Anonymous Review Replies!
EnerjakWho cheer: Ahahah, woah, been hitting the Christmas candy, I take it? XD Glad you liked the chappie as a present :D Also O.o, I have to admit that among the few High School AUs I have read there wasn't one that featured sonadow. (Well, one. But that had Sonic as some sort of undercover secret agent at an all girls school and Shadow was the principal and that featured *definitely* more crack than AU!). As for the SatAM/Archie characters, though, I can calm your nerves, that definitely wasn't Sally who was hanging around with that little group of racists - technically, Alicia is the name of her mom, yes, but it's also the name of her 'evil' counterpart from Anti-Moebius (that world where Scourge comes from). I can't see the real Sally *ever* condoning that kind of ideology, that's for sure! She might show up yet, though! ;) More Sonic definitely to come (hey, it's only his second day at school!) Meanwhile, we'll get back to the nice characters :3 Glad you liked, thanks for the (very enthusiastic) review! :D
briana: Hah, yeah, High School. College is much better :) But at least Shadow is getting the authentic teenage experience here...right?^^° (I have a feeling he doesn't appreciate it) Fiona trying to flirt with Sonic...hahah, yeah, she should probably be thankful he shut her down fast or else Amy would have gone ballistic! XD Glad you enjoyed it, hope you like this new chapter too!
XxShadowxX: Thanks! :D Hah, I'd like to think that Gerald and Maria managed to install enough decency in Shadow that he'd shut them right down, yes :p Shadow finding out about his murderous 'cousin' - weeeell, he's working on it. Not too long now, I promise :p
Katz4: Eyyup, this school is competing with Prof. Xavier's school for the gifted for the mortality rate of its students XD Fiona mentioning how Sonic wasn't able to help much nowadays...ahh, you picked on something interesting there. It seems like our hero might be running into some trouble with his abilities. Not like that will stop him from still trying to help out of course...especially 'helpless' newbies ;p And aw, glad you like my version of Sonic! I try to emulate the one from JudasFm's stories :) As for the characters I borrow from other universes, naw, I don't think there's anything you need to know that won't be given in the story anyway - anyone who would have known their names would probably have gone 'noooo, Shadow, don't sit at their table, those guys are dicks!' - buuut, they managed to demonstrate that in their introduction anyway, I think :p I try to make all my fics accessible for everyone :)
DEV: Hah, nicht ganz, der Junge ist zwar nicht Robotnik, aber...nah dran :p Wenn Shadow rausfindet, wen er die ganze Zeit da runterbürstet, weeeelll...also, ich werd Spaß haben, die Szene zu schreiben. XD Fiona und Konsorten - yeah, die hinterlassen wirklich einen schlechten Nachgeschmack :/ Wenigstens hat Shadow ihnen schnell klar gemacht, was er davon hält. An so einem Universum rumzubasteln mit verschiedenen Spezies macht tatsächlich viel Spaß - lustigerweise hab ich zwar schon öfters Sonic Fanfic Universen gesehen, wo Sonic und .co entweder laut Gesetz 'Bürger zweiter Klasse' (also so wie Schwarze vor den 1960ern in den USA) sind, ODER das Gegenteil, also Speziezismus gar kein Thema, und Menschen und Anthros leben ohne irgendwelche Probleme zusammen. Ich wollte es mal mit einem Mittelweg probieren - auf dem Papier schon gleiche Rechte, aber im wirklichen Leben trotzdem Spannungen, also so wie bei uns momentan. Und das Rumüberlegen, wie alles wohl funktionieren würde, wenn man n halben Meter kleiner und entweder mit Fell oder Federn überzogen wäre, macht natürlich auch Spaß :D Hoffe, das neue Kapitel gefällt, wie immer vielen Dank für den Kommentar!
Who: As long as there's reviews, no worries, I will :D Thanks for commenting!
Chapter 5: Shopping for Trouble
"Oh hey, Shadow. Where were you during lunch? I didn't see you, I would have liked to properly introduce you to the rest!"
