Anonymous Review Replies!
Nanako: Aw, thank you! Glad you enjoy it :) As for your question - sonadow is absolutely my fav pairing, yes, but this story is very firmly in the adventure/comedy/friendship department (despite some things in this chapter). However, Sonic and Shads are very likely to have a rather...intense relationship still, given how hot-headed both of them are (and how much fun they are to write when bouncing off each other XD)
Guest: Thanks, I try! :D
Guest: OMG, it was SO much fun to write! Silver, too, he's one of my favourite parts of this fic, poor guy XD
Guest: Ahah, yeah, Shadow being so reluctant to make friends seems to strike a chord with quite a few people :p Glad you like it! As for Tails of a Samurai, it's possible, but I do need to finish the other fics first, otherwise this will all get seriously out of hand. Tails does feature in this and next chapter in a very active role, though!
DEV: "Ooooh neeiiin" sollte der Alternativ-Titel des Kapitels sein, aber hallo XD Wenn ich mir einen am meisten leidtragenden raussuchen müsste, dann vermutlich Silver, schätze ich, aber er macht *soviel * Spaß zu schreiben wenn er leidet.^^; Shadow gefangen zwischen "Ich bin die ultimative Massenvernichtungswaffe" und "Ich will doch einfach nur NORMAL sein, DAD!" zu schreiben ist unerwartet fantastisch, ich hab das Gefühl ich hab viel zuviel Freude an High School schwachsinn (wenn man selber erstmal draußen ist, lol). Whisper reinzuschreiben war auch sehr spaßig - ich hatte endlich Zeit, mit dem neuen Sonic Comic aufzuholen und jetzt muss das natürlich verwurstet werden ;P Und was Robotniks Pläne angeht...nuuuuuun, in diesem Kapitel gibt's auf jeden Fall ein paar Hints mehr! Wieder einmal vielen, vielen Dank für das fantastische Review, ich freu mich einfach immer total! :D
rei: Aw, thank you! That was a really nice thing to comment :) It sometimes takes a while until I update, but I always try to finish each story I upload :3 Silver is an absolute gem in this story, even if he is NOT enjoying it very much currently. XD
LoneGarurumon: Aahahah, I had so much fun writing this chapter as well, the situations ARE completely ridiculous. The inadequacy joke was sth I really added last minute on a whim, so I'm glad that one landed. Some part of Shadow *is* just an inexperienced teenager after all. XD And as for Silver...well, only one way to find out...:p Thank you so much for your continued reviews!
Ishmael: Well, as long as I get reviews that tell me they enjoy my story, I likely will.
Author's Note and Catch-Up:
Well, when we left poor Shadow, he was basically stuck in the worst teenager educational programme there is and it's still not over. XD But early pregnancy might not be the worst threat to his existence, considering Doctor Robotnik has been stealing Emeralds and raiding laboratories left, right and center - just what is Maria's cousin up to?! And how is Shadow supposed to find out without missing third period chemistry...
THAT SAID: In response to a few questions/reviews, I just wanted to reiterate: This is a story about friendship, family, adventure and comedy and just that hint of drama and the old ultraviolence 'cause, y'know, it's a Taranea-fic. There's some romance threads in here, because you can't go playing with High School tropes and NOT have them, but they're not gonna play a major part. That said, let's dive right back in...!
Chapter 19: When Shadow Met…
"So does anyone know what happens during the last half of the day?" Shadow asked the lunch table as their break period was drawing to a close. "I'd just like to know in case setting myself on fire might be preferable."
"I think it's mainly just closing remarks and them handing out…like, materials," Amy said, blushing slightly. "I mean, stuff so nobody actually does get pregnant at Prom."
"Right," Shadow said, nodding. That sounded like it made sense. "Since we're all in the mammal group this time, is that also species-specific or-?"
"No, I don't think so," Sticks actually piped up then, grinning. "You know, I asked about that during the girls class, and Ms Blaze said that all guys are shaped pretty similar, when you get 'down' to it."
("I think Ms Blaze had been drinking a little before the lesson," Amy whispered at this point to Sonic, who, like most of the rest of table, was now staring at Sticks, frozen.)
