Anonymous Review Replies!
LoneGarurumon: Aaah, yes, the height of Sonic characters, like, whenever I actually try to mentally project them onto any of my furniture for this fic you realize again they are SO. SMOL. XD It's hilarious and I'm super jealous of Maria :P I'm delighted when these details get enjoyed in the fic :3 And as for Shadow's doppelganger, yeeeeah, that delivery was a bit...MECHAnic, wasn't it…;P Thank you so much for the continued comments! :D
JOHNNY: Right? :D It was really important to me to show that even in this AU, where he starts out on the side of the heroes, he is very much NOT Sonic, so Im glad that came across, but also how his relationship with Maria changes him, and what it means for his other friendships when she's there to facilitate them :) And no worries, there will be Robotnik scenes, I do love that crazy maniac :D Thank you so much for the thoughtful review!
Guest: I'm so glad you liked the reworking of that scene! Pretty sure it's somewhere in the top 10 for most Sonic fans so I *really* wanted to get it right :3
Long time reader: Aw thank you! I try my best and comments like yours keep me motivated :D
Shade GUA: Ahahah, I had to laugh at that, Shadow for sure is showing his introvert in this story - if only the other characters would let him be! XD How Amy entered that base will likely remain an eternal mystery, but yeeeeeah, what WILL Gerald say when he gets back from that conference…? Please read on to find out, thank you very much for the lovely detailed comment!
DEV: JAAAAAA, ich hab so gehofft, dass die ganzen Zitate erkannt und genossen werden! :D Der Verlauf des Duells...war ungefähr so, wie *mein* erster Bosskampf gegen Shadow gelaufen ist als ich das Spiel vor Ewigkeiten zum ersten Mal in den Fingern hatte XD Und jupp, anscheinend hat Robotnik da tatsächlich was fieses auf die Beine gestellt - aber wenn diesmal die Hero-Seite Shadow schon von Anfang an dabei hat, kann sich die Dark-Seite natürlich auch nicht lumpen lassen! :p Und Rouge...yeah, so mit easy undercover schoolgirl is jetzt vermutlich nicht mehr, aber ist wenigstens ein kleiner Preis, um mit dem Leben davon zu kommen (und 3 Emeralds!) für wen sie nun tatsächlich arbeitet, tja…:P Und ich freu mich, dass Shadows Charakterentwicklung weiterhin gut ankommt, er is definitiv nicht Sonic, aber das AU soll ja schon Spuren hinterlassen :3 Das Sleepover - also, ich muss zugeben, ich hab *absurd* viel Spaß mit den Sonic Charas die ganzen teenager-high-school tropes abzuklappern, natürlich gehört da auch ne girly Übernachtung dazu, und sowohl Maria als auch Amy verdienen ja auch echt mal ne Freundin in ihrem Alter :D Mal schauen, was Shadow von der Übernachtungsparty mitkriegt…^^; Und ob es jetzt mit Mathe in der ersten Stunde oder GUN weitergeht - ich verweise erst mal auf die Kapitelüberschrift, aber ich hoffe unterhaltsam wird es so oder so :P Wieder MEGA vielen Dank für den Kommentar, die sind immer mein totales Highlight!
Chapter 24: Return of the Truck: The Truckening
"Hey."
Shadow glanced around. It was two hours later by now, with the pizza cleared away, everyone having had a shower, beds made up and night having fallen. He was currently standing on the backyard porch, staring up at stars, as always trying to find that dark patch in the sky where the silent ARK must be circling, even now.
Usually, Maria would be at his side in these situations, but judging by the muffled giggling and occasional squealing from upstairs, his sister was currently otherwise occupied. Half an hour ago Maria had gushed to him that with Amy she had finally found someone to watch Coyote Ugly with, a movie about a female desert dog who learns that beauty isn't everything which apparently was so romantic, seriously Shadow-!
Shadow resolutely stared at the sky.
Not that he begrudged her ditching him for Amy.
Much.
As he cast a glance over his shoulder, he could see Sonic and Tails emerging onto the porch with him. Shadow raised an eye ridge.
"Settled in, then?"
"Yeah," Sonic nodded, coming to stand next to him, crossing his arms and leaning against one of the porch roof's support beams. "Tails finds it hilarious to stay in a house where everything is made for giants, actually. It is probably a bit funnier when you can fly up to the sink instead of having to hunt for a stool," he added wryly.