Shadow turned around at the by now familiar, cheerful voice of his class room neighbour. Amy had caught up to him in the corridor after he had left the canteen a while ago and mostly spent the time staring through a window, wondering whether he shouldn't quit this whole thing and go home early. Now the pink hedgehog was expecting an answer, though, so he considered briefly what would likely be the most innocuous one he could give her.
"...outside. I felt like taking a walk. "
The lie slid out easily. In truth, he just really didn't want to talk about his experience with the other group, even if the memory still set his teeth on edge. But, somehow, admitting to Amy that he had eschewed her and her friends' company just to sit with people who turned out to be a much worse alternative, he felt...actually slightly embarrassed. Especially since by now he couldn't help but wonder if...
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure! What's up?" Amy's expression was still one of innocent cheer. If she had caught on that something was troubling Shadow, it didn't show.
"What do you think of humans?"
"Eh?" She blinked, clearly taken aback as she was trying to figure out where that question had come from. "Um. Not...much? I, er, mean I guess I'm not a fan of some of them walking around here, but the ones in the orphanage were really decent and you can hardly blame their entire species for a few bad apples, can you?" she gave a lop-sided smile. "I mean, in the end they're just people like everyone, I think. Why?" she asked, jade eyes curious, before immediately sucking in a sharp breath and catching his arm, concerned. "Wait, Shadow, did someone say something about your family?!"
"Wha-? No! No," Shadow tried to let his voice calm the obviously worried girl, shaking his head. "It's all fine. I was just wondering."
"Oh...right. Okay, then," Amy nodded, stepping back and releasing his arm, giving him a slight smile again. "Sorry, guess I overreacted. Like Mighty said, this school can be a little rough." She gave an embarrassed little laugh. "But, listen, I have to go to class now, but if anybody ever should say something, just tell me who, and I'll clobber them for you, okay?" She gave him a small wink and a wave and then was already away, jogging to wherever her next course was and leaving Shadow standing in the corridor with a slight feeling of sudden incompetence.
Then he sighed, also turning to walk toward his next class, and privately wondered whether it was a tendency of all hedgehogs at this school to try and involve themselves in others' lives, or whether that was just the pink and blue ones.
xxx
The bell had already rung for the next period to begin, but Shadow still hadn't found his class room. Today was his first officially designated 'Advanced Placement ' Theoretical Physics class, and since nobody else in his home room group took them, he had been stuck searching for the blasted class room on his own. A search that had already lasted over ten minutes and had taken him past the same corridor over three times.
"Seriously, how hard can it be to find the damn computer room?!"
Growling in frustration and feeling like the universe was laughing at him – who had designed the layout of this school, this was worse than the engine rooms aboard the ARK - the black hedgehog turned another corner and wanted to stride down the new corridor, but then stopped himself abruptly when his eyes finally fell on the door he had been looking for. He opened it.
Then he stepped back again, closed it, looked at the sign next to the door, looked at his schedule sheet again, and frowned. This should be the right room, but...
Shadow opened the door again and poked his head inside.
"Excuse me. I'm looking for the Advanced Placement class for Theoretical Physics. Do you know where that is?"
"Oh, you're exactly where you should be! It's right here, only Professor Pickle is always late! Come on in!" the sapient inside informed him cheerfully.
Shadow scanned the room again.
No, there was definitely just a single guy in here and nobody else.
A single guy, who was...
"You're, like, eight," Shadow pointed out.
"I'm almost nine!" The little golden fox immediately shot back, for a moment puffed up in indignancy like an insulted chicken, but the next second he was already blushing a little and then rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile.
"Uh, I mean. Yeah, I'm only eight, but I'm already really good at maths and physics 'n stuff." He stuck out a small gloved hand. "I'm Miles, but everybody calls me Tails. It'll be nice to have a class mate!"
"Tails," Shadow repeated, shaking the hand more out of ingrained training that Maria had done with him, but at the same time he couldn't help but stare at what had undoubtedly been the two namesakes for that designation.
A mutant?
