Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog.

Chapter 7

Do Something

Shadow

They decided to ask Maddie and Tom what to do. Tom and Maddie were adults, and Tom was a cop. He would have some idea for a job that they could do.

The alien quartet sat in the family room and waited for Maddie and Tom to come home. Knuckles turned on the TV to a boxing channel. Shadow impatiently watched the sun set over the next few hours.

"When did you say they would be home?" Shadow asked when it started turning dark outside.

"Well, Tom's a cop, so overtime is common," Sonic explained. "But Maddie should be here any minute."

Maddie was not home any minute, but when Shadow saw her car roll up, he waited by the door. When she came into the house, she nearly hit him with the door.

"Oh, Shadow! You shouldn't stand so close to the door. I almost hit you."

"I'm too fast to be concerned about that."

Maddie laughed.

"How was your day?" Shadow asked. He knew it was rude to ask for things as soon as people came home from work. Dr. Gerald taught him this when he lived in his lab. This was long before he lost himself to grief.

"It was very good. Thank you for asking, Shadow," she said, placing her coat in the closet and her purse on a chair. "I love taking care of my patients."

"Shadow's been dying to ask a question," Sonic said slyly.

Shadow gave him a dry look.

"What is it, Shadow?" Maddie asked happily. "I just have to get dinner started. It's my day to cook." She opened the fridge and took some ingredients out.

Shadow made the mental note to start learning how to cook. He needed to be useful for the household, especially Maddie.

"I'm ready to do something for Earth," Shadow declared. He clenched a fist in front of his chest.

Maddie looked at him with surprise. "Oh, already? Hasn't it only been like eight days since you've been here?"

"That's what we told him," Tails chimed in.

"I'm ready. I can't just sit and watch TV all day. I need to help the people of Earth. It's what Maria wanted me to do."

"Hm, I see," she said, understanding entering her voice. "Well, let me think about it, and I'll ask Tom."

Again, Shadow waited impatiently for Tom to come home. For a being who was so fast, he could do nothing to make time go faster.

The oven timer pinged, and Maddie announced, "Dinner's ready!"

The quartet took a seat at the table, although Shadow got there first because he was eager to move things along. Maddie put plates of ground beef, refried beans, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and taco shells on the table. Shadow found that he was starting to enjoy the normalcy. It almost felt like he was part of the family.

"Ah, tacos, my fav, Maddie!" Sonic announced while pointing finger guns at her. "Thank you!"

"They're not grapes or Cool Ranch Doritos, but I also love the tacos," Knuckles said.

"Thank you, Maddie," Tails said.

"Thank you," Shadow offered curtly.

"You're welcome, boys! It's so easy to make."

Shadow looked at the time. It was nearly seven o'clock. "Was Tom supposed to be here by now?"

"He was, but he has to work overtime," Maddie said. "There was some kind of incident"

Shadow's eyes lit up. "Does he need help?"

Maddie waved her hands at him in a 'no way' kind of gesture. "No, Shadow. It's nothing that would require superpowers. Try to relax."

"Life is about enjoying the little things," Sonic offered, his mouth full of tacos.

Shadow rolled his eyes. He wasn't a child. He didn't need to be pandered to.

After dinner, they were once again huddled around the TV. Maddie was trying to find something on Netflix.

"What do people who don't have TV do in their free time?" Shadow asked.

"They probably suffer," Sonic joked.

"Um, there's books, there's games. I don't know," Maddie said, waving her hand around.

When Maddie mentioned books, it made Shadow think of all the books that Professor Gerald and Maria used to read. Gerald used to have piles of science texts, manuals, and journals. Maria used to have storybooks and magazines. She read him some stories from Aesop's Fables. The Lion and the Mouse had been her favorite fable. Shadow should ask for some books. Maybe he could learn some useful things.

That was when Tom walked through the door. "Hey, you guys," he greeted without much emotion.

"Hey!" they all greeted back.

"What's for dinner?" Tom asked.

"Tacos," Maddie said.

"That sounds great." Tom grabbed a beer from the fridge. "Today was wild."

"Tell me about it, Honey," Maddie said.

"Where do I start? This story is nuts. A guy stole a bunch of stuff from an office building and tried to pawn it. He wore disguises and gave fake information to try to throw us off his trail. When we finally caught up to him, he took us on a high-speed chase."

"Wow, that is wild," Maddie said. Her eyes were wide. "That kind of stuff doesn't usually happen in Green Hills. Did you guys catch him?"

"No, he ended up crashing into a building. Some civilians were injured."

"Oh, that's horrible," Maddie said.