Shadow, who had never known any different, shrugged. "I trust you managed."
"We did," Sonic nodded, before grinning himself. "And the ginormous bed is a super perk, not gonna lie."
There was a pause. Shadow suspected Sonic and Tails had not just come out to talk to him about the various pros and cons of human furniture, and the next moment proved him right.
"So," Sonic said, slowly. "Do you want to tell us what was up with that doppelganger of yours? And what you said about GUN trying to...keep you?"
"Legally I can't," Shadow pointed out, a part of him already a bit morbidly curious how the Professor was going to react to any of this anyhow when he came back.
"Well, we participated in destroying an army base today and I think Sonic's now technically a fugitive or something," Tails said, brightly. "So I don't think that matters a lot any more, if that helps."
"Hmh," Shadow frowned. He wasn't even sure whether he wanted to tell them. It was bad enough he knew he was nothing but an experiment, if anyone else found out...
I thought we were over this, a voice in his head said. Maria said that you're not worth *less* than anyone else just because you were created in a lab and you believe her, right?
And, well, Shadow did, but…
Before, any other experiments never could use Chaos Powers.
Before, any other experiments never could talk.
"You don't have to, y'know," Sonic said at that point, interrupting his morbid thoughts with an easy shrug. "Like I said, things you don't wanna talk about, I get it. But maybe it'll help knowing what we're up against. Like. Was that guy your brother, or…?"
"No," Shadow snapped reflexively, "he wasn't. He..."
He clenched his fist, looking away. He didn't want to think of that...copy as related to himself. But…
"Or maybe he even was. I wouldn't know."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Tails asked, one ear folded flat in confusion. "Did you never know your biological family after being born, like Knuckles?"
Shadow briefly raised his eye ridges at this new information - orphaning in Sonic's circle of friends did seem to run rampant - but then shook his head. "Not quite. I wasn't born. Not in the usual sense. I am an experiment of Doctor Gerald Robotnik. The latest breakthrough in genetic engineering."
"Engineering," Now it was Sonic's eyes that went wide. "You mean - you're a...cyborg…?"
"What?" Shadow stared at him. "No!"
"Uh, yeah, Sonic, genetic engineering doesn't mean robot. I am so sorry," Tails said to Shadow apologetically, as Sonic held up his hands, rolling his eyes in a way that indicated not everybody could know all the fancy words.
Shadow sighed. "No, I'm not a cyborg. I don't have any mechanical components, all flesh and blood. But I was genetically constructed and modified to be the Ultimate Lifeform, designed to be the cure for the autoimmune disease NIDS."
Sonic blinked. "Wait. You were designed to be a cure?" he asked, general tone conveying that he was probably wondering whether Shadow's way of 'curing' people involved putting them out of their misery permanently.
"One more word, hedgehog," Shadow glared. "No. I was designed to produce stem cells compatible with almost any other species, which can be harvested and transplanted into deficient immune systems to repair them."
"Oh. Oh wow," Tails commented, mouth a little 'o' of wonder. "And have you already-?"
"My sister was the first successful patient," Shadow nodded. "I was created for her."
"For...Maria? Huh. From what I've seen of her that seems like a pretty good call," Sonic said, a small smile tugging at his mouth that Shadow steadfastly refused to let anything inside him feel touched by. "But then what's with all the Chaos stuff?" Sonic wondered. "And why is there now another you running around?"
"A...side effect," Shadow crossed his arms again, this part of his creation one he was far less eager to talk about. Better to leave the whole thing with Black Doom and his alien parentage out of it. "I was developed aboard the space colony ARK and when GUN started to notice my abilities, they tried to get the Professor to let them use me as a weapon. They didn't succeed."
"Right," Tails nodded. "So you think they tried to replicate you now? Or...Eggman is?"
"Maybe," Shadow nodded. "It seems certain the Doctor has stolen information pertaining to my creation from GUN databases. But I don't...I don't know how accurate that replication is," he said, forcing himself not to let his voice waver. His stomach roiled whenever he thought of the uncanny eyes of the other, looking just like his own but not, staring at him from that expressionless face. Once again he wished Maria was here.
"Well. From what you told us, that replication tried to kill my big brother, and you didn't, so...I'd say pretty not accurate," Tails piped up at this, offering Shadow a smile. "And you being cutting edge genetic engineering...that is super cool," he breathed.
