Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Chaos control!” Shadow reaches out for the blue hedgehog silhouetted in a rainbow of light. If he can just get his hands on him, if he can just grab those stupid blue quills–

He’s blinded by starlight. Rainbow meteors crash around him, filling his eyes with a mind numbing gleam. Gasping, the light drowns his lungs and flings him into a directionless spin. He doesn’t even know which way is up. All he can feel is the weightless lurch of his gut as he’s sent adrift into a sea of white-hot energy.

“Whoooaa!!”

Despite the deafening hum of the stars, he hears the familiar exclamation. Something solid brushes past his hand, but it slips just as fast as it came. He cries the colorful stars out of his eyes to focus on what’s next to him, to see what he’s reaching out for. It’s sonic– Sonic! He rights himself as best he can to grab onto the hedgehog’s wrist. They hurtle through the dazzling, encompassing void.

“Sh-Shadow?!” Sonic yells as he’s spun up and over the black hedgehog.

“Don’t let go! Hold onto me!” Shadow tightens his grip.

The starlight spills from Sonic’s eyes. A dark spot, almost swallowed whole by the torrent of light, bobs up and down over the brilliant waves. He grabs back, forming a knot between them. They’re adrift, tumbling together with hands locked tight.

Gravity begins to pull them in. Shadow grips Sonic tighter, refusing to lose his lifeline – for Sonic to lose his lifeline. If he can just keeping holding onto him…

“Don’t let go!” Shadow yells again. But he knows his voice is sucked into the darkening void as well.

☆☆☆

There’s half a second of rooftops before a crash of blackout darkness. Sonic’s eyes flutter open. Everything hurts, from his bones to his quills. He feels like he was just run over by a mack truck, head still spinning from the concussion and a case of nausea to match. Shakily, he stands and feels that mack truck run over him again.

A fistful of angry hedgehog knuckles bash into his face. He’s only been standing up for 5 seconds! Sent spinning again, he catches glimpses of asphalt, brick and the murderous mack truck hellbent on turning him into a blue skid mark. His world screeches to a halt as a pair of hands grab him by the shoulders.

“Sh-shadow?” As his eyes refocus, he gets a good look at the truck’s murderous brown headlights.

“What did you do!?” it’s the only thing Shadow can think to say. He’s got the blue idiot by the shoulders, and Sonic’s lucky he doesn’t have him by his neck! The answer isn’t coming fast enough. He starts shaking the answer out of the blue hedgehog.

“Wuh? Huh?” Flickies spin in Sonic's vision. “M-Me? I didn’t do anything! What did you do?”

Oh, Sonic’s really lucky that Shadow’s grabbing him by his shoulders. “Don’t deflect. You spin dashed straight into that crystal without a second thought. What were you thinking?”

The flickies fly away as the shaking stops. His eyes circle back to Shadow with a raised brow. “I was thinking that Eggman was trying to grab the big, mysterious, magic-y, glow-y crystal thingy and I needed to stop him, duh. Simple as that.”

Shadow feels his hands creep upwards. He has withstood Sonic’s flippant hero act for too long. “Right, simple. Just as simple as the explosion that landed us…” Shadow raises his head. He doesn't have the faintest idea of where they are. All he got was night sky, neon lights, and then cold, hard asphalt when he was spat out of the sky. His nose twitches.

The smell of acrid pollution chokes his airway. He notes a tired neon sign buzzing blue-greens ‘cross the trashy puddles mucking their shoes. A decaying brick wall to one side, a slumping metal one to the other, a dented dumpster oozing beside them– it's all the classic signs of an alleyway. How in the world did they get here? What did that crystal do? As Shadow looks around and he doesn’t notice Sonic’s eyes dart towards the alley entrance. He doesn’t catch the second time either. 

The black hedgehog’s murderous hands stop their journey for one second– just one!-- and that’s all Sonic needs. The sonic boom whips Shadow’s quills into his own face. Wide eyed, he catches glimpses of blue zip-slipping its jailbroken way across a busy street and up a building. On a pair of glowing shoes no less.

Shadow growls. Of course! Chaos forbid he lets his guard down for a moment. Chaos forbid he takes his eyes off Sonic. The pest goes and teleports them to Empire City.

He steps forward to dash after his escapee, but his legs tense. Confused, He looks down. His bracelets, solid gold only moments before, now hotly slip in and out of focus. It’s the same light he saw glitching out Sonic’s shoes. Great. He looks further down. His anklets are in the same state. Also great.

“AUGH!” There's no time to worry about this. Sonic’s face is currently going unpunched at this very moment; a crime in and of itself. It’s a city-wide manhunt now, and Shadow will not take prisoners.

Shadow zips out of the alleyway and onto the pavement. He quickly stops and shields his eyes from a whizzing light hovering overhead. It’s got to be a GUN copter, Shadow thinks. Empire City airspace is sixty percent flying metal. The light passes, Shadow’s eyes readjust. He stares.

What flew by– It wasn’t a GUN copter. No. It was— The first thing to catch his eye are the unfamiliar skyscrapers. Skyscrapers that slump under the weight of a smogged sky. Haunting red-yellow-orange neon signs cling to them from roof to foundation. They’re only outshined by streetwide holograms dancing to the tunes of ‘buy this brand new gadget or ‘try this new product’. The saccharine splotches of their light reflect against the clouds as nauseatingly as they shine on the black, wet street. 

His frozen gaze lowers. People stand on conveyor belts, mindlessly allowing the city to pull them through the dazzling advertisements and smoke. The ones who get off limp into buildings. The black city windows weigh on the people as heavily as the smog on the buildings. Not even the artificial, twinkling happy-go-lucky lights in the sky can get them to look up. 

A massive hovering machine prowls through the buildings. A mustachioed, holographic insignia brands its metal. The text spinning around it reads “Welcome to New Yoke City”. Shadow watches the eggcopter that flew over him moments ago disappear behind a building

What did Sonic do!?

Shadow shoves civilians aside and rushes up the building Sonic climbed moments ago. He perches on its spire, holding the pole for balance as he scours the miserable streets below. He sees red. Yellow. Orange. A smidge of purple. But not blue. How hard could it possibly be to spot blue in this damned place? In this troubling “New Yoke City”? But one problem at a time. He has to find Sonic first. He takes another look:

“There he is.” Sonic’s crammed in a main street, harassing the citizens below for what most certainly are answers. He can’t help the slight grin on his face as Sonic leans his whole body against one, only to be shrugged off by a cold shoulder. Despite this quickly worsening situation, it’s still amusing. Very rarely does Shadow get to see Sonic being ignored. It must be killing him.

“I wonder how long he’s going to keep this up?” Shadow rolls his eyes. He watches Sonic dash to another citizen, flailing his arms widely. Then to another one, with the exact same results as the first. Shadow’s smile widens as Sonic puffs up and crosses his arms. The blue hedgehog taps his foot and simmers. And then his shoes catch fire, for Chaos' sake. With a hop and half of an improvised spin dash, Sonic manages to extinguish them. Shadow eyes his own set of glowing accessories. 

One problem at a time. 

He gets an eyeful of Sonic’s misery for another few seconds and decides to end his pain. He lets go of the pole, and quickly regrabs it. Red and blue sirens of police cars whine in the streets. Eggmechs follow suit, wailing static-y warnings to citizens to stand clear, and for the “blue anomaly” to freeze. An eggcopter flies by Shadow, only a hundred feet away, and descends upon the currently unfolding crime scene. 

“Oh, shit.” Shadow jumps down onto a lower rooftop. He’s only six stories from the ground, but he perches against the lip of the roof. It’s at least four mechs. A few police cars. Maybe two helicopters.

“You are under arrest by authority of the Egg Council.” 

Sonic waves his hand, brushing off the mini mecha army. “Listen, I don’t know who this Egg Council is.”

“You are under arrest by authority of the Egg Council.” the robotic bull horns repeat. 

“I just told you, I don’t know who that is! ”

“Do not resist.” Is the final message. The bots attack.

Now this is interesting. Shadow doesn’t mind outsourcing the face punching every once in a while. He watches the blue hedgehog slip and slide, but manage to scramble some egg-butt (trademarked by Sonic T. Hedgehog) like always.

“Is that all you got?’

“Wow! I have a roomba faster than you!” 

“Huh, Eggbot heads are surprisingly easy to hacky sack with!”

Shadow's eyes almost roll right out of his head at Sonic's charming one liners

Before long, the street becomes more scrap metal than pavement. Sadly, the hero’s face comes out of the encounter damage free. Shadow’s ears tick up.–or so he thought. Bruiser mechs barrel onto the street. Their anti-tank artillery dwarfs the police cars on the street. Sonic’s entered level two. How will the blue hero fare?

Not well. 

Shadow hears brrriing’s as the blue annoyance gets the ever loving rings beat out of him. Woof . After a painful minute, the hedgehog finally goes down face first into a concrete pillow. Shadow thinks the hedgehog’s about reached his face punching quota. Before Shadow can launch a rescue mission Sonic slowly rises and wipes his nose with his thumb. 

Sonic smiles. “Heh. You think that’s enough to beat me?” It’s time for level 3. 

The hero rushes full speed at the badnik enemies. He leans with his slippery shoes instead of against them. He slides around laser fire and bullets. His light speed kicks burn rainbows through metal. Skating on prisms, he shatters flimsy machinery against the black pavement. 

Shadow leans over the ledge. He’s not in the fight, but he feels adrenaline grip his heart. He can’t look away from the violently shimmering hedgehog.

The last tank bot hits the floor. Sonic’s hand makes an “L” over his forehead. “Whatta buncha losers! Come on, give me a challenge!” 

Shadow snaps back to reality. Cradling the bridge of his nose in his hand, he wonders why he hasn’t gone down there yet to put an end to Sonic. The eggbots can’t do it, but he can.

“Oh-oh! Whoa! Hot, hot, hot!” 

Sonic hops from one foot to the other. His shoes are on fire again. Quills on end, he bends down and pats out the flames. “Ow, ow ow!” Extinguished, he falls back on his butt. Face sour, he sticks his burnt fingers in his mouth. 

“Hah,” Shadow sighs. “It’s time to get going.” He’s about to stand when an earthquake vaults him up and down in his seat. When his eyeballs stop rattling, he sees a giant… Mecha baby!? What in the Flame Core?! 

The baby badnik towers over Sonic. A cheerful “Pbbt!” comes out of its speakers as it spins its Fischer-Price-Farmer-Says chest. A Giant rattle pumps out of its cannon hand. The final boss has entered the arena. 

Sonic’s slipperiness is back, but not as bad as it was before. He springs over the rattle. Then gets smacked by it. He cracks the outside armor plating on the Egg Baby.  He spin dashes and demolishes its chest wheel. He throws out a couple more cheesier one liners before he’s mashed up into baby food.

The Egg Baby is ramping up his assault. Sonic’s fast, he’s got stamina, but even he’s got his limits. The Egg Baby pulls a fist back and jets forward. Shadow can outsource a beating, but he still needs a face to punch. He can’t let this be the final pummel. Sonic needs a player 2.

He teleports right behind Sonic. The Egg Baby moves in slow motion as space-time refocuses Shadow into his new position. Fist cocked back, he leaps over the other hedgehog and bashes his fist against the Egg Baby’s. Time comes to a crashing catch up. The mech’s arm tears itself in two, hitting an immovable object with the power of space-time behind it. The impact quakes his bones and cracks the pavement. Metal sheets and wiring crash down on either side of the hedgehogs as the mech scrapes to a deactivated standstill far behind them. Standing tall, metallic rubble glistens as it falls from Shadow’s shoulders.

“Hmph.” Shadow looks over his shoulder. The blue scuffed up hedgehog stares back from the ground. He soaks up the look on Sonic’s face: wide eyed, mouth slightly open, breath caught in his throat. Good. He should be impressed by the raw power that saved him from becoming a blue skidmark. “Learn to dodge.”

Sonic shakes his head and bolts up. He’s been on the ground for too long. Shadow’s going to get the idea that he’s impressed or something.  "I had him and you knew it! You shoulda let me do my thing! I didn’t need you to jump in–"

Annoyed, Shadow raises his fist to under Sonic's chin. Sonic straightens out and gulps, quills flaring slightly.

"Next time, I'll let the egg bot flatten you."

Sonic gives his signature cocky smile. "Well, Next time I won't even need your oh so gracious help. I was working up to my killer finishing move”

“Yeah. The move where the mech finishes you.”

Sonic rolls his eyes and eughs. He puts his fists on his hips as he taps his shoe. Shadow is downright impossible. Sonic swears it’s on purpose. He looks on at the mangled metallic mess they’ve left. Huh. Looks like that Egg Baby bot’s missing. Standard issue bad guy stuff. They gotta retreat to cause more trouble later.

“Now,” Shadow says. He thrusts a hand downwards to point at Sonic’s shoes, “What are those?”

“Huh?” Sonic lifts a foot up to look at the underside. “Oh! I dunno. They were just like this when we landed. They,” He puts his foot down and slides a little bit. Smiling weakly, he steadies himself “Uh, I have no idea.”

"This is serious. Fix your shoes."

"Im not– whoa oh!--” he reaches towards Shadow who’s turned and started walking away. “I'm not doing this on purpose! They don't have any traction! And you’re one to talk– fix your glowing rings!!"

"That's hardly a concern considering our current situation."

"But my shoes are?" Sonic slips and slides a little too much as they’re walking out towards another street. Shadow jams out his arm to stop him, elbowing Sonic right below his ribs. 

Sonic wheezes, and pats Shadow on the back. “Thanks buddy,” He can’t help but lean on Shadow’s arm for support. “I really appreciate what you’re bringing to the team.

Allowing the hedgehog to cling to his arm for support, the black hedgehog scours the new street. All the citizens of New Yoke are going about their business like there wasn’t a giant mech fight one street over. Huh, maybe this place is more like Empire City than Shadow originally thought. His eyes brush past a subway entrance. Only when he sees a shock of yellow, and a flash of white tipped tails, his eyes stop dead.

“Is that Tails over there?” Shadow asks.

Sonic raises himself up and over Shadow’s arm. “Tails? Oh thanks Chaos, he'll know what to do!” Sonic vaults over Shadow and trips over his own soapy shoes to rush down the subway stairs.

“Sonic–!” Shadow’s outreached hand seizes. His ring glows hotter, spasming like it can’t grab hold of the reality around it, its white color fracturing into a prism of colors. It sends a terrible, burning, electrifying bolt up his arm, thundering in his skull. He snatches it back towards his chest, grabbing onto the faulty ring as if he can push it back together; push the numbing pain out of his wrist. The pain pulses away, his tight chest panting in time with the dulling pulses. Pain gone, he braves releasing his wrist to check it. The ring is back to its stable state, buzzing a bright white glow. So is the other. And so are his anklets. He shakes the numbness out of his hand. He has more pressing issues. A little shock isn’t going to stop him.