"What?" the badger girl frowned when she noticed the others staring. "Nobody else in girls class wanted to ask stuff, so I did. I mean, with my future date Shadow being a secret alien space weapon experiment-"
"Sticks, we are eating," Mighty thankfully interrupted her at this point, Shadow grateful that his general look of horror at having his heritage technically exposed did not look too out of place among the others. "Also, I don't think anybody wants their anatomy discussed during school lunch, okay?" the armadillo asked, looking exasperated.
"Urgh, fine!" Sticks snapped, throwing up her hands and falling back against the back of her chair, crossing her arms. "But I thought it was really interesting, 'specially because Ms Blaze also said, the only exceptions to that might have been now extinct species, like echidnas."
There was a bit of a pause.
"Like…echidnas?" Vector finally inquired, very possibly voicing the question on everybody's mind. Amy (who of course would have been in the girls' class, too) was mainly staring at the table now.
"Yeah!" Sticks shot back, once more all brightly grinning enthusiasm. "Ms Blaze said that like their feral ancestors, theirs might have had four heads!"
Shadow thought it was a rare mercy that the bell rang to signal their lunchbreak was over, if only because he didn't think a single person at this table was in the mood for eating now, or ever again.
xxx
( "Okay," Amy said, as they were walking back to class together, whispering to Sonic, "does that mean that Knuckles has...?"
"Ames, why are you looking at me? I'm not an echidna," Sonic hissed back, green eyes wide at Amy's horrified-yet-inquisitive expression.
"Yeah, but...you spent all that time up there with him when Eggman was building the Death Egg on Angel Island," she pointed out, frowning.
"And how does that mean -?" Sonic stared at her, "Back then Knuckles was trying to kill me, Ames, what did you think we were doing?"
"Okay, okay..." the hedgehog girl held up her hands in acquiescence (while Shadow was mostly wondering whether it would be worth to dig into the backstory here), and they walked another minute in silence, until-
"But I mean," Amy said, "how would he aim-?
"Amy!")
xxx
After they had gotten back to their classroom, Shadow was glad that the second half of the day, passed rather quickly, consisting mostly of Mr. Silver again indeed handing out care packages to both boys and girls and going over the contents in them in detail. Shadow had a feeling he was not the only one in the class to be relieved by boredom for once.
It did get briefly painful again when they had to discuss mammalian fertility chances -
("Of course there are exceptions. If, for example, hedgehogs do have...intercourse," Silver was right now explaining while standing in front of a smartboard where a table with various mammalian species, cycle times, pregnancy durations and litter sizes was listed, "as you can see, no regular cycle time is listed here, because a female hedgehog will automatically have induced estrus, meaning without contraception a pregnancy will be a near 100% certainty every time."
"Oh really? In that case, better watch out, Sonic, right?! Hahahah-!" the bright yellow-furred fox from Fiona's table - Myles- sitting in front of Shadow had turned around to sneer at Sonic in the last row, and Shadow briefly turned around to see Sonic having hidden his face in his hands on his table.
...before there was suddenly a CRASH! and, when Shadow turned back again, Myles appeared to have been smashed head-first through his desk, which was now broken in two. Behind him (and still next to Shadow, of course) sat Amy with an absolutely straight face.)
- but, all in all, it wasn't all that bad.
The last half an hour was spent with a final round of open questions, including a few of "Is it normal if you're human but you, uh…like…hedgehogs?" (from the human girl called Elise) and "Is it normal if you want to be a hedgehog?" (from the human boy called Chris) both of which let Sonic look for the exit again, a sentiment Shadow thought he shared.
It didn't actually get better with the next set of "If you date a secret government alien experiment person as your boyfriend, can your kids be taken away by the FBI?!" (which had Shadow hiding his face in despair on the table but fortunately, Silver only stared at Sticks for a while before answering "You know what, sometimes it's better to adopt!") and "But, but are alien secret space government experiment babies cute?!" which…mostly prompted Silver to mumble something about really wanting to go home, until finally, mercifully, also their second day was over.
Xxx
"Hello, Shadow! How was your day~?"
