Anonymous Review Replies!
jewelcrab: hahah, yeah, believe it, I've experienced my own fair share of family bickering with my own folks, so I had some *great* experiences to draw from for this chapter XD Ah, and what could Robotnik be planning indeed...? :p Thanks for your absolutely lovely review, please enjoy the update! :)
LoneGarurumon: oh boy do they EVER. Nothing good ever happens before 11 am (except for meeting SonicMan of course. He is one of the best things about that entire game XD). Glad you liked the Robotnik family :D And as for a meeting of Shadow and a certain echidna...weeell, Shadow might be just about to find out how a fight might go ;p Thanks again for that thoughtful review, hope you like the new chapter!
Guest: hahah, thank you! I was worried the family scene might be less interesting than the stuff with the canon characters but apparently not, happy to hear it :D
DEV: Eh, es hätte wohl schlimmer sein können...irgendwie jedenfalls XD Es ist natürlich auch sein Pech, dass er in einer Fanfic von einer komplett Sonic-besessenen Autorin feststeckt ;p Und jupp, als ich Hope zum ersten Mal gesehen hab vor Jahren dachte ich glaube ich schon, dass ich die hier irgendwo unterbringen kann :) Robotniks backstory...yeeeah, Gerald hat so eine Tendenz, zwar insgesamt Gutes zu wollen, aber zwischendurch echt SO FATALE Entscheidungen zu treffen, wundert mich irgendwie fast gar nicht, dass sowas dabei rauskam^^; Mal schauen, was bei einem Treffen zwischen den beiden passiert...freut mich auf jeden Fall total, dass die inner-familiären Spannungen bei den Robotniks so gut ankamen und auch interessant zu lesen waren :D Und was Shadow und sein Aufeinandertreffen mit einem gewissen Emerald Hüter angeht...siehe Kapiteltitel XD Wie immer vielen vielen Dank für den fantastischen Kommentar und hoffe, das neue Kapitel erfüllt alle Erwartungen! :D
Chapter 14: Enter the Fist
It didn't take Shadow long to reach the city limits.
From his limited knowledge of geography, he knew Soleanna bordered on an ocean on its west side, so he had headed there and then made his way north along the coast line. The flying island that had crashed into the sea had to be somewhere up here and it had sounded like it should be visible from the coast...
There.
Shadow stopped abruptly on top of one of tall, white and broad cliffs that bordered the seaside at this current stretch of coast. There, about thirty miles out from the rocks below, was indeed an island in the ocean that bore an uncanny resemblance to the depiction in his history book. The mountains atop it had the same general shape at least, he thought, heart beating faster in excitement. Only...
"How the hell am I supposed to get there?" Shadow asked no one in particular.
Surrounding him was literally nothing but forests and nature. No fishing town where one could charter a boat or anything (and from what money? a voice in his head asked) and Shadow could feel the frustration creeping up in his throat. Sure, he could try whether his rocket skates enabled him to hover across the water surface, but...
Shadow looked down at the very long drop toward the rocks at the bottom of the cliff where the waves were coalescing into white foam as they beat against them. Now, being the Ultimate Lifeform, he was fairly sure he would survive the drop down even if he jumped and crashed into the water instead of being able to skate atop it, and he also knew that drowning couldn't actually kill him, but he also knew that he really, really wouldn't enjoy the next couple of hours if he had to spend them in what basically amounted to a washing machine with rocks in it.
Chaos dammit.
Shadow growled in his throat. A possible way to get his hands on a Chaos Emerald was right in front of him, only, much like any information about Ivo Robotnik's business on Prison Island, it was unreachable unless he literally walked across water.
Could he skate across water?
Well, the best way to find out would be to find a body of water where he'd be able to try that without injury if it failed, so either a lake or a shore with a shallow beach. Meaning, he would need to go down south again where the coastline had been less steep - maybe through the forest this time, in case there was a body of water for experimentation there.