Shadow follows, but quickly loses the blue idiot in the subway. Surely he went down the track– that’s a classic Sonic move-- but which way? Shadow supposes he can just check both ways, that’s nothing for his speed. But he notes that as he runs down the track one way, his rings dim. Odd. He turns around and runs towards the opposite way down the track. His rings start glowing stronger. Ah yes. As if the magic glowing energy on his rings wasn’t bad enough. Now the magic glowing energy is telling him how to find the blue idiot. He was going to find Sonic anyways, but this is just another level of headache. Of course their magic glow-y bits are homing devices to each other.

He stops running when his rings’ glow dims. He speeds a few meters back until they glow again. A key coded door is on the wall. His first instinct is to pry it open, but he remembers he saw Tails go down here. So maybe… ? Shadow punches in 1992. His face scrunches up at the realization that he knows the code to get into Tails' workshop. Why does he remember that of all things? Surely he’s not been to their place often enough to remember it. When he enters, he’s got 7 knives pointed right at his face. His quills shoot straight up.

“Hey hey hey! Tails–”  Sonic’s nervous smile matches his hands held up in defense.

“Nine!” A yellow fox, who bears a striking resemblance to Tails, is raised on his mechanical tails and towers over them.

“Fine, Nine! Just, Calm down! This is Shadow. Sh-A-Dow? You know, the guy that I beat up every Saturday, and then he hangs out with you to talk about…” Sonic’s eyes cross, “...I don’t know.” he shrugs “Cars or something?”

“Beat me up?” Shadow forgets about the knives.

“But you do come over about every week to talk about…” his eyes cross again, “...I don’t know. What else do you talk to Tails–”

“NINE!” Some death tails point back at Sonic.

”No, no, no. I mean, ah, whatever. My point is, I don’t know what else you guys talk about, really. Motorcycles maybe? You’re really into those.” 

“What are you talking about?!” Nine shouts.

“Sure, we talk about motorcycles,” Shadow says. This guy looks like Tails, but there’s no way they’re related. Mechanical tails aside, his eyes lack any familiarity. Sonic’s obviously getting nowhere by talking with this guy. He grabs a firstfull of knives and pushes this ‘Nine’ back into the workshop, hard.

Stumbling slightly, the fox clenches his fits. “Oh, so that’s how it's going to be, huh?”

The temperature in the room is getting hot. “Shadow?” Sonic puts himself between the hedgehog and fox. “What’re you doing?” He smiles tightly, “Haha, We could do with 70% less hostility right now.”

Shadow and Tails lunge. This is bad. Sonic thrusts his arms out to push against their chests. He expected Shadow to be a little chill–this is Tails afterall! But the harder Shadow and Nine push against him, the worse the situation is becoming. He’s gotta get these hot heads to cool off. 

“Guys! Please don’t fight,” the peacekeeper smiles, “We’re all friends here!”

Knives rattle. “I have no idea who you guys are! ” Nine yells. 

“I agree with the walking kitchen block.” Shadow slaps his hand on Sonic’s face and shoves him aside. “I don’t know him.”

Before Sonic can even pinch his half-broken nose, Nine launches at the black intruder. “Get out of my lab!”

The two slice and punch, tumbling over each other out the door and into the subway. This is bad-bad. Sonic zips outside. Thrown, Nine's back hits the tunnel wall. Recovering, he slices off more than a few of Shadow’s quills. 

“Shadow! Stop! Don’t hurt him–!” Sonic doesn’t know who–or how– to grab first. A train– Sonic’s ears turn his head towards an approaching subway train. “Wait!”

“Come at me, Tails .” Shadow hops onto the flat top of it.

The taunt works. Nine’s knives scrape against metal as he crawls onto the top after him. 

Bad, bad, bad! If Sonic doesn’t stop this right now, one of his friends is going to end up train track roadkill! He scrambles and catches the last car. He speeds his way to the front. 

The fighters shove each other to the ground. One moment it looks like Nine's upper hand will throw Shadow off the train. Another moment Shadow tries, but fails, to rip the mechanical tails off of Nine's back. Up ahead, the tunnel’s about to lower. It’s going to cut them off at the waist. 

Nine knocks Shadow down to the ground. He towers over the hedgehog lying prone. The fox unseathes his blaster and points it towards the intruder. He's won.

Shadow’s head snaps up. He notices the low tunnel approaching fast. Without a second thought, he takes advantage of Nine being caught off guard by the impending, lowering death, and launches himself at him.

Sonic rolls off at the last second. Oh no. There’s a good chance Shadow saved himself, but what about Nine? Did Shadow leave the poor fox to splat on the tunnel wall? His eyes and ears scan the platform. Please let them be okay, please let them be okay. Finally, the train passes by and he sees black and yellow on the platform on the other side of the tracks. 

Oh thank Chaos! Nine is awkwardly over the hedgehog’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Shadow drops him on his butt like he is one. The blue hedgehog speeds over.

"Nine! Shadow! Are you guys hurt?"

Nine looks at Shadow from the floor. "You saved me…even though we were in the middle of a fight. Anyone else in New Yoke would’ve made sure I stayed on the train. ”

"Don't think about it too hard. I'm not in the business of watching kids get splattered on subway walls." Shadow crosses his arms and frowns.

Ah, as prickly as ever. It would actually kill Shadow to take thanks once and a while. Sonic couches so he’s eye level with the fox. He wants to pull Nine into a hug and squeeze the chilli dogs out of him. That always made Tails feel better, but this isn’t Tails. This is Nine. He doesn’t know what makes Nine feel better, but he still says:

“Friends don't let other friends get hurt. Do you believe me now, Nine?”

“I guess...” The fox’s expression softens. His sharp shell cracks. 

Sonic spends the next few minutes telling Nine about what ‘his’ life is like in Green Hill. Shadow waits patiently. Once Sonic’s speech is done, Nine accepts the two hedgehogs as acquaintances. He questions their glow-y accessories. The hedgehogs shrug. Nine invites them into his lab. 

Nine carefully examines Sonic and Shadow’s accessories and gets to work making stabilizing devices. The hedgehogs talk about what they saw in the city above. Sonic mentions a loop de loop he saw and a horrifying realization dawns on both of them. Green Hill is gone, but maybe they can fix it. The Paradox Prism is the key. They busy themselves while waiting for Nine to finish the tech. 

Sonic’s zipping around and slip-sliding all over the place, still enthusiastic about this, that and the other in Nine’s workshop. Nine constantly yells over his shoulder to stop Sonic from touching things he shouldn’t. Shadow can’t take it anymore. Before Sonic can zip by him again, he thrusts his arm out and catches him. Sonic almost tumbles over it. 

“Be still.” The black hedgehog growls.

“Still isn’t really my speed, Shads. Come on, you’re not the least bit excited about this?”

“Excite… Excited? Green Hill is– is–!”

Sonic holds his hands up, “yeah, I know, I know. All egg-gunked up. It’s crazy out there, but I’m going to fix it. Has there ever been a problem that I couldn’t fix?”

The exasperation plastered across Shadow’s face reminds Sonic of his loooong list of unfixed problems. He scribbles Green Hill at the top in big, bold letters and scratches some things off at the bottom. No way he’s going to have time to deal with those later; considering he’s occupied with the current sich.

Realizing Shadow isn’t going to let him go, he plops in the chair next to the sour puss, arms crossed. It’s not like they can do anything about it at this current moment. Sure, he might’ve caused a catastrophic apocalypse, but is that any reason to keep him chained to a chair? His foot taps impatiently. His side eye opens when he gets a good look at Shadow's rings.

“What?” Shadow barks.

Sonic gestures to Shadow’s arms and feet. “Your rings? My shoes are all slippy and hot, but I haven’t seen you banana peeling anywhere.”

“They do feel hot. It’s not painful. It’s…” he comfortably couches his words in a gray lie. “It feels like the surge of energy I get when I take off my regular rings. Only now, they’re still on me.”

“Huh. The ones on your ankles too?” Sonic’s expression is devoid of any smugness, any cockiness.

“Yes.”

Sonic’s not staring him down and Shadow doesn’t like that. The blue annoyance should be sizing him up and taunting him about how his shoes are cooler than Shadow’s rings. But no. Sonic’s looking at his rings, head cocked to the side, mouth drawn into a small line. His foot’s stopped tapping. It looks like he’s trying to chase a specific bolt of energy with his eyes.

The blue hedgehog looks back up at Shadow. His foot tapping resumes. “That sounds like it feels pretty bad, then. Cause you hit me with a chaos spear with them on and I felt fried for a whole week!”

“You’re lucky I didn’t spear you with them off.” The fond memory makes a corner of Shadow’s mouth tick up. It was amusing watching Sonic ham up the whole ordeal. At one point he tried to convince Knuckles that he couldn’t walk. The echidna didn’t buy it.

Sonic shudders. “Yeesh. Don’t even joke about that.”

“Alright, it’s done.” Nine hops down from his work bench. “Shoes.” Sonic and Shadow lift their shoes for Nine to place the new tech on them. “Gloves.” They do the same for the gloves. 

“Whoa-ho!” Sonic hops from one foot to the other as he checks his new kicks. “Do you guys see this? “Now these, these are fire! I have to test them out right now! Shadow, we gotta race, we gotta race!”

Shadow looks down at his rings. The shimmer dissipates and leaves behind bands of geometric, rainbow prisms. The anklets are the same. Tentatively raising his arms, they shine different colors of the rainbow at different angles. How fitting of their current situation. 

“Lemme see, lemme see!” Typical. Sonic’s already forgotten about their race and is trying to get his grubby paws on Shadow’s rings. Shadow slaps away the curious hands. 

Ignoring the childish display, Nine cradles his chin in his hand. “You know, now that I’ve had a good look at it, the energy your guys' gear gives off reminds me of the energy that powers the city. Especially your stabilized rings, Shadow.”

“Energy that powers the city?” Shadow’s moved on to slapping Sonic in the face.

“Yeah. It’s this mega crystal the Egg Council keeps locked up in their tower.”

“Crystal?!” “Crystal?!” Shadow and Sonic yell at the same time. 

“Yes. I just said that.”

The hedgehogs share a meaningful glance. The crystal, which looks like their glow-y gear, must relate to the Paradox Prism, no doubt about it. If they want to solve this mess, they need to get their hands on that crystal. 

“We have to steal it,” Shadow says. His ears tick toward the opening door. 

“So you’re looking to steal the Paradox Prism,” a voice comes from the entryway. 

“Rouge?!” “Rouge?!” The hedgehog’s yell.

The bat stands in the doorway, face as serious as the military valor she wears. “I want to help.”

Chapter Text

“Rouge?!” Sonic and Shadow yell at the same time. 

Shadow’s eyes don’t lie. White fur, purple wings, charming face; it’s her. The Tails look-a-like wasn’t a surprise. Sonic and the fox are a packaged deal. Of course Tails was suckered into this misadventure. But Rouge? He can’t pick his jaw up off the floor. 

This is Rouge, the jewel thief by day and the government spy by night. At the end of the day, she always flies into the freedom, treasure in tow, like the world class escapee that she is. If anyone could have avoided this Paradox Prism mess, it would have been her. But here she is standing in the doorway.

“The name’s Rebel,” Posture sharp and straight, she says. “You boys are looking to steal the city’s power crystal, are you?” Taking inventory of the three boys, she enters the lab. They’re diamonds in the rough, but she knows she can polish them into valuable assets for the Resistance. 

She appraises Sonic, then Nines, and finally Shadow. Their eyes meet and there's not a hint of familiarity in them. There’s not a glimmer of ex-gear tourneys, no White Acropolis missions, no Team Dark. Her eyes reflect a stranger. Looking away, he finds relief in the lab’s gray walls. 

“Knuckles!” Sonic gleefully exclaims. “Or…not Knuckles?”

A red echidna, scarred up and with an expression as serious as Rebel’s, enters the lab. At least this one’s a convincing fake. It would take Shadow a hard second look to realize this wasn’t the blue hedgehog’s hothead friend. 

The echidna punches his fists together in macho greeting and says, “Knuckles? Don’t know him. I’m Renegade.”

“Whoa.” Sonic’s eyes dart around the room to all the copies. First Tails, then Knuckles and Rouge? Green Hills' cosmic inversion is becoming alarmingly more familiar. The only person missing from the accident is Amy. Is there an off-color reprint of her running around too? “I suppose you don’t know me or him, right?” Sonic points his thumb to Shadow. 

Renegade raises an eyebrow. “Know you? This is the first time I’ve seen either of your mugs.”

Sonic leans towards Shadow and loudly whispers, “They don’t know us either!”

“I heard them. I’m in the same room as you.” Shadow turns towards the new arrivals. “I’m Shadow. That’s Sonic.”

“And that’s,” Sonic beams as he gestures towards the fox, “Our buddy, Nine.”

Nine’s mental image of blasting the intruders to high heaven is projected on his face. His non-imaginary indignation says, “What part of ‘underground subway bunker’ tells you ‘Come on in’? Who are you? How’d you even find my lab?”

“Renegade and I are a part of the resistance that fights against the tyranny of the Egg Counsel.” Rebel places her hand over her chest. “I’m the commander.”

Shadow bristles. The leader of an anti-Eggman resistance? The illusion breaks. Rouge is a damn good leader, but there’s no way she would lead an organized group of rebels. And for what? There’s no monetary profit in nobly spearheading a rebellion. Time equals money. If there’s no money, then it’s not worth her time.

The echidna gestures toward the hedgehogs and says, “We followed the ‘hogs here. The surveillance team picked up a weird energy signal about an hour ago, and when we found out it was you two, we put eyes on you. Rebel and I followed when we saw you go down here.” He pumps his knuckled fist in the air. “And I gotta say, that was some insane eggbot fighting!”

Rebel nods. “We’ve never seen someone with that kind of power stand up to The Counsel. With strength like that, we could finally topple the Eggs; steal their power crystal! We came down here to enlist your help.” 

Shadow crosses his arms. A resistance with the same goal, how complicatedly convenient. They seem sincere, but there’s two sides to a coin. If Shadow flips it over, what will he see on the other side? There’s too much risk in finding out.

“Toppling Eggman is what I do best!” Sonic shadow boxes and lets a couple kicks fly. “We’ll help you snatch the Paradox Prism and send that egghead packing!”

Rebel’s brow furrows. “Paradox Prism…?”

Sonic sucks in a deep breath. Ten minutes, many questions, and many exaggerations later, everyone in the room is caught up with the hedgehogs’ current situation. Sonic jams his thumb towards Shadow. “So, yeah. That’s how we broke the Paradox Prism.”

That was a more competent explanation than Shadow expected. Wait– “We broke?”         

“I broke, we broke, you broke. The details are a little fuzzy. I’m painting the picture in broad strokes.”

Shadow could just smack him. The bat and echidna stare at Nine and the fox shrugs. “Based on the tests I’ve conducted on their energy signatures, their story checks out.”

Rebel shakes her head in waning disbelief. “Sure. I’ll accept that we have a pair of dimension hopping hedgehogs on our hands. I won’t turn down help… no matter how unbelievable it sounds.” She refocuses. “With your help, we can finally free the city.”

Shadow frowns. He’s pressing rewind. ‘Free the city’? What did he write his name on that signed him up for this? He puts his fist on his hip. “Sonic and I are here for the crystal, that’s it.”

