AN: I love the tag "No betas we die like Maria" on A03, so we're using it here. However, I did proofread until I couldn't read it anymore. Without further ado -
Ch. 1:
Holographic posters glittered and small silver and glass trinkets on the dressers and floor danced in the faint beams of the moon that filtered through the attic window. The spinning circle of glass was cracked slightly, letting the cool autumn breeze waft in across the celestial glow. The room was silent, part of his birthday gift had been Knuckles and Tails getting their own rooms; the basement and shed respectively. But he wasn't upset, in fact he reclaimed space meant he was no longer held to any one else's cleanliness standards. Green eyes glanced across collectables and nicknacks, hoping to be struck by inspiration as to what to do next, but the lunar beams were quickly silenced by passing clouds – fallout from the Ark explosion three days ago.
GUN had been eerily silent after Robotnik's world-wide live-stream, slightly too long for their damage control claiming 'the clouds were completely harmless' to really have a sincere effect on the populus. And the very apparent damage to the moon was damning in and of itself. But GUN seemed to have managed some level of control over the situation, and when the news coverage was finally brought up to speed, it was world wide mayhem.
The Robotniks were promptly demonized; rightly so in some opinions, but many had taken the Doctor's final words to heart and believed him to be the savior. Moreso though, there was no credit to the Team, formerly known as Team Sonic, for their efforts and sacrifices. And many countries seemed to notice the incongruencies between the delayed reports and what they had witnessed firsthand. There were no clarifications on how or what had powered this machine, nor the true conditions of its subsequent explosion. Moreso the purpose and origin of this secret super weapon had been kept under strict lock and key and the public was restless. And already other nations were demanding answers. It was stuff that flew over Sonic's head, but Maddie wanted to be informed and Tom would often repeat the ramblings and ravings of the townfolk at dinner; so in turn, Sonic was more or less forced to stay updated.
His eyes dropped from the ceiling window to the comic book in his hands as the natural nightlight returned. Maddie had gifted him a stack of fifteen issues of the original Spider-man on his bEarth-day, it was harder to relate to than the Flash, but in the end it was worth the read. Not because it was a special edition or even that thrilling of a story, but in the final issue, after Ben's famous line, she had penned in this small note: "We believe in you Sonic." signed with a heart and smile. It definitely-probably wasn't the reason he was on a small Spider-man kick, but it did now rival his love for the Flash comics. Tenderly he let the pages slide from his fingers, now balanced limply in his lap. Eyes drawn to the slow crimping at the edge of the pages from the sweat pouring off his gloved paws. Opening his sock drawer, he laid the final issue at the bottom with an old photograph and a few leftover tickets from their last family trip to the local carnival before covering them in a wave of white cotton.
The cotton-plush protection from the hectic nature of the Wachowski household was necessary for how often a wall or door would suddenly go missing, or explode, and as much as the family hated coming across his abandoned shoes, it was easy to assume it would be the drawer everyone would least likely rummage through. He slid the drawer closed and turned, taking one more glance at the now pure black sky above and he considered turning on the Christmas lights strung to the walls. Instead, with no free light by which to read, he let out a sigh, unworried he'd be overheard in the now almost empty bedroom. He turned to return to his beanbag under the darkened window, not yet ready to truly wind down enough to attempt to fall asleep.
His paws turned silently on the waxed wooden floor, ready to throw his arms up and fall back into his chair and just think–when he saw it. A flash of light streaking downwards, flickering weakly like a falling star on the verge of burning up in the atmosphere. He started to turn, to try and call for Tails or Tom in the living room, to witness the moment with him. But he hesitated, as if looking away would mean he may lose the trail and risk not seeing the star ever again. And the spark was so small against the now ominous void of the sky, struggling to even trace an arc across the now moonless sky. His brain reasoned it was most likely a piece of the wreckage entering the atmosphere, but the lack of a vapor trail – as Tails had excitedly recited at their last star watching excursion - meant it likely wasn't burning its mass away. And there had been plenty of GUN traffic, as they sought to quarantine and recover, and more importantly hide, any fallen tech from the Ark disaster.