A little while later, Shadow slowed down curiously as the forest had become littered in some spaces with what looked like ruins of a previous civilization. He paused at one such stone platform and took a deep breath. The solitude out here actually was quite calming. No one here but –
"Oh, come on, come on, there's gotta be something here…or here…."
"Hello?"
"AGH!" The hedgehog who had appeared at the edge of Shadow's clearing, apparently muttering to himself, jumped at least a foot in the air as Shadow spoke. And then Shadow recognized him.
"…Mr. Silver?"
"Wha - What are you doing here?!" the silver-furred substitute teacher stared at Shadow with wide, golden eyes for a moment as if the black hedgehog was an apparition. Shadow's frown deepened.
"…I am visiting my sister's family in Soleanna. What are you doing here?" he hedged. He wasn't quite sure if one was supposed to talk that way to one's teachers, but then the silver hedgehog hardly looked older than his students, so for Shadow it was a bit hard to feel any particular deference.
"Your sister's – oh, of course. I'm glad at least someone gets some benefits out of this crazy reality," Mr Silver muttered something that sounded like nonsense to Shadow's ears (that he also wasn't quite sure the other had intended for him to hear – his sense of hearing, he knew, exceeded most people's expectations). Louder the other hedgehog said, "I am looking for a portal back home, and I'd like to get on with it, thank you very much."
"A…what?" Shadow asked, looking at the silver hedgehog in confusion. "I don't-"
"No, of course you don't understand." Mr Silver muttered bitterly. "Look, Sonic set Soleanna on fire and I need to prevent it, okay?!"
There was a bit of pause as Shadow tried to parse that sentence.
Then:
"Okay, I'm not saying he wouldn't do that accidentally," Shadow began, carefully, and then pointed, "but the city is literally right there.".
"Yes! But it shouldn't be!"
"…right," Shadow managed, now edging away carefully. "I…I think I'll be going now."
"Yeah. You do that," Mr Silver groaned. "Try…try and don't create any monsters from your shadow while you're at it. Fuck."
Shadow made it back to Maria's house very quickly after that, and hoped she would heed his warning to never go into any forests of the city without him because the crazy on this planet was literally everywhere.
xxx
Or rather, that was what he planned to do later, anyhow. So far, the route through the forest hadn't yielded any useful bodies of water, which meant that he was already halfway back to Soleanna where the coastline had sloped more gently into the ocean, he remembered -
Something pinged on his senses and Shadow internally froze.
Was that…Chaos Energy?! He abruptly shifted his weight backwards, the jets on his skates flaring as he slowed, then stopped. He narrowed his eyes at the small patch of trees he'd just rushed past – but there was no denying it, there was some sort of concentration of Chaos Energy in there, and not one like Shadow had ever felt before…
"Hello?" he called out, but really only half-heartedly – no one seemed to be here, and if there was, Shadow wasn't sure whether he'd actually want to give them a heads-up he was coming.
Then he shook his head. There were no witnesses here. No school teachers, no rules. It didn't matter whether he gave anyone a heads-up he was coming, because like this, there was no one on Earth who could match him.
Shadow turned and walked straight into the forest.
xxx
How strange…I'm definitely getting closer to the source, but I still have no idea what it is.
Shadow was making his way carefully, but determinedly through the small patch of forest, following the tingle of Chaos Energy emanating from some point within, teasing him with its familiarity and unfamiliarity at the same time. Finally, he emerged from the trees onto a rocky patch of grass on the edge of another cliff and saw the source.
"…huh?"
Shadow blinked, a bit nonplussed. At the center of the grass patch, lying there like it was the most natural place in the world for it, lay a green jewel, faintly glowing from within.
And emanating Chaos Energy like crazy.
"Okay…" curiosity for a moment taking over, Shadow detached himself from the edge of the trees and strode directly over to the fist-sized piece of…emerald?, picking it up and turning it over.