The blue hero signs Shadow’s name on the ‘save the city’ contract with a heart for an ‘o’. “Don’t listen to him. Of course we’re going to help you save New Yoke! He’s the angsty loner type, but there’s a heart of gold underneath there.” Sonic tries to knock his knuckles against Shadow’s chest, but the black hedgehog catches his fraudulent hand. 

The angsty loner type lets this one go. Fighting Sonic’s bleeding-heart heroism schtick is a losing battle. If Sonic has to be the city’s hero to steal the crystal, then so be it. Stealing the Paradox Prism is stealing the Paradox Prism. The result is the same.

“What about you, fox? Are you in?” Rebel asks. 

Nine sees the sparkles coming off Sonic’s expression. He plops down into his lab chair and turns towards his desk. “No thanks.”

“What? Wait, wait.” The sparkles fizzle. That deadpan look on Nine’s face has gotta be sarcastic.  “What do you mean ‘no thanks’, buddy? There’s some eggbutt that needs kicking and me and you are kicking machines!”

“I said no thanks. Storming the Egg Tower is a suicide mission.”

“But… we’re a team, we can’t do this without you…”

“Sure we can.” Shadow douses the rest of Sonic’s hopes.

Rebel eyes the fox. Everyone wants something, no exceptions. Pretty promises with hollow intent is the best method of coercion. “I see you’re a scientist, Nine, and a dang good one at that.” She gestures towards the robotic machinery around the room. “Imagine what you could build with egg tech! You could upgrade your lab. Heck! You could build an entirely new lab if you wanted. When we break in, we’ll have the opportunity to steal the computers too!” Not likely. 

The scientist looks at her through thinned eyes, then at the other intruders in his lab. Rebel can see the gears of temptation spinning in his head. 

They’re wasting time. Shadow cuts in, “As much as I’d love to stick around and find out if the fox wants to go, Sonic and I have to get going.”

Renegade agrees. “The sooner we get the city’s power crystal, the better.”

“Right. Here’s the plan, boys,” Rebel begins. Her commanding nature paces her around the room. “The Egg Tower is heavily guarded. The further we go in, the heavier security will be. Our best bet is sneaking in through the subway tunnels that send supplies into the tower. Blue and Grumpy here can take out any sentries we come across while sneaking in.”

“Sneak in?” Sonic grins. “That’s not really my style. I’m more of a ‘knock knock let me in’ kinda guy.”

Renegade shakes his dreads. “You’re kidding. Now that’s a suicide mission! You’ll be clobbered instantly!”

The blue hero puffs out his chest. “I’m the fastest thing around! They won’t even be able to catch me to clobber me. I put the Eggbaby down for naptime!”

“I defeated the Eggbaby.”

“You defeated, we defeated, I defeated. Broad strokes, Shadow, broad strokes.”

Shadow’s smacking hand trembles. He thinks of sunshine and idiot free beaches. His piña colada is smooth and chilled. It’s the perfect temperature in the beach umbrella’s shade. He sighs away the fantasy. “Sonic’s right. The most effective method is going through the front door. If you want to crawl through tunnels and vents, be my guest. Sonic and I are leaving.” He grabs the blue menace by the arm and shoulders past the rebels. 

“Don’t worry!” Sonic holds up a victorious ‘V’ with his free hand. “We’ll have that crystal in no time flat!” 

Halfway through the door, Shadow’s eyes involuntarily peek at Rebel as they step behind her. He doesn’t know those shoulders. He doesn’t know those wings. This cheap imitation isn’t his friend. This is a faker wearing her face. He drags Sonic into the subway tunnel.

Rebel, Renegade and Nine sit there in a moment in silence. 

.

.

.

Nine breaks it. “Aaaand they’re going to die.”

☆☆☆

The hedgehogs zip out of the subway tunnel and onto the surface streets. It’s just as depressing as the first time. Saccharine neon lights blind the citizens with advertisements and propaganda. Tired buildings sag on the sidewalk. The people’s broken wills slump on the concrete in solidarity with the tired brick walls and black windows. 

These people’s nightmare’s gonna be over soon. Sonic’s gonna send that egghead packing on that dumb Egg Mobile of his. He doesn’t want to see a single nut or bolt on Green Hill when he’s done. It’s gonna be trees, sunshine, and smiles when they kick that mustached bozo over the horizon. 

They’re only a few blocks into New Yoke’s depressing display when Shadow slows from a jog to a walk. Sonic skids and backpedals a couple of streets to fall in line with Shadow. The black hedgehog’s face matches the black vibe of the city.

“You good?” Sonic asks.

“I want to talk to you,” Shadow says.

Sonic holds in an eye roll. What now? ‘I want to talk to you’ is code for ‘I’m about to be an edgy downer'.  “Yeah?”

“We’re not stealing the Paradox Prism to save New Yoke. We’re stealing it to save Green Hill.”

“Uh, we’re saving both–”

“Our top priority is Green Hill. The crystal is coming back with us.”

The eye roll slips out. This is classic Shadow, all black clouds of doom and gloom. He’s incapable of seeing a silver lining. “Shadow, dude, they’re our friends, we gotta help them. I mean, Nine made new tech for us.”

Shadow stops. He stiff arms and shoves a pedestrian that almost bumps into him. “That fox is not Tails. He is not your friend.”

The blue hedgehog holds his hands up in mock defeat. “Okay, fine. Even if he’s a different guy, he still fixed our gear. And that’s a Tails move.”

Shadow growls, “One act of charity doesn’t make him trustworthy. Your naivety is going to cost us the Prism.”

“Okay, ouch. Now you’re being mean for no reason.”

“Hmph. Being mean is going to get home fixed, whether you like it or not.” Shadow speeds back up, not waiting for Sonic to catch up. 

☆☆☆

Shadow’s air shoes scrape to a stop on the pavement. “We’re here.”

The pair halt only a football field away from the tower. Of course, it’s egg shaped. Sonic wouldn’t expect anything less from his nemesis. The dude’s nothing if not committed to his signature aesthetic. He hates to admit it, but he respects it.

“The doc’s got a new logo.” Sonic points to the insignia proudly emblazoned on the outside. “And it’s just as ugly as the last one. You’d think he’d hire a graphic designer at this point.”

Ignoring Sonic’s art snobbery, Shadow scans the area. The three-story tall, reinforced steel gate is coated by an extra layer of twenty or so eggbot guards. A couple dozen flying sentries complete the fortress’ security. 

“Do you think he ever gets tired of the red, black, and yellow? I know there’s no accounting for taste, but I’ve always found it kinda ugly.”

Shadow slowly turns towards Sonic. 

“What?” Sonic raises a genuinely confused eyebrow. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Augh, just stay out of my way.” 

“What?! I don’t get it?” 

Shadow’s sonic boom whips up Sonic’s confused quills. He spits a stray quill out of his mouth. Whatever. There’s no telling what Shadow’s mad about now. Sonic follows him. The hedgehogs rush the gate. 

Sonic rides his shoes, turning and jumping to the wavelength of honed prism energy. The blue buzzsaw cuts a couple of mechs down to wreckage size. White hot drop kicks melt through armor. He zips onto the head of one and pulls his eyelid down at another. 

“Blegh!” He sticks his tongue out and the taunted bot bashes its fist down. Sonic dodges, leaving the bot he was standing on with a friendly-fire crater on its dome. “Haha! Missed me!”

Shadow bulldozes his way onto the battlefield. Ball joints and hinges are ripped out of their sockets. Carnage of ground gears and unraveled suspensions lay demolished in his tread tracks. He springs onto a bot's shoulders, grabs its head, and tears it off in one fell swoop. It didn’t even have time to compute its regrets. This is just as easy as Shadow thought. They’ll have the Prism in no time. 

The alarms blare. Floodlights focus on the two hedgehogs wrecking balling their way through the guards. Heavy reinforcements swarm out of the tower; they’re on the offensive. 

Shadow locks onto a heavy artillery eggbot. He crouches and readies himself for a spin dash. Easy.

“Heads up!” Sonic yells.

The black hedgehog’s smacked from behind and eats bitter asphalt. A blue butt pins his head down. Spitting out the taste, he rolls over and sees Sonic rubbing a thick knot forming on his blue head. 

“What are you doing? Get off me!” Shadow bumps him off.

“I said ‘heads up’! That means ‘catch me I just got tossed’!”

Shadow growls. He has half a mind to toss Sonic across the yard himself. ka-chk! His ears stick up to the sound of cocking guns. The two hedgehogs roll away before a spray of bullets leaves more than just knots on their foreheads. Shadow doesn’t have time to deal with the blue idiot’s antics while fighting eggbots. The sooner they deal with security, the sooner they can get the Prism and go home. 

He refocuses onto another eggbot. Time to take one more problem off his growing list. He dashes through it.

“Whoa!” Sonic drops to his knees.

Shadow uncurls and skrrt’st to a stop. Sonic, who he hadn’t seen, crouches next to the fresh bot wreckage. His blue quills look a little shorter. “Jeez! Talk about a close shave. You almost took my head off!”

“Tch, you’re getting in my way.” Shadow skates back into the fray. Sonic needs to be more aware of his surroundings. If the blue hedgehog was paying attention, he wouldn’t have smacked into Shadow. And he would’ve seen Shadow spin dashing in his direction; lest Shadow accidentally gives him the world’s deadliest quill cut. 

Shadow returns to demolition. Eggbots are sliced off at the knees, eggcopters are poofed. He lands into a crouch. One, two…ten eggbots left. They’re reaching the halfway mark. 

“Augh!” Heavy metal pelts Shadow’s head. He throws his hands up. When there’s nothing but metallic dust falling on his quills, he un-shields his face. He's greeted by the sight of a sheepish hedgehog standing beside him. At their feet is a freshly shredded eggcopter. 

“Oops,” Sonic brings his hands together as he smiles guiltily. “Didn't see you standing under the ‘copter, Shads.” He laughs nervously and cheeses it before Shadow can grab hold of him. 

The black hedgehog sucks in a deep, cooling breath. Focus. He needs to focus. He can’t let Sonic distract him from the task at hand. They’re almost done with these bots. The Paradox Prism is within their grasp, and he won’t let it slip from their hands. 

He rockets onto an egg tank. His shoes scorch metal as he leaps on top of it. The barrel creaks as he wraps his arms around it and pulls. It snaps. Following through with the force, Shadow slams the barrel behind him. 

Distant, frustrated yelling rings his ears. He turns to see Sonic squirming his way out from under the barrel. “Aww come on! I wasn’t anywhere near you, man!” 

Once Shadow sees the hedgehog hop back onto his red shoes, unharmed, he turns his attention back to the tank. This is getting old fast. At this rate, they’re going to knock each other out before the bots do. He’s changing tactics. 

He holds his hand up. 

Nothing. 

The tank receives reinforcements. He speeds away before a squad of mechs can dog pile him. He holds his hand up again. Again, nothing. He looks down at his empty palms. Why can’t he conjure a chaos spear? 

An eggbot barrels towards him. He focuses his consciousness on a spot across the battlefield. And gets smacked to high heaven. He goes tumbling over the concrete. Distantly, Sonic calls his name. Spitting out rubble, he cautiously skates away from the bot. 

He didn’t teleport. Not an inch of spacetime bent around him when he concentrated his being across the field. He leaps and round houses the wings off an eggcopter whizzing by. When he lands, he hones in on another spot on the battlefield. He stays put.

No. No, this can’t be happening. This isn’t possible. He’s a conduit of chaos. His very being is nothing if not a mediator between the physical and quantum. He dashes away from a tank bot trying to run him over. There’s one last thing he can try. He doesn’t want to, he won’t have enough energy left to finish this fight, but he has to do it.

He spins out of a missile barrage and breathes in the area’s potential energy. He can feel it, he can feel the beginning sparks of chaos energy lingering in the air. He thrusts his arms out. “Chaos blast!”

Nothing happens. 

He tries again. “Chaos blast!” and again. “Chaos blast!” nothing!

“What are you doing?” Sonic lands next to Shadow. 

“Noth–” Shadow snaps out of it. “Nothing!” There’s no time to worry about this. Chaos powers or not, he and Sonic are going to get to the Prism. He speeds away from the confused hedgehog. 

This isn’t good. Sonic catches up to Shadow. “Uh, it doesn’t look like nothing. Looks like you’re trying to chaos blast and nothing’s coming out.”

“Shut it. We don’t have time to talk about this.”

“I don’t know, dude; seems pretty important.”

The black hedgehog grabs the last bot, an eggcopter, and smashes it against the ground. He growls at Sonic, and Sonic’s momentarily worried Shadow’s lost the ability to use his words. But thankfully, he says, “Come on.” The conversation ends when Shadow skates away.

Sonic clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes to the sky. Maybe Chaos can give him some guidance on this one, but even he stays silent. Guess there’s no answer for why Shadow’s so impossibly stubborn.  

Sonic follows and hops over the gate with him. They’re one step closer to the crystal.

The hedgehogs hit the second wave of security, and they learned absolutely nothing from the first. Shadow leaves craters on the ground as he wrecks bots, shockwaves knocking Sonic flat on his butt. Sonic runs into him, stepping all over his toes. They’re leaving more bruises than scrapped metal. 

Shadow’s absolutely had it. Between the blue idiot and the loss of his chaos powers, he’s going to snap. If Sonic bumps into him one more time, He’s leaving the Egg Tower with the Paradox Prism and no Sonic. 

He spots an undamaged eggcopter across the way. Smash it, and it becomes one less problem. He curls up and spin dashes through it–

BAM!

Shadow drops to the floor. His head violently rattles. He cradles it in his hands to stop his brain from shaking right out of his skull. He groans. Sonic is on the floor next to him, curled into the fetal position as he holds his own head. Shadow knew Sonic was hard headed, but he didn’t know he was that hard headed. He can feel the blood pooling in the back of his skull. 

Sonic can barely see. His bleary eyes adjust as the first wave of the concussion fades. He looks at the blackish-red blob lying next to him and groans, “Didn’t you see me spin dashing into this bot?! Why’d you do it too?!” He’s pretty sure the blob is Shadow. 

“Because I’m the one trying to get us into the fortress! You’re getting in my way!”

Yeah, that’s Shadow. Sonic sits up and touches his forehead. Wincing, he jerks his hand away. Wow, forget feeling that for the next week, that’s going to be at least two. “You’re the one who almost sawed my head off!”

Shadow leaps up to his feet and wobbles. “You stepped on my toes!”

“You’re the one flinging bot scraps all over the place!” Sonic jumps up. There’s two Shadows for a second. 

“If you weren’t standing around doing nothing, it wouldn’t matter where I threw the bots that I defeated.”

“Stop acting like I haven’t done anything!”

Shadow aughs. His quills flare up as he yells, “I should have done this without yo–”

A mech’s fist crashes down on Shadow. The ground underneath his pancaked body cracks. Sonic gasps. His shoes slip as he spins around. The last thing he sees is an eggbot’s knuckles. It’s lights out. 

