Anonymous Review Replies!

Guest: Weeelll, you might just be in luck...

EnerjakWho evil: weeell, it's not exactly a faster update but it's...at least *an* update? Hope you enjoy! :p

XxShadowxX: Hahah, yeah, I had fun writing that Silver cameo. My guess is it won't be the last one ;p thanks for the comment :D

DEV: Ich bin grausam und wäre selbstverständlich bei der kaputtlach-Option an Bord ;P Ich muss auch zugeben, dass die Cameos von Silver irgendwo zu meinen Lieblingsszenen gehören, auch wenn ich selber nicht wirklich sicher bin, wie er ausgerechnet als Lehrer an dieser Schule gelandet ist. XD Aber hey, bei den ganzen Plotholes im Sonic canon ist es sicherlich ziemlich leicht, mal in eins reinzufallen...;p Die Kuchenbackszene war sogar noch aus den Notizen von 'Life...' übrig geblieben, also war ich ganz froh, sie mal unterbringen zu können :3 Ich bin quasi Notizen-Hoarder. XD

Guest: Thanks, will do!

Katz4: Oh, definitely! He *is* the third main character in the fic, not to worry :p The raid on the arc happened just as described in 'Life Could Have Been So Different', with many, many people dying but Shadow saving both himself and Maria with a Chaos Control at the end. Gerald escaped in a separate pod as well. Hope you like the new chapter as well, late as it may be!

Nova2711: No worries, will do :p

Belarus: I have actually watched Hetalia, yeah ;) Thanks for the comment, please enjoy the new update!

TheAWESOMEGues: There is now! ;p

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm: There will be an update, but sadly I can't say when exactly. But no worries, it will be finished!

MlpSonicfan: Keeping the characters close to their core characteristics while in a non-canon setting is my fav bit of fanfiction, actually, glad you like :)

ChipTheCheese: Thanks! Hope you like this one as well!

kharma: It happens. But hey, you only waited seven months! That's something, right? ...riiiight?

Guest: Aw, thanks. It does :)

Guest: In time, my padawan. In time.

PREVIOUSLY IN THIS FANFIC:

Aaaaand, back to the story at hand! Where we left off...like a year and a half ago, AHEM...Shadow had juuuuuuust found out at the dinner table that the annoying kid at school is actually the national hero. As you do. He also just found this out after getting into a shouting match at school with Sonic when Sonic thought Shadow had been mean to his friends. This is a problem because Shadow actually wants to ask Sonic to find out more about the nutjob that Sonic usually fights, aka, Maria's cousin and the guy who has probably forever ruined the Robotnik name. Now please watch the continuing desasters of Shadow's high school life the following morning.

Chapter 7: With Friends Like These

Shadow crossed his arms. He took a breath. He tried to brace himself. When he found he really couldn't draw this out any further, he finally cleared his throat.

"Hey."

The blue hedgehog, who had been bent over and rummaging in his locker, stiffened at the address, then cautiously straightened himself and regarded Shadow over his shoulder, warily.

"...hey."

Sonic was frowning slightly, green eyes carefully guarded, and the black hedgehog supposed he couldn't blame him. After all, Shadow had been giving him the cold shoulder for two days straight. Around them, students were walking to and fro, hurrying to their classes which would start soon, so Shadow knew he couldn't drag this out much longer.

"I..."

He paused.

"I wanted to say..." he cut himself off again, struggling. Sonic by now had turned around fully, regarding the Ultimate Lifeform with genuine curiosity.

"...yeah?" Sonic sounded like he was trying to be encouraging. Shadow took another breath.

Then:

"I lived for five years in space and I had no idea you were the national hero, okay?! I didn't mean what I said!"

For a moment, Sonic stared.

Then he started laughing.

"What?!" Shadow snapped. "This isn't a joke!"

"Dude," Sonic was still laughing, but trying to calm himself down. "You're really not the smoothest social butterfly, huh?" he asked, now with a grin on his face like he'd swallowed a Chaos Drive square.