It felt warm and strange in his hand, the Chaos energy inside it gently pulsing. Shadow still wasn't quite sure what it was exactly, but he could feel excitement inside himself rising – this had to be at least some sort of Chaos crystal, if not a proper Chaos Emerald. Something that might enable him to teleport straight to Prison Island, or maybe even straight to Maria's cousin…
Shadow shifted his grip on the stone, and tried to recall the feeling of when he had used Chaos Control once, with Maria's fake Emerald aboard the ARK.
Chaos Control…Shadow closed his eyes, trying to focus. He had been able to draw the energy of the Chaos field surrounding him into the Emerald back then, fashion it into a burning surge inside, a power spike brutal enough to pierce the spacetime continuum, drawing him with it by ripping the atoms of his being to shreds - Shadow frowned.
No, something wasn't working here. He opened his eyes again, turning the Emerald piece over in his hands, eyes narrowing down at it. Something was off. The thing wasn't cut in the proper diamond shape Maria's fake Chaos Emerald had been and as a result, trying to draw in any Chaos energy around it just made it feel weirdly unbalanced. He was also barely able to focus it inside the crystal, the energy leaking out again through any facets he wasn't currently paying attention to. The entire exercise just felt like it would give him a headache before too long, so Shadow stopped, giving a small frustrated growl at the thing.
But if you couldn't use it for Chaos techniques, then what was it? The way it was shaped it didn't seem like a naturally grown Chaos Crystal (if that existed) but maybe…more like a piece or a shard of something bigger…
"Hey! Where did you get that?!"
Shadow's head flew up, the Ultimate Lifeform for once utterly startled by someone he hadn't heard approaching. (It had to be because he'd been so focused on the Emerald shard. No one could be that quiet.) He narrowed red eyes at the newcomer to the cliff's edge.
Unsurprisingly at this point, it was another sapient (and what was up with that, anyway? Wasn't this area supposedly populated by humans?), a male about Shadow's height and physical age, but…somehow looking similar to but not quite like the hedgehogs he knew and had been designed after.
The shoulders of the other were broader, his eyes more slanted and his fur bright red with a white half moon patch across his collar bones. Also, the spines on his head didn't stand up but were also longer than Amy's, hanging down not unlike…dreadlocks?
Shadow frowned. "Who the hell are you? Some kind of Jamaican hedgehog species?"
For some reason, he got the impression the other briefly wanted to murder him on the spot.
But then the sapient seemed to calm himself again, now only glaring at Shadow as he spoke.
"My name is Knuckles. I'm an echidna. And I'm asking you where you got that shard."
He took a step forward as he spoke and Shadow had to keep the surprise from showing on his face as he noticed the sharp spikes on the back of the other's hands. Clearly, the name 'Knuckles' had been given for a reason.
"I found it right here," Shadow replied, glaring back and refusing to give way to the other's advance. Useless for Chaos Control the thing might be, but that didn't mean Maria wouldn't still be over the moon if he brought it back to her. Also, this wasn't the school. This wasn't even the city. If some rando dreadlock forest hobo wanted to go at it, Shadow would gladly oblige.
"Damn. So they scattered even further than I feared," the rando dreadlock forest hobo muttered apparently to himself, but then looked at Shadow again and held out a hand.
"Okay. Hand it over."
Shadow raised an eye ridge. "And why on Earth would I do that?"
"Because this shard is my property, and it is my sacred duty to protect it," Knuckles said, once again advancing until they were only a couple of feet apart. "Keep it and it will make you a thief." So saying, he balled one of his massive hands into a fist, raising it between them. "And a really stupid one at that."
And finally, finally, Shadow could feel a grin creeping up on his face. This was exactly what he had been hoping for.
"You know," he said, casually storing the shard in his quills, "I should really tell you that I don't react well to threats."
And then he was already throwing a punch, Chaos howling in his veins like a beast finally unleashed.