Chapter Text

Sonic’s consciousness, busted out of his skull, slowly crawls back into his body. Oh, Not again. Sonic doesn’t know how, but his face hurts more than it did when he landed in New Yoke. Shadow must’ve been pulling his punches back to his shoulder, cause he’s pretty sure his face is ruined this time. Finally, his consciousness settles in its rightful place and pulls his eyes open. Afterimages of eggbot knuckles spin in his vision. 

Slowly, the knuckles fade and he’s met with a dark room, shockingly illuminated blue by a contraption around his body. He’s floating in the middle of a large, circular stockade. An electric gravitational field pulls his limbs apart, tightly locking him in place.

He tries his legs. He tries his arms. But the machine’s magnetic shackles just won’t let him go. But he’s no quitter. He tries wiggling. Then thrashing. Even a little samba to shake his butt free. Nada.

“Hrgh! Kyaa! Grr!” He strains.

“It’s no use.”

Sonic turns his stiff neck to see Shadow’s silvery outline in the dark. He's in the exact same predicament. His face is flat as he continues, “I’ve already tried.”

“You’ve tried, but I haven’t.” Sonic tries the tango. Doesn’t work. 

“Are you done yet?”

“No!” The two step’s a bust. His ears slump with his body. “Okay, yeah, I’m done.” 

Shadow sighs. “If you had stayed out of my way, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Pfft, if I stayed out of your way? If you stayed out of mine this wouldn’t have happened!”

The black hedgehog shakes his head. If he had done this alone, he would already have the Prism. The leaves and waves would be swaying in the salty breeze. The sunshine and flickies would be brightening the sky. And most importantly, the universe would have rewritten Sonic’s friends back into their proper characters.

He could be tanning on the beach. But no. Here he is in Empire City lite, New Yoke, stretched in some futuristic medieval torture device like a lab rat scheduled for dissection.

The blue annoyance doesn't even seem to miss Green Hill. He’s acting like it’s just another run of the mill adventure. This isn’t a Saturday morning cartoon. Eggman isn’t another villain of the week this time. Sonic doesn’t realize that.

“I’m never going to fix home with you around.” Shadow says.

 “Uh, news flash, but I’m not the only one doing a bad job here. You’re chained up–er electrified up– like me. And I didn’t even want to rush in!” 

“What are you talking about? You’re the one who suggested it first!”

 “...yeah, you’re actually right about that. It was my idea. But you agreed with me!”

Shadow sucks in a breath. Sonic’s right. “Doesn’t matter. We’re still trapped here because of you.”

“I admitted it, it was a stupid idea–”

“Not about that, hedgehog,” Shadow growls, “I’m talking about the Paradox Prism.”

Sonic groans. “I get it, I get it! Gosh, I did one stupid thing and now you’re going to harsh on it forever.”

“It was more than one stupid thing. You’ve ruined Green Hill.”

“And I’m fixing it, duh! I always fix it.”

Shadow squints at the troublemaker. “No you don’t! You leave things messed up all the time!” His volume’s raising.

“Name one thing I’ve left messed up.” Sonic’s volume is too.

“Chemical Plant Zone.”

Sonic pulls his lips into his mouth. “That one wasn’t my fault, and you know it!”

“So who do I blame, then? You were the only one there!” 

“Ugh!”

The lights burst on. The wall at the far end of the room slides up, revealing five shadows who loom into the room. The five grin at the trapped hedgehogs ready for the scalpel and forceps.

The middle-aged man of the figures looms into the light and throws his hands up triumphantly. “Oh-ho-ho! Welcome to the Egg Tower my rodent guests. I know how you’ve been dying to meet us, The Egg Counsel!” 

“Uh-huh, Uh-huh,” Sonic nods furiously. “’Cause it’s always my fault when something goes wrong!”

Shadow’s fangs snap together. “Because when something goes wrong, nine out of ten times it is your fault!” 

The man holds up a finger. “Uhh…”

“I’m not the villain here!”

“And yet you’re the one who broke the Prism!”

The man puts a fist to his mustache and coughs, “Ahem!”

The hedgehogs’ heads whip towards the interruption.

“Shut up!”    “Shut up!” They both yell. 

They return their frustration towards each other, spewing quills out of their mouths. The bolts are ratting out of the walls from the sheer volume.

“QUIET!” The man yells. 

Sonic and Shadow’s words trail off. Shadow’s eyes widen, “Is that…”

“Five Eggmans?!” 

The room is lined with eggbots standing at attention. Their rifles are locked and loaded. Computer terminals are in various places in the room, flashing data at eye-spinning speeds. Uh-oh. 

The middle-aged man speaks, “Ahem! As I was saying,” Lightning flashes behind him as his hands fly up again, “We are the mighty, supreme, powerful Egg Counsel! Allow us to give you the pleasure of knowing your captors! I am the genius, magnificent, mighty Mr. Dr. Eggman!

A teen goes next. "Dr. Don't. Sup."

A young adult goes after. "Dr. Deep! And you two are totally harshing the vibe right now."

An old man says. "Dr. Done-It. Don’t these two look a lil' young to be breaking into fortresses?

Mr. Dr. Eggman points to the baby. "I believe you're already acquainted with Dr. Babble."

Dr. Babble bangs his fists on the table and zerberts at the hedgehogs. 

The hedgehogs’ eyes pan up and down the counsel… Shadow deadpans, “I’m going to beat them to death with their chairs.”

“What?! No you’re not!” Sonic says.

“I pick up a chair, problem solved.”

They start going at it again. Dr. Babble turns towards Mr. Dr. Eggman. He points his tiny hands to the hedgehogs then smashes and rubs them together. He pbbt’s a question at his adult counterpart.

“If they are, they’re married.”

Dr. Done-It speaks up, shaking his cane at the whippersnappers. “I’ll tell you one thing for sure, their yapping is driving me crazy! Let’s just stick ‘em in the test chambers before I have to turn off my hearing aids.”

“I’m starting to get a headache myself,” Mr. Dr. Eggman says. He presses a button on the arm of his chair. “Rusty, get in here.”

Shadow’s ears lift up. A door slides open and reveals a dark figure. It steps inside. Its–

“Amy!” Sonic shouts. “Oh, Amy. Thank Chaos. Get us out of here!”

An eggbot, with a pink, fleshy face stretched over her faceplate, stomps out of the shadows. Her mismatched red-green eyes assess the prisoners in front of her. Her torso turns stiffly before the rest of her body, her metal boots clank heavily as she walks to one of the various terminals in the room.

“I do not know of this ‘Amy’ that you speak of. My designation is Rusty Rose.” Her voice is choppy and artificial.

Sonic slumps against his restraints. His ears fall as far as his face. “Oh Ames… What’d they do to you?” 

“They didn’t do anything to her,” Shadow says, “Because that’s not Amy.

Mr. Dr. Eggman turns to Rusty Rose. “Run the tests.”

“Yes, Doctor.” She taps on the computer’s keyboard.

A clear forcefield crackles to life between the hedgehogs and the Eggs. Another manifests between the two hedgehogs themselves. Their circular mousetraps spin and spit them out on the cold, hard floor. At least lab rats are left with a little dignity.

Mr. Dr. Eggman steeples his fingers. The light from the electric shields shine over his glasses. “Start them at 20%.”

Rusty turns the dial.

A tile snaps open behind Shadow. Guns rock and lock, their cross hairs pointed right at his pretty, little, black head. He flips away from the spray of lasers. It’s tight in the chamber, and he has to spring off the walls, but it’s incredibly easy to keep his quills unsigned.

Sonic bounces around. Airborne, he lays flat, arms behind his head. "Really? Talk about boring~!” He zips around another barrage. 

“Sonic.” Shadow lands on the divider between them. “Get it together.”

“I do have it together. Do you see how well I’m doing? ...much better than you, that's for sure.”

Shadow launches upwards and grabs one of the turrets. His shoes burn scorch marks on the wall as he tears it out and hurls it at the divider between him and the Eggs. The humans flinch at the fiery-laser-y explosion against the forcefield. They’d be worried if they weren’t the ones who designed it.

“Whoa, totally different playstyles, bro,” Dr. Don’t says.

The black hedgehog lands with his back to Sonic and tosses a glare behind his shoulder. “Tch. You wish.”

Sonic styles and pirouettes away from a frustrated turret. Shadow rips a second one out of the wall and chucks it at the divider between him and the Eggs. He’s going to keep banging his head against the wall until it breaks. 

Dr. Did-It growls. “Turn up the heat! Bump them up to 50%!”

The turrets zwoop back into the walls. Spikes raise from the floor, but leave a safe path in between them. The floor lurches before it starts to run like a treadmill. Sonic figure 8’s his legs around the spikes. He grins at Shadow. Shadow simply rises with his air shoes and floats. 

“Oh yeah. Forgot you could do that,” Sonic says.

Shadow looks down at him smugly. “Hmph.”

A vein is starting to boil on Dr. Deep’s forehead. He brings his hands together in mudra and sucks in a deep breath. “We’re getting nowhere with this one. The black one can fly for some god-awful reason. Rusty, try 70%.” He lets the breath go. 

“Yes, Doctor.” The dial cranks further.

The spikes slip into the floor. Shadow lands. “You look like you’re getting tired, hedgehog.”

“Pfft no way! I run through spikes on my days off.”

the panels on the walls begin to shake. Shadow flips before the panel shot of the wall can pancake him against one of the dividers. He double jumps when the second one comes for his legs. 

Sonic side steps. Ducks. Side steps again before he drops into the cossack dance. He stands and steps around another crusher. He stretches his arms behind his head and stifles a yawn with his hand. “Haaaa, They’re running out of ideas.” 

Shadow’s fed up. He braces his legs and thrusts out an arm. The panel smacks into the flat of his hand. It wishes it was an unstoppable force. A second one takes its chances. It too, meets an annoyed, immovable object. His cheeks puff up as it holds it in– he yawns. Damn, they really are infectious.

He crushes his fingers into the steel of one and hurls it towards the divider between him and the Eggs again. Banging his head against the wall still isn’t working. 

A shadow falls over Mr. Dr. Eggman’s face as his mustache rises with a grin. “Running out of ideas? Rusty, turn it to 75%!”

The dial cranks again.

“Huh?” Sonic bristles as an energy field bubbles up from underneath him. A forcefield encircles him in a sphere. 

Shadow’s just as confused. He crouches and punches the bottom. Nope. He’s firmly locked in. He wobbles as the ball starts to move.

“Oh dude! No the hamster ball!” Sonic speeds up with the sphere.

“Hamster ball!?” Shadow runs too. “What?! Why!”

“Don’t worry, it’s basic bad guy stuff if you can run fast.”

“Blast these rats! Rusty, Turn it up to 100%!” Mr. Dr. Eggman thrusts his finger at the eggbot.

The dial hits maximum. The hamsters pick up speed. Sonic’s legs figure eight, Shadow starts skating. It’s not hard to keep pace. Sonic’s truly disappointed. At least when the regular Eggman went all out, he gave Sonic a hamster ball run for his money. He’d think that if there were five Eggmans, they’d be five times the threat. But this is just sad. 

“Hey, Shads! Check this out!” He says. He turns around and runs backwards. “I could do this standing on my head.”

“As if this is a challenge, hedgehog.”

Dr. Babble bangs his tiny fists against his highchair. His binkie pops out of his mouth as he yells and flails his arms towards Rusty.

“I would not advise turning the machine above 100%.”

“Just do as he says!” Dr. Done-It cracks the ground with his tennis-ball-stopped cane. “Turn them up to 110!%!” 120%! 150%! I don’t care! Just make ‘em sweat!”

Rusty breaks the dial off.

The hedgehog’s lurch as the spheres spin faster. After a moment, they get their feet back under them. Shadow sees the terminals in the room light up, but he needs to focus on the current task at hand: not being tumble dried in a hack sphere. The ball speeds up again. He speeds up with it.

“Whoa-ho! Shads, check this out!”

Shadow’s eyes widen at the sight of Sonic’s shoes glowing once again. Sonic’s blue form blurs as he turns the sphere into a Globe of Death. He loops around it both horizontally and vertically at mach 1. 

The blue idiot isn’t the only speedster here. If Sonic’s gotta go fast, then Shadow can go faster. He pushes it to mach 2. The energy field wavers from his rocket shoe’s chaotic force scorching against it. 

The air inside the ball thrashes around his body beating against it. Friction-heated air balloons the ball. Sonic must feel stupid, failing to best the ultimate lifeform. It’s too late by the time Shadow notices his prismatic rings blistering bright. 

He’s bolted through space; his entire body electrified. Hot, shredding pain splits him down the middle as he feels his form double, triple, even quadruple. Flashes of harsh hues and deathly black flicker in and out. None of his bodies can get a single breath in as his limbs are stretched into the void. He’s a star burning to death in the atmosphere.

“--dow!” Something calls out to him.

Shattered into prismatic shards, his rings split from his body. Folding in on himself, he tries to hold them together. 

“Shad–!”

He focuses on the voice. The pain rockets past his body’s sensory threshold. He can’t feel it anymore, but he’s numbly aware of it skewering him with light. His rings, searing beautiful rainbows, float further and further away. 

“Shadow!”

His lungs expand. Air fills his body as he’s sent tumbling back into reality. His bodies crush back into a single form. The Egg Tower snaps into view.

KA-BOOM! The computer’s explode in smoke and sparks. The tower’s lights waver. 

Shadow crashes onto the ball’s floor. He tumbles over himself now that his existence has decided to stay in the current reality. His legs bang against the shield, then his shoulder, then his nose, and the back of his head. He can’t get his feet underneath him. 

Sonic has slowed down. The light from his shoes is snuffed out. “Shadow! Are you okay?! Shadow!?”

Rusty types and bangs at the computers. They’re goners. Even the screens are e-waste.

Dr. Don’t eyes the results on his still intact tablet. Bright, flashing lights reflect off his glasses. “Whoa, their power levels are over 9000!”

Dr. Deep leans over to peep his counterpart’s tech. “Over 9000? With power like that…”

Dr. Babble throws his hands up. “Ka-boosh!” 

“Correct.” Rusty nods at the Eggs, “By my calculations, we could power New Yoke for 1000 years, maybe longer, with a fraction of their power. Proposal: we should harvest this energy to power the city.”

“Oh-ho-ho!” Lightning flashes behind Mr. Dr. Eggman again. “How stupendous! I can’t believe they fell into our laps! Turn off the machine.”

Rusty moves to a functioning terminal. After a few inputs, the energy spheres blip out of existence. Shadow hits the floor. Hard.

“Hey, get up!” Sonic zips to the divider between him and Shadow. He bangs his fist against it. “Shads!” 

“Bring out the siphons!” Dr. Done-It says.

Sonic gasps as the ring from before falls out of a hole in the ceiling and onto the floor to encircle him. Before Sonic can even snap his fingers, its gravitational pull sucks him back into the stockade. Shadow’s in the same state, held limp by the electric shackles. He shakes the universe-splitting pain off as quickly as he can. He doesn’t have time to worry about it. He blearily refocuses on the situation at hand. 

