow effortlessly dodged and deflected the bullets clearly aimed at him before his eyes caught the silhouettes his attackers on a rooftop not far away.

"Chaos Control!"

In the same second Shadow reappeared in front of his two attackers—a mangy looking cat and a dog missing half of his ear. The two mobians gasped and lifted their guns, but they weren't fast enough. With a flick of his wrist, Shadow Chaos Speared the weapons out of their grip. The two yelled as he grabbed them and teleported back down into the street.

Weaponless and scared, the two mobians didn't know what to do when Shadow shoved them to the ground so that they were staring up at him helplessly. And it didn't take long for them to realize that they had royally messed up, because the person standing before them wasn't a killer alien but one very angry hedgehog.

Shadow towered over them and snarled, "I'm going to give you ten seconds to give me a good excuse as to why you were shooting at me!"

The dog whined, and the cat closed his eyes. Yep, they had definitely messed up.

We are so dead, the cat thought and gulped, "You might not believe us."

"Try me."

"Well, um," the dog stuttered, "I mean, a couple of years ago, there was this like, huge alien invasion and um.."

Shadow crossed his arms. "You thought I was one of the aliens. Didn't you?"

They were half right, Sonic thought, and his older brother pointedly ignored him.

The two nodded simultaneously, and the hedgehog sighed.

"It's the red on black, isn't it?" he asked, and the two mobians perked their heads up in surprise. "It's not the first time people have thought that I was with them. But what I am angry about," he continued as the rest of his troupe emerged from their cover, and he crossed his arms, "is that with your lousy aim you could have shot someone else. Did you even stop to think about why I was traveling with other people? You two should be ashamed of yourselves."

The cat hesitantly lifted his finger. "Um, actually, sir. There were three of us, and I think you should know that—"

"SHADOW!"

Shadow spun around to see a large bulldog holding Gadget in one arm and a loaded pistol in the other. The mutt grinned, and even from where he was standing, Shadow could see gaps in the mobian's teeth.

Sonic. Manic, Shadow thought, Watch these two. Sonia, as soon as he's clear, grab Gadget.

On it.

"Here's the little runt it was tryin' to make off with," the bulldog chuckled and tightened his grip on the squirming pup. "You just take it nice an' easy, an' things won't have ta get messy."

The gun was pressed beside Gadget's head, and Shadow narrowed his eyes. There was an ominous click. And it was as if lightning learned to strike horizontal.

One moment, everyone was at a standstill, and the next, the bulldog grunted as the pistol fell from his hand as something black and red body-slammed him. The mutt was strong, but he was no match for the Ultimate Lifeform.

Shadow slammed him into the nearest wall and pinned him there with his feet dangling above the ground. Red energy flickered around his form like tongues of fire. He could see the fear in the bulldog's eyes. He could smell it.

But one glance into the mobian's mind showed that the bulldog was a selfish, greedy creature. He had been willing to sacrifice Gadget if it meant getting the pelt of an apparently pricey alien, and that caused a growl to rise up in Shadow's throat.

"Shadow?" Rouge asked carefully.

Her voice snapped him out of his rather dark trance, and he roughly dropped the bulldog. But he was far from letting him off that easily.

"I should tear you apart," he growled, "not just for attacking me, but for purposefully endangering the life of a helpless child!"

"We thought—I mean—I—"

"Get out of here. Now," Shadow snarled.

The bulldog didn't hesitate to obey, and he didn't bother to pick up his gun as he ran as far away from the angry hedgehog as possible.

Shadow waited until the dog was out of sight before he finally turned around to face the group. As soon as he did, Gadget broke out of Sonia's loose grip and ran to him, tripping over his own feet and colliding with the pavement several times before he finally reached his goal.

"Shadow," the pup whimpered and clutched the hedgehog in a fierce hug, "He was gonna—He was gonna—"

"I know," Shadow murmured, "but he didn't. I wouldn't let that happen, and I'll do everything in my power to make sure it never gets that close again. That's a promise."

"And trust me, honey," Rouge said with a smile as she stood beside them, "Shadow always keeps his promises. Come on, you two," she added, raising her voice slightly, "Let's go find that Resistance base."

"Resistance?" the cat scoffed, "There hasn't been a Resistance in over five days. Not since the last two Royals disappeared on another one of their 'magic quests' or something like that."

"Yeah, we'll we're back," Sonia snapped sharply.

Manic met the gaze of his two lost brothers. "And we've got what we were looking for."

The cat frowned and scrutinized the the two hedgehogs before his eyes landed on the silver medallions, not only around their necks, but around the necks of the blue and black hedgehogs. The four siblings stood side by side, and the dog gasped.

"The Council of Four," the dog breathed, and his partner's eyes widened. The cat did a double take.

"I don't believe it."

"We're here to stop Robotnik," Sonic declared seriously, "Once and for all. You in?"

The dog nodded immediately. "I'm in. Come on, Milo," he urged.

The tabby pinned his ears. "I dunno, Otis. Didn't they try this once before?"

"There were only three of them then, remember?" the dog whispered and nodded his head toward Shadow, "See him? He's got one of those special amulet things the Royals have."

"We can use all the help we can get," Sonic pressed.

"Even if you did try to shoot me," Shadow added. Milo shrunk back.

I do kinda owe the guy for that…

"Fine! I'll help. But if I get roboticized, I'm blaming you," he said and poked Otis in the chest.

"Fine with me, bro. So, where's this base you guys've been talking about?"

"Follow me," Manic spoke up with a wave.

"And if you know of anyone else that might start randomly shooting at us, now would be a great time to let us know."

…..

A/N: Thank you so much for being patient with me. Hope you enjoyed this update! Let me know what you think of it in the comments.

Sayonara!