Xxx
Even as he was really chafing for a fight, Shadow knew, logically, that killing was a no-go. As such, he was still carefully controlling the amount of Chaos energy he was augmenting his punch with, only a trickle of it running through his arm and surrounding his fist. His idea was to hit the other guy in the stomach hard, let him fly backwards onto his tail for a foot or two, just get him to abandon the idea of trying to intimidate someone who was technically a WMD in his spare time. The echidna looked trained and tough, too - one hard punch shouldn't hurt him too badly, but take any fighting spirit out of him.
Shadow's fist impacted on the echidna's stomach and it was like hitting a brick wall.
He looked up into the echidna's face.
"A kid with powers, huh?" the other asked. "Well then."
Shadow barely dodged the punch that was thrown at his face after, eyes widening as it instead hit the tree behind him, breaking the trunk in half. He whirled around, staring at his opponent as he tried to re-assess the threat level.
"…not without powers yourself, I see," he managed, trying to keep the surprise out of his voice.
"No," Knuckles replied curtly, and then was already charging forwards, this time actually managing to graze Shadow's ribs with a second fist thrown with surprising speed. Shadow gasped as the point of one of the spikes on the other's fist tore through his fur and across his skin, probably drawing a bit of blood. He managed to twist his hips, bringing one leg up in a furious retaliatory kick but the other blocked it, Shadow's foot only connecting with an open, unmovable palm. Knuckles tried to grab his leg after that, but Shadow was faster, dancing backwards again to come to stand opposite the echidna, just out of reach.
"Wanna end this and just hand me the shard?" Knuckles asked, hand outstretched, seemingly barely fazed by either Shadow's attack or his movement. Red eyes narrowed at the echidna, assessing. Judging by the power it would have taken to tear that tree in half, Knuckles was perhaps stronger than Shadow when it came to purely physical attacks; the Chaos crystal Shadow held wasn't going to help him harness any Chaos techniques like a Spear or a Blast. This fight could be a problem.
Shadow smirked. "Like hell I will."
Knuckles didn't bother to reply; instead he shot forward again, wordlessly accepting the challenge. Shadow dodged one punch but didn't quite manage to evade the next, the spikes on the other's balled fist this time grazing his cheek in a red hot streak of pain.
Shadow whirled around as Knuckles passed him, leg outstretched to hit the other with the heel of his foot in his back. And yeah, the other guy wasn't a hedgehog after all - Knuckles gasped in pain as Shadow's kick connected, no back spikes cushioning the impact of the hover skate's metal heel as it smashed into his spine.
"Guh!" Knuckles gave a wordless, choked cry as the breath was driven from him, stumbling forward but catching himself impressively quickly, head twisting to face Shadow again, teeth bared and eyes wild.
"Thought again about attacking me?" Shadow asked, unable to keep the smirk off his face despite the motion pulling at the cut the other had given him. Knuckles coughed, a few speckles of blood spattering on his lip that he wiped off with his glove, already tainted red by the blood from Shadow's face. Shadow pulled the Emerald piece from his quills, tossing it once in his hands for taunting purposes, enjoying this. "You're strong, but I'm fast. I doubt you ever had to deal with someone capable of running rings around you."
For some reason, the echidna seemed to give him suddenly the flattest of stares.
"You'd be surprised," was then all he said, before already leaping forward, burrowing into the ground and disappearing into it as if it were water.
What-?! was all Shadow managed mentally, for a second just staring at the earth mound where Knuckles had disappeared, but before he could do anything else, there was a rumble beneath his feet and a split-second later a spiked fist drove into his stomach so hard his entire vision turned black.
The second impact, mainly that of his body hitting a tree on the other side of the clearing from the force of the blow, almost didn't hurt as badly in comparison.
Ugh…ah, what the hell-?
Shadow was lying on his side on the ground, vision coming back in flickering spurts as he tried to keep himself from vomiting. His midsection felt like one giant bruise and he briefly wondered if it was possible for his quills to somehow be broken.
From his vantage point three inches above the ground he could clearly see the shard still lying where he had dropped it as he had been punched. Instinctively, he tried to stretch out a hand toward it, but then flinched as one of the red-and-yellow weird shoes of the other stomped down in between his fingers and the gem, as clear a warning as any.