"Tails," Sonic managed, sounding a bit pressed, but the fox kit immediately whipped around, shaking his head.
"What? Sonic, that is super cool! And he got to save his sister, too!"
"Yes," Shadow said, feeling almost surprised even if that technically wasn't new information. "That I did."
They stayed outside for a while longer until they went to turn in for the night, and even if they didn't talk about anything important after that, and Shadow knew that by sharing the information about his creation he had just committed another crime on a longer-growing list, he couldn't help but feel just a little bit lighter about everything that happened during the past 24 hours than before.
xxx
When Shadow woke up in his room the next morning, there were noises in the kitchen, indicating that the majority of current house inhabitants were likely already awake.
(Which to be fair surprised him a little. When he had gotten up again at 2 or 3 am for a middle-of-the-night snack - where he had also met Sonic and Tails at the fridge, all of them apparently blessed with rather high caloric needs - he had also passed by Maria's room, where there were voices still shrieking inside -
"Okay, so, it's the second day of Sex Ed, right, and then Sticks - my friend, she's a jungle badger - just asks Ms Blaze whether knotting is a thing with wolf guys-!"
"NO!"
"YES!"
"...is it?"
and Shadow had kept walking, as quickly as possible.)
Now he briefly stretched, then slipped into his gloves and shoes, descending into the kitchen where breakfast had already started - and the first fight of the day apparently, too.
"No, Maria and I will be in the laboratory today!" Tails was currently exclaiming, also tugging at one of his sister's wrists. "We made amazing progress in field testing yesterday with the stealth drive, we need to confirm the results with systemic experiential evidence-!"
"Like heck you need to, what I and Maria are going to experiment on is her wardrobe, poor girl literally has one model of a dress and that's not okay-!"
"Heya, Shads," Sonic waved at him from the breakfast table, the blue hedgehog also the only person who was actually eating anything, seeing as Amy was hanging on to Maria's other wrist and pulling into the opposite direction from Tails.
"She is not your dress-up dummy!"
"She is not your lab whiteboard either!"
"You already had her all of last night!"
"Well you had her the night BEFORE!"
"Uh…" Maria was shooting an incredibly helpless glance at Shadow, clearly a bit overtaxed with the current situation. Shadow pondered this for a moment.
Then:
"Well, Maria, me and Sonic will head out to clear things up with GUN. I'm sure you'll have fun with my 'delightfully quirky' Mobian classmates that you always encourage me to be friends with. See you later." He cocked his head at Sonic. "You coming?"
"Shadow, wait!" Maria pleaded, but was fairly helpless in the tug of war currently going on in their kitchen.
"Tails, Amy, remember human arms come off way too easily, alright?" Sonic said as he slid down from his chair, but otherwise made no actual motion to dislodge his brother or Amy from Shadow's sister. "Also, I think if you managed to even bruise her, Shads will likely kill you," he added, expression thoughtful.
"Yes," Shadow confirmed.
"I don't want to bruise her, she said she wanted to learn how to do wingtip eyeliner-"
"Amy, seriously, this is the next great Robotnik genius, she doesn't have time for flippin make-up-!"
"Tails, at the end of this day I will have put mascara on somebody, so if you value your face intact-"
The rest of the sentence was thankfully cut off as Shadow pulled the door of the house behind them closed. Sonic looked just slightly guilty as he did.
"Wow," he winced. "Not gonna lie, that felt a bit cruel to leave her."
Shadow threw him a look. "Did you want to get in the middle of that?"
"Fair point. Let's go!" Sonic said very quickly. "I know a police station we should probably go to…"
xxx
"Okay, so, what's the plan?" Shadow glanced over at Sonic, the two of them ambling easily up one of Station Square's broader streets, a steep slope with only a few cars every minute rolling downward toward the city centre, Saturday morning sunshine brightening the world in a way it was hard to remember yesterday they had been running through a prison fortress for their lives.
"Well, we need to contact GUN, and I want to do it remotely, so we don't need to waltz into one of their bases where they could try to capture me again," Sonic said, rubbing the back of his head. "So, I'm figuring we make our way to the police station in Mission Street, you can usually get a line to some GUN command centre from there-"
Sonic was still talking, but Shadow at once interrupted him by flinging an arm out and shoving him back. This was because right in front of them a manhole cover had suddenly started moving.
