Review Replies!
Guest: Thanks! :D It's a lot of fun writing about Shadow learning and discovering how the world and relationships work :)
Ashanti: I'm sure he meant to enquire about...tails. ;p
DEV: Aw, wieder vielen vielen Dank für den Mega-Kommentar! :D Ich glaube, Maria und Shadow hoffen *auch* darauf, dass Sonic das Zeug tatsächlich mag XD Maria und Shadow als ungleiches Paar und völlig gegen jegliche stereotype Erwartungen aller anderen Mobians (und Menschen!) zu schreiben macht tatsächlich echt Spaß und steht ihnen richtig gut, finde ich^^ Und jaaaaa, natürlich wird kein High School Klischee ausgelassen, ich *liebe* Tropes und hab das ganze High school genre als massives Guilty Pleasure. XD So viel emotional gebeutelte Teenager auf kleinstem Raum zusammenzupferchen macht einfach für fantastisches Drama ;p Verrätst du mir nach dem Kapitel wen du an der Tür erwartet hattest? :3
Falconess: The Mobian worldbuilding is crazy fun! Glad you like all the little details, hope you enjoy the dinner scene! :D
Guest: Oh gods he is INCREDIBLY useless XD But that's why we love him. Let's hope he'll get to show off what he's actually good at soon...
Destructor: Hahah, yeah, my...erratic...update schedule^^° But hope you like this one, thanks for commenting!
Guest: Thank you! I really love writing comedy :) And yeah, deep down I'm just an, uh, MASSIVE softie, so I kinda really wanted to give Shadow the chance to have a life with Maria, at least in an AU like this... glad you like their personalities! I had a lot of fun developing them how they could have turned out if these two had gotten the chance to spend their "teenage" years together as well. And no worries, as long as there is reviews I'll never abandon any fic! :p Please read on and enjoy!
Guest: Hah, glad you like! Homeschooling is rare in my country, but I often hang around in English-language forums where a lot of US people hang out as well - and surprise, homeschooled kids are usually quite fond of getting online and talking to other people about their life, so I learned about that idea :) Shadow strikes me as the type of guy who'd much prefer that method XD And no worries about updating times! This time it's only been...5 months? Oops. But hope you still like!
Guest: Aw, thank you :3 Please enjoy!
Guest: Glad you enjoy it! As for religious references, please note that on the Mobius that I write, the prevailing religion for Mobians is a belief in the force of Chaos and various gods who aren't the christian god. In one of Shadow's backstories ("Easter in Space") it even becomes VERY apparent how little Maria knows about Christianity - it wasn't something Gerald ever was particularly interested in teaching them about. As for the profanity, I always think it does add characterization and realism - which characters curse, when they curse etc will tell you something about their attitudes and temperament. Sonic, for example, you'll note, will curse when he's *really* ticked off, but never when Tails is around. Amy doesn't curse at all. The speciesist group with Myles curses a lot because they're trying to look cool and 'edgy', as bunches of jerks and bullies generally will. A school full of teenagers who never curse just seemed slightly too unrealistic, even in a universe full of talking animals! XD
Shadowfan: Here you go! :D
LoneGarurumon: Hahah, glad you like! It's amazing fun building up the differences and political stances between the species :3 Fortunately, not all Mobians and humans seem to resent each other! Hope you like the new chapter, let's read on and find out who's behind that door! Thanks again for the review :) As for the "timeline" between this and "Life Could Have Been So Different" - well, it's only a SEMI-sequel. So, in this fic ONLY the backstory aboard the ARK happened, and the frame story in Sonic's house where Tails dies didn't happen/will not happen. (Like, not saying Tails definitely won't die - gotta keep my reputation lol ;p - but right now everybody is very much alive and happy, so let's hope it stays that way ;) )
Guest: Wow, google translate ist...überraschend gut XD (surprisingly accurate!) Thanks a bunch for the review, danke danke! ;p
Guest: Hm, gotta read on to find out! Glad you like! :)
Recap! So, after Sonic helped Shadow in a scrape at school against the Babylon Rogues, testifying that he fought out of self-defence, Maria is now hell-bent on inviting Sonic and Tails for dinner as thanks! She's cooked up a flurry of...interesting...Mobian dishes and now the doorbell has just rung...
x
Chapter 11: Dinner and a Show
Shadow opened the door.
