Anonymous Review Replies!
DEV: Hahah, ja, Shadow hat so ein *bisschen* einen rauhen Start in den Adventure-Teil des Plots. XD (Vermutlich findet er es allerdings immer noch angenehmer als die Slice-of-Life parts, lol) Kämpfe zwischen Sonic, Knuckles und Shadow finde ich immer echt interessant zu schreiben, weil der Ausgang (aus meiner Sicht) wirklich echt offen ist - wenn Shadow schon ein besseres handling von Chaos Techniken gehabt hätte, oder einen Emerald zum kämpfen, wäre Knuckles vermutlich auch nicht halb so heil aus dem Ding rausgekommen :P Knuckles schiere Kraft zu schreiben macht aber auch wirklich Spaß, ich liebe es, die zur Schau stellen zu können. :) Und Silver-Szenen sind in dieser Fanfic fast meine Favoriten. Geht doch nix über einen völlig überforderten Charakter in way over his head. (Vor allem wenn er dabei so verdammt niedlich ist^^;) Ich bin mir nicht hundertprozentig sicher, wie begeistert Shadow ist, dass Maria jetzt beim Kampf gegen den guten Doctor mitmachen will, aber hey, ne große Wahl hat er ja nicht. XD Wie immer irre vielen Dank für den wundervollen Kommentar, hoffentlich gefällt dir auch das neue Kapitel! :D
LoneGarurumon: Hahah, yeah, especially this fairly new-to-the-world Shadow evidently still has a lot to learn :P All the more reason for his sister to be at his side! And as for Silver...well, read on to find out ;p Thanks as always for the review, please enjoy the update!
SW: Is it ever XD
Random Reader: Aw thank you! I do love mixing up superpowered individuals struggling with everyday problems but then also getting to bash each other's heads in! :D Hope you like the new chapter, too!
RECAP: Well, when we last left our hero, Shadow has just had a run-in with a certain echidna - and with a certain echidna's fist. After a row over a shard belonging to the Master Emerald, it's becoming more apparent that Dr. Robotnik is up to *something*...but what?
xxx
Chapter 15: Just Another Manic Monday
Shadow woke up with a yawn and then a small jolt as he realized with a gasp that he wasn't in his own bed – before he remembered that they were staying at Maria's parents for the weekend, it was still sunday morning and that this was Maria's old room he had been put in.
"…ugh," he breathed out, slumping back on his pillows for a moment. His stomach muscles had given a little twinge at the abrupt sit-up – evidently almost recovered from his run-in with Knuckles yesterday, but not quite. Shadow rubbed his hands across his face, trying to get his heart beat to go down again. He had spent the first five years of his life basically in the same two dozen rooms, now this constant moving from military base to their home in Station Square and now staying at relatives' places was taking some getting used to.
Shadow turned his head and glanced over at Maria's empty bed – no wonder there, she had said something about her wanting to go shopping with her mother today – and then rose himself, not bothering with either shoes, socks or gloves for the moment. His inhibitor rings would slide loosely enough around his wrists and ankles if he wasn't wearing fabric beneath them, though of course not loosely enough that they would come off - they hadn't ever since Gerald had welded them onto him on GUN's orders, way back when. They had been meant to control him then, but fortunately, Shadow had since managed to make them work for him, rather than against him; they did make the Chaos Energy inside his body easier to control, even if they limited how much of it he could unleash at once, without an Emerald.
After a trip to the bathroom, he traipsed downstairs to find the entire Robotnik family (minus his creator, anyway – but then again, the Professor was far from an early riser and more like a mustachioed night owl) already at breakfast, Maria and her mother already eating while Colin was still flipping pancakes in the kitchen.
"Morning, Shadow!" Hope greeted him. "Did you sleep well on the camping bed? I'm sorry we had to improvise…"
"Hope apologizes again for thinking that you'd sleep in the old dog basket, is what she wants to say," Colin called out from the kitchen cheerfully, and Hope immediately hid her face behind the tablet in her hand.
"I said I was sorry!"
"It was fine. I kept my quills relaxed and managed not to slice or poke through the material," Shadow gave everyone a nod as he climbed onto the chair next to Maria. "What's the plan for today?"
