Shadow the Hedgehog - First Class Chapter 6: Intrusion, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

Anonymous Review Replies!

XxShadowxX: Aw, thanks, glad you like it! :D (Even if Shadow doesn't seem to like the school much...XD) The world building continues to be a lot of fun – I love writing and reading about non-human protagonists and thinking about how different their everyday life might be from us. Shadow with his 'human' upbringing is the perfect character for exploring that :3 Hope you like what life throws his way next! ;)

EnerjakWho high: Nomen est Omen, much? :p And if you're a fan of Tails...well, I think you might like this chapter ;) Also, thank you for the lovely compliment! :D I'm especially always blown away by the quality of a lot of Sherlock fic, so I'm feeling very flattered right now XD

Katz4: Haha, yes, this fic is a bit of a kitchen sink in a 'everything I ever wanted to write with Shadow'-kind of way, so I'm guessing it's a bit unpredictable XD (In a good kind of way I hope. Next up is a bit of an adventure plot part, so I hope you like! :D)

DEV: Ja, auf jeden Fall, oder? Amy ist (wie ich auch gerade bei meiner neuesten, noch nicht hochgeladenen Fic feststelle^^°) nicht einfach zu schreiben, also bin ich immer froh über Szenen, wo sie ihre definitiven Stärken, wie Verständnis, Hilfsbereitschaft (und vermutlich nen leichten Beschützerinstinkt XD) ausspielen kann. Der 'kleine Fuchs mit der großen Klappe' derweil kriegt natürlich auch noch Gelegenheit, mehr seiner Talente zu zeigen – auch wenn das mit dem Achten auf sein Ego noch ein *bisschen* zum Problem werden dürfte ;) Menschliche Lehrer für die Schule zu finden, ist übrigens gar nicht so einfach, ich war echt froh über Pickle! Robotnik von seinen Welteroberungsplänen abzubringen wird derweil vermutlich nur einen Tick schwerer sein, als einen Tiger von seinen Zähnen zu trennen...;) Aber mal sehen, was das neue Kapitel hier bringt (hinthint) Wieder einmal vielen Dank für das fantastische Review, das macht es immer wieder eine Freude, upzudaten! :D

Guest: Glad you like! And as for your question, it just might be answered this chapter! ;) Thanks for the comment!

John: As long as there's reviews, sure thing ;) Here you go!

Guest: Happy to hear that! I had hoped it would be. As for your question, yes, the title is a reference to X-Men, I'm a huge Marvel fan – as might also be indicated by this chapter. ;) Hope you have fun!

Chapter Six: Intrusion

It was already a few hours after nightfall that the moonlight found Shadow in an uneasy sleep.

He hadn't read up after all on the sapient vigilante like he'd planned to – after he'd finished with his Advanced Placement Physics homework it had been near 2 am – but that didn't mean he'd been able to put it from his mind, nor the strange not-encounter they had had during their shopping trip today. Now he was tossing and turning in his too-large bed, most of the furniture in the house having been put there for humans to use. His body was trying to find the sleep it wanted while his mind, focusing on invisible threat and danger to his family, was going over the attack at the GUN base over and over again, creating strange dreams and stranger visions. At one point, it turned into a nightmare, a dreamworld where Maria was shot by the GUN soldier aboard the ARK and Shadow jettisoned into outer space, alone and with a scream of despair, and it was at this point that the Ultimate Lifeform surged upright with a strangled cry.

This...no. This isn't what happened. We're all here. We're all safe, Shadow tried to tell himself, glancing around his bedroom even as his breathing slowed. His fur was matted with sweat and his heart thundered as if he had just taken on a battalion of artificial Chaos.

But then his ear twitched and the whole hedgehog tensed again. Something still wasn't right. He hadn't woken by accident.

No. There was a noise. Something from outside. Quickly, but utterly silently, Shadow had slid out of the bed and crept over to the window. Nothing. Then again, his window only offered a view of the backyard. Maria's was facing the street. Pulling on his shoes as quickly as he could, but not even bothering with his gloves, Shadow was out the door in an instant to softly knock at Maria's room across from his.