Shadow frowned, slightly confused. "No. I wasn't engineered for that. Er, I mean," he tried to regain his original train of thought quickly as Sonic was now looking at him strangely, "I just...I wanted to say that in light of this new information, some of my earlier remarks may have been-"

"Aw, naw, that's okay. No hard feelings," Sonic waved him off, tone genuinely light-hearted. "To be honest with ya, it's actually kinda cool to meet someone who doesn't already have some sort of oversized hero image of me." This was followed by a quirked eye ridge. "So, apparently, without any prior information I mainly just look like a total bum, that it?"

Shadow blinked. Actually, he was a bit surprised. He had certainly expected a different reaction from the blue hedgehog. But he had been asked a question now, so…

"...well. Yes, you do."

"Heh." Sonic rubbed a finger underneath his nose. "Well, that's good to know. Apparently I should probably be glad then that most people just know me as the national hero. Sounds better than national hobo, anyway..."

Shadow frowned. "Right."

"If you wanted to make amends, you could go see Amy, though. I get that she can be a little much, but if you don't wanna hang with her, at least say that you just need space or something, alright? She's currently wondering if you're actually mad at her for something she did wrong."

"Is she?" Shadow blinked, honestly taken aback. The idea that someone could think he was angry at them just because he had preferred the solitude of the deserted corridors to the social clusterfuck that in his opinion was the cafeteria would never have occurred to him. "Well, er, I'm...not," he tried.

"Then maybe you should tell her that, m'kay?"

"Oh. Right." Shadow could feel the awkwardness (and the accompanying frustration) again rising within himself, and he fumbled for a change of topic. When the blue hedgehog cocked his head and asked "Soo...space, huh? Really?" he wasn't actually sure whether the other had done that out of that frustrating tendency to be simply too nice for Shadow's taste, but he latched onto the offer anyway.

"Um...yeah." Shadow adjusted his bag over his shoulder again. "There's a research facility up there where my sister's grandfather worked and raised us. It's not exactly something to be shared with the general public, though."

"A space station?" Sonic asked, eye ridges raised. "Was that the one with the accident or something? Tails said he'd read about something weird having happened with one..."

Shadow's lips drew into a thin line. "Yes. There was an accident. A lot of people died and the space station was shut down." He tried to keep his tone as curt as possible, in the hope of maybe persuading the other to let go of that topic he was neither allowed nor keen to talk about. Fortunately, Sonic seemed to catch on quickly, his curious expression fading into a more sombre one.

"...oh. Sorry. Not a good memory, huh?"

"Not exactly. But my family survived, so there's that," Shadow shrugged, trying to look as casual as possible, really hoping this was it for questions about his past. Now the blue hedgehog was trying a smile again, at least.

"Right. Well, if you grew up in space, that explains you being out of the loop, I guess – well, that andbeing Captain Antisocial during lunch hour."

Shadow frowned. "I am not-"

"Dude, relax," Sonic laughed. "I'm just joking - if you need your space, that's cool. Just tell Amy and she'll be fine."

"I'll do that," Shadow nodded. "But there's actually something else I wanted to ask you, specifically."

"Oh?" Sonic raised an eye ridge as he took a bag out of his locker and slammed it shut. "What's that?"

"You spend your time fighting against Dr. Ivo Robotnik, don't you."

There was a bit of a pause as Sonic looked at him, clearly trying to ascertain where Shadow might have come from with that question that hadn't really been one. Outwardly, the blue hedgehog remained relaxed, but green eyes still betrayed a hint of wariness.

"Yeah, I do. Sometimes. Why?"

"Is he strong?"

Now the blue hedgehog was starting to frown. "...kinda, yes. I don't know many who can go toe to toe with his mechs, if that's what you mean. Why are you asking me this, Shadow?"

"Well, I-" Shadow began, but before he could finish his sentence, there was the distinct ring of the bell that signalled the start of the first lesson. Sonic's head snapped up.

"Whoops. Seems like we missed homeroom. Wanna head to class?"

"Uh...sure." Shadow immediately fell into step beside the other, actually somewhat grateful, because he had no idea where or what his next class was. Next to him, Sonic threw him a grin.

"Tell you what, would you believe I'm the fastest thing alive but I also hold this school's record in tardiness notes?"

"Somehow I have no trouble believing this at all," Shadow replied with a slightly flat tone, which prompted Sonic to a snort. "What period is it now, anyway?"

"Heh. Probably the only subject in this school I'm actually good at," Sonic gave him a wink. "Hope you like sports."