"Well, me and mom wanted to go shopping and we'll all take the train back today at 4," Maria said. "Maybe you can spend some time here with my dad and grandfather?"
The please don't run off again without me was implied of course, but Shadow still nodded. Yesterday he had found out that Doctor Robotnik had attempted to steal the 'Master Emerald' for some reason, and likely the next step was to talk to Sonic about that – which would have to be at school tomorrow. Also on the agenda was finding out whether he'd actually be able to travel across water surfaces with his hover skates.
"Here you go, champ, " Colin's voice interrupted his thoughts as Maria's father put a pancake on his plate before settling down himself with one. "Dig in!"
"Thank you," Shadow replied, "Could I have some coffee, too? Black," he added, holding out his mug as Colin was pouring himself some. Hope raised her eyebrows.
"Straight black, huh? Mature taste for your…" she paused. "Wait, how old are you again? Gerald said sixteen but the earliest research papers published on you were all-"
"Cognitively I evaluate him at fifteen-sixteen-ish, is what I said," Gerald's voice sounded from the doorway, his creator for the moment still in a night shirt and fluffy slippers. "Physically speaking, he's not quite that old, if you don't count the storage time of the cell samples I grew him from."
"Er. Yes. The professor awoke me almost six years years ago," Shadow added, and it was a strange feeling to say it so openly, with Hope and Colin mainly showing friendly interest and curiosity about his true origin rather than shock, fear or pity.
"Fascinating mental maturation," Colin shook his head. "Do you know whether that will continue, or…?" he asked, glancing from Shadow to Maria to Gerald, who rubbed his bald head.
"…I don't think so, actually. At least the last few mental tests I conducted with him showed the rate of neurogenesis slowing and approaching normal sapient development throughout the last year." His lips twitched underneath his grey moustache. "My latest theory is actually that his physiology has somehow subconsciously been trying to match Maria's development which is why it's slowed down now that he's caught up."
"…really," Hope said, looking at Shadow with raised eyebrows. "And how are you gonna call the paper on that part of his development, because I think 'insanely cute' should be somewhere in the title-"
"Mom!" Maria protested, even while there was still some helpless warmth in her eyes as she caught Shadow's gaze, lips unable not to draw into a smile.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Hope apologized. "But honestly, Maria? If your brother is physically six and mentally fifteen, I think you've hit the jackpot, because with most other teenage boys it's more like the other way around…"
"Don't listen to them," Colin patted Shadow's shoulder as Maria and Hope indeed broke into a giggle at the other end of the table, much to Shadow's consternation. "They're off shopping today, anyway. Whereas we…" he leaned a little back. "How about we toss the old pigskin around a bit? Son?"
Shadow blinked. There were several emotions warring inside him, not the least of which was confusion, because –
"Sorry, do what with a pigskin?"
Maria laughed. "Dad's asking if you want to play football with him, Shadow! It's a typical male bonding activity. Or so I've heard," she said, grinning.
"She's right," Colin scratched his head. "I mean, if you want to. Dad used to do that with me, so I thought…" he threw a glance over at Gerald who had just returned from the kitchen, now also carrying a mug in his hand.
"Ah. Yes. Once," he said, taking a sip. "Was an utterly miserable experience if I recall."
"Uh-huh," Colin agreed. "We switched to playing with my chemistry set almost immediately."
"Right," Shadow said, a bit non-plussed while Hope seemed to be silently mouthing 'To-tal Nerds' at him.
xxx
A little while later, Shadow and Colin actually did find themselves in the Robotnik's garden, while Maria and Hope had driven off to the mall and Gerald was reluctantly writing a research grant proposal in Colin's study. Shadow was feeling a bit wrong-footed still, but at least Colin seemed to be equally unsure about how to do any of this, so they could attempt this socializing thing together.
"Okay." Colin threw a football at Shadow, who caught it. Then Shadow threw it back. They continued this for about a minute, until Colin caught it again and paused.
"…okay, so, does this actually do anything for you?"
"Uhm," Shadow managed.
"Yeah, I'm bored out of my mind, too," Colin said. "So, do you like action movies?"
xxx
Maria and Hope returned about five hours later, by which time Shadow and Colin were somewhere in the middle of The Dark Mite Rises, a seriously gritty action movie about an insect vigilante, and had already powered through John Wick (where the retired canine assassin protagonist got a human baby in his care killed and then went on a vengeance spree) and the admittedly rather strange Snakes on a Plane, which had been about a flight with mostly serpentine passengers that was under attack by a dark-skinned human who for some reason really hated people with scales.