"Wha- how are you still conscious?" the echidna seemed genuinely baffled for a moment, before immediately balling his hand into a fist again. Looking down at Shadow, his eyes narrowed. "Stay. Down. I don't want to seriously harm you, but I will if I have to. You're lucky I don't attack opponents when they're down," he said, before abruptly turning around and stalking over to the crystal shard, picking it up and examining it critically for damage.
"Well, if that isn't the stupidest strategy I've ever heard," Shadow couldn't help but grit out between his teeth, taking some satisfaction in how the echidna's head at least snapped back around to glare at him. By now, Shadow thought the most long-lasting damage in this fight had likely been dealt to his pride, but he wasn't kidding himself that he'd be able to get up and fight within the next ten minutes. There still was one possibility...the Chaos crackling underneath his skin, even without an Emerald for focus able to be harnessed into a Chaos Spear which he could hurl...
But that might kill him. Shadow narrowed his eyes, conflicting desires warring within him. That was his piece of Emerald the other was taking -!
But he also spared your life when he could have just as easily punched your skull in just now, a voice in his head (curiously sounding a little bit like Maria) pointed out and Shadow growled.
Reaching a decision, he at least managed to pull himself up into a halfway upright position against a tree, trying to convince his bruised ribcage to expand enough for him to call out.
"H-hey!" he managed, coughing a little as Knuckles turned around, apparently finished with his examination of the shard - seeing Shadow already moving around again seemed to startle him anew, even if he tried to play it off with a deliberately even tone.
"What?" he asked flatly. "If you want to go another round, I have places to be."
"You said you were the rightful owner of that crystal?" Shadow asked, managing at least a scoff. "Why should I believe you?"
Again, Knuckles gave him an unimpressed stare. "I don't really care if you believe me," he drawled but then continued, "But I am. Last of the echidnas, Master and Guardian of Angel Island. And I'm also the only one who can do this," he said, at the same time stretching out his free hand that at first seemed to hold another green shard, but which then suddenly grew as he spoke, becoming a crystal at least as tall as Knuckles himself, silently hovering in the air in front of him.
Shadow watched with wide eyes as the echidna then lifted the splinter they had just fought about toward it, closed his eyes briefly and then there was a bright flash as the new piece seemed to fuse with the larger one. To Shadow, the larger piece actually looked like the lower half of a proper diamond cut gem (that had somehow his top half blown off) and it turned for a second longer gently in the afternoon sun before Knuckles reached out and...shrunk? it again, storing it in his strange dreadlocks.
"That convince you?" he asked dryly, and Shadow scrambled to wipe the surprise off his face.
"...maybe," Shadow conceded grudgingly. "So you're the...owner of that flying island? Do you own the Chaos Emeralds, too?" he grunted, wincing as he tried to shift into another position and then decided to maybe wait another minute instead.
"No," Knuckles now dusted himself off in a decidedly insulting fashion, Shadow thought. "The Chaos Emeralds don't reside on Angel Island and currently, the Master Emerald doesn't either. Also," he added, "If you try to set a single foot on my home, you'll lose it."
Shadow narrowed his eyes, staring at Knuckles mulishly "You were just lucky, s'all," he grumbled. "I don't know how you could have beaten me otherwise."
To his surprise, Knuckles gave a wry snort.
"You think you're the first high-speed hedgehog I have punched an Emerald out of?" he had turned, obviously preparing to leave. "You're fast, kid, but not as fast as Sonic."
At this point, Shadow wanted to curl up and crawl under the next stone.
"Is there no escaping this hedgehog," he groaned, directing the question straight into the hand he was pulling over his face. To his surprise, it was Knuckles who answered.
"Yeah, I have wondered that a lot."
"...what?" Shadow blinked, but Knuckles was already leaving, striding toward the other end of the clearing with purpose. "Wait, how do you know-?"