"Don't. Ask."
"Okay~!" Maria exasperatingly still sing-songed, and Shadow therefore ignored her in the kitchen and mostly trudged straight up toward the communal bathroom.
They didn't know much about the Emerald locations yet, but there was one way he could maybe make at least a little progress in exploration.
Turning the faucet to full force, Shadow watched the bathtub filling up with impatience niggling at his emotions.
If he could manage to skate on water, an expedition to Prison Island or the reclusive echidna's home would at least become a viable option.
He turned the faucet off as the bathtub finally was three-quarters full. If this worked...Shadow climbed on top of the tub's rim and stared at the water.
He couldn't say he was too fond of the substance. Aboard the ARK they'd had a pool, and he could swim in so far that he was at least able to keep his head above water, but he'd be lying if he saw what people liked about recreationally jumping into the stuff.
Shadow extended one skate toward the deceptively flat surface. If this worked, he would give Tails one more day to find something and if he then couldn't turn anything up, Prison Island could look forward to a visit.
Next up, there was a hiss, a scream and then a sumptuous splash! as one Ultimate Lifeform thoroughly flooded a family bathroom.
"Shadow?!"
"No, every-!" Shadow started to shout, hearing Maria's shocked cry from below and now hearing his sister run up the staircase, but before he could manage a reply, his grip slipped and his head went under again, water rushing into his mouth in a display that was entirely too undignified for any weapons of mass destruction. He surfaced again, gasping-
"Shadow, are you al-?!"
But by then, it was already too late and Maria was standing in the doorway, staring at her fully clothed (for Mobian standards, anyway) brother in the almost-filled bathtub, struggling to get a grip on the rim and staring at her with wide eyes.
And then she started laughing.
"Oh for Chaos'- this isn't funny! Get OUT!" Shadow barked, which, of course, only let Maria laugh harder.
"Maria," Shadow managed with gritted teeth, "If I recall correctly, wasn't it your idea to not barge in on somebody in the bathroom without knocking?"
"Oh. Uhm." That at least let Maria stop laughing, a bit of a blush creeping into her face. "Well-"
"Or else need I remind you of the time that I-"
"Noyoudon'tshutUP!" his sister squeaked and (thankfully) finally slammed the door shut behind her, steps hurriedly fleeing back into the kitchen. Shadow allowed himself a satisfied snort, at last lifting himself out of the tub and reaching for a towel.
Even if his shoes would take at least the rest of the day to dry, the memory of how, four years ago aboard the ARK, when a much younger Shadow had walked in on Maria showering in her quarters, looked at her with big eyes and proclaimed "Oh wow, you really don't have fur anywhere!" (which had promptly gotten him a scream and a shampoo bottle thrown at the head) was at least an amusing one.
Later on, it was at least an interesting night spent in Maria's laboratory - his sister had gotten her hands on some Chaos Drives from the university, multi-coloured power cells with pieces of artificial Chaos Crystal inside that hummed in Shadow's grip as if they were alive.
"I think you should try and Chaos Control with them," Maria half-whispered, both of them watching the energy inside react to Shadow's palm against the glass walls of the cylinder with fascination, brightly-lit strands of it fanning out akin the electricity in a Tesla ball.
Shadow nodded. He remembered his first and only two Chaos Controls, a desperate attempt to save both his and Maria's life only a few months ago, and it had broken the artificial Chaos Emerald he'd used for it. Still, the feeling as such was unforgettable, the sheer power spike that tore you with it, pierced the physical plane of the universe to spit you out somewhere else...
If he could manage it with this one, it wouldn't matter that skating on water apparently wasn't an option.
"Alright. I'll...try and teleport myself outside, into the garden," Shadow said, taking a half-step back from Maria. He could feel the same energies in the Drive, the fragment inside not as irritatingly mercurial as the Master Emerald splinter had felt and he tried to focus, draw the surrounding energy into it, channel it all through his body and bend it to his will...
"Chaos Control!"
There was a bit of a pause.
Then:
"Well," Maria said. "This, um. At least it worked? A bit?"
"I don't need consolation."
"I mean-"
"Stop."