There were also about twelve cans of beer and two bottles of wine emptied on the table in front of them and Maria and Hope entered right at the time where the Dark Mite was riding a motorcycle and also things were exploding, both of which were evidently enough reasons for Shadow and Colin to yell at the screen when even bigger things exploded in the next scene.
"Yes! Get him, Mite!"
"That'll teach him to break your exoskeleton! Whoo!"
"What the…dad?! Have you and Shadow been drinking?!" Maria asked incredulously, almost instantly followed by Hope's "COLIN!" a second later.
"Nah, s'a…s'an…experiment. Yes," Colin said, waving at them a bit unsteadily. "We're tryn'a…trying to find out how his metbo…metabli…his body handles commercially avaible alcohol."
Shadow nodded. "We found out it…handles it…um…" he frowned for a moment, stared into space for five seconds, but then brightened up and raised a finger, "…really well!"
At this, Colin and Shadow broke down laughing on the couch, Hope put her face in her hands, and Maria only shook her head, yelling "Grandfather! Dad managed to get the Ultimate Lifeform drunk, do we need to do anything?!" which resulted mainly in Gerald emerging from the study, taking in the scene, and then also proceeding to drink the rest of the beer.
Xxx
"Oh gods. My head. Everything is awful. Can we stop the train."
"Seeing as we need to get home before nightfall, no, genius, we can't," Maria replied wryly, but at least consented to give Shadow (who was curled up on the thankfully large enough human-sized train seat next to her) another back rub above his spines. "Seriously, what were you guys thinking?"
"Well, your dad pointed out I was technically sixteen, so it was technically legal for me to have beer and wine," Shadow groaned, pressing his hands against his eyes. "I was curious whether it would have an effect on me. Seeing as most toxins don't."
"But did you have to test that hypothesis in the living room?"
"Well, I mean, the first five cans didn't do anything, and I liked the taste, so…"
"Uh-huh," Maria got out her own notebook and leafed through it. "Well, I did analyze your blood for its alcohol content before we left and if you were a regular Mobian, with your 50 pounds you would have likely been dead three hours ago," she said. "So, nothing new there."
"Indeed," Gerald said, typing away on his own laptop. "You exhibit a tolerance for alcohol in line with your tolerance for most other neurotoxins. Concentrations do need to be absurdly high before you feel any effects. The curious thing this time is mainly how your metabolism seems to also process everything at a very accelerated rate, meaning you're having your hangover now, a mere hour afterwards instead of the next morning."
"Which is great, because it means there's nothing standing in the way for your second week of school, Shadow, isn't that lucky?"
"Fantastic," Shadow managed, "What were your calculations for a lethal dose of alcohol for me again?" he asked, but by then he had a sneaking suspicion that Maria had already figured that maybe, school wasn't the absolute worst that had ever happened to him anyhow.
xxx
"Have you ever thought about…staying with your family in Soleanna?"
"Ah. Well…" Maria looked a bit hesitant, giving him a shy smile. They were back in their house in Station Square by now, night having fallen outside. Shadow was back in his own bed, leaning up against the cushions, while Maria had just come inside to say goodnight and sit a bit at his bedside for a minute, much like they used to aboard the ARK. "I feel almost bad saying it, but to be honest, not really."
"No?" Shadow asked, only absent-mindedly noticing one of his ears folding down at his question – a gesture, he realized, he had to have subconsciously picked up from the other pointy-eared students at school. He wasn't sure what to make of that and, non-sensically embarrassed, quickly straightened it again. "But you and your mother…seemed to get along well."
Maria gave him a quick look that didn't tell him whether she'd noticed it. "Well, of course. She's my mom, and I love her," she stressed. "But actually…it was less about not wanting to stay with them and more wanting to stay with you. And with grandpa."
"I would have come with you," Shadow replied automatically, and the smile that flitted over her face at that natural statement somehow made the whole day better.