"Yeah, there's two of them. I had to get my nick name from somewhere, right?" the fox gave another small smile. "But no worries, I like it much better anyway. It makes life easier than walking around with a human name." He cocked his head. "Well. I mean, Amy has one, too, but boy, you do NOT want to make fun of her for that..."
"Right," Shadow managed with a frown. He still couldn't quite get over the fact that the population of this school somehow managed to get weirder with every single class. Now Tails was staring at him with an expression of concentration.
"Say...are you maybe in Sonic's class?"
"...yes." Unfortunately. "Why?"
"Oooh, so then that's you!" Tails exclaimed. "Only Sonic said that they had gotten a new student and he had a giant stick wedged up his - uh, I mean, I mean, not a stick, obviously, uh-! " Tails had cut himself off mid-sentence and was now stammering, the kit apparently suffering not only from two tails but also from a serious case of foot-in-mouth-disease, and Shadow sighed.
"Never. Mind."
Tails frowned, again apparently trying to recall something from memory.
"Sorry. Antoine said your name was...Château?" He looked at Shadow curiously. "Are you French?"
"It's Shadow," Shadow grated. "Shadow Robotnik."
And then, when Tails (predictably) also stared at him in dumbstruck amazement, Shadow couldn't have been more glad when finally the door opened, and a decidedly human teacher walked in, and the only weird thing about that guy was that he smelled faintly of cucumbers. Shadow thought he could live with that.
xxx
"Maria?"
The girl turned. The two unlike siblings had been sitting quietly for the last half an hour, working on some homework in the living room of their home, neither of them saying anything much. Shadow had been somewhat subdued and taciturn ever since he had gotten home from his second day at school, but since Maria hadn't managed to get much out of him when she asked, she had decided not to push. Usually, with her brother she mostly just had to wait until he was done mulling something over (or, in some cases, just stopped sulking).
"Yes?"
"How is it with sapients and humans at uni?"
That was kind of an odd question. Maria frowned. "It's okay, as far as I can tell. It's like, maybe 40% sapients, if I had to put a number on it. Why?"
"Do they get along with the humans?" Shadow asked, ignoring her question. He also wasn't meeting her eyes.
"I think so, mostly," Maria replied, before finally leaning in, now concerned for her brother. "Why are you asking me this, Shadow? Did something happen?"
The black hedgehog's lips became a thin line. "No, nothing. It's just...some of the sapients at school don't seem to like humans much."
Maria let out an exhale. "I see. Doesn't seem to be too different on either side, to be honest." She sounded slightly sad.
Now Shadow finally looked up. "What? Have you met them, too? Did someone say things to you?"
"Shadow. No personal vendettas while we're trying to be a normal family," Maria reminded him sharply, but then sighed. "No. Nobody said anything to me. Like I said, in my case it wasn't sapients but humans who made comments." She looked down on her notes, her voice quiet. "Two of my professors are a lynx and a monkey. Some students said some ugly things about them. Not many. But some."
"Some sapients also blame our family."
There were a few moments of quiet in the room. Maria's hands had tightened fractionally on the paper she was holding, but it didn't look like she knew how to reply to Shadow's statement. It didn't take too long for Shadow looking at his sister's pained stare before he exploded anyway, leaping to his feet in one angry instant.
"I've had it up to here, Maria! Him ruining our name! And he's still at it, apparently!"
"Shadow..."
"No! I'm not putting up with it! We didn't go through all the crap that we did just to deal with more when we finally made it to Earth!"
"Grandfather said he'd write him a letter..."
"Well, then the good Doctor better reply that he's gonna step down from the evil genius front immediately, or else I'll see to it that he does," Shadow growled. He also made a mental note to look up who that sapient hero was supposed to be who had stopped Maria's cousin in the past and maybe think about contacting him, wherever he was. Seeing the unhappy face of his sister, that train of thought took a slight back seat, though, as Shadow immediately wished he hadn't brought up the topic at all if it made Maria look like that. The Ultimate Lifeform sighed.