"Save it," Knuckles waved him off, not stopping. "I don't have time to stay and chat. Robotnik tried to steal the Emerald, there's no telling whether he isn't going after the shards too. Him or that woman..."
"Robotnik?!" Now there was definitely the surge of adrenaline Shadow had needed, struggling to his feet and swaying, forcing his body to move after Knuckles with stumbling and cramping steps, teeth bared and one arm of his wrapped around the pulsating pain in his midsection. "What does Robotnik have to do with this? Tell me!"
Knuckles had once again stopped, the expression on his face now definitely shifting somewhere between uneasy and reluctantly impressed.
"You should stay down before you hurt yourself."
"Not before I haven't gotten the answers I need. Why did Robotnik try to steal your...Emerald?" Shadow replied, panting but managing to ignore the pain for now and it was a small gratification to at least see some unwilling respect in the echidna's gaze. But then Knuckles shook his head.
"I don't know what he wants its power for." he raised one of his eye ridges. "Do you think people in real life are Bond villains who narrate their evil plans when there is still time to stop them?"
The way this world worked, Shadow was tempted to say "yes".
Instead, he simply stared back at the echidna, frustration at the lost fight and the lack of information warring with the excitement of the knowledge he had gleaned - Robotnik was planning something and it sounded like something big. Neither Sonic nor the professor could continue to ignore this when he told them.
"Well, see you around, hedgehog," Knuckles said at this point and then, to Shadow's surprise simply leapt off the cliff - only then to soar away below, his 'dreadlocks' fanning out like the most improbable flying membrane, and then the echidna was already gliding Superman-style toward the bay below.
"What," Shadow said.
xxx
"...hey. You still here?"
"Agh!" Mr Silver jumped at Shadow's address, curiously almost appearing to hover in the air before resettling on the wall remnant he had been sitting on. The last rays of the sun were shining down on them, about the same hue as the silver hedgehog's eyes. To be fair, Shadow was almost equally surprised to still find the substitute teacher here - he had sat on the clearing of the fight for almost another hour until he could walk without feeling like he wanted to retch or needed to clutch his midsection.
"...Shadow," Mr Silver managed after a moment, jumping down from the stone wall and cautiously making his way toward him but tensed up as he looked at him - Shadow supposed the traces of the fight with Knuckles were still obvious, then.
"Oh no. Did something happen to you? Did...did anything with your shadow happen?" the silver hedgehog asked anxiously.
Shadow gave him a consternated stare. "...no? Why on Earth would anything happen to my-?" he broke himself off. He wasn't going to go down this rabbit hole. He wasn't.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said instead. "I had a run-in with a guy named Knuckles and he beat me up over a crystal shard."
"Ah." This now for some ineffable reason seemed to produce a smile on the other's face. "Well, at least it's a comfort some things never seem to change."
"...right," Shadow simply replied, too exhausted to bother with any more weirdness today. "Okay. I'll be going now. Home."
"Oh, yeah. Of course. Do you...need help...?" Mr Silver asked, even if he still seemed to be almost wary of Shadow, trying to not-so-subtly keep his distance as if he thought the other were to kick him in the head or something.
"No, thank you. My sister's parents' place isn't far," Shadow replied, not quite able to keep up the acerbic tone when thinking of getting back to Maria and finally being able to get a break from all the crazy and tell her what he had learned.
"Ah, yes. Right, your...family," Mr Silver said again, once more giving him that strangely sentimental smile. "Give them my regards. You're...lucky to have them."
"I know," Shadow said without thinking, because it was true. "I'll...be going home now. See you at school," he added, before turning and walking toward the city walls again. A small wind picked up and he shivered, though he tried to tell himself that this had to be because of the cooling evening air and the disappearing daylight.
Not because the conversation with the silver hedgehog had just left him with the feeling of someone walking over his grave.
Xxx
"...Shadow! what happened to you?!"
