Review Replies!
John: Fluff is my jam! :D
Guest: Aw thank you! Will try!
Tiredandlazy: Always happy to hear that :)
CuzImCoolBro: I hope he believes that, too. XD
MlpSonicFan: I update rarely, but at least I do, right?^^°
DEV: Mega Review mal wieder! Yay! :D Und ja, die Babylon Rogues sind definitiv die Art von Vögeln, die sich sicher im Vorteil wissen müssen, bevor sie nochmal irgendwas probieren. Also höchstens nochmal auf Hoverboards ;p Old Man the Owl als Schuldirektor ist so ziemlich die einzige Erklärung wie Omega als Hauswirtschaftslehrer enden konnte (und ja, gaaaaaaanz vielleicht ist diesmal nicht Stewart der secret agent an dieser Schule. Könnte sein. XD) Vielen dank für den Kommentar und ich hoffe, das neue Kapitel gefällt (wenn es auch mal wieder ein Jahr dauerte^^°)
Bleachwowso2016: Sadly, no! I recommend 'Once Upon a Time' on my profile or 'He Is My Master' on Chiisai Kitsune's profile for Sonadow :)
LoneGarurumon: Ahhh, I'm guessing the normal one has long since quit, this school is insane XD Glad the hinted-at fight scene description worked! Some actual fights probably upcoming, but it's mostly fluff for now :)
Tiredandlazy: Hah, I know the feeling! Sadly, it took a bit over a year, but oh well...
Guest: Probably not, maybe as an extra...plenty of other cameos, tho :p
RibbonRevolution: OMG, I would so totally binge-read a 'Mean Hedgehogs' fic. XDD
jewel: thanks! Hope you like the new chapter, too!
Guest: Glad you like! And you're in luck, one new chapter coming up :p
Recap time!
After Shadow had some trouble realizing that this annoying blue hedgehog from school is actually THE Sonic the Hedgehog, local celebrity and defender of the free world against Doctor Robotnik, the duo seems to have made some sort of fast friends after standing up to the Babylon Rogues in a schoolyard scrap. Now to tell the good news to Maria and Gerald...
Chapter Nine: Bad Hair Day
Both Gerald and Maria looked up as the door opened, Shadow entering the kitchen where his sister and creator were seated over a whole flurry of scribbled paper notes on the table surface. He nodded at them as he dumped his textbooks onto the counter.
"Hey."
"Welcome home," Maria smiled at him brightly. "Me and grandpa are just planning a research project for me this semester. How was school today?" she asked, before briefly pausing, seemingly only now picking up on the dirt still clinging to Shadow's fur in places. "Er...was everything alright...?"
Shadow sighed. "Mostly. I just got in a fight today. It was not my fault," he added sharply before either of them could do anything else but open their mouths in shock. Maria closed it again, blinking for a moment, but then narrowed her eyes abruptly.
"...Shadow. Please tell me they're still alive."
"Yes."
When both Robotniks visibly sagged in relief, Shadow couldn't resist an eye roll.
"Honestly. Grant me a little common sense, why don't you. The whole situation was resolved...adequately. And according to school rules."
"Really?" Gerald leaned forward, stroking his moustache. "That school has a kind of zero tolerance policy. I would have expected a call, at the very least."
"I...that wasn't necessary," Shadow hedged. "Someone testified on my behalf that it was self-defence."
"Oh, really?" Maria perked up. "Who? Have you made a friend, Shadow?"
"Well, he seems to think so, at any rate," the Ultimate Lifeform muttered under his breath, before facing his family again and sighing in defeat. "It's…Sonic the Hedgehog."
"Oh WOW!" Maria had jumped up in a (in Shadow's opinion) totally unnecessary show of amazement and was now staring at her grandfather with wide, enthusiastic eyes. "Grandpa, we totally should invite him for dinner as thanks!"
"Sonic the Hedgehog at the Robotnik household. That'll be the headline of the day," Gerald muttered but, like his creation, was largely ignored by the girl.
"Nonsense. It's not like they can seriously consider collective punishment for anything any family member of us did," she said, arms crossed in front of her chest. "Shadow, please ask him if he wants to come over tomorrow, okay?"
Shadow, not for the first time today, kind of looked like he had a tooth ache.
"...fine".
"Great. And that means we should look our best, too. We're inviting a national hero!"
Shadow pinched the skin above his nose. "Maria, that guy looks like a total hobo - "
But the girl had already leapt up from her chair. "I don't care! We're gonna get our hair done!" She grabbed Shadow's arm. "See you, grandpa!"