"Stay back. There's something coming out of the underground-" Shadow was already reaching for the gun still lodged in his quills while next to him Sonic had tensed, both of them staring at the moving cover, and who was powerful enough to lift that thing even-?
"Oh hey!" Sonic then exclaimed, tension vanishing as soon as two rather familiar spiked gloves and purple eyes squinting into the sunshine became visible. "Knux! Long time-!"
"Don't say it-"
"-no see!" Sonic finished, giving the echidna an absolutely brilliant grin while the other Mobian now looked actively pained. "What are you doing here?"
"Same thing I have been doing all week," Knuckles grunted as he pulled himself out of the manhole, replacing the cover. "Looking for the shards of the Master Emerald." Then his eyes fell on Shadow, one eye ridge raising in surprise.
"You two know each other?" he asked, gaze wandering in between the two of them.
"Heh, yeah," Sonic grinned, also putting an arm around Shadow's shoulders (which he then thankfully removed as Shadow growled, even though it did nothing to dampen his good mood at all) "We actually go to school together!"
Knuckles threw him a flat expression. "Yeah, I still don't get why you put up with that completely ridiculous human charade."
"Because Tails, unlike you, doesn't want to be a hermit who talks to rocks. So if he wants to go to school here, I have to go," Sonic shot back, rolling his eyes. "We've been through this, Knucklehead."
"I don't talk to rocks, I guard -!" the echidna started, eyes once again blazing, before pausing. "Wait, didn't I hear something about them arresting you yesterday?"
"Oh. Yeah," Sonic waved him off. "But the gang broke me out, all good. Shadow's actually super great with Chaos techniques, you should see them."
"Chaos-?" for the first time, Knuckles' gaze flickered back to Shadow (who wasn't quite sure how to feel about the casual compliment thrown his way), but then re-focused on Sonic "But - 'broke you out'? Doesn't that mean you're...technically a fugitive? Should you be walking around outside?"
"Eh, it'll be fine," Sonic shrugged. "They might not even be sure I survived yet and we're actually on the way to the Policestation to call GUN about it, so-"
"WATCH OUT!"
Which was the second time Shadow felt like having a mini-heart attack this morning, mostly because he was the first of them to spot the giant, twelve-feet-tall truck on top of the hill now straight up barreling towards them.
"What the-?!" Knuckles whirled around, all three of them staring at the large GUN vehicle thundering down the (thankfully mostly deserted) street. Sonic huffed out an extremely displeased sigh.
"Oh come on, not agai-"
"The driver doesn't have control of the vehicle any more."
"Huh?" Both Sonic and Knuckles glanced at Shadow, then back at the truck's driver cabin - and also saw what Shadow had seen, namely the young man behind the wheel now pushing frantically onto his horn, his expression one of sheer terror as the truck had started careening downwards, crushing parked vehicles at the side with abandon - and steering straight toward the shopping mall at the foot of the hill where the street ended in a large roundabout.
"...I'll get the driver," Sonic said. "You guys stop the truck."
Knuckles nodded. "Got it."
And then the blue hedgehog was already off, zipping straight toward the out-of-control monstrosity.
For a moment, all Shadow could do was stare, things around him slowing down to slow-motion as his brain went into overdrive from abrupt adrenaline. In front of him, Sonic raced up the hill like blue lightning, but next to him, Knuckles was already squaring up, planting his feet into the ground and raising his fists.
"You good for this?" he threw a glance at Shadow, violet eyes wary."You didn't exactly punch very hard when I saw you on the forest clearing."
Shadow could feel his eyes narrow.
"Don't worry," he said, at the same time channelling Chaos energy into his fist until it glowed. "I wasn't trying."
And before either of them could say anything else, things were already happening.
In front of them, Sonic had now reached the truck, dodging to the side of it, leaping onto the cabin and then swinging through the shotgun window with a well-placed acrobatic kick, the driver inside barely able to do more than stare at his new passenger in shock before Sonic had already leapt, kicking the driver's door out of his frame and pulling the human out with him, even managing to take the brunt of the impact when they fell to the ground, despite the man's far larger mass.
Which left the now driverless truck barreling straight at Shadow and Knuckles.
They punched.
xxx
In some ways, the punch was a success.