"I know you would if I asked," Maria said, one hand of hers briefly trailing along his shoulder, her lips twitching into a bit of a wry grin "Especially since you and dad apparently have the same taste in movies. But…" her tone turned warmer again. "Soleanna doesn't have a school for sapients or even a mixed one with a big sapient student population. You might have noticed there's barely anyone but humans living there." She gave him a wry smile. "And I figure you've had enough staring at you for a life time."
"I wouldn't mind," Shadow said, voice firm, trying not to think about how Maria was now sounding a lot like Sonic when explaining why he had chosen Station Square High for Tails. But he wasn't nine years old (in either case) and he didn't need protection. "Seriously, if you want to stay with your parents-"
"Shadow, you dolt, haven't you yet figured out that I'm happy if you're happy?" Maria asked, rolling her eyes. "Station Square is great, you get to know interesting people and we can immerse ourselves in the best of both worlds. This is how I always dreamed our life would be like. Remember?" she said, more quietly. "What I told you, that night we looked at Earth before the GUN soldiers took you away from grandpa to turn you into a weapon?"
"The last night of our childhood, yeah, I remember," Shadow nodded, also remembering standing at the large window with Maria, looking down at this planet he'd never been on. "I don't know whether I believed at that time that I'd ever really get to go down here."
"Hm. And what's your verdict now that you are?" Maria asked, a bit of a playful tone back in her voice. Shadow turned.
Seeing Maria excited while exploring the city. Amy smiling at him asking him to hang out with them when he wanted to. Sonic maybe not quite as obnoxious as he had thought. The dinner with him obviously fond of his kid brother for his Maria-level nerdiness had actually been…nice, at certain points. And then the half-day with Colin…
"I'm…glad we're here. Despite the craziness."
"Good," Maria smiled at him. "Hangover's definitely over, huh? Looking at least a little bit forward to school tomorrow?"
"Hm-hm. Actually…" Shadow turned his head and looked her in the eye. "The guy I fought with over that Chaos Crystal shard. He said that the Doctor tried to steal a sort of Emerald he was guarding. He also mentioned he knew Sonic. So now we know at least your cousin seems to be after something to do with Chaos Emeralds and I'm going to grill that blue hedgehog about it." Shadow lifted himself up on an elbow, gesturing. "I mean, with his attack first on Prison Island, then the bio-genetic laboratory in Chun-Nan and now this, it's obvious he's planning something and I'm going to rub that blue joker's snout in it until he believes me and helps me find him and end him."
"Hmm. Uh-huh," Maria said, looking a bit unhappy. "Well, thanks at least for telling me about your plans. I did make some progress on my device for uncovering cloaked robots or drones after that night something stalked us when shopping, so if you're heading anywhere where that might be useful, tell me, okay? And please try not to kill anyone, including yourself, yeah?"
"…alright," Shadow let out a breath of air and squeezed his sister's hand. "Would be a shame not to get to live on this planet that we waited to see for so long, huh?"
xxx
"Good morning Shadow! How was your weekend with your family?!"
"…morning," Shadow nodded at Amy, storing the books he needed for today in his school locker. "It was…fine. Though her mother did seem to be under the impression that I was some sort of pet, at the start." Amy winced.
"Ah. One of those humans that doesn't have much contact with Mobians, huh?" she asked. "That happens sometimes. Doesn't help to have pink fur and wear a cute dress, either," she gave a small laugh, shaking her head. "When I first moved here, seriously…but at least in this school everyone's on the same page." She smiled. "Speaking of which, do you already know who you'll take to the prom?"
"HE'S GONNA TAKE ME! Of course. Morning, Shadow!"
"AGH!" Shadow had leapt at least three feet backwards, which in his opinion was a completely reasonable reaction for a semi-feral jungle badger girl suddenly leaping up from the top of his locker and screeching like a banshee. Now, Sticks was crouching above them both and smiling ever so brightly.
"It's gonna be great, m' telling ya! Hey, Amy!" she waved.
"What the – I told you - have you been up there the entire time?!" Shadow was staring at her, but Amy stepped forward, gently handing him back one of the books he'd dropped.
