Our furry friends arrived in New York around sunrise. They were exhausted and booked into a Marriot. Tails still had a lot of reward points from his extensive travels as an airplane mechanic. They put away their belongings and decided to hit the town.

Now, Sonic and Tails had normally been treated as heroes in this town. Ever since Sonic saved the world and all. But it seemed as if the good people of New York had since started taking this fact for granted. And the novelty of them being talking animals had worn off long ago. So the two no longer attracted crowds of people everywhere they went.

As the two passed a newspaper stand on the street, Sonic saw something that pissed him off. There, on the cover of Time magazine, was a close-up of Shadow. Only the top half of his face appeared running across the width of the cover. The tittle floating above his head read, "The World's Ultimate Lifeform?"

Once again, Sonic found himself in a stare-down with the black hedgehog. He had a certain aura to him that he just couldn't imitate no matter how hard he tried. It was infuriating. He wanted to take the whole stack of magazines and rip them into a million tiny pieces.

Instead, he picked one of them up and flipped through the pages to see what all the hype was about. Unfortunately, Sonic's super speed did not apply to reading. So he stood there, not intending to buy the publication, but instead perusing it.

He learned that this hedgehog, Shadow, was, apparently, the world's first genetically engineered creature. That is, he was built in a lab from scratch by scientists. Supposedly.

Sonic didn't believe it for a second. Life couldn't be made from scratch, no matter how far science and technology have come. Besides, Shadow was a spitting image of himself. Surely he was just another mutated hedgehog. Right?

Sonic started daydreaming about his own origins again. How he wished he could have just lived a normal life as a normal, non-mutant hedgehog. But those weren't the cards he was dealt. He didn't even really know what a day in the life of a normal hedgehog looked like, but surely it was a lot less eventful and a lot less stressful than his own.

"Hey, you gonna buy that?" the vendor asked him, "Well?"

"Uh…" said Sonic, stirring from his daydream.

"Nice blue Shadow suit! Very realistic," said the vendor, "But aren't you a little far from Times Square?"

"I'm Sonic," said Sonic, visibly offended by being referred to as "Blue Shadow."

"Sonic?" said the vendor, flabbergasted, "…Oh yeah, I remember Sonic. He saved the world once. Old news. Now, this new Shadow guy is actually relevant! Well, anyway, nice Sonic costume. Now, are you going to buy that or not, pal?"

"I'm not wearing a costume," said Sonic, gritting his teeth, "I'm the real Sonic."

"Oh, sure you are!" said the vendor, not believing him.

"You can have the magazine back," said Sonic, putting it back where he had found it.

"Hmm," said the vendor, "I ought to report you for loitering! Not that the police in this town would give a shit… now, scram! I don't want to see you round here no more!"

So Sonic left.

Tails, meanwhile had left for Broadway to buy tickets to the showing of West Side Story. It was opening night and they would surely sell out.

Sonic had already tried explaining to Tails that buying tickets would be unnecessary since he could his super speed to sneak the two into the theatre. But Tails wasn't having it. "It's not what's right," he said. Besides, he had to find something to spend his earnings as a world-renowned airplane mechanic on. Being a patron of the arts was a commendable act. Maybe if he supported the theatre enough financially his name would end up in their program or on a plaque or something.

Sonic, on the other hand, didn't give a shit about any of that.

"If nothing else," Tails had finally implored him, "Buying tickets at least guarantees us seats. You don't want to be standing, do you?"

"Whatever, Tails," Sonic finally said, throwing in the towel.

The two spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying some sightseeing in the Big Apple. They went to the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Then they ate overpriced hot dogs (with the works) for lunch in Central Park. Tails ate two and Sonic ate seven because of his super-fast metabolism and higher-than-average caloric intake. Overall, it was an enjoyable, leisurely day for the two. And they even managed not to get in any arguments with each other!

As the sun began to set, they made their way over to Broadway and got in line to enter the theater. There was a huge crowd gathered for the show, and every news channel in town was parked outside waiting for Shadow's reveal to the general public. But nobody seemed to care or even notice poor Sonic and Tails. So they just stood there in line, two anonymous beings waiting to finally see Shadow. Like everybody else.