"Sure...see you..." Gerald muttered, also not for the first time vaguely wondering whether GUN had perhaps trained the wrong one of his two charges as a weapon for mass destruction.
xxx
Shadow, in fact, had never been to a barbershop or hair dresser's in his life. He had read about them, like he had read about most institutions in civilian existence, but visiting one was a new experience and not one he was that eager to have. (After all, after the kind of life he had lived, having people wield sharp implements near his head wasn't the sort of free time activity he actively sought out).
But Maria had not accepted any refusal on his part, which was why both were currently walking toward a shop she had specifically located and now wanted to try out. It was special in the way it admitted both humans and Sapients, aptly named The Affurmative Hairstylists (Shadow had almost turned around on the spot as he saw the sign.)
Nevertheless, Maria eventually succeeded in ushering him inside, and Shadow took in the interior of the shop, which at least looked somewhat like what he had come to expect from the illustrations in his picture books and scenes in TV shows. There were four chairs in front of mirrors, all currently unoccupied, as the sole other customer, an elderly ocelot, was just paying at the register manned by a middle-aged koala in a flowing purple dress, while a young human woman was sweeping up the cuts of his fur on the floor. The bell jingled as they entered and both hairdressers looked up.
"Oh," the koala said, looking at Shadow. "Oh dear."
The Ultimate Lifeform could basically feel his quills rising, but Maria was quick to step in front of him to defuse the situation.
"Yeaaah, it's been a while since we last saw a hairdresser's," she laughed. "Are you Ms Abby? I called for an appointment for two earlier today. Maria Kintobor?"
"Oh, right, that was you," the koala brightened up, not noticing Shadow's raised eye ridge at the name and ignoring Maria's muttered comment of 'I don't want to hear it, it's easier this way'.
"Well, alright then!" The koala stepped out from behind the register and gestured to the chairs. "Just take a seat and me and Lin will take care of you in a jiffy."
The other worker, a slim black-haired girl, gave them both a friendly nod as they were ushered into the chairs. Shadow noticed that the one that he was guided into seemed to be a slightly different model than Maria's – whereas his sister was swiftly bundled into the couch-like furniture and had a cloth draped around her that only let her head poke out, his chair looked slightly more like the one he had once seen at the dentist's aboard the ARK – and, even more worryingly, it also seemed to include stirrups.
Shadow gave the koala hairdresser a slightly disconcerted stare as he pointed at the thing.
"Uh...Maria told you that the second appointment was for a male, right...?"
"What...oh!" the koala started to laugh. "My, you really haven't been to a hairdresser's in a while, haven't you?"
"The stirrups are for Mobians who come in for full body treatments," the human woman – Lin – explained in a cheerful voice. "It makes it easier for us to work on the leg fur. I've actually been told it's quite relaxing to put your feet up there."
"Relaxing." Shadow repeated the word with all the reassurance of a man facing an urology appointment.
"Shadow, come on, quit squirming and sit down! I'm sure Ms Abby would like to start on you."
Shadow shot her a look. "Fine. But I am not getting in these – things."
"All in good time," the koala woman smiled, and then actually surprised Shadow slightly, because next, she started to get hair products out and wheel a mobile wash basin over to Maria. It seemed like contrary to Maria's assumptions the human woman was supposed to work on him while the Sapient would be taking care of her. Not sure whether that was a good sign or not, Shadow cautiously seated himself in the dentist-like chair, firmly resting his feet on the footrest board, not the stirrups. There was no head rest, so his quills stood out over the back of the chair and Lin moved to his side instantly, holding a plastic bottle shaped like a plant mister.
"Alright, I need to get your fur a bit damp so I can work with it, that's fine, right?"
"...sure," Shadow replied, even as he was eying the thing like a feral cat a waterhose, and also while he was trying to ignore his sister's very obvious giggles at his discomfort.
Mental Memo: Next time think twice about saving her life.
"Did you also want a de-quilling treatment?"
"A what?"
"A de-quilling. Don't look so scared, it's not that bad!" the human hairdresser obviously had to suppress a laugh at Shadow's spooked expression. "It's a common treatment for hedgehogs. It's about plucking out any old and dead quills on your back so new ones will grow back in faster. I know some guys have hang-ups about it really being a female thing, but in my experience it's a treatment enjoyed by everyone." She smiled. "So. De-quilling for you or just brushing up and polishing them?"
"Um. Just the...polishing, if you don't mind," Shadow managed, trying hard not to feel like an old shoe in need of a shining.