And stared at a zebra.
(At this point, it probably should be noted that this wasn't, in fact, a zebra neighbour come to say hello, or a zebra salesperson, or a zebra religious solicitor. Instead, the zebra Shadow was currently staring at was a feral one. And also lying on its back on the porch and dead.)
"What," Shadow managed very eloquently.
"H- hello!" The zebra squeaked.
Shadow slammed the door shut.
"HEY!"
"PROFESSOR?!" Shadow shouted, pressing his back against the door, "Was this house built on Native Tribal holy ground by any chance?!"
"It is ME, you dolt, open the door!"
Shadow paused. Something about that voice rang familiar.
Then he very, very carefully turned around and opened the door the tiniest crack, peering out.
"...do I know you?"
"Yeah, duh! We go to the same homeroom class!"
There was a very sudden feeling of dread in Shadow's stomach, because by now he also remembered where he had heard the voice before. Mostly when it had been screaming after squirrels.
"...Twigs?"
"It's STICKS!" an indignant, orange jungle badger head now popped up behind the dead feral zebra. The girl crossed her arms at him, frowning. "You're being awfully rude, you know. But I guess I can forgive you, since you're a weirdo government experiment and all."
Shadow thought his blood had just frozen. "...where did you hear this."
"I don't need to hear it from anywhere, it's obvious, isn't it?" Sticks tapped the side of her head. "Your aura is all weird and you're wearing prison shoes. You must be the product of a government conspiracy with aliens!"
"That is..." Shadow was currently looking at the dead zebra at his front door and the crazy (but accurate) person who had brought it for some reason and he very dearly wished for a moment he was back fighting for his life against artificial chaos creatures.
He tried to collect his thoughts. "Have...have you told anyone about this?" he asked, hoarsely.
"Well yeah, but they won't believe me!" Sticks looked at him, aggravated, but then seemed to relax again and smiled. "But I don't mind. It can be our little secret. Because..." and here she suddenly started to look a little bit nervous, and glanced around for a moment, before clambering up on the dead zebra's body to get closer to him. Shadow for his part was more than transfixed, leaning out of the front door, meeting gazes with the furtive-looking jungle badger, as she whispered:
"...because I like you. Will you go to prom with me?"
Shadow closed the door a second time.
"HEY!"
"What! The Hell!" Shadow opened the door again, shouting at Sticks absolutely flabberghasted.
The girl didn't seem fazed in the least, now sitting on the zebra carcass with her arms crossed and looking at him imperiously.
"I like you. Even if you are a freak experiment alien secret government pact product. So I got you a gift. This is courting," she nodded sagely. "Didn't they teach you that at the secret goverment alien space station lab?"
"You got me a dead zebra. As a gift." Shadow repeated incredulously.
"Of course. I need to show you my hunting prowess to prove a worthy mate. You never noticed any of my traps at school!" she said, looking at him reproachfully.
"Why is this my life," Shadow muttered.
"So...will you go to prom with me?"
"No!"
"Hmm. Fine. I guess I'll need to impress you more." Sticks narrowed her eyes. "You are really high-maintenance, you know that?"
"I'm not - I don't - take this zebra back where it came from!"
"I can't take back a gift, dummy!" Sticks looked at him like an affectionate teacher might regard a slow student. "No, keep it. I'll hunt you something else. And you're going to be my secret special alien conspiracy lab boyfriend!"
So saying, she slid off the carcass and smiled, blowing him one last kiss before disappearing off into the night.
Shadow stared down at the dead zebra still lying there. With Sonic and Tails arriving any minute now.