"It was least three feet, Shadow, that's something-"
"UGH!"
"And don't pretend you haven't thought about how you can teleport behind someone with that and then kick their head in from where they can't see you," Maria commented wryly, which let Shadow actually pause in his sulk.
"...I hadn't, actually."
"Hm-hm," Maria nodded as she straightened the papers on her desk again. "Thought so."
"It burnt the Chaos Drive out, though," Shadow pointed out, looking at the blackened glass cylinder in his hand, glow from inside the crystal gone.
"Hmh-hm," Maria repeated. "And they were expensive, so we can't do too many tests with that. But it's good to know you can still do the technique. And now we should probably go and help grandpa pack before we go to bed, because otherwise he'll take all his manuscripts and none of his underwear to Apotos..."
xxx
The next morning, the professor had indeed managed to depart on time and (they thought) with all necessary clothing implements to catch the plane to his conference. Maria and Shadow had waved him off as he departed in the taxi before they, too, had gotten ready for their respective days – in Shadow's case this had also included taking one of the Chaos drives from Maria's lab and shoving them into his school bag at his sister's insistence; Neither Shadow nor the human members of his family were entirely certain whether Shadow's Chaos powers were due to him being a hedgehog or his alien parentage, so that could be some useful info. Also, of course, he'd need to ask Sonic anyway whether Tails had found anything out about Robotnik's whereabouts since yesterday.
When Shadow did arrive for Home room class, however, Sonic's seat was empty.
"Morning, Shadow!" Amy greeted him with her usual friendly smile, though, so Shadow at least tried to give her a polite nod and hide his annoyance at the blue hedgehog's tardiness when you wanted to talk to him.
At least the nightmarish theme block of the last two days was over, so Home Room class could proceed as normal, with Ms Ebony talking about a few more details concerning the prom, which Shadow ignored. Sonic failed to show during the entire period, so it was with some impatience already that Shadow finally picked up his bag at the end of the lesson - after their mixed-up schedules, the next class of his was now Home economics, which he didn't share with Sonic, so any questioning would have to wait until lunch.
At least you can probably rely on him to show up for that.
xxx
Shadow blinked as he opened the door of the classroom of catch-up Home Economics and found it empty.
Well.
Empty of the teacher Mr. Omega and his two classmates Vector the Crocodile and Rogue the Bat. Technically, that might not have been that surprising, given that he was about ten minutes early today, yet there was one other student sitting there …
"Um…hello," Shadow ventured, not sure whether he had gotten the room wrong again. "I thought in here was catch-up Home Economics with a killer robot disguised as a teacher for some reason…?"
"Hm? Oh, hi. Yeah, I think that's right, that's what's on my schedule, too. Even if it doesn't say anything about a killer robot - though I could probably deal with that a lot better." The red-haired chipmunk girl wearing a blue vest and blue boots (and not much else) rose from her seat and extended a hand. "Hi. I'm a new student here."
"…hi. I'm Shadow," Shadow replied cautiously, again not knowing whether he wanted to add either 'Robotnik' or 'the Hedgehog' to it, and hating himself and Maria's cousin for it. Hoping she wouldn't ask, he extended his own hand and shook hers, noting how, curiously, the girl didn't appear to be wearing any gloves either, her brown-furred hands bare.
Shadow tried to keep his eyes firmly on her face.
"And you are…?"
There was a bit of a sigh. "Well, I am technically Princess Sally of Acorn, and also for the past five years the leader of a rebel alliance fighting to rescue my father and liberating my country from the grasp of a warlord. Successfully, by the way."
"Um." Shadow looked for an answer to that. "Con…gratulations?"
"Thanks," Sally gave him a wry look.
Frowning a little, but not yet actually finding the girl entirely unsympathetic, Shadow could hear himself asking the obvious question.
"So you're here in Home Economics Catch-up class because…?"
"Because," she replied, "as soon as I did all that and my country was at peace, my dear father thought it was best to send me abroad to the other hemisphere to continue my education. After, you know, all schools had been burnt to the ground in the war."
"Ah." Shadow said.