"Uh." Shadow's mental image of physical education mostly consisted of bits and pieces he had seen in the movies and high school drama series he and Maria had watched, so the concept of sports period for him had always been a mixture of purgatory and an excuse to show attractive people in underwear. Still, how bad could it be in comparison to the military drill GUN had subjected him to as a child soldier?

(Only about half an hour later, Shadow already thought he needed to stop asking these rhetoric questions.)

Sonic's voice brought him back to the present. "Have you been sorted yet?"

"Sorted?" Shadow asked, for a moment wondering whether this school could get any weirder and whether this process would perhaps involve a talking hat of some sort.

"Yeah," Sonic replied. "There's different sports groups, obviously. Guys and girls and Mobians and humans are separated anyways, but even between us, they split us up. Like, the flyers and swimmers are in different groups than the rest, for example - 'the rest' being mostly mammals, but some of us, like bats or otters, or some of those with powers can be in the other groups." He shot Shadow a side-long glance. "You're mostly normal, though, aren't you?"

"I...yeah," Shadow lied.

"Cool," Sonic said, picking up a gym bag from his locker. "Then just come with me. Ordinary mammal group it is."

The 'ordinary mammal' group they were in seemed to consist of around twenty teenagers their age, Shadow noted. Sonic had led them to the gym building, which was somewhat removed by a few minutes' walk across school grounds from the main complex. On the roof, Shadow could already see a group of birds standing in a circle and apparently being lectured by an elderly cuckoo instructor, while behind the gym there seemed to be a pool, judging by the splashing noises. Sonic had skipped up the stairs to walk inside, though, and into a locker room where a mixture of mostly non-winged and non-finned male sapients was getting changed – which, considering nearly none of them wore clothes in the first place, seemed to be mostly about putting on a different pair of shoes.

"Aw, that's right, you don't have any sports gear yet, right?" Sonic said at this point, dumping the gym bag he had brought on a bench. "Well, I guess you won't get in trouble for it during your first week. C'mon."

He was already heading out from the locker room towards the gym entrance, beckoning for Shadow to follow. The black hedgehog wondered whether he should feel kind of annoyed that as soon as he had given the other the time of day Sonic was now already treating him like a particularly spiky chick that had fallen out of its nest and needed to be taken under a wing. But, he was also beginning to realize, there was scarcely little that seemed to help against Sonic's onslaught of friendliness once the hedgehog had gotten going, so there was probably little point in resisting it now.

"You didn't change your shoes, either," Shadow pointed out as he caught up to the other on the staircase and Sonic winced.

"Uh...yeah. I'm...kinda a special case when it comes to shoes, to be honest," the blue hedgehog said as they entered into the gym hall. "At the moment I'm hoping coach will let me wear them this year, but - "

"Sonic the Hedgehog! I thought we had this discussion already!"

Next to him, what was supposed to be the hero of Mobius flinched at the booming voice. Shadow let his gaze trail briefly over the high-roofed hall they had entered, where some of their classmates, a few of them familiar, were already sitting on a bench, waiting for the rest of the students from the locker room to arrive. The striking feature in the gym however, was a particularly tall sapient horse wearing a white trainer's outfit and now towering over them and looking down at a suddenly awkward blue hedgehog.

"Sonic. I'm only telling you this once. Lose those shoes."

"Aw, coach -" the blue hedgehog was trying to protest, but Shadow could already tell this wasn't going to go well. Apparently, so could most of the other students, Mighty sporting a sympathetic grimace, Espio a slightly bored expression and a male mongoose Shadow hadn't seen before a downright nasty grin.

"No ' aw coach's. Lose them."

"But..." Sonic, curiously, now looked downright miserable, ears folded and spines flat. "If I promise to keep my speed in check? C'mon, coach..."

"Yeah, we saw how well that worked out the last time. I want to see you barefoot stat, hedgehog. Now," the horse snapped for emphasis, adding, "And be glad it isn't a suppressor band for you," before abruptly turning around to some of the students on the bench who had been snickering.

"And what's so funny here? Anyone so eager to start running laps already?"

"Aw, man..." Sonic next to Shadow grumbled, kicking the floor. "Stupid school rules-" he growled, briefly hopping on one leg as he first pulled off one shoe, then the other, before starting to walk toward the bench again, a faint tinge on his cheeks now.