Shadow suspected that even augmented with the Chaos energy, Knuckles had probably hit the vehicle harder than he had - but both of them had obviously miscalculated at which height the truck's center mass was located.
As a result, the truck did stop barrelling down the street, but only because it instead flipped over their heads into the air - and was now sailing across the street, still on the way to the shopping center.
"No-!"
Up the street, Sonic had dropped the driver (who had done the most sensible thing and fallen unconscious) and was now staring at the truck in shock - and Shadow could already tell there was nothing they could do, neither him nor Sonic were able to catch a several-tonnes-heavy monstrosity, and Knuckles simply wouldn't be fast enough - when the truck suddenly stilled by itself in mid-air.
Surrounded by a just slightly familiar light-blue glow.
"What-?" Shadow mouthed, once again wondering whether Sonic was simply just a sort of centre eye of a Vortex of Madness he had inadvertently been sucked into, just as his eyes zeroed in on a figure standing on the sidewalk below them, both arms raised, hands surrounded by the same blue glow that framed the truck, and a paper bag with spilled oranges and baguettes at his feet.
And also a look of extreme why-is-this-happening-to-me on his face that Shadow thought he could sympathize with.
"I - I was just trying to do my shopping!" their history substitute teacher Mr Silver wailed. "Why - what are you - why-?"
"Yeah. Sorry. In my defence, GUN's weirdo giant truck strategy is definitely not my fault," Sonic said, ambling closer with a wince and a slightly guilty grimace. "Thanks for catching that thing, Mr S. Neat trick."
'Mr. S' then pretty much proceeded to drop the truck on its side, still staring at their trio. In the distance, some sirens began to sound.
"Why are -?" he began again, then levelled an even more confused stare at Sonic. "Wait, weren't you - no, aren't you-?"
"Yeeeah, we're kinda in a jailbreak. Technically," Sonic rubbed the back of his head. "Totally a misunderstanding, though. But I'll hand in Tails' sick note for Friday as soon as possible, promise. That okay?"
Shadow took a bit of solace in the silver hedgehog's expression, which encapsulated a lot of his own feelings ever since meeting Sonic.
"No! You can't have a sick note for a jailbreak - !" Mr Silver began, hands briefly going up like he wanted to tear at his quills for a moment, before he dropped them again, seemingly taking a deep breath. " Or...you know what, never mind. I'll...tell the other teachers," he said, sounding like a man trying to stave off a headache with very little hope. "Can I ask what misunderstanding?"
"Sure," Sonic shrugged. "I was framed for stealing an Emerald. But we actually think Eggman is collecting them, we just don't know for what. I think that's why he also tried to steal your Emerald first, by the way," he added to Knuckles with a nod.
"...really," the substitute teacher said, curiously now sounding rather intrigued. "You know, I, uh, heard that it's possible to use the seven Chaos Emeralds to actually jump into a parallel dimension, do you...do you think that's why he wants them…?"
"The man fails to take over this dimension already, I'm not sure why he would try his luck with another one," Knuckles replied flatly, before narrowing his eyes. "Say, where exactly did you hear that rumour?"
"Uuuuh, I- you know what, I can't remember!" the silver hedgehog replied quickly, with a wave of his hand also letting his oranges and baguettes jump back into his shopping bag and clutching the thing to his chest like a shield. "And I think maybe we should all go before the police get here! See you at school, do your homework!"
"Uh," Sonic said, blinking as they watched the retreating back of their history teacher now jogging away. "That was a bit...strange."
"But he has a point. Let's scatter," Knuckles gave them a nod. "I need to get back to my Emerald hunt, too - but I have trouble finding any more signals. Think Tails can help me boost my radar?"
"If you can prize him off Shadow's sister, sure," Sonic replied with a bright grin. "You can head to Shadow's place, he's there and we'll be back in about an hour. Get him to text you the address."
"Right," Knuckles nodded. "See you there. In case you don't end up arrested again," he added wryly, before also giving a nod to Shadow and walking off into the direction the two of them had come from.
Shadow shot Sonic a flat look. "Invite any more of your friends and my house will be a zoo."
"That's speciesist, you know," Sonic stuck his tongue out at him as they began jogging at a faster pace to get away before any more GUN services arrived, Sonic sure-footedly leading them through side streets and alleys in an easy run. "Besides, your sister could do with some company that helps her not to be stuck between Tails and Amy, those can be a bit, uh...intense. Ah, here we are!"