There were some pings in his memory about things she said – the other, southern hemisphere was mostly populated by Sapients, and it had started another migration wave to the Northern one when Maria's cousin had started his world conquering tour there, enslaving and killing populations until Sonic had driven him out of there. But it had left a lot of countries over there war-torn and with power struggles after the human had left, and Shadow thought he'd read about the Acorn Kingdom being one of them…
"Yeah, so, only last year I was still commanding guerilla strikes against Naugus with logistics to make your head spin, but no, because I can't balance a non-militaristic budget I'm here now," Sally was continuing, apparently not needing much input from Shadow for her ranting. Finally, she seemed to deflate, and sank back onto her chair, running a hand through her hair.
"But I'm sorry. It's not your fault, I shouldn't be putting all this on you," she said, trying to give Shadow an apologetic smile.
"I can…somewhat relate," Shadow said, despite himself. "My talents are also more on the militaristic side," he said, before he could stop himself. But surely that still sounded not too out there?
"Really?" Sally looked up at him, blue eyes curious, but not unfriendly. "Well, it's nice to have something in common with someone here." She pulled a grimace. "The northern hemisphere is a bit…different from what I'm used to."
Shadow, recalling how out of place he'd felt when he and Maria had ventured into the part of town that was entirely populated by Sapients, thought he had an idea what she meant.
"The customs are a bit different, yeah."
"You can say that again," Sally replied, frowning. "I mean, my parents thought it would be helpful for me to see another culture, so they sent me to the most diverse city and educational institution they could find, but so far, all it's gotten me is being far away from my kingdom and people, going to a school where I get called a," she swallowed briefly, " – a slut by the most small-minded, immature, meanest b-" she paused again and took a deep breath "basic people imaginable."
Shadow's eyes had widened subtly, looking at the girl in front of him who was obviously trying to put on a brave face, but there had been a small tremble in her voice that nevertheless gave her away. There was a part of him that still pointed out that this entire thing was ridiculous, his main mission was to prevent Maria's cousin from taking over the world and killing him, not to get involved in friggin teen drama –
"Let me guess," Shadow heard himself say. "Fiona and her gang?"
"Yes," Sally looked at him, surprised. She blinked a few times, getting rid of the dangerous shine in her eyes. "How did you know?" she asked, voice steady with an effort again.
"I had a run-in with them once. They're not people worth associating with," Shadow said, finally sitting down at the table next to her and frowning. It didn't seem like anyone else but them was showing up on time for the lesson, so what the hell.
"And they called you a…?" Shadow was surprised that he actually found himself a bit hesitant to repeat the word to someone's face. But then again, the Robotnik household had always tended to be a cursing one, when some sort of experiment had gone wrong or video games had been lost, but Gerald had usually drawn a strict line at sexist language.
"Yes," Sally grated out before he had to. "Apparently, I am currently committing the offense of not closing my vest and not wearing pants or a skirt," she said, crossing her arms and blushing slightly (while Shadow tried hard to nod along as if he hadn't noticed this detail until now at all), before she added, "Which, by the way, is normal in my country and your double standards for male and females fashion are ridiculous! And sexist!"
"I…guess?"
"It's just the backwards human female modesty ideas creeping into Mobian culture over here," Sally continued, frowning. "And it's super unfair to suddenly shame half of the population for just…being shaped differently!"
"Well, I wouldn't worry about it, honey. 'Slut' tends to be the go-to insult for small people with smaller minds."
"Agh!"
"What the – where did you come from?!"
Sally had squeaked at the sudden new voice and Shadow had leapt to his feet and whirled around – and now they were both staring wide-eyed at the very familiar form of one white-furred bat in a black catsuit with a bright pink heart across her chest and thigh-high boots covering her crossed legs as she lounged on the windowsill.
"Hello, Shadow. Your Highness," Rogue nodded at them in turn, incisors bared in a sharp grin and turquoise eyes flashing. "Name's Rogue the Bat. Did I interrupt something?"
"That isn't any – how long have you been there?!" Shadow tried to get his voice under control again as Rogue swung her legs down from the windowsill, black wings folding themselves onto her back as she walked toward them, hips swaying just a little.