"Hey. I'm not saying I'm going to run off in search of an epic battle tomorrow. I'm willing to wait to see if there is a way to reason with the guy, okay?" He reached out to cover his sister's hand with one of his own.
At that, Maria finally let see a little smile again. "...okay. Glad to hear it. And if you decide to go confront him," she then said, and Shadow was for a moment nothing but glad to finally see that familiar spark in her eyes gleam up just for a moment, "then you better tell me first, buster, because if that goes south, someone will have to save your spiky bum."
"I'd like to cordially inform you that none of my spiky body parts have ever been in need of saving, thank you very much."
"Right, right, of course," Maria replied, a small, indulgent smile lighting up her eyes as she grinned at her brother. "Then how about you save me, namely from having to go shopping alone. Grandfather said we needed to stop living off takeaway, so we need to stock the pantry. You up for it?"
The question, of course, was superfluous – Shadow would have been up for jumping into a pit of rabid possums if it was only Maria asking the question – but the Ultimate Lifeform still managed to give a groan of at least token resistance (as is, of course, the duty of all siblings asked to share household chores). He stood up from the table and followed her to the door. In truth, he was more than happy that Maria was so energetic and full of life after she had been healed from her neuro-immune disease – even if it was at times just a little exhausting.
"Where are we going shopping?" he asked, as they stepped outside the house.
"Just around the block. I googled the nearest supermarket, it's a human one, but it should have all we need."
"A human supermarket? How do you know? Do they advertise that at the door?"
"Nah, I looked up a list of sapient and human chain stores in Station Square while I was at it and this one was under the human section. But we really have to go to one of the sapient ones soon, Shadow, we can learn so much about your culture!"
"Maria, my 'culture' consisted of a bunch of cells in a petri dish."
"Hush. Oh, here we go..."
In front of them, the two large, glass sliding doors opened, and the youngest members of the Robotnik family stared for a moment in wonder at the sight of endless rows of products lined up on shelves reaching consumer heaven. Staring them in the face were more colours than in a LSD fantasy, and (Shadow suspected) about as much addictive chemicals probably contained in the food.
"Wow," Maria breathed. "I didn't expect them to be...this large..."
"Hey, move it, country bumpkins, you're blocking the door!"
"Oh, sorry!" Maria yelped, abruptly stepping aside to make way for a harried-looking rat father with what seemed like a litter of at least six kids in tow. Shadow's eyes still narrowed.
"What did you just call-?"
"Shadow. No killing in your first week. Help me get a shopping cart."
xxx
It was a short while later (with no accidental murders anywhere) that Maria was happily pushing a trolley through the breakfast aisle with one hand, glancing at a neatly written list held in her other.
"Oh, Shadow, this is exciting. We're shopping like a normal family!"
"No. This market is stupid. Half of the food is too high up."
"Huh? Oh," Maria managed, glancing down at her somewhat frustrated-looking brother. Shadow was scowling up at a glass of potted cherries on the top shelf as if the fruit had done him a personal affront.
"Right, yeah, that is inconvenient – but hey, look," she pointed at the same rat father that had pushed them out of the entrance, "he's got one of the smaller shopping carts for sapients, and they seem to have little ladders -"
"I am not going to use a 'little ladder'!"
"Well, then you'll just have to get the food from the lower shelves," Maria continued, unperturbed. "Which, er, brings me to my next question. I actually just simply put down 'cereal', but I had no idea there would be so many kinds..."
In truth, the two friends were staring at the giant supermarket, now slightly overwhelmed. It wasn't quite as easy to decide on which food to buy if you weren't really used to even having two alternatives – not to mention a whole aisle just comprised of breakfast cereals, half of which had worryingly grinning cartoon characters on the boxes.
Shadow's eyes narrowed. "Well, we're not getting that one. I distrust this tiger."
"Let's...let's just start with produce, okay?" Maria asked. "I think I'm at least sure we'd recognize an apple when we see one..."
xxx
In the supermarket, it was easy to lose track of time, Shadow noted. He wasn't wearing a watch, but by the time they approached the cashiers, the sun outside was already going down. They had ended up buying a lot, though – the large bag Maria had brought, which was nearly as tall and wide as Shadow himself, was already filled close to bursting as she piled the last items on.