At least, the actual process turned out to be not quite as bad as he had been expecting. Whereas Maria's head hair was fully shampooed, washed, rinsed, toweled and then laid into all sorts of clamps before any sort of cutting could begin, Lin mostly sprayed down the area of his body she would work on (occasionally asking him to put an arm out into a similar stirrup for his wrist so she had full access to his limb) then brushed it into line, and used scissors and an electric razor to shorten and buzz around spots like the edge of that white patch of fluff on his chest or the outside of his elbow, where it had indeed been looking a bit frayed by now. After Lin had graciously complied when Shadow had chased her off the fur ridge on his right shoulder - 'Yeah, don't bother with that, that's never going to lie smoothly' – he even consented to lift first one, then the other leg into the damned stirrups. At least if he was alternating them it didn't feel like he was preparing to give birth (and, more importantly, would deny Maria the opportunity to snap a picture of him in a completely ridiculous position).
I really should start carrying a gun around for these occasions.
After a brief interlude, when Lin had straightened out the dentist-cum-barbershop chair into a stretcher, and asked Shadow to lie on his front, so she could work on his back (after the hedgehog had pointed out very firmly that anything below the belt was off limits for trimming – cue the collected female giggling in the shop...) and another, even briefer interlude (when Shadow had briefly yelped as the damned woman had apparently not counted his tail as the off-limits-area), he was now sitting in the chair again, while Lin had thankfully moved on to his quills, getting out the steel brushes and heavy-duty files for that job.
"Wow," the young woman commented after a few minutes of rasping noises, some strain evident in her voice. "These are really tough. I'd never have guessed, because your fur is as silky as anything," she said, briefly running a hand through the black pelt on his arm. "Such a beautiful coat..."
"I know, right?" Abby commented, looking over from where she was just busy holding up strands of Maria's hair and cutting it into even lengths. "I was really jealous when I saw it. Mind you," she let a few locks of Maria glide through her fingers, "His girlfriend has absolutely marvellous hair as well-" she began, but was immediately interrupted when Shadow sputtered and Maria choked.
"Er, she's not my-!"
"We're siblings!"
"Oh!" Abby exclaimed. "Oh, right. Sorry about that!" she gave an embarrassed laugh. "I just assumed..."
"Why would you think we're a couple?" Shadow asked, confused. Lin gave a bit of a lop-sided smile and waved the quill brush.
"Well...our shop is a bit of a sanctuary. I mean, it's still not too common for humans and Mobians to be out and about together, especially as boyfriend and girlfriend." She shrugged. "For some, it makes for a bit of a date opportunity, something to do together."
"Of course, we also get some friends that come here together, but that's mostly girls," Abby said, carefully parting Maria's hair in the middle and holding up a mirror for her to see. "But it's also great to get a family in here." She smiled at both of them. "Sometimes I think there's hope for this world yet."
"Well, I'd hope so," Maria replied conversationally, Shadow glad that he didn't have to participate in the small talk. Lin nodded.
"It can only get better, right? Please tell me if I hurt you, by the way," she told Shadow, who acknowledged the request with a nod and a suppressed snort. After all that he'd endured so far, a hairdresser would have to be extraordinarily inventive to somehow make a dent.
"If you don't mind me asking, does that mean that your parents are a mixed-species couple, too? Are you from around here?" Abby asked. "I'm sorry for being nosy, but I try to be really active in the integrational community centre and I don't think I've seen you anywhere before..."
"Oh, we only recently moved into town," Maria replied with a smile, obviously enjoying the normalcy of the conversation. "We live with my biological grandfather. Shadow goes to Station Square High."
"Oh yeah, that school is another great place!" Lin called, at the same time pulling a steel brush through Shadow's quills with a metal scream that almost drowned out the hair dryer. "Isn't that where Sonic the Hedgehog goes to school, too?!"
Shadow rolled his eyes. Of course. And Maria giggled.
It was about twenty minutes later that they were finished, Shadow (though he refused to admit it) indeed feeling somewhat sleeker, and Abby and Lin (now on a first name basis with Maria) waved them out, with another 'Bye! When you come by again, can you please bring back an autograph of Sonic?!' followed by another round of girl noises.
Xxx
"See? That wasn't so bad. But hah, oh man, never would have thought I'd get mistaken for your girlfriend, that's so wrong it's almost hilarious again," Maria shook her head, grinning. They had just left the shop and turned the corner, having decided to go for a circuit of the neighbourhood before returning home. "Kind of a strange idea to have your date at a hairdresser's as well, I suppose." She cocked her head. "Not like you would return there anyway for a date if you could help it, huh?" she grinned down at Shadow. "Even if you had someone to go with...or is there someone interested in you at your school?"