Dr. Deep grins. “Ooo, this is going to hurt!” He leans back in his chair.

“What’s going to hurt?” Sonic asks. 

Sonic and Shadow freeze as a giant needle gun unfolds from the ceiling. A star glistens across the needle with a sharp shwing! Their eyes cross to the promising needle tip. It’s time for dissection.

“The energy siphons are ready when you are, doctors,” Rusty says. 

Sonic throws his head towards Shadow. “He can go first.”

Shadow looks deadpan at Sonic.

“Let’s get this over with. I wanna get back to playing Overview.” Dr. Don’t sighs.

Rusty places her hands across the keyboard. “Yes, Doctor. Commencing energy extraction in five–”

Shadow grimaces at the machine whirring to life in front of his face. The point creeps closer to his nose. 

“Four–”

He turns his head. Grits his teeth. 

“Three–”

He throws his consciousness out into the tightening room, but he stays locked in place. He still feels the needle pointing right at him no matter how hard he tries. 

“Two–”

If only he had his chaos powers! If only Sonic hadn’t shattered the Paradox Prism!

“One.”

Chapter Text

Shadow yelps as his face is shattered. But all he sees is the cold, hard floor. He blinks. He looks up into the blacked out room. He sees Sonic crouched and stunned beside him. The Eggs sit stunned in front of him. He looks back down to the floor. Then to Sonic. Then to the Eggs. 

His face is okay! His head wasn’t skewered! He’s free!

The lights click on at the same time the lightbulb over his head does. His shoes’ exhaust blackens the floor as he launches to his feet. 

“Retreat!” Dr. Don’t yells. His chair lurches backwards.

Sonic hops up, sneakers squeaking. His ears and eyes jump back and forth to get his bearings back. There’s a min of a dozen eggbots barreling towards him. He slides under a fist. He manages to roll out of a bot’s hand that was dangerously close to scooping him up. 

“Uh, I could use a little help here, Shadow!” Sonic shouts.  

Shadow can’t deal with Sonic right now. The blue hedgehog is a big boy who can take care of his own eggbot battles (granted, when he’s not bumbling into Shadow). His blue butt will be fine. Shadow’s attention is on the Eggs’ chairs zipping backwards towards an opening wall on the far side of the room. They point to the hedgehogs in a cacophony of  “Stop them!”   “Get them!”  “Eggbots, attack!”

Shadow’s fingers dig into the ground until he gets his feet properly under him. He stretches a hand out and revs his shoes to the max. Those egg-shaped chairs are in reach! He’s so close–!

“Hrrgh!”  Five hundred pounds of immovable, metal resistance slams into him. His outstretched hand collides with Rusty’s. He swings the other around to clock her in her stolen, pink face. But it’s caught too. Fists locked together, they push against each other. 

Rusty’s optics flare read. “I cannot allow you to harm the Egg Counsel.”

The organic hedgehog bares his fangs. Those chairs are slipping through his fingers. He will not be stopped by an imposter eggbot! He throws his weight into a different direction and follows through, full force. Rusty’s flung away.

He sees the last wisp of their black boots before the wall slams closed. His fists hit nothing but steel wall. “Augh!” He rears back and punches it. It dents. This one is stronger than the wall in the test chamber. He punches again. It deepens, but it doesn’t bust through. Damn that Amy look-alike!

“Grrk!” He’s snacthed backwards by the shoulders. Rusty’s extendo arms chuck him back into the metal fray. 

“How nice of you to join me, Shadow!” Sonic smiles sarcastically as Shadow lands next to him. 

Shadow skates backwards into Sonic until his black back is pressed up against the other’s blue one. He prioritizes; he’ll have to worry about the escaped villains later. The room is small. They’re backed into a corner. And they’re dealing with an elite, killer eggbot. The two of them have been in worse situations before. Through doomsday devices and malicious gods– they feel the other’s stance shift, they can sense which bot is in the other’s crosshairs– Shadow's always watched Sonic's back. And Sonic's watched his.

BANG! A vent from the ceiling klangs to the floor. 

“Just in time!” Renegade lands on his knuckles. 

“You boys look like you could use some help.” Rebels wings stir up dust as she lands. 

Reinforcements have arrived! Sonic pumps his fist in a circle. “Alright! Talk about in the nick of time!” But, there’s no yellow.

Rusty wastes no time.  “Get them!” 

The mechs lunge, but Rusty’s sent dodging backwards by a spray of lasers. Sonic looks up to their source. Nine is holding onto the lip of the vent, dangling, and using his other hand to snipe eggbots. 

“Nine! You changed your mind! I knew you’d come, buddy!” 

Nine lands next to Sonic. “Less talking, more fighting.” 

Renegade and Nine gravitate towards Sonic. Blaster, punch, kick, and repeat. Sonic and Renegade time their attacks to hit bots simultaneously. Nines provides arial support. Sonic drop kicks mechs into the line of fire. Renegade hurls spin-dash-curled Sonic at unsuspecting bots. The three of them land next to each other after scraping their fair share of bots. 

“You guys ready?” Sonic asks. The other two nod. 

Knuckles grabs Nine. Nine grabs Sonic. They tornado spin until Knuckles lets go. Midair, Nine kicks Sonic further up. Boosted, the blue blur is sent spin dashing through the rest of the mechs. They explode into heaps of electrified metal. Sonic lands. The three of them grin at each other. 

Across the room, Shadow and Rebel double team Rusty. Rebel flies high, Shadow roller blades low.Rusty’s attention is divided between the two. Suddenly, Rebel flies up and shrieks a two finger whistle. Shadow knows exactly what that means. He slides underneath a distracted Rusty and kicks upwards. She flails at suddenly being skeet into the air. 

Rebel clips circular bombs off her belt shoots them at Rusty. Each one magnets to the metal target. The bot doesn’t have time to think before an explosion of electricity fries her circuitry. She hits the ground, hard. She jerks and zrrts before her optics fade to black. 

Rebel lands next to Shadow. They grin at each other.

 The fight’s over. 

Safe, Shadow’s gaze falls to the pink wreckage a few feet away. The victory high wanes. He can’t believe it. He threw everything he had at the Eggs. If it weren’t for this cheap imitation of Amy, he would have them in his hands, cracking answers out of them. Yet here he stands. No Chaos powers. No Eggman. And no Paradox Prisim. He would happily take Sonic’s Chemical Plant Zone fiasco over this. If he were a lesser hedgehog, he would start crying in the corner. 

"Shadow!" Sonic bolts over and grabs his friend by the arms. "Dude, are you alright? I saw a flash of light and then you were tumbling in the hamster ball and it totally didn't look good." 

Sonics zips around Sadow earnestly, looking for anything broken or out of place. He holds up Shadow’s arm, crouches beside him to look at his legs, is shoved away when he opens Shadow’s mouth to check his teeth. Shadow looks… fine. In fact, Sonic doesn't know the last time– or if there has even been a time– when Shadow was actually hurt. During the totally-not-his-fault Chemical Plant Zone inconvenience , he watched Shadow shrug off a tsunami of bouncy goo. And then still get up to kick Sonic’s ass while simultaneously tearing goo out of his own gummed up, blue-stained quills. But Sonic knows what he saw. For a brief moment, it was as if a hole was ripped open into space, starry sky and all. He watched as Shadow's body tore itself seven times into a rainbow. Through the torrent of light, he caught glimpses of Shadow’s contorted face. That was beyond chaos energy for sure. 

Sonic slaps his hands onto the sides of Shadow’s face and does his final test. He looks Shadow in the eye. And Shadow looks at Sonic's. But the sparkle of vulnerability in the black hedgehog’s eyes  quickly flickers out. Shadow slaps Sonic's hands away.

The grump crosses his arms. "They got away."

Sonic frowns. It's not as bad as he thought. If Shadow can still keep up his edgehog routine, then he's definitely not hurt. His worry dissolves into slight annoyance at Shadow's cold shoulder. But whatever. Sonic rolls his eyes all the way over to his friends. “The lights you guys?”’

“Yeah.“ Nine holds a small remote in his hand. “Classic EMP disruptor.” 

Renegade punches the fox on the arm. “This guy’s great. You wouldn’t believe how nice it is to hack into a computer to get a map. That’s how we found you guys, woulda been out of luck otherwise.”

Nines frowns and rubs his arm. He spiders his way over the eggbots and to one of the terminals in the room. He begins to type. “Child’s play.”

Sonic zips to Nines, smile so bright it darkens the screens. “What made you change your mind?” Sonic just knew Nines would come! Even if he was worried for half a second there, he still believed! Sonic would never leave his little bro behind, and he knows his little bro would never leave him behind either. They’re heroic partners for life. And if it exists, they’ll be heroic partners in the beyond too. 

“Rebel is convincing,” Nine says, “If I can get my hands on some egg tech, I can reinforce my lab so no one,” He whips his head around to the brooding hedgehog in the room, “Can break into it and assault me.”

Shadow hmphs and starts grooming his ruffled quills back into place. Such a pretty boy; always gotta look good. But that hamster ball did quite a number on his image, so Sonic can’t really can’t blame him. 

Nine takes out his tablet and hooks a cable into the computer to phish for info. Lights and lines of code, too fast for even Sonic’s eyes, fly across the screen. 

“I’ve unlocked all the doors from here to the crystal,” The computer wiz says. Finished, he tip toes over the destroyed mechs to Rusty. He crouches and plugs his tablet into a port on the side of her neck. He finishes his hack with a flourishing tap. “And I have acquired an eggbot bodyguard.

Rusty snaps up. “I am Rusty Rose, loyal mechanical servant to Nines.”

Shadow jerks. His stomach drops at the thought of having your entire being reset by a flip of a switch. For your memories to be nothing but code to be rewritten, to have your whole existence defined by someone else’s bidding, to not know if your emotions are true or simulated… He would rather die than be an android. He focuses his attention on his fellow living creatures. 

“Alright, Ames! With you back, the whole gang’s back together. Those Eggheads don’t stand a chance.” His heroic grin follows his finger pointed towards the door. “Let’s go get them.” 

Sonic, Nines, Knuckles, and one autonomous bot roll out. Before Shadow can skate after them, a hand holds up his shoulder. He turns to see Rebel. Her expression is curious and impressed.

“Thanks for the help, Stripes. Where’d you learn to fight like that?”

‘Stripes’’ eyes widen. That’s what Rouge– what his Rouge, what the real Rouge– calls him. She shouldn’t know that, she can’t, it has to be some cruel, cosmic coincidence. “You’re welcome,” He mumbles and walks forward. Her hand slips off his shoulder. 

But, Shadow’s mouth twists as the cold universe compels him to speak to her, “I have… a teammate that fights like you.”

“Oh yeah? They must be one heck of a fighter."

The forces-that-be stiffly nod his neck. They smack the back of his head and words tumble out. “She is. She’s the best I know.” The universe is painful. 

“You know, we’re always looking for more Freedom Fighters. Maybe your friend would be interested?”

The universe frees him. He shakes his head of his own volition. “No, she wouldn’t be.” 

He turns and runs before any strange powers can puppet him again. 

Chapter Text

They’re free from the diabolical science experiment. It wasn’t ideal, but any bad guy tussle you can walk away from is a successful tussle. Shadow catches up to the primary colors. He catches radio fuzz of how they’re going to save the city and a couple of cheesy one liners from Sonic.

They were lucky this time. There is a very real timeline where Shadow is missing his face. Luckily he isn’t in it. But Eggman, the Egg council or whatever, wanted to use him and Sonic as a power source for New Yoke. If their shoes and rings can power a city grid for centuries, Shadow can’t imagine what the Prism is capable of. Does he need to slap a radiation suit on Sonic just in case?

He tunes into the static when one of the heroes shout. A squadron of mechas, here for bolt-thirsty revenge for their fallen brethren, are barreling down the hallway. Another day, another fight.

“Alright!” Sonic bounces down the hallway “Time for some action! Woo!” His friends streak a rainbow behind him.

Bows of color kick, punch, blast, repeat. They mix for coordinated attacks. Wherever blue bounces, yellow is close behind. Red and purple, side by side, crush bots between their fists and boots. Pink flings bots away from the rest of the rainbow. Black mops up in the back away from the others, and finishes whatever the spectrum can’t.  

Shadow has to admit, doing this with the Crayola Box Crew makes bot fighting a lot easier. Maybe Sonic is onto something here. Maybe. They rip and tear until it is done.

“Good job, gang!” Sonic smiles at his friends. It’s just like old times. They may be from New Yoke, but they fight like they’re from Green Hill. He holds his hand up to Nine.

Nine eyes him up and down.

“High five, buddy. You know.” Sonic high fives his own hands.

Slowly, Nine pitifully presses his own hand against Sonic’s. It slumps off in the least radical way possible. Stuck in an alternate reality heroes can’t be choosers, Sonic thinks.

“Watch out!” Renegade shouts.

The color drains from Sonic’s face. A massive mecha lumbers into the hallway. It’s shoulders gash the ceiling. It’s boots LEAVE HOLES in the concrete floor. Before Sonic can say boom, it thrusts a fist towards the group. Shadow’s eyes widen. He’s too far away. He can’t close the gap between himself and Sonic in time.

It’s futile. He thrusts his arm out to Sonic. He can’t lose him. He can’t lake another loss. His eyes screw shut. The shadow under the mech’s hand widens over the New Yoke Gang. He can’t teleport. There’s no time to dash over. He can’t. He can’t. He can’t—

Shadow eyes flash open. A searing, white hot laser bursts from his outstretched palm. The beam skewers the bot’s hand. It explodes into small scrap metal on either side of the New Yoke crew. The laser slices through the bot’s chest. Leaving a molten, gooey hole through its engine. It collapses onto its side.

Shadow pants. He looks down at his hands. His prismatic rings glow rainbow-white. But, they don’t hurt. Far from it. It It feels like chaos energy is running through his fingers. It’s wonderful and he understands it. He’s once again attuned to this reality and the atoms bouncing within it. Shocked, he rubs the familiarity between his palms.

“Whoa,” Rebel adjusts the cap on her head.

“No way,” Renegade’s eyes widen.

Nine spiders over on his legs to Shadow. He puts his chin in his hand as he eyes the black hedgehog. Shadow doesn’t like the look he’s being given. It’s too mad scientist looking at an experiment-y, for lack of a better word.

“Concentrated Prism energy, in a laser,” Nine muses. “Interesting. I didn’t think the Prism energy in your rings could manifest externally.”

Shadow can see all the testing plans running through Nine’s mind. Again, he’s not a fan.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Sonic dashes to Shadow. “How did you do that?!” Then, remembering that he doesn’t want Shadow to get the idea that he’s impressed, he clears his throat and in a quieter voice adds, “And thanks for the save.”

Unfortunately for Sonic, Shadow gets the impression that Sonic’s impressed. But he says, “I don’t,” Shadow’s brow furrows. “I don’t know. It just, feels natural.”

“What else can you do?”

Shadow’s ears tick up. Another wave of egg-bots is barreling towards them. “Let’s find out.”