"Oh, not too long," she smiled at them, then nodded at Sally. "But yeah, honey, totally agree with you – the only outfit you need is self-confidence. The rest is just decoration," she winked.
"Uhhh," Sally said, saying pretty much what Shadow was thinking.
Rogue came to a halt in front of them, suddenly pursing her lips. "Although it of course pays to be clean in any case – hold on, you've got some dust there," she said, then suddenly bent forward a little, brushing at Shadow's shoulder with a little frown as she almost seemed to inspect the fur ridge there. Shadow stopped himself from batting her hand away, but still managed to take a rapid step backwards, snatching his shoulder from her and covering it with his own hand.
"Excuse me?!"
"Oh, nothing, nothing – just looked like there was some dirt there, sorry," Rogue gave him an innocent smile. "But you've got some really unruly fur there, maybe you should go to a barber for it?"
"It's from an old operation," Shadow snapped, not caring to divulge the circumstances when he had had the entire arm vaporized in a battle and subsequently regrown aboard the ARK, causing his fur to grow in two different directions along the fault line, creating the strange ridge.
"Really," Rogue said, now looking curiously interested. "Not from any more…recent activities?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Shadow asked, genuinely non-plussed. Was this about him and Sonic running off after the Battle Kukku army on Monday? But why on earth would Rogue be interested in that?
"Oh, nothing. Nothing," the bat shook her head, something about his baffled reaction seeming to have surprised her. Then it seemed as if a mask had slipped back on again, because she all at once was smiling again, turning back to the window. "But yeah, anyhow, really only dropped by to tell you that Mr. Omega isn't coming in today, there's been a bit of an…incident. Bye for now!" She waved, right before stepping onto the window and dropping out of it, black wings spreading as she fell and then soared.
"...okay, what the f-"
Sally's reaction was cut off by the bell ringing and signaling the start of the lesson, but Shadow found himself agreeing with that general assessment.
xxx
"…so yeah," Shadow finished as the bell rung again. "This is why this school is the equivalent of an insane asylum on fire."
"I…see," Sally said. They had spent the not-lesson just talking in the empty classroom instead, Shadow explaining the general circumstances of Station Square High and its eccentric staff and students. "Well. I guess it's good that I already fought in one civil war, then," she gave a weak laugh.
"Probably," Shadow agreed. "So, uh, do you want to," he began, and then abruptly felt a wave of panic hit him and stop speaking.
"Hm?" Sally gave him a curious look. "Do I want to what?"
Do you want to sit with us at lunch, Shadow was trying to say, but what actually came out was "Wunch," and then a whole load of coughing.
"I'm sorry, what? Shadow, are you okay?" Sally asked, bending forward to slap a hand on the patch of fur above his quills, and Shadow found the proximity did not help.
"Did you – did you want to sit with us at lunch?" he finally managed, once he had recovered, hoping that the flush on his face could be put down to the coughing fit. Shadow thought he'd need to talk to the professor once he got back to Apotos, surely this was not normal.
"Today I have more aptitude testing to go to, but tomorrow that would be great, yeah!" Sally smiled at him. "Thanks for the invite!"
"No problem," Shadow nodded at her, feeling a bit more at ease as he watched her wave at him as she left for the testing he had also gone through last week. Then he shook his head.
No. No time for this. It was lunch time and he needed to find out whether Tails had either managed to hack into GUN's servers to find out what Robotnik had wanted on Prison Island, or found another trace of the white Emerald Robotnik had stolen from the Battle Kukkus. Also, he needed to find out if Sonic actually knew about Chaos techniques and could work the Chaos Drive or whether this was something from the Black Arms DNA that made him unique.
And if Shadow concentrated really, really hard on those questions, maybe he would also be able to stop wondering whether Sally already had a date for prom.
xxx
"Hey," Shadow absent-mindedly nodded in response to the others' greetings as he sat down in between Amy and Espio at their lunch table, his gaze swerving over the assembled Sapients – and then stopped and frowned.
Sonic was still missing.
"Hey," Shadow began, looking at the rest of them raising their gazes to him, "Does anybody know where-"
He broke off.