With Maria alternatively freaking and geeking out about this dinner already, he wasn't even sure whether she'd have a fit or use it as a center piece.
"Shadow?!" Her voice was calling down at this point. "Is it the guests? I'll be down any minute, I swear, I'm sorry!"
"Er, no!" He called back up, roused from his slight state of shock, instead feeling a very rare urge to make his sister share his misery. "It wasn't. It was, in fact, a dead zebra delivery."
"It was a what?!" Now Maria did apppear at the gallery, make-up half done and hair still a bit damp, eyes wide and uncomprehending.
"I have told you how all my classmates are insane, yes?" Shadow asked flatly, looking up at her. "This right now was that Sticks girl. Apparently this is how she is trying to ask me out."
"Oh. Uh. That is...sweet?" Maria, for her credit, at least had the grace to look a bit overtaxed with the current situation. "And, um. Horrifying."
"Now you admit it," Shadow muttered. "Now what am I supposed to do with this?"
"How…how did she even carry the zebra? And where did it come from?" Maria asked, descending the staircase a bit, still staring.
Shadow shrugged. "I have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised if her special power is operating on cartoon logic."
"Well, oh gods." Maria ran her hands through her hair. "Our guests are going to be here any minute now. Can you...can you hide it in the back yard?!"
Shadow frowned, "Well, yes, but –"
"Then do it! Quick before they get here! I still need to do my hair, oh gods...!" Maria gestured urgently before running back upstairs again and slamming her door.
Shadow stared after her for another beat, before calmly imagining burning the city to the ground for a moment and then sighed, lifting the zebra corpse over his head and carrying it past the dinner table and out the back door. He had just dumped it behind the shed when the door bell rang for a second time.
He turned and went to get it, at least certain that the evening could only perk up from here.
xxx
"Hey! Oh WOW, everything's huge in here! You really do live with humans, dude."
Shadow blinked, feeling his face scrunch up in a small frown as he looked at (thankfully, this time really) Sonic, who was currently gazing past Shadow in the doorway at the visible furniture and fixings in the front room and the kitchen with some obvious bemusement. For his part, the blue hedgehog didn't look any different than when he had seen him at school a few hours ago, Tails poking out shyly and giving a little wave behind him. Shadow tried not to frown.
"…yes, I do. You know that. I told you."
"Yeah, I know, I know, but seeing them at school or going to one of their public buildings is one thing. Being in a house where they actually live, like, actual people, is another," Sonic said, striding inside past Shadow and gazing around, before turning and giving Shadow a big grin. "Do they really wear clothes all the time?"
"What – yes, they do!" Shadow defended himself, feeling absurdly embarrassed by the idea that they didn't, even though he didn't, but - why did Maria have to invite them?!
(Tails, for his part, striding in after Sonic, at least mostly made a 'I'm so sorry' face as he trailed after his older brother.)
"Really? Man, that sounds so impractical," Sonic shook his head and laughed. "So, where is-?"
"Ah! Hi! I'm sorry for being late, hello!" there was a clatter of footsteps on the stairs and Maria came hurrying down into the kitchen, wearing what Shadow recognized as the brand new (slightly more form-fitting) light blue dress she had bought only a couple of days ago, smiling brightly at Sonic and Tails and extending a hand to the former. "I'm Maria, Shadow's sister. It's an honour to meet you!" she said (ignoring Shadow's 'Not that much of an honour' muttered comment in the background).
"Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. Thanks for inviting us over," Sonic said, shaking her hand in turn. "Nice digs you've got here. Pretty large."
"Thank you! And yeah, we're still settling in ourselves, we only moved in a week ago," Maria smiled at him, before looking over to their second visitor. "And you must be Tails, right?"
"Ah. Yeah. Hi," the fox kit looked up at her, a bit shy. "I hope you don't mind another mouth to feed."
"Nonono, that's fine! I actually read about what you did with that artificially created Chaos Emerald during that attack with Perfect Chaos last year, and I would love to ask you some questions – like, did you use a crystallogenic process or did you try a chaoenergetic precipitation technique for the synthetization and if yes, what catalyst-?"