But the falling metals and wires always glowed a brighter red. This time the 'star' was deep ruby or garnet, reds that flickered with black. And in a second he was out the front door with a hasty shout to his dad and younger brother as they watched TV, "I'm gonna run to the Mountain and back, more stuff is falling!" He had gone yesterday night too, after they got back from their re-do birthday.
Staying in the woods for his birthday night was uneventful but the return to normalcy was needed. But it had been harder to sleep after all the talking they'd done. All the bonding between his family brought them tighter, and made him realize how much he had gained in such a short time. A family who loved him. But even there, in the desolation of the woods, he'd found himself racing away at any sign of falling stars. And the looks that Maddie and Tom exchanged told him that surely they knew why he was running off. And the stories he told over the campfire probably made it all too clear that he wanted to see Shadow again. But they understood his fascination, it was the only other hedgehog like him any of them had seen either. Even Knuckles had made attempts to acknowledge and assaude Sonic's fears, saying that if anyone could survive, it would definitely be the 'superior hedgehog.'
Red shoes on blue legs turned into a white blur as trees and signs became a washed blur in his periphery and his eyes stayed locked on the faint pulse in the sky. It was heading to Green Hill, and he instantly regretted not dragging his family along. But if they couldn't see it, he could at least bring the falling junk home for Tails to examine, or maybe even just make it into a commemorative paperweight.
His legs carried him automatically, and the closer he and the star got the more excited he felt. Running always set his endorphins into overdrive, Tails had theorized it was a biological response to allow him to ignore the friction and lactic acid building in his muscle and bone, but regardless of the why; it still felt good to run. So he let the static blue energy seep from his quills and in a streak of lightning, as time dragged to a near halt, as he looped around the lake to resume his asteroid chase. And he made it almost a full minute before impact, waiting on an exposed ridge almost 500 yards away, enough time to see that the falling object was barely the size of an apple before the impact.
His heart sunk instantly in spite of the echoing crack it made against the cold earth. He promised himself he wouldn't get his hopes up, but the disappointment was bitter in his mouth. A small piece of himself chimed in with unwanted critique, mocking his fantasy.
In no uncertain terms, he could feel the echos his stupidity chimed back at him: "It was never going to be the missing hedgehog he'd befriended on the moon," the one he wanted more time with to bring him further into the light. The chances of miraculously seeing the descent and intercepting it , especially before GUN was alerted, had to be nigh on a zero percent chance. And even Tails had struggled to calculate and account for all the different factors of where Shadow might have ended up after the explosion, especially without even a guess as to his final location against the hull of the ship to narrow down the plausible trajectories, because Sonic had asked. Twice.
The impact site was even more disappointing, leaving a gouge in the ground so small that Knuckles could easily have done more damage on accident. But as he sifted the now smoldering dirt and ash, he pulled out a single golden bracelet – one he'd seen on Shadow's wrist in each of their encounters. It was still molten hot from reentry, and instinctively Sonic tossed and juggled the ring as he hissed and moaned at his own rash actions. It took a moment for the metal bangle to cool enough to actually hold and examine, and only a moment more before emerald eyes turned upwards as he renewed his search of the skies, looking for any movement across the pitch blackness, before the unnatural clouds released their hold on the moon's light. But it was too late, the clouds passed, and the sky was clearing. Normally he would want to soak in the gentle glow, but now he cursed the moon and its light. Instead the bracelet's warmth soaked into his palms, and it half felt like it was caused more by worry, but regardless of the source, he could feel the sweat break out on his paws.
He would never catch another faint glimmer like the one from the bracelet clutched in gloved hands. Not with the sky illuminated so fully, he desperately willed the shadows to return. But even in the bright light cast from the shattered remnants of tonight's full moon, or perhaps even in spite of it, he was able to hold onto a small shred of hope that maybe his internal monologue was wrong. To hold onto the wish that Shadow was still out there somewhere. His fingers worried at the bangle, turning and flipping the ring as though it were a fidget toy, just as a way to work out even more of the stress and uncertainty, the warmth was comforting against the cool autumn winds that tumbled through the hills and valleys that surrounded the nearby mountain range.