This is it, he realized. I am starting to ask and talk about nothing but Sonic when he isn't even there.
Oh good gods. I have become like the rest of them.
Amy, apparently unaware of Shadow's existential horror going on, smiled at him. "Hm? What was that, Shadow?"
"I, uh…" Shadow sighed and gritted his teeth. No point in trying to fight it. "I was just wondering where Sonic was."
"Ah," Tails piped up from the other end of the table, "Yeah, he got a call from GUN really early this morning. They said it was urgent he come in, but apparently 'top secret', so I couldn't come with. And, well, with the mixed-up schedule today he'd've had catch-up Physics, so he jumped at the chance," Tails gave a little grin. "Technically, I think he wasn't even supposed to tell me about it, but I figure if they want him to clean up their messes, they can't tell him what he is and isn't allowed to do," Tails shrugged.
"Something wrong, Shadow?" Espio's voice let Shadow's gaze snap to the side where the chameleon was looking at him curiously. "You look as if someone just snapped off a quill of yours."
"…nothing, just not the biggest fan of GUN," Shadow said, shaking his head and trying to chase the irritation off his face. He had to remind himself just because a corrupt wing of that organization had almost had his family murdered and him all but lobotomized, they were also the ones who had offered the deal to Gerald to give Shadow citizenship papers. "Where's Vector today? I didn't see him in class," he asked Espio instead, trying to change the topic.
"Sleeping in today after he helped Knuckles yesterday to hunt down Emerald shards in some forgotten, half-flooded mine. Helps being a crocodile and able to hold your breath for over thirty minutes in those situations," Mighty replied in Espio's stead with a grin. "I heard you also had a run-in with him the other day?"
"A…run-in. Yeah," Shadow scowled and Mighty laughed.
"Ah, don't take it personally. Guy's just really protective of that Emerald."
"And really cruddy at keeping it together," Marine threw in, and the discussion dissolved into laughter and then other topics for the rest of the break.
xxx
"Well. While Sonic is out, did anything at least show up on the Emerald radar, or any progress what the Doctor wanted at Prison Island?" Shadow asked after lunch had ended and he and Tails were walking to their advanced-placement Physics class with Professor Pickle. Shadow hadn't really been able to talk to the little fox over the chatter of the others, so this proved a helpful change, for once.
"Actually, I think I've worked out that Eggman wasn't after anything physical, but after some files that were on GUN's mainframe at Prison Island. That's where they store their really sensitive information and it's not connected to any sort of network, so you have to physically break in there," Tails said. "I reverse-engineered the route Eggman took through the complex and where we found and battled him eventually and now I'm positive he must've been in the server room and no other storage facility."
"So he stole…files?" Shadow narrowed his eyes. "And then he went on to break into a biolab in Chun-nan, attempts to steal this Master Emerald, and then steals a Chaos Emerald from the Kukkus. And GUN has called your brother in for a 'top secret' meeting or something." He glanced back at Tails. "You can't tell me that that summons hasn't anything to do with any of that."
"I know, but…why would they make a secret out of it this time?" Tails glanced back at Shadow, slightly helplessly. "I mean, if they were sending him out against Egghead, that usually doesn't require any secrecy."
"Hrnh," Shadow grunted. "Did you have any more success with your Emerald radar?"
"Not with the white Emerald Eggman stole from the Kukkus, no," Tails shook his head. "Like I said, after that ping in the Sand Ocean desert, which also could have been a Master Emerald shard, that one seems to have disappeared off the face of Mobius. What I got last night was another ping from Central City from what I think was the green Chaos Emerald currently stored in the bank vault there, though."
"The one the Kukkus wanted to steal," Shadow supplied, frowning.
"Yeah," Tails nodded. "My guess is they moved it last night after the Kukku attack we prevented, probably for security reasons. My radar must have picked it up when they took it out of the vault with all the shielding."
"Hmm," Shadow nodded. All of this was vaguely unsatisfying. It especially rankled that Sonic was somewhere out there, finding out things without him. All he had to deal with were bizarrely behaving bats in High school and unhelpful hormones.