"Maria, how about you let our guests at least sit down before you pounce? Poor boy looks a bit overwhelmed at your attention," Gerald, ascending from the second staircase interrupted the wordflow of his grandchild gently, before also extending a hand to his visitors.
"Hello. I'm Professor Gerald Robotnik, Shadow's…guardian. You must be Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles Prower."
"Last time I checked, yeah. Nice to meet you," Sonic replied with a grin, not showing if he had noticed Gerald's brief hesitation at his word choice for his relation to Shadow. "And don't worry about Tails here," he jerked a thumb at his younger brother who was still staring speechlessly at Maria. "He's not overwhelmed, he's just gone into geek overload, I think. He'll have rebooted in a minute and then there'll be no stopping him. Yo, kiddo," he elbowed the kit in the side. "I realize you're in nerd heaven, but how about we go in, first? Sit down at the table like civilized guests?"
"Ah, yes, of course!" Maria snapped to attention. "Sorry, how rude of us! Please come in and sit down, dinner's already on the table! We have three seats with booster cushions prepared, I hope that's fine…" she gestured, leading the way toward the kitchen table.
"Sonic, she…she knows about crystallogenesis…" Tails was currently whispering fiercely at his older brother, blue eyes wide as they were walking past Shadow into the kitchen. The blue hedgehog laughed.
"Yeah, she does. Interesting sis you've got there, Shads. And not just 'cause she's five feet tall."
"She does have her peculiarities," Shadow replied neutrally before following the troupe toward the table where Sonic and Tails were already climbing onto the chairs.
"Sooo, I hope you'll like the food, I really tried my best," Maria said, gesturing to the spread. "I looked up everything about your culture that I could!"
"Uh." Sonic stared for a moment at the dishes on the table, impression unreadable. "Are those…slugs? And…crickets? Is that…the food for us?"
"Oh. Um, yes? I mean, I read that you…people like that, and-" Maria now started to look a bit fumbling, her smile becoming insecure, Shadow's heart clenching up, feeling a rising fear that Sonic would hurt his sister with what he said next, a rising fury if he did, even if she did miscalculate with the ethnic food, she meant well and -
"Holy Chaos, awesome! I haven't had any in ages! Where did you get those?!" Sonic broke out in a broad grin, immediately stealing one of the black slimy slugs and flicking it into his mouth with relish. "Dude, they taste amazing!"
"Really?! I'm so glad you like it!" Maria said, relief spreading over her face in a broad smile (while Shadow's dread/fury had been abruptly replaced with nausea at the sight of the gastropod disappearing into Sonic's mouth, spilling a bit of yellowish pus-like fluid on his lip as he bit down. He had so been created as the wrong species.) "I looked up all the marinade recipes on hedgehog cooking blogs I could. And on fox ones, too," she added with a smile at Tails, pointing toward two other dishes, one of which Shadow was sure actually contained bits of fur along with the half-raw meat in it.
Shadow was pretty sure that if he threw up now, Maria would never forgive him for it.
(Gerald, for his part, sat at the table with the air of a man who had had cut open one sheep's brain too many during his neuroscience studies to be fazed by this, but looked definitely a bit uncertain of what to make of what looked like the remnants of a vivisection on his dinner table)
"Oh wow, that is so cool," Tails breathed, gaze almost hypnotized by what looked like the love child of a deer carcass and a shredder, "Sonic hates cooking, at home we never have anything like this, only takeaway and hot pockets!"
"Wha – Tails!" Sonic, (who had just been reaching for his third slug) gave the kit a scandalized look. Tails only shrugged.
"What? They're not the CPS, Sonic," he pointed out sagely. "They can know how bad our eating is."
"I try to make you eat veggies," Sonic pointed out sourly. "You just don't."