"Maria?" He ventured inside, feeling a small burst of relief when his sister was clearly visible in her bed, softly sleeping. "Maria. Wake up. I think I heard something." He shook her shoulder until she stirred.

"Mmmh?"

"Stay quiet. I think there may be something outside."

"What?" The way her clear blue eyes were instantly alert and focused said something about how even a single nightly military raid would leave its mark on a survivor. Fear flashed across her face, briefly, but was then just as quickly reined in and replaced by absolute attention. "Have you seen anything?"

"Not yet. Get out of bed, away from the window. I'll try to take a look," Shadow replied equally quietly, equally tense. As Maria rolled off the mattress, dropping onto her feet lightly, Shadow moved past her toward the window, preparing to put two bare fingers between the folds of the jalousie to peer onto the street. Underneath his skin the Chaos was thrumming loudly enough for him that he imagined it had to be heard outside already.

"Can you see anyth-?" Maria began, but that was as far as she came. The next second, there seemed to be an explosion of the brightest light possible, and both her question as well as Shadow's potential answer were drowned out in their twin screams of shock and searing ocular pain as they were blinded by the sudden flash from outside. That, as well as the booming, thundering voice that then accompanied it and seemed to rattle the very foundations of their small house.

"OHOHOHOHO! My grandfather's creation! I seemingly found you at last!"

"What on Earth...?" Shadow's teeth were bared, his arm raised to shield his eyes from the floodlights burning through the gaps in the jalousie. And then he couldn't help his jaw from dropping down, because even as he spoke, outside of the window a giant airship rippled into existence, the faint motor noise he had heard before now ten times louder as its cloaking devices had apparently been switched off.

"Impossible," Maria breathed. "Don't tell me this is..."

"Well, well, well, Professor Robotnik," the same, predator-like voice came again from the ship, even as in the distance, the first sirens were now starting to howl. "Don't you want to come out and greet your prodigal grandson? And, ahah, perhaps hand me over what you made?"

"Sh-Shadow? Maria?" A sleep-addled Gerald took that moment to stumble into Maria's room as well, still in his pyjamas. "I don't know what-"

"No?" The same cheerful voice continued from outside, seemingly not in the least bit bothered by the insanity of this whole situation, "Then perhaps I shall have to make you come out."

Which was the only warning they got before the largest part of the wall with the window in front of them suddenly exploded, a self-contained sphere of immolation instantly vaporizing the bricks that had until now been shielding them from outside, without so much as knocking them even slightly backwards from the pressure. Which was how it came that the small Robotnik family now stood, two of them in their night clothes with the third of them only dressed in his rings and shoes, face to face with the cockpit of a battleship pointed straight at what had once been Maria's bedroom, but was now missing a wall.

Slowly, the window of the cockpit slid upwards.

"Hello, grandfather," said the man inside. "I'm Doctor Ivo Robotnik."

Shadow stared. The large, egg-shaped human facing them was perhaps somewhere in his late forties or early fifties, but the dark glasses he wore and the moustache he sprouted indeed evoked an image of what his creator Gerald may have looked like more than thirty years ago, when his hair had not yet gone gray and age had made him frailer and thinner than the red, black and yellow-clad man in control of the battleship.

"Ivo..." Gerald breathed the name, staring at his grandson as the winds whipped up and tugged at his night shirt. "I can scarcely believe it."

"Not to worry, not to worry. I am here to provide quite indisputable evidence," the man – Dr. Robotnik – replied with a cold smile, rising from his control seat and coming to walk onto the nose of his airship. "I will be taking your experimental weapon of mass destruction – the Ultimate Lifeform – with me."

Shadow could hear the sharp intake of breath from both his creator and his sister at the same time.

"No." Their answer was as instantaneous as their gasp had been.