"Oh. Huh," Tails said, glancing at his pocket PDA with raised eye ridges.
"What?" Shadow asked as they were both sitting down in the classroom and getting out their textbooks.
"I just got…another ping from yet another Chaos Emerald. The blue one, I think. Also from Sand Ocean desert. But now that one has also just…disappeared."
"Can you narrow that down? Where it disappeared?" Shadow asked, glancing at the confusing app display on Tails' screen. He had only seen Sand Ocean desert on maps, so far, but that place was vast.
"I have narrowed the search parameters, but I'd need one more ping to really give you better coordinates than 'desert'," Tails said. "I guess I could also give Knuckles a call whether he wants to have a look at that place, if he's already running around. Maybe it is Master Emerald shards and not Chaos Emeralds."
"Yeah. Maybe," Shadow said, still staring at the screen, willing it to divulge its secrets. He was admittedly rather impressed that the little fox had managed to set up a full-scale Emerald radar system at the age of eight.
"Or maybe," Tails pointed out, "It's ghosts!"
"…what?"
"I mean, the pyramids in Sand Ocean desert are full of ghosts!" Tails said, excitedly. "Maybe they also give off Emerald signals. Somehow."
Or maybe, Shadow thought, I should just skip school tomorrow and go comb that Sand Ocean desert myself.
xxx
"Shadow? You seem…distracted."
"Hm?" Shadow looked up from his homework, over at his sister who was also currently poring over her Mobian studies text book. Without the professor there to tell them not to, the two teenagers had proceeded not to cook tonight but to order from four different food delivery services at once, Maria arguing that they "needed the experience, and it's a scientific experiment and valuable cultural immersion, Shadow, obviously".
Needless to say, after they were now both feeling horribly overstuffed and queasy, they had agreed never to do that ever again and were at least trying to somewhat salvage the evening by doing something useful for the remaining hours. It was a warm night, so while they were inside the living room for the benefit of having a table for their study materials, the glass door to the garden had been left open, the scent of an early summer night drifting inside.
"Oh," Shadow said, looking down at his writing pad where he hadn't actually written anything in the past twenty minutes (Well. He had written one thing, namely a name starting with 'Sa-' and then violently scribbled over the letters as soon as he had noticed.) "Yeah, a bit." He scowled. "Truth to tell, Sonic wasn't at school today, he's off doing Chaos knows what, and Tails said he'd tell me when he'd be back, but he hasn't yet. And I want to know what he is doing."
"Ah." Maria pulled a grimace. "Yeah, I haven't heard from Tails all afternoon either, I wonder-"
Which was as far as she got, because at this point there was a roar of a plane overhead, and then the thunder of thrusters and an earth-shattering CRASH as something that vaguely looked like the Tornado, but only if the Tornado had suddenly been folded into a mecha-like walker, dropped down into their garden like a tonne of bricks.
Or, rather, like a really large battle mech with a seriously furious fox kit inside.
"What…?" Maria mouthed, breathlessly, both of them staring out through the glass front of their living room into the garden. Shadow was already scrambling to his feet, instinct more than conscious thought making him place himself in the doorway between the mecha and his sister.
"…Tails?!" he asked, flabberghasted, staring up at the fox inside the walker, noticing how several weapons were mounted at its sides and aiming at him. The Chaos energy inside him was already pumping through his veins and riding on adrenaline, the entire situation far too similar to when GUN had put him against a B3-X HOT SHOT walker mecha in a battle to the death once aboard the ARK, but he tried to keep calm. There had to be a reasonable explanation for this.
"Shadow!" Tails yelled back at him from the cockpit, canine teeth bared in righteous rage. "You fake friend! You thief and pretender, you lying, Robotnik-brood underhanded…" here he seemed to struggle for words a little, "…meanbag faker, GIVE BACK THAT EMERALD YOU STOLE!"
To be continued…
Ohohoho, what a rollercoaster! Whelp, I hope everyone's healthy, everyone enjoyed the Sonic movie and if you want to comment to bring a li'l sunshine into my life, please do! Everybody can probably need some right now, so I hope that chapter cheered you up :) See you next time, and if you read, please review!