"Uh, yeah, that's because they're gross," Tails replied, sounding as if Sonic for some reason was a bit slow. "You should try to cook amazing food, like Maria," he added, grinning at Shadow's sister who broke into a smile at the praise.
"Chaos, gimme strength," Sonic muttered, and Shadow, curiously, thought that this dinner might even not go that badly.
xxx
A while later, when everyone had already started to dig in (Sonic and Tails enthusiastically gorging themselves on the sapient food while Shadow more gingerly stuck to the human fare Maria had prepared for herself and Gerald) and the conversation had been going a bit easier, ranging from the topic of school prom ('Oh my gods, Shadow, there is going to be a prom?! We'll have to go shopping for a suit jacket for you, this will be amazing-!' – 'Thank you. Thank you very much for telling her, Sonic.') to Maria thanking Sonic once again for his assistance in Shadow's schoolyard scrap (''Ah no worries, that's fine. Shads here could actually hold his own fairly well.' – 'Shads? You have a nickname at school, Shadow? That is so cool!') Shadow was forced to remedy that judgement.
"I do not have a nickname. I refuse to have a nickname." Shadow glared at most of the table, but especially at Sonic, who seemed to find the subject highly amusing.
"Aw, don't," Maria pleaded. "I think it's incredibly cute!"
"Maria, I am the Ultimate-" Shadow broke himself off just in time as he caught Gerald's warning glance, and instead just settled for pinching the skin above his eyes. "I mean, I'm not cute."
"Uh, yeah," Sonic interjected with a grin. "Word of advice, buddy: don't argue with teenage girls on that front. Trust me, there's battles a hedgehog can't win."
"Yeah, don't feel bad about it," Tails also piped up, "I mean, I like 'Tails' a lot more than 'Miles Prower' and Sonic's real name is actually Olgilvie Maurice the Hedgehog, so-"
"Tails!"
xxx
Another ten minutes later (when Maria had stopped laughing, Tails had been threatened with losing dessert privileges for a week, and even Shadow had had to admit that watching the 'world-reknowned hero Sonic the Hedgehog' having trouble wrangling a single fox kid was kind of gratifiying) the conversation had finally started to return to more normal topics like the general climate of Station Square High and was about to peter out a bit when…
"So, did you…did you really grow up in space?" Tails asked with wide eyes. "On the space colony ARK? I read about you on Wikipedia," he added toward Gerald with a shy nod as an explanation. "Sorry, I hope that was okay. Because I really meant to ask-"
"Uh," Gerald began, all three members of the Robotnik family exchanging abruptly worried glances with each other, this not being a direction the talk could take without it becoming dangerous, but then-
" -do you really have the same bone density and skeletal measurements as people growing up normally? After such prolonged exposure to non-standard gravity, especially in a period of rapid growth? Only because I'm really interested in extended space-flight," Tails asked, eyes rapt with curiosity. (At this, Sonic seemed to be one looking faintly apologetic for his brother's behavior, but if he noticed the almost immediate slacking with relief of the three other people at the table, he didn't show it.)
Maria was the first to recover. "…actually, yes. I dunno whether you've read that the ARK was one of the first Bernoulli sphere space colonies and therefore had a field of artificial gravity generated by a mixture of centrifugal force and tractor beam devices generating-"
"-standard graviton particles and also an inertial damping field to minimize motion shock, yeah yeah yeah," Tails waved her off excitedly, "but I read a study recently that said that organic tissue absorbs gravitons at varying rates which means that bone joints in traditional art-grav environments will actually be impacted differently depending-"
"Oh gods, was that that study by that hack Bernenthal?" now it was Maria interrupting the fox kit again, "Well, let me tell you what this guy still hasn't understood about field fluctuations-"
Sonic (as well as the rest of the table) gave a slow look toward Maria and Tails.
"I…I think we lost them." Sonic finally said.
"We…might have," Shadow admitted. "They seem to be having fun, though."