"Why are they making you play barefoot?" Shadow asked, mystified.

"It's a way of keeping my powers in check," Sonic replied, dryly. "To keep things 'balanced'" he pronounced the last word with a scoff, before favouring Shadow with an annoyed glance. "To put it bluntly, if I try to run at my usual speeds while barefoot, the friction is gonna burn my feet off. If I run in normal shoes, they melt. Coach figures pain or constant shoe buying is the only way for me to learn to 'control myself'." He let himself drop down in a huff on the wooden bench next to Mighty, arms crossed and scowling. "Buncha jealous sissies they are if you ask me. Let's just hope Buttnik never attacks on a Thursday morning, why don't we." Sonic stared at his naked toes resentfully.

"Come now," Mighty snorted. "You could always wear one of these, and you'd get to keep your shoes," the armadillo pointed out, stretching out a wrist encased in a golden band.

"A suppressor?" Sonic asked, grimacing. "Yeah, no thanks. Those things are beyond creepy. I've had enough of that when Egghead exchanged my shoes to make me extra-slow... "

Shadow briefly wondered whether he should ask Sonic what particular background story could be behind that remark, but then decided to think better of it. Instead, he leaned forward to look at Mighty.

"What you're wearing is a suppressor?"

"Yeah," Sonic cut in sharply before the armadillo could reply. "They're using these on Mobian criminals with powers when they arrest them. That alone should tell you they have no place in a school."

"I don't mind wearing it for sport," Mighty said, calmly. "If it keeps me from accidentally hitting a puk through the wall, it's all good. Besides, contrary to the prison ones, it's a bracelet, not a collar, and I can take it off," he said, at the same time pressing something on the golden brand that let it snap open so he could remove it from his wrist. "See?" he said to the two hedgehogs. "No harm done."

"It's not natural," Sonic grumbled, clearly not convinced. "And it's not fair, either. Espio has powers and he doesn't have to wear them."

"Because I can control my powers far better than either of you," the chameleon, sitting cross-legged and with closed eyes next to them answered smoothly, not actually changing his meditative pose.

"Yeah, right. Ninja training, we know," Sonic rolled his eyes. "I mean, I know this dude who always says 'first they love you because you're unique, then they throw you in jail for being different'," he quoted, for some reason pitching his voice ridiculously low, "and I don't always agree with him on that one, but sometimes…"

"It's just a show of good faith. Nothing more," Mighty cut him off. "It's not like they require us wearing them the whole time at school."

"Yeah, they better don't. Is that even healthy, wearing suppressors over hours on end?" Sonic grumbled, while Espio stretched, blinked, and turned toward them again.

"There are long-term studies on prisoners, I think. That said, I was wondering…" Espio said slowly, yellow eyes travelling over Shadow. "Are those rings of yours actually suppressors, Shadow?"

"Wha- uhm. No! I mean, no, they're not," Shadow said quickly, already knowing that he was probably at this point winning the prize for worst denial in history. Sonic raised an eye ridge, but Mighty shook his head.

"He's wearing four of them, Esp. And none of them even look like they have a clasp for taking them off." He laughed. "If they were suppressors, we'd be sitting here either with a High Security prisoner or a walking time bomb!"

"Uh...yeah. Yeah, I just...really like jewellery?" Shadow said, slightly desperately (and already guessing from Sonic's and Mighty's sudden sweat drops that this might not have been the smoothest response.)

Fortunately, the conversation was interrupted at this point as the horse teacher abruptly stepped in front of them. "Shadow Robotnik? These shoes aren't regulation sports gear!"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Oh man, here we go again…"

Xxx

Later on, after a bit of wheedling ("I, uhm, actually…have flat feet. I need these shoes. Yeah.") sports period proceeded fairly normally, Shadow supposed. He took care not to let any Chaos Energy power his shoes, and got by with his usual strength, speed of movement and accuracy, being careful not to show too much of any of it. That was fairly easy, though - mostly because again, the attention of nearly all students exclusively focused on Sonic. Despite his handicap, the blue hedgehog was managing to out-perform most other students single-handedly in everything to the continuing exasperation of the coach, with his friends apparently finding it hilarious that this apparent hero of the planet had to attend sports period at all. Shadow had to admit both Sonic's and his own presence was a bit of an absurdity.