"What?" Shadow looked up with a blink as his brain took one, two moments to compute Maria's last phrase. "You mean...no! Gods, no." He ran a hand over his face. "I mean, well. Except Sticks. A jungle badger short a few coconuts." He looked at Maria slightly spooked. "But I'm still not sure whether she wants to get to know me or just hang my hide over her door. I told you, everyone at this school is off their collective rocker. Dating one of them would be like signing your own sequestration order."
"Hm. That's a shame." Maria replied, and Shadow looked up again as her tone actually sounded genuinely disappointed. His sister was currently not looking at him, only kicking a stone on the pavement along, looking in all aspects like there was something she wasn't sure whether she should tell him-
Shadow stopped dead.
"Wait. Do you mean you are-? Is there someone at that college that you-?"
"Weeeell..." Maria hedged a little, but then obviously couldn't help but let an abashed grin slide slowly over her face. "Do you remember that guy I told you about who took me out to lunch...?"
"Maria!" Shadow stared at her, looking almost comically scandalized. The blonde girl's expression turned slightly wryer.
"I'm fifteen, Shadow. I can start dating, if I want to." She crossed her arms. "And he only asked me out for coffee, not a foam orgy."
"But, but...at that college they're all older than you!" Shadow protested, reluctantly falling into step with his sister again as they continued on their way. Maria shrugged.
"Dexter is only eighteen." She shot him a pointed look. "And besides, as if we weren't mentally both more mature than our peers, and you know it."
"Hmph." Shadow grunted, averting his gaze. Maria was right, of course. He doubted that any of their friends at school or uni had been through as many life-or-death situations, witnessed killings, violence, military assaults, forced experiments and hospital stays with his sister almost dying from a cold like they had.
"...very well. I suppose you deserve a boyfriend after all that," Shadow admitted grudgingly. "I just wish it could be someone closer to your age."
"Technically, I'm nine years older than you, mister, and so are your classmates," Maria pointed out. "Fake birth certificate or not. Although," she said, tone changing suddenly as if something had all at once occurred to her, "if you want me to date closer to my age..." she pretended to consider. "Well, I suppose I could start picking you up from school and then go and hit on the human boys in your grade, obviously."
"You...you wouldn't...!" Shadow looked close to a heart attack at that mental image.
"Oh, I would," Maria gave him a bright grin. "And who knows, maybe I could even go after the sapients." She cocked her head, blinking innocently. "Say, does Sonic have a girlfriend yet?"
"DON'T you - ! That, that near drop-out, that hobo-hog - that – that is completely out of the question!" Shadow scrambled, while Maria was near bent-double with laughter at her brother's horrified reaction, a few pedestrians actually shooting them the occasional glance at their antics.
"That...that isn't funny," Shadow tried to calm himself down, while Maria was attempting to upright herself again, bracing one hand against the wall and wiping at her eyes with the other.
"It's a little bit funny," she replied, and, when her brother didn't seem inclined to stop scowling, nudged him. "Come on, Shadow, when have I ever shown the slightest bit of interest in sapients romantically? It was a joke."
"Hmph. Fine," Shadow resisted the urge to rub his temples. "So no going after Sonic the Hedgehog when I invite him for dinner?"
"No going after Sonic the Hedgehog when you invite him for dinner, I solemnly swear." Maria grinned at him. "As long as you get any ideas of controlling who I date out of your head. Dexter's nice, I promise."
"...fine. Conceded." Shadow sighed (truthfully, he hadn't intended to, anyway – among the various values of the Robotnik family like humanism, spirit of enlightenment and compassion that Gerald had done his best to drill into him, feminism had been one of them). "As long as you really don't go after that blue lunatic." Shadow looked away. "For one thing, Amy would kill you," he muttered under his breath.
"Who?" Maria blinked.
"Amy. Pink hedgehog." Shadow waved a hand. "She's my neighbour in home room and she seems to be a bit of a...vocal...fan of Sonic."
"So you are getting to know your classmates. Good for you!"
Maria grinned, Shadow shoved her, she laughed, and both friends continued on to explore the shopping streets without any incident but an ice cream on the way.
Perhaps, Shadow could almost think, life on Earth wasn't so bad after all...
xxx
This notion, of course, came to a grinding halt as they were on their way back to their house. As they passed the hair salon again, there were two police cars parked outside, the front window of the shop broken and a very distraught Lin and Abby talking to a policewoman outside, two more officers inside the salon, poking about.
Maria gasped, quickly crossing the street to hurry toward them.
"Oh chaos, Lin, Abby, are you alright? We were here just two hours ago! What happened?!"