"Heh, yeah. I'm usually glad when Tails finds someone who can actually keep up with even half of what he says when he gets into science. Not exactly my specialty," Sonic replied easily, once again freely admitting to a lack of academical knowledge and aptitude in a way that was fairly mind-boggling to Shadow who had mostly grown up desperately trying to keep up with an adopted family of people who discussed quantum theory for breakfast. Sonic absent-mindedly scraped at his plate. "Though I guess with you guys it runs in the family, right? I mean, I'm extrapolating what with Shads calling you 'professor' all the time," he added toward Gerald, "but…"
"Ah. Yes," Gerald said, leaning forward a bit with the air of a man facing a firing squad. "Genius does tend to run in the Robotnik family." He paused. "In some cases, of course, unfortunately so."
"You mean…Eggman?" Shadow's (and the others' gazes) turned over to Tails, who had stopped his private conversation with Maria, perhaps at the mention of the Robotnik name.
"Egg…what?" Gerald looked at him, momentarily confused. "You mean my grandson, Ivo?"
"Hey, don't look at us like that," Sonic held up his hands. "Your relative is the one who insists on calling all his inventions the Eggwhatever. I mean, we just finished dealing with the friggin Eggwhisk this Monday on Prison Island-"
"The….Egg-Whisk?" Gerald repeated the name, now once again looking somewhat queasy at this new information about his grandson's peculiarities.
"This Monday?" Shadow asked instead, honing in on a for him far more interesting piece of information. "Was that what made you come to school hurt on Tuesday?"
"Uh…yeah," Sonic looked at him, apparently a bit taken aback by Shadow's intensity. "Nothing too bad, though. I mean, I heal quickly. And the Eggwhisk really wasn't one of his better ideas."
"And then…what?" Shadow asked, curiosity burning. To think the man that had besmirched his family's name had been so close and he hadn't even known about it! "Where is he now? Where did he go?!"
"Shadow," Gerald's voice interrupted his questions sharply and Shadow flinched at the reprimanding tone.
Sonic waved him off, though. "No, no worries, it's fine. I mean, he's your, uh, grandson, right? So…"
"Yes. And I apologize for what he did to you, for what it's worth," Gerald said, sounding bitter. "And for Shadow's impolite questions. I realize this might not be an easy subject…"
"Eh, it's alright," Sonic gave a somewhat lop-sided smile. "If I didn't wanna deal with him, I wouldn't. No hard feelings for your family." He turned to Shadow. "As for your question, though, sorry, no idea where he always crawls off to. I think he's got multiple hide-outs or something…"
"Then why don't you deal with him so he can't 'crawl off'?" Shadow asked, perhaps more sharply than he had intended, but he could feel the irritation rising inside himself. This was the man responsible for Maria feeling ashamed of using her family's name in public, and this hedgehog was treating what he did like some…entertaining diversion?!
"Uh…" now Sonic looked at him in slight surprise, his smile sliding from his face at Shadow's glare, but before he could reply –
"Shadow! This is not adequate dinner conversation!" Gerald barked at him, loudly, and Shadow's head snapped around, respect for his creator and indignation warring within him,
"But-!" he began, ready to argue that this was beyond idiotic to dance around the subject, that they should all stop acting like children who couldn't see that this man needed to be dealt with, but before he could actually say it, his gaze fell upon the single person on the table who hadn't actually said anything yet, and his mouth snapped shut.
Maria was staring down at the table, at her uneaten food, and her eyes were glistening in the way they did when she was trying to fight tears.
"…no. You're right. I shouldn't have brought it up," Shadow said, swallowing and dropping his gaze down to the table. He could ask Sonic about it some other time. It didn't have to be at an evening Maria would have liked to enjoy.
Of course this meant he would now have to change the topic somehow.
"Erm, so," Shadow said, raising his head to look back at Sonic who was still staring at him warily. "So you, uh, really like slugs, huh?!"
To be continued…
There you go, Happy Thanksgiving! Maybe without leeches ;) Hope you enjoyed, and if you read, please review! :) Would love to hear your thoughts!