The Doctor's face hardened at this, though he didn't look like he hadn't expected this answer. His eye brows drew together. "You will hand Project Shyamalan over."

It was at this point that Shadow felt like he had had enough.

"It's Project SHADOW, dammit!"

"What?" Maria's cousin for the first time seemed to acknowledge Shadow as more than a decorative footstool in their conversation. Eyes behind dark glasses narrowed in Shadow's general direction. "Fine. 'Shadow' if it makes you happy."

"It's my chaos-damned name," Shadow snapped. "And what makes you think you can just come here and...take me?!" He bared his teeth at the overweight scientist, quills raised and familiar, anger-stirred Chaos energy already crackling along his bare arms, ready to burst from his fingertips.

"Ohohoho!" His challenge had provoked apparently nothing but another throaty laugh from his creator's grandson. "My dear soon-to-be minion, what makes you think there's any one who can stop me from doing so?" He gave a sinister grin. "The only vermin that has ever been able to throw a spanner into the works so far has been that blasted -"

"Did someone call for a hero?"

There was a whoosh of air, and Shadow's eyes went wide as suddenly, a blue streak rushed straight down from above, landing between him and the Doctor with a sudden thump! Shadow could only stare as it dissolved into a crouching blue hedgehog upon landing, who uprighted himself with a grin.

A blue hedgehog, who was horribly, horribly familiar.

"No," Shadow managed.

But even as the denial slid past his lips, it already made far too much sense. Sonic missing in school. The teachers not even being bothered by it. The wounds he had had when he came back. The whole student body talking of nothing but him even when he wasn't there.

"No," Shadow whispered again, staring at the blue hedgehog. "You're...the hero of Mobius?!"

"What?" Sonic asked, before he then laughed. "Hah, naw, no way, I'm not nearly cool enough." Then he grinned. "But I am his sidekick!"

"A pest is what you are!" the Doctor roared at this moment, having scrambled back into his cockpit, closed the window and levelled the gun turrets of his airship at the small group in the half-destroyed house. "Now prepare to perish along with my useless grandfather!"

"Hah! We'll never let you!" Sonic shouted, posturing in front of the guns fearlessly. Though maybe he was just a little bit afraid, but that's okay.

"Oh yeah?" the scientist asked with a sneer. "Then where is your hero now, that he's sent you here all alone?"

"He'd never send me here alone," Sonic replied, crossing his arms confidently. "Just you wait."

"Sonic?" Shadow hissed, moving to grab his classmate roughly by the arm. "What are you talking about? If you're not this planet's hero, then who-"

"Doctor Robotnik! Your evil scheme ends here!" A clear voice cut through the air right then, for a moment drowning out even the battleship's engine noise.

Robotnik gave a furious howl. "NO! What are you doing here?!"

"I will always be there to foil your plans!" The same voice announced – right before it was followed up with the roar of a biplane appearing right above the the battleship, a young, two-tailed fox piloting it straight into battle.

"Tails!" Robotnik roared in fury, shaking both his hands. "You may have gotten here in time, but you are not going to win this battle!"

"Prepare to lose, Egghead!" Tails shouted, right before leaping out of the plane with a triple somersault and coming to stand in front of the scared family, his hedgehog assistant quickly moving to his side. The fox crossed his arms as well, looking just as cool as Sonic.

"You don't have to be afraid," Tails said to the stunned little group, his voice now somewhat deeper than before. "Me and Sonic can handle this."

"Oh really? Handle THIS!" Robotnik shouted and started shooting at them. But Tails dodged all of his bullets with lightning-fast reflexes, and Sonic did as well. Only then he didn't.

"Oh no, Tails!" Sonic screamed. "I've been hit!" And he was bleeding and everything.

"Ohohoho! I have hurt your precious sidekick!" Robotnik laughed, grinning evilly at Tails. "Now what are you going to do?!"

"I am going to CRUSH you!" Tails roared, angrily. "Iron Fox armour, engage!"