His legs ignored the strain as he stood waiting ten– twenty– fifty minutes to see if another bracelet, or even a shoe, would fall. He could feel the rise in his chest as a spark in the distant sky captured his vision as something reentered the earth's orbit, but the colors were wrong– too full of chemicals and conductors, reagents that warped the colors of the trails they cut across the night. Had he been there, Tails would surely say it was almost like aposematism for asteroids; you could see the wrongness in the color to know that it was simply debris, much like animals rely on colors to tell predators that they are poisonous.
So he sat and watched as the asteroid turned from a crimson red to a violent purple, and felt the absence of not having Tails nearby, to hear him get excited by knowing what the color change would mean– but Sonic knew enough of the basics: something on the falling shrapnel had caught fire and the fuel it was eating was particularly reactive. He plopped down without grace, laying flat against the ground to rest his aching neck.
He lost himself for a while, watching the clouds and moon return to their fight for control over the night. His thoughts never stayed still, and he caught himself thinking about a multitude of things. Many topics brought him back to the golden bracelet hidden in his quills. But even those would warp and twist into worries about his brothers, about his parents, about his future.
A sharp ring cut through the night, and in surprise he whipped around to check his surroundings, arms weaving to imitate a kungfu master, in hopes to deter any unwitting assailants. But the ring whipped around with him, playing a simplified remix of a top 40's hit, and his eyes rolled. He shook out his shoulders, took a few bouncy steps, and answered the communicator on his wrist: a Tail's exclusive… that could only call family, after the pizza fiasco.
"Hey, dad… you surprised me there for a second, I got lost looking at the moon I guess, and… so hey, what's up?" The sentence was an embarrassed rush, broken by forced laughter to try and force interest into the rambling, and Sonic could feel the shame bubble up inside his stomach; he knew exactly what Tom was about to say.
"Sonic," the voice was firm as it played from his wrist communicator and Sonic winced.
He broke in hurriedly, "Yeah, it is getting pretty late– I was juuuust thinking, 'I need to head home now so..." He broke off in an awkward laugh, trying again to lighten the tension.
There was breath across the line, a cross between a sigh and a chuckle, and he could feel Tom's patience with him, "Yeah, Blue, it's pushing on one AM… You've been out for over three hours-" A pause stilled the air, and another cloud threw the world into total darkness. Tom's voice was softer now, and Sonic welcomed the shadows as a barrier, "just come home, buddy, we're worried –"
"There's no need to worry!" He forced the smile into the words as his feet started towards home. "I am already halfway there, no need to wait up! I just got distracted looking at the stuff that fell today. And-" He didn't even consider lying, the golden bracelet was a metaphorical weight in the forefront of his mind, and a physical weight against the back of his head, tucked into his quills. His hand still held the fringes of warmth and was too present not to say something, but his voice dropped the enthusiasm, colored instead by a forlorn whisper, "I found something of Shadow's….so I wanted to be on the lookout.. in case…" His words and footsteps slowed as he pushed through underbrush to make a shortcut homewards.
"I understand, but … let's put a pin in the search tonight and rest. We'll ask Tails and Knuckles in the morning to-"
Sonic's attention cut away from the communicator. There was a break in the clouds, and for a moment that felt like it had stretched into eternity; he saw it: A crater secreted in between a group of trees, their trunks, charred and blackened, were leaning away from impact, creating a ring of black pillars. He approached quickly, afraid to let the reprieve from darkness pass, willing time to stop completely, as he placed a hand on the closest tree and could feel that the bark had been long extinguished. Tom's voice still carried across the communicator, but the entire world dropped into the background as his eyes traveled across the black and red form that lay unmoving at the crater's center.
For a moment, he couldn't find his voice, stripped from him by fear or perhaps frozen by his own ability to seemingly slow time, but when he did find it, it was a shriek burdened by wavers and stutters, "DAD!" his cry silencing the other voices, " I-I found I-., he's here!"