"Hey, Sticks," she said, smiling up at her. "Wanna come down? First period is about to start. And y'know, the thing about prom is…" Amy waved her hands a little while Sticks was now indeed climbing down again, brushing off her leather skirt, "…I mean, going to prom with a partner means you need mutual consent, right? That means both partners have to say yes, you do know that, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" Sticks protested. "And Shadow will want to go with me. And he will like it," she said (while the glint in her eye as she said it made Shadow consider maybe skipping first period after all). But still, Amy had at least risen somewhat in his estimation, her stance about consent and respect (that she continued to explain to Sticks at the moment) rather a mature view that he wouldn't have expected from-
"Oh hey, Shads, Amy, Sticks, how's it-"
"SONIC!"
"AGH!"
Next, of course, there was a whomph!, another tacklehug and then muffled flailing from the newly arrived blue speedster and Shadow considered himself lucky that Sticks at least apparently preferred snare traps over pouncing attacks.
Xxx
"Oh gods. Amy wants to go dress shopping for prom with me. I would literally rather jump into an underwater blender," Sonic muttered later, head on his desk. This time, their class had been rearranged to work on a math sheet in pairs and Sonic had (oh wonder) ended up next to Shadow and neither of them were currently very interested in the work on the table.
"Yes, my heart bleeds for you," Shadow drummed his fingers on the desk. "Listen, I need to talk to you about something that I discovered over the weekend that has to do with the Doctor. Also, how can you or anyone of your friends even pay attention to High School stuff when there are megalomaniacs running about who might literally attempt to conquer the planet?"
Sonic lifted his head from the desk fractionally. "Yeah, welcome to my life."
Shadow pinched the skin above his snout. He wouldn't let this get to him. He wouldn't.
"Okay," he said instead, "So, tell me. Why, in your experience and opinion, would the Doctor be attempting to steal something called a 'Master Emerald'?"
"Uh?" Sonic blinked, at once lifting his head properly and looking more alert. "Wait, where did you hear tha-?"
"Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow Robotnik, would you please at least try to pay attention and do the work everybody else is doing?" the sharp voice of Ms Ebony interrupted whatever Sonic had been saying and both hedgehogs' heads snapped around to look at the irritated black cat at the front of the classroom. Ebony crossed her arms, tail twitching to underline her displeased mood. "Look, I realize all your problems at fifteen or sixteen are unique and overwhelming, but they can wait until after you're done with your sheet, okay?"
Shadow groaned and let his head sink into his hands. The worst of it was that Maria would be actually disappointed if he got bad maths grades.
Xxx
Still thirty more minutes. Shadow kept glancing surreptitiously at the classroom clock, waiting for the double period to be over so he could finally grill Sonic properly during their lunch break. Maths wasn't hard for him, Gerald had tutored him thoroughly, but the impatience was about to eat him alive. Next to him, Sonic was staring at the next problem featuring complex algebra and mostly looking like he was fantasizing about that underwater blender for the second time that day. Shadow was considering just pushing his sheet with the solution over to him when -
"I'm gonna hit you…with Sonic Spe-e-e-e-d…!"
"Uh, hello?" Sonic had picked up his cellphone far faster than would be possible without powers and was now listening intently to whoever was speaking at the other line. "Wha…oh yeah! I mean, of course I can," Sonic replied quickly, a short, aborted air punch already having drawn a very resigned-looking Ms Ebony's attention. He quickly grinned and pressed the call away. "Uh…Ms Ebony…"
"Oh for the love of – how is this always during Maths class?!"
"Hey, they're bad guys. Stands to reason they'd all love Mondays," Sonic replied, grinning, and the cat ran a hand over her face.
"…fine. You may go. But get Tails to explain-!" She tried calling after him, but by then Sonic had, of course, already disappeared through the window with a "Whoo!" and a dust cloud. Most of the class wasn't even really paying attention to this, but Shadow could feel his blood and Chaos rushing through his body in excitement. This was it. Sonic was heading toward Robotnik. He needed to-!
Shadow stood up abruptly. "Ms…Ms Ebony?!"
"Uh, yes?" Ms Ebony blinked at him, looking a bit concerned. "Shadow? Is everything-?"
"I really need to go…vomit!"
xxx
You really do need to work on your improvisational skills, a small voice in the back of his head said, but Shadow ignored it as he was already racing out of the school and into the direction Sonic had taken off. He was banking on the fact that within city limits the hedgehog wouldn't yet go at full speed – and, as he turned a corner, he was right.