Right after he had said it, the bi-plane that had landed on the roof of the house suddenly started flying apart and becoming individual armour pieces, rushing toward Tails and encasing him in a gold-and-red battle-suit that looked awesome. Tails lifted off the ground with his thrusters and raised his arm to point one palm out toward Robotnik, who was now staring and surprised because Tails had invented something amazing like this.

"You hurt Sonic! Now you will pay!" Tails shouted, and then shot an energy beam from his palm that cut Robotnik's battleship in two. Both the ship and the fat man fell down, only the ship went clank and the man went plotsch.

Sonic was so impressed! "Oh my gods, Tails, you're amazing!" he cheered.

Shadow was stunned as well. "No way...you're the hero?" he asked, red eyes wide.

"Yup," Tails agreed, hovering down to the ground again with a smooth smile like Sonic usually had, only now he hadn't. "Miles, 'Tails' Prower," he said, buffing his knuckles on his chest. "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, at your service."

"Oh no, Tails, how can we ever repay you?" Fiona, who had been there at a sleepover, asked breathlessly, but Tails only gave her a cool grin. "Oh no, being a hero is its own reward. I'll just take Sonic home and patch him up and that's that. And whenever you need me -" he took a part from his armor and pressed it into the vixen's hand. "Just press this..." his thumb pressed on her thumb, and at the pressure, a bright signal flare lit up the night sky with a two-tailed emblem - "...the Iron Fox will come save you," he said with a deep, manly voice.

"Oh Tails," Fiona sai

xxx

There was a very audible cough from the door. Tails slowly swivelled around on his desk chair toward the two (slightly singed and distinctly unimpressed) hedgehogs in the doorframe.

The little fox tried to look as innocently as possible. "...yeeeees...?"

"Say. Tails. Buddy." Sonic was the first one to step forward, the blue hedgehog's expression much more foreboding than Shadow's (who mostly looked a bit confused). Tails shrank back a little in his chair and attempted a guileless smile.

"Yes, Sonic?"

"You wouldn't just happen to have hacked our writer's account today and uploaded your own fanfic, would you?"

"What, me? Never."

"Uh-huh," Sonic said wryly, at the same time stepping forward and glancing at the computer screen on Tails' desk. '"Oh Tails", Fiona said, "You're so manly, I want to play Mario Kart with you -'

"AH STOP IT THAT'S PRIVATE!" Tails had immediately yelped and leapt out the chair in a panic, shielding the monitor from Sonic's reading aloud with both his fuzzed-up appendages. "I wasn't gonna upload that part!"

"Just the part with you saving the day with the 'Iron Fox' armour, yeah?" Sonic commented, one edge of his mouth now definitely twitching.

Tails looked to the side. "It's a really cool idea..." he mumbled with a pout.

"Well, as your 'side-kick' I should probably agree on that point," Sonic replied with a knowing grin, causing Tails to blush in the chair some more. "C'mon. Let's get outta here and enjoy the rest of April Fool's day somewhere else. Let's go, Shads."

"But...I don't understand," the black hedgehog managed. "What was that, one moment we were in my half-destroyed house and the next second you open this door in mid-air and we're in the fox kid's lab-"

"Cartoon Physics and meta-level-hopping. Works only today."

"Also...playboy?" Shadow asked, peering at Tails, one eye ridge raised.

"Sure," Tails said, cheerfully. "I like card games, and video games, and board games and everything!"

"Yeah, we've never discussed that part of Avengers," Sonic muttered quietly, "and I'd be glad if you didn't do it now. And as for you," he said, turning around to the screen, "As always, have a great April 1st and have fun pranking someone yourself. See you back here at some point during the next weeks, once the real chapter is ready! Cheers!"

xxx

Happy April Fool's Day, everybody :p No need to read further than this, below the chapter simply repeats to make it seem longer and more like a 'proper' chapter at first glance, as always. ;) Hope you had fun – and Tails is of course looking forward to your reviews ;p See you next time!

xxx