"- and for the last time, it doesn't count if you curl up and jump through the hoop yourself! We have discussed the rules of basketball, Sonic!"

"Aw, coach, c'mon…"

"And no spin-dashing!"

"Look, that goal post needed replacing anyway-"

Still, glancing at his rings during a break, Shadow wondered. He prided himself on his powers, but he had also always known that they were something that made him a freak and something to be afraid of. The first time they had manifested, in an experiment gone horribly wrong, the Chaos Energy conducted by his body had been instrumental in killing six people. Shortly afterwards, he had been banded by GUN. The rings had been suppressors then - making him weak and dizzy, draining him of his Chaos Energy like leeches attached to his limbs. It had taken him a while to make them work for his benefit, let them help him control his power rather than suppress it – Shadow couldn't take them off, that was true, but in truth he was also slightly worried that his powers might turn unstable rather quickly if they ever did come loose.

His powers.

Shadow could feel the Chaos coursing through his veins with every heartbeat, even now, when he wasn't using it for anything. He had taken excessive care to hide them during this week, sincerely believing that he'd be deemed a dangerous anomaly, an artificial, sub-human creature escaped from a laboratory rather than a normal sapient if anyone had realized he had abilities far beyond that of an average hedgehog. He absent-mindedly turned one of the rings on his wrist, the warm metal sliding easily over the fabric of his glove. No points for guessing which brilliant scientist was likely responsible for the research basis of the suppressor rings they now had sapients of all kinds wearing down here. Yet another reason they likely wouldn't take kindly to his family if they knew what professor Gerald had worked on for GUN.

He glanced over at Sonic again, who was currently the last one left in a (very frustrating for anyone else) game of tag. The blue hedgehog was using his powers openly and without apparent concern, and Shadow felt a slight pang of envy. The likely result of what would happen if he showed off his strength or speed or Chaos manipulation…

Yeah, no. I don't want to be neutered, made tame with yet another suppressor or have my gear taken away.

The armadillo called Mighty wasn't even the only one wearing one of the golden bands. Outside, Shadow could see the girls engaged in some sort of soccer game, and a yellow-furred mongoose had a golden suppressor flashing on her wrist as well as a few others. Clearly, this world didn't favour being different too much.

The whistle rang, signaling the end of the lesson and Shadow's ears perked up. It was lunch hour after the double period, and he was still hoping to corner Sonic somewhere alone after this, mainly to question him again on this Doctor Ivo Robotnik.

Mainly to ask him why he is still alive.

Shadow's eyes narrowed as he could feel again the outrage at this man daring to besmirch Maria's and his creator's family name flaring up in his stomach, but he controlled it. Around him, people were gathering their things and heading down to the changing rooms and he let himself be caught up in their wake, conversations on harmless topics washing over him.

"Hey, Shads. How didja like your first sports period?"

"It was…fine." Shadow shot Sonic a side-glance, noting that the blue hedgehog didn't even seem to be a little out of breath compared to nearly everyone else.

"Heh, good to hear. You're lucky they let you keep your shoes. Barefoot running sucks," Sonic pulled a face at the statement.

"I know. The last time I wasn't allowed to wear my shoes, they made me fight my clone to the death."

"Um. What?"

"Uh, I, uh, I mean, I…that…that was a…joke," Shadow, inwardly once again wondering when he would learn to think before replying, frantically tried to come up with something, anything else. "I, er, play a lot of video games. This was something that…happened in a video game?"

"…uh-huh. Cool," Sonic replied, although he was still staring at Shadow a little oddly. "Well, I'm gonna hit the showers. See you around at lunch if you want company this time?"

"Yeah. Sure," Shadow nodded, at the same time figuring that probably, waiting around and catching Sonic on his way back to the canteen would be the easiest way to get a quiet minute to talk before his friends swarmed him again. It helped that Mighty and Espio seemed to leave early as well ("Shower? Nah, dude, Esp's a reptile and I'm mostly covered in shell plates. We don't sweat much, we leave that to you furry guys.") so being the last one (bar Sonic, who seemed to be taking his own sweet time to shower) leaving was not too difficult.

"Hey. Pincushion."