Shadow takes charge. He knows what he’s doing. This energy is him, its apart of him. He manifests a rail of light and hops up to grind on it towards the bots. He can feel the energy surging through his legs. He lets it build up, until—he thrusts his hand out again. Another laser, just as hot thrusts into the throng of Egg-bots. Several go flying back in piles of melted goo. Now this is what Shadow’s talking about.

“Impressive.” Nine mumbles.

Shadow dodges off his light rail to avoid bullets. His round houses leave rainbow scorch marks on metal. His eyes glow white as he grabs bots by the legs and circle flings them against the walls. His rings leave bright after images of destruction. His grin widens at the bots drowning in his lethal ocean of prismatic energy.

Sonic runs up to him. “Give me a boost!”

Boost acknowledged. Shadow conjures a light rail. Sonic jumps on, prism shoes quickly gaining speed on it. He curls up and buzz saws mechs with the force of light itself. He uncurls with a flourishing spin and gives Shadow a thumbs up.

Shadow nods in acknowledgement.

“A little help!” Rebel is dangerously close to being pulverized.

Shadow dashes to her. He covers her with one hand and holds the other out to the attacking bot. A glowing light screen manifests from it, melting the bot’s fist as it makes contact. The hot-orange metal oozes harmlessly at their feet.

“Thanks, Stripes.” She winks.

“Don’t think about it too hard.” The words are barely out of his mouth when he sees Nine across the hall. The fox is needling on his iron tail tips. His blaster can’t take down egg-bots fast enough.

Shadow skates to him. He channels energy into his shoes. He hard stops, shoes skirting against the floor at an angle. Hot energy waves out from the bottom of his shoes, demolishing the bots attacking Nine. The fox reloads his blaster and gives Shadow a passive look that could be taken as a ‘thank you’. Shadow gives him the same look.

“Come get some! Grrugh! Give me a real challenge!” Renegade shouts.

He’s next. Shadow boxes mechs in with light screens. Renegade knocks the trapped bots heads off, like shooting fish in a barrel. None of them had a chance. Ones that renegade misses are soon cut to size by a laser screen slicing across them.

“Thanks for the help.” Renegade punches his fists together.

Shadow nods back.

“Assistance required.” Rusty Rose beeps.

A new, exciting bolt of electricity shoots through Shadow. This is too easy. He looks at the bot attacking Rusty and snaps his fingers. The bot balloons until it explodes from energy expanding inside it. It’s oily guts slap against the walls and concrete flooring.

Finally, finally! His powers—er, some variation of them-- are back. He doesn’t have to rely on his brute strength. With all the bad in the past few hours, finally something good has happened. If this luck continues, they’ll be home with the Prism in no time.

The last bot goes down. But they have no time to gloat. Who knows when the next wave of bots is going to hit. They can’t keep this up forever.

“Come on,” Shadow says, skating away on a light rail.

Several hallway turns later, they reach the Prism’s floor to ceiling vault door. Nine walks to a panel beside the door and hooks his tablet into it. Red code zwips on its screen until a green smiley face pops up. The hallway lurches as the door begins to pull itself apart from the middle.

Sonic punches Shadow on the arm. “What’d I tell ya? We made it to the Paradox Prism. AND you have cool prism powers.”

“Hmph. So You did, hedgehog.” Shadow says.

Sonic smiles at the sour puss. The sour puss doesn’t return the smile, but he does let Sonic’s knuckles linger on him longer than necessary. Looks like the sourness is only at 50%. Sonic’s knuckles fall. Once this door opens, everything will be back to normal. Shadow can be at 0% sourness. Maybe Sonic will get the rumored ‘thank you’ from him. It’s a stretch, but he believes.

Sonic gets a peek of the prism’s glow through the door crack. It’s all going to be okay.

"Sonic!” Nine screams.

The hedgehogs whip around.

“The Egg Baby!” Shadow exclaims.

The New Yoke crew is snatched up by its hand. Nine’s tablet falls and shatters on the floor. The Baby pulls them back down the hallway.

“Ahaha ppbbbbt!” Dr. Babble zerburts in victory.

The door starts to close.

“Crap! We have to help them!” Sonic says.

Shadow shakes his quills. “The crystal’s right there! They’ll be fine!” He knows that’s a lie.

“Are you crazy!? They’ll be clobbered!” He takes off.

Shadow’s head whips between the door and Sonic. The Egg Baby aims to snap the Crayon Crew, but Shadow can’t save Green Hill without the Prism. He does the only thing he can think to do. He puts himself between the two halves of the door and strong arms them. Shadow would blast the Egg Baby, but his hands are full with the door. If he moves for a moment, it’s going to slam closed and crush him. He grinds his teeth.

Sonic whips a sonic tornado around the Egg Baby Mech. It’s head spins to follow Sonic until stars dance around its head. Sonic finishes by saw blading its wrist. The New Yoke Crew falls to the floor and waste no time running to the door. The Egg Baby Mech recovers. It thrusts its other hand out. The New Yoke Crew are so close. They just need that final push—

SLAM

Shadow ducked out of the doorway. The New Yorke Crew made it. It was close. But they can safely say they walked away from that tussle.

Shadow's teeth are ground flat. He turns to Sonic.

“Sonic!” His adrenaline high wanes as he stares at the blue hedgehog, unharmed. “What were you thinking? If you got in trouble and I had to save you—” The volume in his voice is petering out. The safety crash from the battle high creeps in. “I would’ve had to let go of the door, we would have been screwed.”

“But I didn’t need help! And now everybody’s okay. Even you.” Sonic winks at his grumpy companion.

Shadow’s teeth are gone. But he has no time to worry about the timeline where The Egg Baby squeezes its new blue toy until its head pops off. He’s brought back to the present timeline when Rebel speaks.

She points to the Prism. “There she is!”

Sonic smiles. They found it! It’s on a pedestal. Its glow darkens the rest of the room with its shine. Electricity zips off it. It’s a brilliant red and a shard and a—

“Wait, that’s not the Paradox Prism.”

Shadow crosses his arms and steps towards it. “No. It’s not. It looks like a shard of it.” Shadow doesn’t know what this means. Why would the Prism split? Is it scattered in this world, waiting to be found, much like a chaos emerald? He pinches the bridge of his nose. What does this mean for Green Hill? If the Prism is shattered, is Green Hill going through a fate worse than being stuck in an alternate reality?

“Prism, shard, whatever it is, let’s grab it and go boys.” Rebel says. She walks up to a bright energy field holding it in place. “How do we get it out of here?”

“Uh.” Sonic hadn’t thought this far. He sorta expected it to be floating in the room, no electricity or forcefield. Usually bad guys have their weak spot exposed. But potentially searing your enemies hand down to the bone is a great way to protect your villainous weak spot.

“We could just grab it?” Sonic suggests.

“Bad idea.” Nine stands beside rebel. “If I had my tablet, I could run theoretical tests. But now…”

“So the only option is to grab it! I can handle it.” Renegade says.

Sonic agrees with Nine. Grabbing it is certainly not the way to go. But Renegade is right too, that’s their only option at the moment. “No, I’ll do it.” Sonic steps up. “I can’t let my friend lose his arm over this.”

Shadow opens his mouth to tell the hedgehog he’s an idiot wrapped In blue fur—

BANG

BANG

BANG

The dent in the door is growing. The Egg Baby is bashing its way into the room. The door starts to peel open.

Renegade says, “Looks like we’re going round two with the egg baby!”

Shadow is not putting in another quarter for a fight with the Egg Baby. He runs to the crystal and snatches it. He gasps as his hand disappears. Then his arm. His face is pulled forwards towards the crystal.

“Shadow!”

He hears Sonic call his name. But his legs are already gone. Did Sonic grab his arm? He can’t tell. He feels the last bit of himself sucked into the crystal.

He’s once again floating in a sea of color. He can’t see, he can’t think. All he can do is feel the light spectrum flow over him. Something loses its grip on his arm. Sonic? Was it Sonic? The stars give way to a moment of blackness, and suddenly he’s met with dazzling blue with white clouds.

That blue sky, has he seen it before?

He tilts his head down. He sees nothing but jungle.

Chapter Text

Shadow opens his eyes. Cradling his head, he sits up and looks around. The world before him is painted green. Dabs of dense canopy leaves and strokes of thick underbrush surround him. Vines drip loosely from above, accenting the landscape. Ferns and flowers sunbathe happily in tiny, dappled pools of sunlight. He’s sitting in a jungle.

But why a jungle? Did the shard– that’s right. The shard. He was sucked into it face first. It teleported him just like the Paradox Prism, only this time it was from New Yoke to… wherever this is. He knows it’s too optimistic to think he’s home in Lost Jungle.

“Ugh.” He stands and notices a cold pang on his wrists. He looks down and sees that his glowy rings are gone!

“What the–?” He turns them over and around. Instead of the rainbow prism, his wrists are wrapped by a thorned, golden bracelet. He looks down at his anklets. Same deal.

He prioritizes. Sonic first. Jungle later. Wardrobe change even later. He steps into a sunny break of the canopy, wash in golden light.  His rings catch the rays which flow into a rainbow sheen. He points his arm in one direction. The sheen is gone. He points it in another. It’s red hot. The homing device feature is coming in handy. 

He speeds off into the jungle with his guiding light. 

☆☆☆

Shadow has known Sonic for the majority of both their lives. He can’t remember a time in his life without the blue fur ball pestering him. Being the same age, they’ve watched each other grow up into two completely different hedgehogs.

Wherever Sonic went, trouble was glued to his side. He’s been mucking up floors and markering walls since he was a boy. Wherever Shadow went, a stern air of authority scared trouble away. Save for when it was with the recalcitrant blue hedgehog. With Sonic’s protection, trouble knew it could tempt black hedgehog fate.

Shadow comes across a lake of mud. Normally he would fly across it, but the thick vines hanging from above make it impossible to maneuver through. Through the mud he goes. Each freeing pop of him lifting his shoes sounds like a smack of laughter from the jungle.

Shadow remembers the Chemical Plant Zone incident. He shudders at the very thought.

Shadow had stopped by the hedgehog’s house during the weekend to challenge the blue menace to a race. The week prior, Sonic suggested putting a little money where their feet were. Shadow wasn’t about to start clucking and laying eggs. When he arrived, he found Tails’ workshop missing one hedgehog but holding one exasperated fox.

“Where is he?” Shadow asked Tails, knowing Tails’ brother, as usual, was the cause of Tails’ tired look.

“CPZ,” Tails sighed wearily. “If you hurry you can catch him before he does something stupid.”

The jungle hisses with the sounds of birds and bugs. Something lands on Shadow’s cheek. Quickly, he slaps his hand on the side of his face. When he pulls away, a slime with crumpled wings sticks to him. He feels another on his leg. He smacks again.

Shadow still remembers the run to CPZ. He thought Sonic was simply going to get himself glue trapped in one of the factories. But a few miles into the factory-scape, a giant tsunami of blue goo rose over the smokestacks. Shadow scrambled backwards, but it was too late. He was swimming within a few short moments.

“Ack!” Shadow falls onto the jungle floor, getting mud on his gloves. His ankle burns! Looking back, he sees a snaking tree branch grabbing the tip of his toes. He stands, testing the joint with weight. It’s sore, but overall fine. He can still walk.

Thinking back on his memory, how does one blue hedgehog manage to turn enough valves and press enough buttons to overload an entire goo production factory? He probably didn’t. He probably spin dashed, kicked, and punched his way through enough machinery to destroy its cooling system.

As Shadow went spinning in a whirlpool, he promised to wring the blue idiot by his blue idiot neck. CPZ goo does NOT come out of quills easily, and Shadow was NOT looking forward to have to comb it out. He tried the peanut butter trick when he got home. Spoiler: It did not work.  

Shadow trudges through a thick patch of brush. Brambles. Great. He winces as the brush grabs and tears at his fur. He barely keeps them from his skin. The thought of having to buzz his whole coat to keep it even grips him.

Shadow grinds to a halt in a small clearing. The rotten-leaf filled, hungry muck sinks him. His brow is drenched. He’s covered in bug guts. And still, his bracelet glows at the same intensity. It dawns on him that Sonic could be halfway to this world’s version of Chun-nan.

“Shit,” He mumbles. He laments his muddy lot in life.

“Are…okay?” A voice.

His right ear pops up. He heard a tiny whisper on the wind. Perhaps it was some animal scrounging around the jungle floor, its call mimicking a voice. Nothing concerning.

His left pops up too. There’s something rustling in the underbrush. Something big. Was this what made that noise? His ears spin to follow it, but it’s faster than their swivel. Whatever this jungle creature is, it’s a fast bugger, Shadow will give it that. But a lowly jungle bottom feeder isn’t a concern. If it decides to make Shadow a meal, he’ll swat it like the rest of the buzzing gnats in the air.

“AH!”

Shadow undignifiedly yelps as he’s sent flying into the air through the thick jungle canopy.

His butt is on fire! What in the Flame Core hit him? He barely has time to think about it before he’s bracing himself for a crash landing on a wooden platform built into the dry tree branches above the canopy. He catches himself on his hands and rolls just in time before his face can get acquainted with the sun-bleached wood.

“Guys, guys, we’re all friends here! We can do without the hostility, haha, and the pointy spears, and those murderous looks!”

That voice—it’s Sonic! Standing on the same shoddy platform, a stone’s through away, is the missing hedgehog, Renegade and Rebel--plus Big? Why’s the cat here?

“There’s another one!” Renegade shouts and throws a finger towards Shadow.

The black hedgehog squints. Wait a second, Renegade is wearing a leafy outfit. When did the echidna change out of his tactical gear? The greenery doesn’t match his city resistance vibe.

“I don’t care how many there are, get them!” Shouts a green-clad Rebel.

Sonic yelps and quickly curl-dodges as three leafy Mobians jump him. He turns and his eyes light up in recognition. “Shadow? Shadow! Run!” He sprints to Shadow and grabs the black hedgehog by the arm, hurriedly pulling him along.

Shadow tugs his arm free. He doesn’t have time for a chase scene. A flash bang will get everyone to calm down. He holds his hand out and snaps his fingers. Except there’s no flash nor bang. He snaps again…he looks down at his hand and feels the absence. The Prism energy that ran through him a couple short hours ago is gone!

He has time for a chase scene.

He turns tail. This isn’t the Crayola Crew he’s grown to know and love. These are leaf-covered, spear wielding mad men! He side steps before a thrown spear can find a new home in his head.

He follows Sonic, running through the maze of wooden catwalks. Sonic dodges a second thrown spear, jumping and landing onto one of the trees holding up the platforms. He scrambles and two sets of claws pop out from his knuckles and shoe tips. Huh.

“Oh! So that’s what you do!” He digs into and climbs the bark effortlessly.

They can talk about that later.

“What did you do?!” Shadow asks as they continue to be chased.

“I don’t know! They think I’m here to steal their food?! I don’t know!” 

This is getting to be too much. After all they’ve been through, with New Yoke and Eggmans and look alikes and faces almost being skewered, more doppelgangers, a crappy jungle—it’s just too much!