Shadow let his skates flare to a stop as Sonic screeched to a halt in front of what looked like a smaller police station. Shadow scanned their new surroundings and noticed that they had zipped right through the main shopping district and were now at the edge of downtown where another Mobian residential quarter was bordering the commercial area, pedestrians now fairly mixed in species.
"Alright, come on," Sonic said, leading the way up the stairs to the police station, the doors of which, Shadow noted, were fitted with bars for pushing at both Mobian and human height, the same as at school. Inside, they came into a reception area, empty of other visitors, but dominated by a front desk behind which a Mobian officer in uniform sat, who...
"Um," Shadow said. "Is...that just me or does that guy look exactly like Knuckles?"
"Like Knuckles if he had grown two feet and suddenly got shoulders thrice as broad, yeah," Sonic said slowly as he regarded the tall, red-furred, well-built sapient at the front desk. "Except Knuckles always says he is the last of his race? I….don't think I've seen that guy working here before."
"Hm?" the giant-maybe-echidna behind the desk finally seemed to notice them and then startled as he beheld them. "Oh! Wait! I know you!" he accused, pointing a boxing-gloved finger at Sonic and narrowing startlingly familiar purple eyes. "You're a wanted man! Or wanted hedgehog!"
"Ah, yeah. Look, about that," Sonic began, raising his hands in a pacifying gesture as the other Mobian emerged from behind his desk and began striding toward them purposefully. Shadow had also tensed, but at least the voice was different from Knuckles, making it less likely that Mr Silver's strange comment was right and they had indeed slid into an even weirder parallel universe. Next to him, Sonic was still trying to calm the advancing officer down.
"See, I can explain-"
"I don't need you to explain," the Mobian said threateningly, coming to a stop and towering right in front of Sonic, "I just need you to sign this!" And he whipped out a sheet of paper.
A...sheet of paper that turned out to look like a glossy, high-def glamour pic of Sonic, showing him leaping at the camera with a kick and a grin.
"Uuuuuh," Sonic said intelligently. "What?"
"Yeah, it's for my nephew, he gave me this picture and said that if I ever ran into you I'm supposed to get him an autograph," the officer explained easily with a bright smile. "Apparently he's your biggest fan. And I have a very good memory for faces, so I recognized you from the picture right away," he said, tapping the side of his own head proudly.
"...Right," Sonic said, shaking his head and taking the pen proffered by the other, also ignoring Shadow silently suffering at this latest edition of The Sonic Show. "So, who do I make this out to…?"
"Kneecaps, please!" the officer smiled. "His actual name is Knecapeon Mace, but he prefers his nickname."
"Gotcha," Sonic nodded, scrawling his name and a dedication on the picture in some handwriting Gerald would never have permitted either Maria or Shadow to get away with and handed the picture back. "There you go. Now, I actually wanted to ask-"
"Wait," the officer held up a hand as he squinted at the picture, lips moving as he read. "Your name is...Sonic the Hedgehog?"
"Yes?" Sonic asked, and Shadow was mildly pleased that for once the blue hedgehog seemed to be equally lost in this bizarre interaction as himself. "That...that is why you wanted to get my autograph, right?"
"I only recognized the picture, I didn't know your name!" the officer retorted, "But now I do! Sonic the Hedgehog is a fugitive from justice! I hereby place you under arrest!"
"Oh gods," Sonic groaned. "Look, first of all, I came to a police station on my own, okay, and second, if any of you people had properly looked at the footage of the Emerald theft I'm being accused of, you would be able to see that the thief is clearly black-"
The officer gasped. "What! Sonic the Hedgehog, as my nephew's hero, I really thought better of you. I'll let you know we have very strict anti-discrimination policies, we don't accuse anyone just because of their colour and really, especially with your friend here, you should really be a better role-model," he said, gesturing to Shadow and sounding highly offended, even while Sonic now looked as floundering as Shadow felt most of the time.
"What-? But, I mean, the other hedgehog was literally-! And even if, it's not like black-furred-!"
"Excuse me," Shadow cut in, mostly because he had a feeling this conversation was rapidly on track to become the lovechild of Kafka's The Trial and an episode of Numberwang, "Let's...let's start this from the beginning. You are…?"