Oh of fucking course.

Shadow looked up. It had barely been a minute since he had left the gym and settled in to wait for Sonic not far from the bottom of the stairs, thinking about how he wanted to breach the topic of Maria's cousin when he finally got a moment of peace and quiet.

Except that at seemed that at this school, peace and quiet were in rarer supply than at a Vogon poetry reading or, possibly, at a nuclear testing site.

Shadow glared at the collection of birds that had called out to him and took care to let his voice remain calm, but warning.

"Leave it."

"Ohhh. Did you hear that, guys, the furball's not scared." the green hawk, who appeared to be the leader of the little group, sneered – but then actually surprised Shadow, because he at once launched himself into the air with a fleet-footed aerial somersault, feathers that had lain flat along his arms suddenly extending to give him a lift that let him sail right over Shadow and came to land behind him, effectively cutting off a possible retreat back inside the gym. As soon as he had landed, the green feathers flattened themselves again, barely noticeable unless you had just seen them become miniature wings.

Shadow's eyes narrowed. At a guess, he'd have wagered these would probably allow those birds to glide, and to jump higher than they should be able to, but mostly, what they seemed to do was make their owners into insufferable nuisances.

He gave the hawk an icy glare.

"You don't want to pick a quarrel with me."

"Maybe let me be the judge of that, hmm?" the bird asked with a smirk. "It's important that newcomers know their place – and that's under Jet the Hawk's boot."

Jet the Hawk. That was the guy Fiona had mentioned would leave her friends alone, right?

Shadow noticed how the other members of the group – the purple swallow, the grey albatross, the blue hawk, and, ridiculously, even the goddamn chicken – had now also surrounded him and were closing in. He supposed for anyone other than him this might even have felt threatening.

He could feel his fists clench still. He could dispatch them, sure – but without letting anyone else catch on that he was anything but a normal hedgehog? That he was already an oddball because he had no idea how sapients handled things was grating enough.

"Get. Lost," he growled, quills rising, that at least an instinctive reaction that he hadn't needed to learn. Jet scoffed at the threat display, his own tail fanning out cockily.

„Yeah, not gonna happen, furball. Now, why don't you kneel down and kiss my shoes before I-"

„Hey! What's going on here?"

Both Shadow and the birds' heads turned. They were still in a relatively abandoned area of the school grounds; the only building around here was the gym and it was a decent four or five minute walk back to the main building complex and the cafeteria where most of the school's students would currently be eating. Shadow realized Jet and the others had probably been waiting here for him.

Judging by their expressions they hadn't expected him not to be alone, though.

"Yo. I'm talking to you, Rogues," Sonic said, easily skipping down the stairs of the gym entrance and calmly striding closer, his grip on the gym bag over his shoulder still relaxed.

"What you want with Shads?"

Shadow shot his class mate an irritated glare, both because of the nickname and the interruption.

"Sonic. I can take care of this myself."

Sonic raised an eye ridge, looking like he seriously doubted Shadow's assertion, and then simply dropped his bag on the ground, slowly walking closer.

"Hey dude, I believe you're tough 'n all, but the Babylon Rogues ain't, so they like to pick on someone five against one."

"Hedgehog." Shadow grated his teeth. "Keep out of this."

True, he didn't want to reveal to anyone the true extent of his power, but he would also rather release a Chaos Blast on school grounds than letting it be known that he had been freakin saved by what a part of him still considered the town's resident show-off.

"Oh, don't worry," the girl swallow spoke up at this, leisurely sidling closer, but glancing back at Sonic with a contemptuous sneer. "He will."

"Oh yeeeeah, Wave's right, isn't she?" Jet threw in. "One more instance of you involved in anything violent at this school and your spiny blue behind gets the boot, wasn't it something like that?" the green hawk sneered, and Shadow was mildly surprised to notice that the atmosphere had actually subtly shifted again. The birds had in fact tensed up the moment Sonic had showed up, but now it seemed to be the blue hedgehog on the defensive, his formerly suave demeanour replaced by bristling quills, green eyes narrowed to slits.