Sonic hops onto another tree. “Everyone just calm down so I can stop my brain from exploding!” He dodges onto another dry tree. “We were all in New Yoke, remember? And you guys were rebels, and we were taking down Eggman…s.”

Shadow growls “Stop trying to explain!”

“What else am I supposed to do?!”

“Run or fight!” Shadow skirts to a stop. “And I’m done running.”

The two are backed into a corner against one of the trees. Shadow turns, sinks his fingers into the tree behind them, and rips off a chunk of bark bigger than himself. He growls and holds it over his head. The imposters trip to a halt and stare wide eyed.

He chucks it at them, slightly to the left to miss. It slams onto the platform and violently quakes the wood. It goes tumbling dangerously into the jungle below. Everyone’s frozen, waiting on the other’s move.

They wait.

And wait.

“I think we got off on the wrong foot, boys,” The green-clad Rebel’s easy smile comforts the tense silence. “This must be a misunderstanding.” She sheathes the primitive spear on her back.  

With an air of a longtime friend, she flaps over easily, landing in front of the hedgehogs and holding her hands out peacefully. “We thought you were trying to steal our supplies.”

“We’re not, that’s what I’ve been telling you. We were—” Sonic opens his mouth wide and a quick spiel of New Yoke and the Paradox Prism tumbles out. It’s quite thorough.

“Likely story,” The echidna says with narrowed eyes. He approaches Sonic and holds a barbed fist out to him. “Who sent you? Huh? Was it the government? I know you’re with the feds!”

Sonic gulps. “I’m telling you! No one sent us here. Honestly!”

“Sonic’s telling the truth,” Shadow adds. He puts a hand over the echidna’s and flings it down. “We haven’t come across your supplies, let alone touched them.”

“Uh-huh, and I bet the government isn’t putting chemicals in the water to turn the frogs gay.”

“I—what?” Shadow stares. Last time he checked, GUN wasn’t invested into turning frogs gay. What’s this echidna on about?!

Sonic ignores the frog thing that he would totally address in another situation. But he says, “Listen. Long story short, we touched a shard and now we’re here.”

“Shard? What kind of shard?” The cat asks in a dopey voice.

“Uh, red and shard-y?” Sonic makes a vaguely shard-y shape with his hands.

The cat begins, “We haven’t seen—”

“Oooh!” the bat flies in front of the cat. “A shard you say? We’ve seen one of those in the jungle below.”

The bat eyes them up and down. Shadow knows that look. He’s seen it many times, he’s seen it used on himself. Gears are spinning in her head. She’s already drawing plans to manipulate the two pitiful, lost hedgehogs. For what, Shadow doesn’t know yet. But he feels puppet strings hanging in the air.

This is the Rouge Shadow knows; conniving and always ready to take control of a conversation. He can’t tell if this is worse or better than Rebel. This Rouge is familiar, but her best qualities are turned on him and Sonic.

Shadow looks at Sonic, and both his and the bat’s looks pass right over his blue head

Sonic’s oblivious eyes light up his wagging tail. “Really? Will you help us find it?"

The bat’s voice is easy. “ Of course we will. It’s the least we can do after chasing you. Come to our village, we’ll talk more along the way.”

The leaf-wearing group turn and start down the platforms. Before the puppet strings can strangle Sonic, Shadow grabs onto his shoulder, stopping him. He brings his face close to Sonic’s ear lest they be overheard.

“We can’t trust her.”

“Oh my Chaos, Shads.” Sonic’s eyes almost roll right out of his head. “How many times are you gonna say that? We get it. You don’t trust anyone.”

Shadow can see the puppet strings tightening around Sonic’s limbs. “I trust you,” Shadow says. “But the bat, she’s plotting something.”

“So we can’t trust anyone and now they’re plotting against us? Right, sure.” The strings are tightening around Sonic’s neck.

“No, you don’t know Rouge like I do. This version of her was sizing us up. Two strangers in a strange land are easy marks. She knows that.”

“Okay, so she’s plotting something, what else can we do? She knows where the shard is. We have no clue where it could be.”

Shadow’s hand slips off Sonic’s shoulder. He lets the blue hedgehog go. Sonic’s right for once. This Rouge is the only lead they have. He’s bound, same as Sonic

☆☆☆

The hedgehogs follow a respectful distance away from the leafy group as they walk along the shoddy catwalks. The bat leads the way.

“I’m Prim,” She says. She points to the Echidna “That’s Gnarly”. Then to the cat. “And Hangry.”

“Sonic,” Sonic says. “Shadow,” He points to Shadow.

Shadow grunts.

“You see boys,” Prim starts, “We used to live in the Boscage jungle below, taking what we needed from the jungle to survive—food, clothing, shelter. But now the monster hits us back into the canopy when we try to walk on the Boscage's jungle floor.”

Sonic raises an eyebrow. “Monster?”

Gnarly punches his fists together with a wild look in his eye. “Dang dirty monster!”

A monster, huh? Shadow can guess that’s what attacked him in the jungle. It hits fast and it hits hard.

Prim continues, “We can’t stay on the jungle floor for more than a couple of minutes at a time. That’s not long enough to gather food and water.”

Sonic’s triangle ears fall flat. “Wow. That stinks. How long have you guys gone without food?”

“Too long!” Hangry shouts. He runs to Shadow and grabs the black hedgehog by the shoulders. “We—” He shakes Shadow. “Haven’t—” Shake. “Eaten in forever!” Shake. Shake. Shake.

“Stop that!” Shadow hisses. He squirms out of the big-handed grasp with bared teeth.

“Haha, sorry, sorry.” The cat placates. “It’s the hunger.”

“Don’t do it again.” Shadow brushes off his arms before he brings his hands up to his shaken quills. He threads them back into place.

“So how about a deal boys,” Prim says. “We’ll take you to the shard if you help us get rid of the monster. She seems sincere, Shadow thinks. At least, sincere enough to almost convince him.

“What do you need us for?” Shadow asks. “There’s three of you. Surely you can overpower one monster.”

Gnarly begins, “Well, actually, there’s four---”

“GWAAH!”

The group’s heads snap up at the sound of a resounding smack. A squawking yellow dot whistles across the sky. Sonic squints. It’s Tails! Sonic follows the trajectory of sky to platform. The little genius is going to miss the landing and go tumbling right back into the jungle.

He intercepts right before Tails can go face first back into the branches below. “Oh buddy, I’m glad to see you! I— Ah!”

Sonic jumps as the fox snarls. The fox comes up swinging, scratching and biting any part of Sonic it can get his clawed hands on. Sonic stumbles back as he’s chewed. “Get off me you little mangey--!”

“And that’s Mangey.” Prim introduces the fox attacking Sonic.

Shadow walks over and scruffs Mangey. He holds the kicking creature out at arm’s length and turns his head to keep the short arms from mauling his face. “…Great. This belongs to you.” He unceremoniously plops Mangey into the waiting hands of Hangry. 

The fox huffs and crawls down the cat. He sits and scratches his bug-eaten ear with his foot.

“Uh…huh.” Sonic shimmies back with a furrowed brow. “Why didn’t he fly with his tails when he went over the canopy?”

Prim shakes her head in disbelief. “Fly? Mangey doesn’t fly.”

The fox snuffles, inadvertently gathering the attention of the other Mobians, and pulls a rectangular strawberry from his pocket. His eyes are full of fruity stars. He doesn’t register drooling Gnarly and Hangry creep up on him.

“Food! Hey! Give me that!”  Gnarly yells and starts scuffling with Mangey.

“Rggh!” Mangey growls. Trying to keep the food safely in his hands. 

Hangry jumps into the fray. He tries to grab the two, but they’re both too slippery for his big hands. “Give it to me!”

Prim cradles her nose between two fingers. With a sigh, she watches the strawberry fall, roll along the platform, and tumble into the forest below. The Boscage boys stare wide eyed as tiny tears begin to form in their eyes. They sniffle and whimper and stare longingly with wet mouths at the cruel canopy.

“So what do you say boys?” Prim turns, and clenches a fist in front of herself, smiling. “Ready to go hunt a monster?”

Sonic pumps his fist in the air with the same enthusiasm. “Heck yeah! Let’s kick that monster’s butt!”

Shadow turns his head towards the horizon. Purples and oranges stretch across it. “As much as I would love to fight a horrific creature, Sonic and I need to rest.”

Sonic grins mockingly. “What? The ultimate lifeform needs a nap?”

“No, but you do. You won’t be any use if you’re exhausted.”

Prim sighs. “I suppose you’re right. Fine. We’ll set up a shelter for you two. But we leave at dawn.” She places a faint hand on her forehead. “Who knows how long we have left with these empty bellies.”

Shadow gets the impression the Boscage gang can last longer than Prim is letting on.

☆☆☆

The sun has set. The nighttime chitter of bugs and croaks of sleepy frogs fill the lifeful air of the black jungle below. The full moon paints illuminating white of the tree leaves, giving the illusion of a still, shining sea. Lit torches dot the village platforms, casting a comforting, warm glow against the deep blue night.

The village itself is little more than a few ramshackle tents comprised of leaves haphazardly strewn over poles of sticks. Even the far “hut” by the platform edge, given to Shadow and Sonic to borrow, is simply a clumsily woven tarp strung between two branches. Seemingly, it’s for (poor) protection from the rain and nothing else.

And yet, with the lull of the jungle, washing light of the moon, and warmth of the torches, Shadow feels at tentative ease in the village. He sits on—you guessed it—a leaf bedroll, reclining and looking up at the moon.

“Hey,” Sonic says in the softest voice a boisterous hedgehog can muster. He approaches Shadow from the center of the village. “I got us some, uh, food.”

Shadow blinks. “You’re carrying wood.”

Sonic sits criss-crossed next to Shadow and holds out a chunk. “This is what they gave me when I told them we were hungry. They really are starving, Shadow. All they have to eat is bark.”

“Unfortunate.” The statement comes off as sympathy for the tree dwellers, but the sentiment is for the two of them. He’s used to long days without sustenance. There’s hardly any home cooked meals, and certainly no fast food joints, in the middle of GUN missions. But Sonic is used to three square meals. Who knows how long the blue hedgehog can hold out without a chilidog.

Sonic hands Shadow his portion of rations. The black hedgehog hot potatoes it right into the jungle below. No thank you. Sonic on the other hand, chomps into the wood. His face scrunches and he sticks his tongue out.

“Nope. Nu-uh. No.” Sonic chucks his “food” into the jungle right behind Shadow’s. Good riddance. Even though it’d be polite, there’s no way he’s thanking their hosts for the meal.

Barky dinner over, Shadow lays down on the bedroll. He folds his arms over his stomach and looks up at the sky. Instinctively, he counts the shimmering stars. Stippled, familiar patterns emerge.

“What’re you looking at?” Sonic asks. He’s laid beside Shadow without the black hedgehog noticing.

“I’m looking for the ARK.” Shadow says honestly. Orion, Aquarius, and Gemini were all his neighbors. He checks the position of the moon against a few stars. The ARK should be—“It’s not here.”

Sonic looks up and squints. “Where’s it supposed to be?”

Indulging the blue hedgehog, Shadow lifts an arm and points. Sonic scoots towards Shadow and presses his face against Shadow’s arm. He closes one eye like he’s looking down the barrel of a telescope to follow Shadow’s finger.

Sonic’s too close. The blue hedgehog’s muzzle tickles his arm. The soft warmth of Sonic’s shoulder spreads to Shadow’s cheeks. What is this feeling?

The moment is still, but Shadow’s heart isn’t. He wants to say something, possibly remind the invading hedgehog that personal space exists, but the heat burning from the tips of his ears to the base soaks up his attention. Why can’t he talk?

“Just looks like black to me.” Sonic says. He’s seen the ARK in the night sky before. It resembles a miniature moon, illuminated softly by the sun’s hidden light.

Shadow uses his far hand and grabs Sonic’s face. He lazily pushes Sonic away before resuming relaxing on his side of the leaves. He takes one last longing look at the sky, but the comfort of it is gone.

His gaze trails down to Sonic, now resting in his own personal space, who’s still happily star gazing. Suddenly, Shadow can almost smell the salty ocean and feel the cool breeze. He swears he can hear the faint lull of gulls in the sky. Beautiful, he thinks. Wait, beautiful?

 Sonic turns to look at him, Shadow sees trees and grass in Sonic’s green eyes.

“What do you miss about home?” Sonic asks. Then adds, “Something fun though.”

Shadow carefully packs the moment away. He stores it deep within himself, knowing instinctively that this is one he’ll want to remember. For the beauty of the jungle and night sky, of course.

‘Something fun though’. He misses Rouge and Omega. The beach, curve of mountains, and rolling landscapes turned soft underneath caressing sunlight. Other than that, he feels a hollow recognition of the creatures that roam atop it. But Sonic asked for something fun, so:

“My mud masks.”

Sonic blinks. “Your what?”

“My mud masks. And my cleanser. And my cream.” He rubs a hand over his muzzle and winces. “My face is so dry.”

“I never expected that from you. The big bad ultimate lifeform has a skin care routine!”

“Of course you wouldn’t expect it. You haven’t used moisturizer a day in your life. Your knees are an ashy mess.” Shadow rolls his eyes. “But what about you? What do you miss?”

“I really could do with a chili dog—" 

Typical. What else would Shadow expect?

Sonic continues, “And a ham and egg breakfast pizza, a chorizo breakfast burrito, a stack of Belgium waffles–with cream and strawberries of course– an iced coffee, a bunch of fruit, and at least two glazed donuts. 

“That’s a lot.” An understatement.  

Sonic continues again with a lopsided smile, “That’s my breakfast order at Meh Burger.”

Answers exchanged, a small, comfortable silence falls over them. Shadow’s sure the lull of the sleepy jungle has brought Sonic to dreamland, when the blue hedgehog speaks.

“Tomorrow’s Saturday.”

What’s he on about now? “Okay?”

“We’re supposed to race around Marble Hill Zone. We bet fifty rings on it. Remember?”

To be honest, Shadow had completely forgotten. A fifty-ring bet seems a trifle compared to their current situation. Sonic’s mind should be occupied by Eggmans and ravenous jungle beats, but here he is thinking about their weekly race. It makes Shadow’s chest warm.

Shadow can almost smell the oil of Tail’s workshop. He hears the drole of morning cartoons on an antenna-topped CRT. He can taste the competition of beach races and fists fights on the plains. 

“I guess we can’t run around the jungle, huh? I would totally kick your butt if we could,” Sonic says.

The black hedgehog bristles. “You wish, hedgehog! You’d be lucky to be close enough to eat my dust!”

“Eat your dust? Yeah right—”

They stay up for an hour, bickering about who would come out on top.

☆☆☆

Shadow jolts up. His vision snaps from dreams to reality. It’s still dark. It smells of dry wood and slick leaves. And crouched beside a sleeping Sonic is none other than Prim herself.

“What are you doing?” Shadow growls.

“I came over to see if you boys were getting any sleep. Looks like you are.”

The black hedgehog looks at Sonic. The blue one is turned at an awkward angle, almost as if someone was rolling him over. Rolling him over to see if he had anything valuable on him. Shadow’s hand darts out and grabs Prim by the arm.