"I'm Buffles. Of course, that is Officer Buffles to you," the Mobian added, puffing his chest up. "I'm here on an exchange program - but justice needs to be dealt out everywhere!" he proclaimed, raising a (yes, spiked) fist to the ceiling.
"Buffles?" Another male voice enquired from behind the closed door presumably leading to an office for the station's chief. The door then also subsequently opened, a white, brown-haired human man stepping out, holding a coffee mug and also looking like a very long-suffering person, "Gods, what is going on now, please don't tell me you've 'arrested' another sandw – Sonic!"
"Tom! Hi! I'd hoped you'd be on duty!" Sonic returned the surprised (but happy) expression on the human officer's face, waving at him. "Just dropping by to clear up a misunderstanding, hope you don't mind?"
"No, of course I don't - to be honest, after seeing the news I had a hunch you might," the man gave Sonic a wry smile, before adding, "Buffles, it's okay. I'll sort this out. I'll take Sonic and, uh…."
"Shadow."
"...Shadow into my office. You, uh, continue...guarding...the station. Please."
"Sir, yes sir!" Buffles snapped an exaggerated salute and marched back behind the front desk, clasping his hands behind his back and giving a stern nod to both Sonic and Shadow. "You may proceed. But no funny business."
"Yeah. Right," Sonic nodded. "But, say, uh, just out of curiosity, what exactly is your race...?"
"Again with the-? I feel sorry for you," Buffles shook his head, swaying dreadlock-like spines expressing profound disappointment.
"No, look, I didn't mean-!"
"It's better you let it go, Sonic. Come on," the human officer sighed, putting a hand on Sonic's shoulder and gently steering him toward his office in a gesture that looked like there was an easy familiarity there, suggesting it had probably been practiced quite a bit.
Shadow followed, also shooting Sonic a flat look. "Is there a single person in this city you don't know."
"What can I say? Just a magnetic personality," Sonic shot him a bright grin as they trailed the human back into his office where he proceeded to dispose of his coffee cup in a kitchen niche and then settled behind the office desk in there. Jabbing a thumb toward his officer friend, Sonic added, "Tom actually took me in when I first arrived here after chasing Eggman halfway across the globe, two and a half years ago. I'd fallen off the Death Egg and crashed down close to here, half-dead and barely remembering who I was. Never mind that I'd never been in the Northern hemisphere before," he raised his hands to indicate the general state of confusion of his past self, before throwing the human man a smile again, who nodded.
"And I'd never seen a Mobian up close before. I thought it was a sort of...Tasmanian blue devil or something for a minute. Tom Wachowski, by the way," the man leaned forward from his position, stretching out a hand toward Shadow. "You one of Sonic's friends?"
"Regrettably he seems to think so," Shadow shook the proffered hand, somewhat gratified to get a bark of a laugh from the man, and ignoring the eye roll from Sonic. Nevertheless, the story had stirred a bit of an interest; a human taking in a sapient to care for them? "So...you patched him up, back then?"
"Yup," Sonic nodded, climbing onto one of the large chairs in front of Wachowski's desk and settling in, but not before snatching one of the donuts situated on a plate next to the computer screen. "Like I said, I was super out of it and basically crawled into his garage, probably just looking for some shelter or something. Tom says I actually meowed when he first saw me," Sonic gave a slightly embarrassed laugh. "But anyway, he gave me a place to rest and heal up until Tails had managed to locate me and I got my memory back proper."
"Yeah, but not without him driving me nuts in the process," Wachowski added from the desk and Sonic laughed, entirely unselfconscious.
"Yup. Was completely off my rocker with a concussion and called him 'Donut Lord' for the first three days alone." He waved the half-eaten pastry at Tom, also getting sugar everywhere. "Still put up with me, though."
The policeman gave the blue hedgehog a wry stare. "Well, you were thirteen and you looked a lot more adorable."
"Hey, I still do!"
At Sonic's protest, Wachoswki paused – and then, to Shadow's utter surprise, leaned forward and ran a hand through Sonic's headfur, ruffling it, which Sonic permitted with a folded ear and a grin.
"…yeah okay, you still totally do. Now. What kind of jam have you gotten yourself into this time, kiddo...?"
To be continued….
Well, not quite updating at the speed of sound here, but I'm hoping y'all still had fun, enjoyed and if you read, I'd love to hear your thoughts on any and all scenes you liked - there were so many in this chapter that were fun to write so I'm dying to hear what you think! :D