Maria's eyes were wide and astonished as she looked at the rather bedraggled Ultimate Lifeform in the light of the doorstep of the Robotnik house. Shadow knew he had to look a bit pitiful, still clutching at his mid-section gingerly, a streak of crusted blood on his muzzle and his ears refusing to stay upright whenever he didn't concentrate on them.
"...I found a Chaos Crystal shard and wanted to bring it to you. But there was another sapient guy who claimed it was his. We fought," he tried to explain in as few (and as un-incriminating) words as possible.
"And he...defeated you?"
Shadow had to admit he was a bit mollified by how surprised Maria sounded, at least.
"...I didn't expect him to have powers. If I had known, I would have fought more carefully," he admitted, trying not to grimace as he knelt down to slip out of his shoes. "Just how many superpowered Sapients hang around on this planet anyway?"
"I think the percentage of powered individuals is around...two percent? Maybe?" Maria replied thoughtfully, tapping a finger against her lips. "And I mean, not all of those would be powers that are useful in a fight, some of them are just like…I dunno, they can create dancing lights or can give people static electricity shocks. There's a wolf girl in my Mobian studies class whose sole power is talking to fish. She's a bit bummed about it, I think."
"Really? Must be just my luck then that I keep running into them," Shadow muttered, pulling a bit of a face as he looked at himself in the mirror.
"Well, luck or…" Maria sighed. "You weren't just going off for a walk, were you."
Shadow kept himself from flinching. It was no surprise Maria would have figured it out eventually, though he wished he'd had a bit more time before she did.
"You heard the radio programme, huh."
"…yeah," Maria nodded, then sunk down on one knee next to him so she could look him into the eye directly. "Did you find it?"
"The island? Yeah, I found it. Couldn't get to it. The guy who fought me over the crystal shard claimed to be that island's 'Guardian'," Shadow admitted reluctantly, not pleased about this day's events and even less thrilled that the guy that he'd have to talk about this would probably be Sonic, again.
But at least the blue hedgehog would probably be able to tell him who the hell the overpowered Jamaican lumberjack character was, if those two had fought before.
"And I'm guessing if he hadn't won, you wouldn't be here but on Prison Island," Maria said, and the somber tone under her words made Shadow want to look away. He didn't.
"…I don't know."
"Oh, Shadow," Maria said, and this time, her smile held both understanding, but also a worry mixed with sadness that finally made Shadow drop his gaze to the floor. Maria ran a hand through his head fur, sighing.
"…alright," she finally said. "I realize I probably can't stop you from doing something about my cousin. It was probably dumb to think I could," she said, holding his gaze as he looked up again, slight surprise showing in his eyes. "But promise me you'll tell me what you want to do and I'll help you do it smartly, okay?"
Shadow swallowed. This was far, far more than he could have hoped for. Even if drawing Maria into this battle was the absolute last thing on his mind.
"...I promise I'll try."
"Probably the best I'm gonna get, huh?" Maria muttered, then shook her head and rose again, letting her hand slide down from his head to grasp his hand instead.
"Okay. Wanna clean up and then come down to the living room? We're playing Scrabble right now, but really, it's drifted off into an etymology discussion about two hours ago."
Shadow considered this. He could reasonably claim to be tired and go to bed without offending anyone, he was certain. Hell, he could maybe even slip out of the window if he wanted to, sleep a luxury rather than a necessity anyway and possibly go check if he couldn't skate on water…or try and find Sonic now instead of waiting until Monday…or maybe find more of those shards this Knuckles guy was apparently looking for…
But maybe the day had been too long already. Maybe it would make more sense to attempt any new ventures to find Maria's cousin when fully rested after all.
And maybe, just maybe, Mr Silver's words were somehow lingering more in his mind than they should.
Next, Shadow had already opened his mouth and replied "…yeah. I'd like that," and wondered a bit at how that didn't even feel like a lie.
To be continued…
No, neither Knuckles nor Shadow will ever be allowed to catch any breaks story-wise :p That said, hope you enjoyed and if you read, please review! :D