"Whatcha wanna do, run along to teacher?" Wave asked, putting both of her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, you might be able to run fast, furball, but we'll be long done with Stripey before any one of those human snails have hauled their oversized butts over here. Won't we, Storm?" Jet snipped his fingers, and Shadow's eyes widened abruptly as suddenly, two large hands had restrained his arms at his sides, the grey albatross deceptively fast despite his size.

"Hey! Cut that out!" Sonic snapped, immediately taking another step forward, but Wave raised a feathery hand.

"Ah, ah. Don't even think of interfering. You raise a hand against anyone in anything, and old Lazar's gonna have you out on the curb. That guy hates your guts and you know it."

The tone was disgustingly familiar to Shadow, the same type of smug superiority any weak bully that had their usually more powerful victim at a disadvantage would employ. Only the last time he had heard it, it hadn't been a sapient sounding like that but a human...

Funny, Vincent. Thought I'd seen the last of your kind when I left you for dead on the ARK.

"Let. Me. Go," he growled, but Storm ignored him. Shadow could see the chicken and the blue hawk moving up closer to him, and the Chaos coiled inside him, his feet subtly shifting as he tried to keep them both in his view. Jet until now seemed far more preoccupied with Sonic, though.

"Uh-huh. Not such hot stuff inside the school, are ya? Ya big-shot hero?" the hawk asked, coating that last word with an extra layer of sting, and Shadow could see how Sonic's fists clenched at the epithet, his lips becoming a thin line. They're not even interested in me anymore, the black hedgehog realized with a blink. This is more of a thing to get at Sonic. I'm nothing but a convenient victim.

Using him as a pawn. Shadow could feel the Chaos inside him starting to boil beneath his skin. He had had enough of being toyed with by others for an entire lifetime. He surreptitiously started to test the hold his captor had him in and was surprised to find it was more unyielding than he had expected. Even though Storm was barely five feet tall, he was certainly a lot stronger than any grown human that had ever tried to contain Shadow.

The albatross grunted as he noticed his captive's struggling.

"Yeah, don't botha, hedgehog. De only one dat ever got outta dat was dat armadillo and he ain't here right now."

"Aw, lookit, his new spiky pal is struggling and the great Sonic can't do a thing!"

The blue hedgehog narrowed his eyes. "You guys know that school won't last forever, right? Look, if this is still about that stupid World Cup-!"

Jet crossed his arms. "It may or may not be. But have fun catching us outside of school grounds, when we've got our Extreme Gear. Dirt-crawling mammal. In fact..." and then he turned to Shadow, eyes all at once ablaze with malicious glee, "All mammals should crawl in the dirt! Sharps! Predator!" he shouted, and even before Shadow had had time to come to a decision whether he should after all use his powers, a Chaos Blast or simply a (sure to be deadly) spin-dash to break out of his predicament, the chicken and hawk had already moved in and delivered two near simultaneous punches to his ribs that drove the air from his lungs completely. Shadow cried out in a pained gasp.

"Shadow!" Sonic shouted, somewhere, perhaps moving forward after all, but Jet had already used Shadow's second of disorientation to swipe the legs out from underneath him and Storm delivered a push with the force of a sledgehammer that let Shadow slam into the ground face first.

"Oh yeah! Eat mud, hedgehog runt!" Jet grinned and, just as Shadow had managed to raise his head again, sputtering and coughing, pressed the hedgehog's face right back into the dirt by placing a boot on the spiked head. "Whaddaya say now, ya fake hero?" the hawk asked, glancing back at Sonic. "Whaddaya say now?"

But Sonic didn't reply any more.

Mostly because he had seen the look in Shadow's eyes as the black hedgehog was now slowly raising his head for the second time, somehow effortlessly lifting a very surprised Jet's boot with it.

„Uh..." the blue hero managed.

"Sonic," Shadow said, voice entirely calm, "I will not need your help for this."

To be continued…

Whelp, hope you liked! In case any of you guys are still reading, I also have uploaded a new fanfic in the meantime, Catch Me If You Can! Which is Sonic and friends accidentally winding up in the Pokemon world and trying to dodge a whole load of WAY too enthusiastic Pokemon trainers. Also, Tails has trouble holding his own against a Caterpie. Should be readable (and funny) even if you're not that into Pokemon, so if you're still looking for something to read, give it go :) And as always, if you read, please review! :D Maybe the next chapter won't even take a year, wouldn't that be great? ;p