"Sonic!"
"Huh – what the heck? Shadow?" Sonic slowed marginally down as he turned to look over his shoulder and saw the black hedgehog pulling even. There was a quick glance downwards and a raising of eye ridges as he beheld the chaos energy emanating from Shadow's skates, but then he met Shadow's gaze again, face creased into a frown. "What are you doing here, dude?"
"What does it look like? I am coming with you."
"Ah," Sonic's face changed from confusion to wryness. "Uh, no offense, bud, but taking on the Babylon rogues at a schoolyard level is something different from real danger outside."
Shadow's eyes narrowed. "…you've seen my powers. I can take on any opponent you'd care to name."
Sonic, still evenly keeping pace with him as they were approaching city limits now actually looked a bit uncomfortable. "Um, yeah. Listen, I appreciate you wanna help, and I know everyone with powers is always so convinced that they can keep up with me, but actually they then usually end up as a distraction and I have to rescue them as well. There's a reason I only take Tails. So…" Sonic let the sentence trail off for a moment as the road sign announcing the border of Station Square rushed past them, then flashed Shadow a grin and a thumbs up. "-see ya!"
Red eyes widened as at the very next moment the blue hedgehog had accelerated at a speed that even took Shadow by surprise and then was gone in a blast of rolling thunder that meant the wall of sound had just been broken. Shadow gaped for maybe a second – that was fast – but, well, Sonic had said he was the fastest thing alive, so that should have been expected.
But, Shadow thought as he called up the coiled-up energy inside him, fastest thing alive or not, there was only one Ultimate Lifeform.
And he unleashed the Chaos.
xxx
It didn't even take long to catch up to Sonic. Shadow calculated Sonic had slowed down a little now and was travelling roughly at Mach 0.8, currently, he himself at 0.9, so he matched his pace to the other's as he pulled even, yelling to be heard-
"I said-!"
And then Sonic seemed to notice him there, because his head whipped around, staring at Shadow in shock for a second, and as a result the hero of Mobius abruptly tripped over a root on the floor and immediately somersaulted with a scream and an admittedly impressive crash into the nearest undergrowth.
"…uh," Shadow ventured, after having taken a few moments to stop and skate back to the crash site. He carefully parted the branches away from the roughly hedgehog-shaped hole in the underbrush. "Are you alright?"
"…how?" was the first word (an upside-down on his head and apparently crashed against a tree) Sonic managed, green eyes staring at him through up-ended blue legs in disbelief. "That was above the speed of sound. How are you so fast? No one is that fast."
"…erm. Well, evidently we are," Shadow managed. "Do you have a concussion, or-?"
"I do not have a concussion." Sonic snapped, finally rolling over and back to his feet. He shook himself briefly to get the twigs and leaves out of his fur, quills bristling. "And what I meant, obviously, is no one but me is this fast."
"Well, obviously I am, or else I wouldn't be standing here," Shadow retorted, feeling some familiar irritation grow at someone doubting his abilities. "And I didn't crash into things."
"I wouldn't have if-!" Sonic immediately shot back, but then paused. "Wait. You're not actually that fast. It's just those shoes of yours," he said, right before turning away and waving Shadow off. "So yeah, I'm sorry, can't have you along. The batteries in those skates could give out any minute and then-"
"And how fast, exactly, would you be without your shoes?" Shadow grated, which, at least, let Sonic look a little caught. Shadow crossed his arms. "And besides, there aren't any 'batteries' in them, I'm powering them myself. With the Chaos energy I control."
"With the what now-?" Sonic started, but then interrupted himself for the second time, shaking his head. "Okay, never mind. We don't have time for this." He raised a finger. "You can come if you can keep up. And if you promise you'll follow my lead when we get there. Maybe you're fast, but I doubt you've been in an actual life-or-death-type-situation before."
"Oh, you'd be surprised," Shadow muttered, but then Sonic had already shot away again and he therefore followed, school only a distant memory as he raced after the fastest thing alive.
Robotnik would not survive this day.
To be continued…
Well, well, it's been a while, but what else is new? The action part of the plot emerging a bit more now and I hope everyone's still here and having fun :D Let's see how Shadow fares in his first real battle in this fic...until next time, and if you read, please review!