The policewoman that had been talking to them, a regal-looking tigress, gave Maria and Shadow hurrying after her two quick, measuring once-overs.
"You were customers here today?" she then asked. "Did you notice anything unusual while you were here?"
"…not really, no." Maria shook her head. "What happened to the shop?"
"That's what we're trying to determine," the tigress replied earnestly. "And you, sir?"
Shadow, never having been addressed as 'sir' in his life, took a moment before he realized he had just been prompted to speak.
"Uh, no. I think we were the last customers before closing up, there wasn't anyone other than us there."
"Yeah, honestly, what kind of low-life would do this? Lin, Abby, did anyone try to hurt you?" Maria asked, her face creased in honest worry and agitation for the two women they had just met this afternoon. Shadow had the niggling thought that Amy might actually react the exact same and that he maybe would have to take careful steps that the two would never, ever, meet.
"No, we're alright, thank you," Lin said, an arm around the smaller Abby. "We actually did close up after you left and went home, we just got a call twenty minutes ago that someone had broken into the shop."
"But why? Why would anyone do that?" Maria repeated her question. "Did they steal anything?"
"We're not sure. We don't leave any cash in the store, we even have a sign that says that on the door," Lin said, pointing. "So far we only noticed they took the trash cans…"
"The trash cans?!"
"I know, right? Super weird," Abby said, rubbing her arms. "They didn't even try to break open the register or anything."
"That doesn't make sense," Maria shook her head, and then frowned. "But also…and I'm sorry, please don't take this the wrong way," she looked at the policewoman, "but if nothing important even was stolen, isn't this a lot of police presence for such a thing?"
"Maria," Shadow said quietly, not liking the way the tigress' eyes drew together, the officer obviously unhappy at a civilian questioning them, but Lin answered before she could.
"Well, mostly because our salon has been the target of hate crimes a couple times, so they're obligated to send more officers, specialists and diversity and such," Lin said, looking a bit sad at the memory. "Neither Mobian or human extremists are happy at our demonstratively inclusive policy."
"Huh," Shadow said, now his gaze flitting to the two officers working in the shop. One of them was indeed a human, and, judging by his matching uniform, the partner of the tiger woman. Next to him was a dog in a white overall, taking careful pictures of the scene as if someone had been murdered there. Now that he was paying attention, there were indeed some signs of vandalism present in the shop, chairs knocked over, flyers scattered on the floor and now he also noticed that the front window had been broken from the inside, glass shards lying in the pavement in front of it.
Abby nodded. "That was mostly just last year, though after Perfect Chaos had attacked the city. Segregationists on the human side were angry that Sonic the Hedgehog had caused so much collateral damage, segregationists on the Mobian side were angry that a human scientist unleashed Chaos in the first place. There's just so much stupid hate on both sides when what we really need to do is rebuild together." She sighed. "But I really thought it had calmed down now, there hasn't been any sort of open aggression against our shop in months. Guess you never know…"
They returned home soon after that, Abby and Lin having reassured Maria again that they were fine and the police would take care of the issue. The sun had gone down a while ago already and it was becoming colder, not summer yet.
Neither of them spoke much, Maria mostly looking unhappy and slightly grim at this new evidence of needless misery this society could apparently wreak upon itself completely without the help of their deranged cousin. After the happenings in his school, Shadow was of course less surprised, but he, too, was deep in thought. Something seemed weird about this break-in, and, like Abby and Lin had said, the loot didn't make much sense if it had been a burglary, and for a hate crime it had almost looked like too low-effort, as if the resident xenophobes in this city were so lazy they even half-assed their private Kristallnacht-attempts. But of course, after the last couple days (hell, after his life, if it came down to it) this could also be simple paranoia on his part, and he was imagining sinister things were there were none.
Still, after a subdued dinner Shadow only managed a fitful sleep, dreaming of robots and something invisible chasing him, but vanishing whenever he tried to retaliate, leaving him striking at mist and bats.
To be continued…
Heyhey, it took about a year, but that's life, I suppose? Hope you still read, still liked and if you read, please review! :D
(oh, and because some people wondered - the official ages for the characters in this story are:
Cream, Charmy - 6
Tails, Marine - 8
Sticks, Amy - 14
Sonic, Maria, Babylon Rogues - 15
Vector, Espio, Mighty - 16
"Rogue" - well, she's in senior year, so technically she should be 14-16...Shadow doesn't seem to be convinced, though ;p
Doctor Robotnik - 50
Gerald - 84
Shadow - technically 7, it does say 16 on his birth certificate, though)