Shadow listened intently. He could have prevented this incident with his powers. Sonic looked over at him and knew what he was thinking.

Tom sat down with his beer and three tacos. "Can we change the channel to the game?"

"Sure," Maddie said. "Although, I think it might be over by now."

"Oh, great," Tom lamented.

"Tom, I have a question for you," Shadow said.

He gave a little sigh before munching on a taco. "What's that?"

"It's time for me to help the people of Earth. I cannot stay home all day. But I don't know where to start. What do you think I should do?"

Tom spared him a glance, looking unsure. Then he looked at Maddie. She nodded.

"And please don't tell me that it's only been eight days. I'm ready," Shadow declared.

"Well, it's difficult to know where to start with your powers, Shadow. As Sonic discovered, it's really easy to cause a whole lot of collateral damage."

"I can control myself," Shadow assured.

"Well, if something happens, it becomes Maddie and my's responsibility," Tom explained.

"We'll be with him," Sonic said.

"Hmm, I don't think it's a good idea for you to start fighting crime or something." Tom's eyes suddenly widened. "You know, I think there is something you could do. There's something you could all do."

"What's that?" Shadow asked expectantly.

"California's on fire right now," Tom said.

Shadow furrowed his brows, and he saw the others' mouths drop in surprise. The fact that there was a giant wildfire was news to Shadow, and the others too, apparently. Of course, they didn't like him to watch the news, so they probably got out of the habit of watching it as well.

"Thousands of acres are gone," Tom continued. "California doesn't have enough water or anything to put out the hundreds of miles of flames. Maybe you guys could use your powers somehow to contain the flames or something." He paused to think. "Actually, I'm not really sure how that would work though."

"No, that's a good idea, Tom," Maddie said. "We just need to think about how you boys could use your powers to help."

"How did this start?" Shadow asked.

Tom explained, "The winds in California are really bad, and much of the state is dry because of its endless acres of underbrush. When a fire starts, it spreads lightning fast."

"It's really horrible," Maddie lamented.

Shadow felt distraught. He'd just saved the world, and now most of a state was on fire. "We need to help them," he said, slamming his fist on top of his other hand.

"The flames of the entire world are no match for my strength," Knuckles boasted, bringing his fists together.

"We need to help, but we need a plan first," Tails said. "We can't just show up. We'll have no idea what to do."

Shadow calculated. With their speed, it would be possible to make numerous trips to the ocean or lakes and throw the water on the flames. But with what? A couple of buckets? That wasn't optimal. He wasn't sure what Knuckles or Tails could do.

"Hm, I could use my plane to throw flame retardant on areas that are in the path of the fire," Tails said, thinking out loud.

Shadow noted that Tails had an airplane. "Yes, but how often would you need to restock, and where would you go to restock?"

"That's true," Tails admitted.

"I know! I can dig a trench around the fires to keep it from spreading," Knuckles exclaimed.

Everyone perked up. "That's a great idea, Knuckles!" Sonic said. "You're an excellent digger. You could easily make miles of trenches around those fires."

Shadow was also impressed with Knuckles's problem solving skills. Why hadn't he thought of that? He hadn't really seen Knuckles's digging prowess.

"You know, hold on a second," Tom said. "I'm starting to rethink this. I know you guys just went up against a death ray, but that doesn't mean fire will be less formidable. You're going to be subjected to some serious heat, not to mention smoke inhalation. And what if you get trapped?"

"Hm, you may have a point, Tom," Maddie said.

"Maddie, you know how powerful we are," Sonic disagreed. "And Shadow and I were just fine in outer space, so the smoke thing isn't really a concern for us."

"I know, Sonic, but I would be concerned about you guys getting trapped," Maddie said. "Then what do you do? There's no way out."

Tom dragged a hand down his face. "You know what, I'm so sorry I even brought this up. I shouldn't try to answer any questions after a long day of work."

To Shadow's surprise, Knuckles stepped forward. He gave Tom a serious look.

"Tom, we are warriors, and we're a lot more durable than you realize. I've confronted an erupting volcano by myself before. I can punch through entire buildings and force fields. Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and myself easily survived reentry into Earth's atmosphere—we'll be fine dealing with the heat. Right now, we're the only hope that the land of California has."

Tom returned the look and considered what he said.

I had a difficult time trying to come up with something for Shadow and the others to do. I can't write about them taking down gang members or drug cartels. That wouldn't make any sense for a kid's story. Then I thought, wouldn't it be cool if we could see them help out with the California fires? And I'm so sorry for everyone who's going through them.

According to my graph, around two hundred people enjoy this story, which is fantastic. I hope this fanfiction brings you joy.

The next chapter will see some important characters.