"Uh," the teenage boy behind the register managed as Maria was clumsily pulling a few bills out of her purse, trying to find the notes she needed to pay the correct amount, "are you...are you sure you'll be able to carry all that?"
"Oh yes, thank you, we'll be fine."
"Only because it looks like that must weigh at least a 100 pou-"
Next, of course, the boy's eyes boggled when Shadow simply lifted the giant bag over his head, apparently not struggling much more as if it had been a ball of cotton. Maria smiled.
"Have a nice day!"
xxx
"Are you sure you want to carry it all alone? I could take something, too."
"Maria, I could lift a middle-sized bus. I think I can manage the groceries," Shadow said, but he accompanied it with a slight smile to indicate that his mood was slowly picking up now that they were out of the busy store. It had occurred to the hedgehog often enough that his sister had the patience of a saint on valium when it came to dealing with her grumpy brother, but that didn't mean she didn't deserve him treating her better than that.
"Well, good to know in case I ever want to buy a public transportation vehicle," the blonde girl smiled back at him, blue eyes shining lightly in the last rays of the setting sun. "Still, the next shopping trip should be easier I think, now that we have all the basic-"
"Shh. Be quiet for a minute."
It spoke for Maria that she fell silent the moment Shadow had uttered the words, only staring at him with questioning eyes. The black hedgehog had frozen, still holding the bag aloft, but his ears were swiveling around, turning as far back as they could.
"Shadow," Maria whispered, "what-?"
"Stay here. Don't move." Shadow placed the shopping bag down beside him near soundlessly, then glanced briefly around. They were back in their residential neighbourhood, the street deserted of both cars and pedestrians. Fading orange light already let the houses, trees and fences cast long shadows, the first window lighting up inside, even if the street lanterns were still dark.
"If you see anything strange, go to one of the houses. I'll be right back."
"Shadow, wait-!" Maria called, but by then, Shadow had already taken off, skates blazing beneath his feet as he shot down the street and into the small alley where he had heard the strange sound coming from.
"Okay, whoever you are, come out now-"
Shadow stopped himself when he saw the alley was completely deserted. Instinctively, his head also shot up to scan the sky above, but there was nothing to be seen. Something like a growl came from his throat.
"Shadow?" Predictably, there were also already the steps of his sister catching up.
"Maria," Shadow turned around, striding quickly out of the alley. "I thought I told you to stay."
"Yes, but you didn't say anything why," Maria protested. "I thought you might need help – well, that, or a witness," she added with a slightly more concerned tone. "Please don't just run off like that."
"I thought I had heard something. Some sort of motor. A noise that was following us."
"But the street was completely deserted."
"That is why I was concerned, yes," Shadow cast a last, suspicious glance back into the alley. "I think I also registered some sort of Chaos energy, but it was...shielded, somehow."
"Someone or something employing a cloaking device?" Maria frowned.
"Possibly," Shadow said, at the same time walking back to their abandoned shopping bag. "But you know more about that technology than me. Could you possibly build something that could disable a mechanism like that?"
"Erm. I'd have to ask grandfather, I mean, I know about the theoretical concepts, but the practical engineering...was never my forte. That would take some time." Maria chewed her lip thoughtfully. "And I mean, I did want to join the university's chess society, too..."
Shadow only avoided a sweat-drop with difficulty. "Yeah. But don't you think that whatever was just stalking us is a little more important than that?"
"Shadow. Are you even sure it was actually somebody stalking us?"
"...no," Shadow admitted, picking up the groceries again, eyes narrowing. "But if they are, I want them to be in for one hell of a surprise..."
To be continued...
There you go, hope you liked! Anyone who's missing Sonic already (no worries, he'll be back next chapter:p), I can recommend having a look at my newest Sonic-and-Tails-centric 'venture, Where the Wild Things Are, which is now up! As always, hope you enjoyed, and if you read, please review :D