“Oh?” She says innocently as she’s pulled downward, bending at the waist.

Shadow inwardly curses. He should’ve expected this. He should’ve kept a vigil. Monsters lurk not just in the jungle. “You’re lucky we need you,” Shadow whispers.

She tilts her head up, and in a light voice deflects, “I really didn’t mean to sneak up on you like this.” She shrugs. “I’m used to moving quietly in the jungle when we’re trying to grab supplies, honest.”

She’s not in the least bit honest.

“Sorry I woke you up.” She tugs her arm free and stands. “I’ll let you two get back to sleeping.” And with that, she leaves.

Great. Shadow’s lost another battle with her. She knew ending the conversation was the best way to deal with him, and she was right. How does she do it? He looks down at Sonic. The blue hedgehog’s still snoring and drooling. Should he tell him?

No, he shouldn’t. If Sonic finds out, he’s unlikely to abandon his commitment to forced cooperation. He’s likely to struggle himself tighter into her web, believing whatever silky excuses she can come up with. Shadow’s seen it happen more times than he can count. So there’s only one thing he can do.

He scoots closer to Sonic and carefully slings an arm over him. He can make up an excuse about being a hugger in his sleep later, what matters now is that he keeps Sonic put if the thief is bold enough to come back for seconds. He can devote his complete attention to her in the morning.

He only half closes his eyes, now committed to keeping watch. As his breathing evens out and his muscles relax, he hears that animal’s cry once again.  

“Good night,” it says.

Chapter Text

The birds chirp sweetly, Sonic’s bed is soft, and the sunlight is warm on his closed eyes. His head lays on a fluffy, comforting pillow. Ah, there’s nothing like sleeping in at home. If he lounges around for a little while longer, he’s sure to smell Tails cooking breakfast in the kitchen. But instead, the smell of sweet leaves and morning sweat drifts into his nose.

“Mngh?” One eye opens to a white, fluffy pillow against his face. Wait a second, he doesn’t own a white, fluffy pillow. He sits up and an arm falls off his peach shoulders. Oh, that’s definitely not a pillow. 

Sonic doesn’t know what to do. He looks around for the Boscage Gang. Did any of them see Shadow with his arms around Sonic? Can they confirm what he just experienced, because Sonic’s not sure if he believes it himself. If he told someone, he’s sure they’d label it as a conspiracy theory. No wonder he felt so comfortable last night, he was buried in the world’s softest not-pillow.

“Shadow?” Sonic asks quietly. “Shads?” He leans down and pokes Shadow on his dark cheek.

“I’m awake, Sonic.” The black hedgehog peels his eyes open into thin crescents. “I didn’t fall asleep last night.”

“Oh?” Sonic can connect the dots. Shadow flung his arm over him while awake? No way, this is just too good! “I didn’t take you for a hugger.” Sonic smiles. “I thought you were a prickly hedgehog.”

“I am.” Shadow sits up and gets to work straightening his quills. He looks down for a moment and sees Sonic’s drool on his chest. He lowers the hand that he had raised to comb through it. “You’re gross.”

“D’aww, I heart you too, Shadow.” Sonic grins and brings his fingers into a cute little heart shape.

Shadow grabs Sonic’s hands and pushes them down. He’s allergic to hearts. Reddening face and quickened breathing and all, Sonic notes. Maybe if Sonic puts his hands up again, Shadow will break out into hives. The black hedgehog huffs the heart-shaped allergens out of his nose and stands.

Sonic comes up after him. The blue hedgehog brings his hands together, lifts one leg, and makes a kissy face. “Even if you can’t say it, I know you hug me because you love me.”

Shadow’s side eye is enough to cut the smile right off Sonic’s face. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t even scratch the blue hedgehog. The black one tucks his last red quill into place. He sucks in through his nose and says, “I don’t.”

“Sure, you don’t,” Sonic sing-songs.

Shadow opens his mouth, but no words leave. His head snaps towards the jungle.

“What?” Sonic asks. He follows Shadow’s gaze. There’s nothing out there but a green canvas of treetops.

“…I thought I heard something.”

“Hearing things, Shads?”

The black hedgehog’s face scrunches a smidge before he says, “No. The only thing I hear is you embarrassing yourself.”

“It’s not embarrassment, it’s lo~ve!” Sonic smooches.

Shadow can’t handle this right now. He rubs his temples and thinks about something besides the hives prickling at his skin from Sonic’s lovey-dovey display. He devotes his brain power to thinking about what happened yesterday. They touched the red shard. Fell into Boscage. Met up with another set of doppelgangers. A set with another Rouge.

He didn’t know Rebel. She was a stranger from the tips of her tall ears to the bottom of her feet. Rouge is not a rebellion leader. She is a thief by day and a government agent at night. She’s supposed to be the one infiltrating a rebellion, sucking it dry of information, and flying away with a belly full of intel. And more likely than not, a few expensive items as well. She is not a hero. And not in a single universe would Shadow ask her to be one.

But Prim is a different story; he could tell the moment they met. Shadow knows her. Sure, Rouge would never be caught wearing leafy rags, but Prim has that same sharp stare. She was eyeing him and Sonic yesterday, peeling back layers to see weaknesses and to peer into their nonexistent pockets. She clearly honed into Sonic’s bleeding-heart heroism. Shadow wonders what she found out about him. Hopefully nothing, but in reality, she most certainly knows him inside and out.

Still, as they stared at each other, there was no reflection of home within her eyes. There were no midnight snacks nor daytime chats. With Rouge, he could rest comfortably in her conniving stare. The sun shone, the waves washed, and Rouge schemed. He knew all was right with the world when she was coyly scamming a chump out of his car keys and the deed to his house. And Even though Prim was scheming, he found no such comfort in her stare. His world isn’t right, and he could see it in the glint of her eyes. Prim is not his Rouge.

“You’re finally awake.”

Shadow looks up and sees that Gnarly, nearing, had addressed him. The red echidna punches his fists with a wild look in his eye.

 “Not the most comfortable sleep of my life,” Shadow says.

Sonic stretches and cracks his back from side to side. “I don’t know, I thought it was pretty comfortable.”

Shadow dodges the wink Sonic throws his way.

“I’m gonna go see what’s up with Mangey.” Sonic points his thumb towards the Boscage huts before turning on his heel and walking away.

Great, Shadow thinks. It’s just him and the nutcase, and Sonic’s left him without a life raft. 

“What do you want?” Shadow asks.

“What do I want? More like what do you want!”

Shadow rolls his eyes. Here they go.  The words “Shadow versus Gnarly” pop up over their heads. “The shard,” Shadow says.

“Uh-huh, uh-huh, but how do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Shadow feels like he’s been placed in an interrogation room. “You don’t. You have to take my word for it.”

“Take your word? Ha! Next thing you know, you’ll be sharing our secrets!” Here comes the spotlight.

“Sharing your secrets?” Shadow eyes Gnarly.

“Shh! Who said anything about secrets?” Gnarly waves his hands in front of Shadow. “There’s no secrets here, haha!” He leans in close to Shadow so only the black hedgehog can hear him. “Are you crazy? Don’t you know the government is listening?”

Shadow snerks. “I hardly think GUN cares about what a bunch of tree dwellers are up to.”

Gnarly blinks. “What’s a ‘GUN’?”

“Guardians of the United Nations? The government.” Don’t these people know anything?

Gnarly’s eyes thin. “So how do you know the name of the government and I don’t, huh? You working for them?”

There’s no GUN in this universe either. Expected, really. There’s no ARK so logically there’s no institution that would have commissioned it. It’s another reminder that he’s a stranger here in this strange land. He distantly wonders if New Yoke had GUN. Probably not considering the place was Eggman’ed up to high eggs.

Shadow cradles his nose in his hand. He does in fact work for the government, but he isn’t willing to plant himself further into the hot seat. “I don’t work for the government,” He lies.

While Shadow is being hostily interviewed by Gnarly, Sonic approaches Mangey. Mangey is Tails—well, sorta, kinda. He’s Tails in the same way Nine was sorta, kinda Tails. Even so, Mangey is a completely different story. Nine was a little boy genius, same as Tails. Mangey is una criatura. Sonic has a fresh set of scratches from his tussle with Mangey yesterday to prove it.

He finds Mangey sitting by a pile of wood, chomping into it with little success.

“Hey, little buddy.” Sonic waves as he approaches, “Do you, like, speak?”

The fox sniffs in Sonic’s direction and scratches his ear with his foot.

“Er, right.” Sonic scratches the back of his head. “It stinks that you guys have to eat wood,” He continues, “But don’t worry, Shadow and I are going to kick the monster’s butt and get you guys some food.”

Mangey tilts his head to the side.

Sonic doesn’t know how to follow up. This is the part where Tails would pump his fist and say something to the tune of “We’ll take it out together Sonic!” But no such song comes out of Mangey. It’s just a small whine of what Sonic thinks is acknowledgement. Sonic’s own scratching is starting to leave a mark on the back of his head.

“So, uh,” Sonic is scrambling, “Do you guys do anything for fun?”

“Fun?” Mangey’s voice is strained and slightly off kilter.

He can talk! One victory point for Mangey. “Yeah!” Sonic says. “You know, like, soccer, or racing, or cards or something.”

Mangey shakes his head.

Oof. So all they do is eat bark and bake in the sun all day. Sonic’s starting to feel worse by the second. “As soon as we beat this monster, I’m going to teach you how to play soccer, little guy—but I’ll cook you a chilidog first.”

Mangey’s twin Tails start wagging. Sonic smiles. Sonic turns to tell Shadow that he’s volunteered them for lunch duty but he almost chokes on his own spit. His lips draw into his mouth as he covers his face with his hand. Right where Sonic left him, there’s a comical display of Hangry shaking Shadow with Gnarly pumping an enabling fist in the air.

“Tell us where the food is!” Hangry shouts.

Sonic can see the flickies spinning around Shadow’s head. The black hedgehog tries in vain to grab the oafish hands around his shoulders. “I told you! I don’t have any food! Will you stop that?”

Gnarly points at Shadow dramatically. “Don’t listen to him, Hangry! He’s hidden food somewhere!”

“I haven’t!” Shadow shouts.

Sonic can’t hold it in. He laughs at poor Shadow being ping-ponged between two massive hands and a conspiracy theorist’s allegations. Shadow looks like he’s about to be shaken right out of his black fur. 

“Hey, Shadow!” Sonic calls. “Are you making friends?”

“As if I would be friends with the likes of these people.” With half a curl and revved shoes, he manages to squirm his way out. He lands almost gracefully before shooting out both hands to jab the other two in the sides.

Hangry and Gnarly drop like dead weight. They groan and put their hands to their faint foreheads.

“What’d you do that for?” Hangry holds his side. “That hurt!”

“Yeah, that hurt!” Gnarly echoes.

Shadow rolls his eyes. “I wouldn’t have jabbed you if you weren’t shaking me.”

Sonic hops over with a smile. Shadow’s returned to his prickly self alright. “Is that a GUN trick you learned in the field?”

“GUN?” Gnarly half trips over his own feet as he scrambles up. “You are working for the government!”

“Oops.” Sonic is pricked by the daggers in Shadow’s stare.

Shadow  waves his arms with a twitching eye. “I promise you, I’m not a government agent. I’ve never worked for GUN—”

“Are you boys done playing?” Prim approaches the group. Her hand on her hip accentuates the exasperated downturn of her mouth.

“Yes,” Gnarly and Hangry sheepishly say at the same time.

“Good.” Prim nods as her eyes slip to Shadow’s.

The two stand there, unwavering eye to unwavering eye. Shadow can feel her spinning her web again. Sonic’s already tangled up, but he refuses to become cocooned as well. She smiles placatingly. Shadow hmphs and looks away from her venomous fangs.

“Mangey?” Prim calls.

The little fox bounds over to the group.

She grips her fist in front of her face with a smile. “Are you boys ready to go hunt a monster?”

“Yes!” The Boscage boys and Sonic shout with the same enthusiasm.

Something tickles Shadow’s ear. His attention snaps back towards the jungle. Huh. Must’ve been the wind.

☆☆☆

The group repel down on vines save for Shadow who lets his rocket shoes lower him. Only small rays of light filter onto the dark forest floor. The smell of fermenting leaves mixes heavily with the humidity and their shoes wetly squish the dirt below them. Except for the noise of their movement, the forest is quiet. There’s no rustling, no chirping, no croaking. The monster must have scared away the wildlife. But it feels as if the jungle is holding its breath.

A strange knot forms in his chest. His heartbeat quickens and makes his eyes dart from the trees to the ferns on the ground. Something is wrong. He feels the jungle shake. There’s more to this silence that meets the ear.

“This way,” Prim whispers as she motions for everyone to follow her.

The group tiptoes. Sonic and Shadow bring up the rear, ears scanning the underbrush. Nothing is going to sneak up on them if they—especially Sonic—has anything to do about it. The moment the monster rears its ugly head, it’s going to be kicked, punched, and spin dashed back into whatever ugly hole it crawled out of.

Shadow sucks in a weak breath and clenches his slightly trembling hands. He shakes a tickling feeling out of his ears.

“Hey,” Sonic’s voice is quiet as he addresses Shadow. “Are you alright?”

“Why do you ask, hedgehog?”

“You seem a little tense.”

Shadow tenses. “What? No, there’s nothing wrong. Stay vigilant.” He motions towards the quiet, dense jungle around them.

“Are you sure-sure?” Sonic asks, zipping closer to Shadow. He tilts his head, squints one eye, and scours the black hedgehog’s totally not tense features.

“I’m sure.” Is Shadow’s simple response.

“Hmm,” Sonic zips to Shadow’s other side and appraises it as well. It’s a little off kilter. Shadow’s not standing up straight. “I don’t know. You just feel off.”

“I don’t feel off, leave me alone.” Shadow halfheartedly shoves Sonic away.

It’s just enough to make the blue hedgehog take the very obvious hint. He holds his hands up peacefully before returning to a respectful distance to walk by Shadow’s side. If Shadow won’t share, there’s not much Sonic can do.

The group hoofs it through brambles and vines until they reach a small clearing. The bushes are ripened red with square-shaped strawberries. The Boscage crew dive like their lives depend on it. And they very well do. They rip off leaves and scar branches in their haste to shove the fruit into their packs. To gain access to fruit near the ground, They easily trample over flowers and pull out roots . They haphazardly toss broken flora to the floor.

Shadow’s chest tightens. His mouth pulls itself into a grimace. “Be careful" He says, “Don’t tear up the place.”

“KWAAA!” A terrible shriek cuts through the dense jungle.

“Run!” Gnarly shouts. He last-minute shoves as much as he can into his pack before he scrambles towards the ropes they repelled down. The rest of the Boscage residents scramble after him.

Sonic takes a step to speed after them, but Shadow grabs his arm. “Not you, idiot,” Shadow says with a tired edge.

“Oh right, haha.” Sonic smiles sheepishly.

Sonic and Shadow stance with their fists raised and knees bent. They gravitate towards each other until they’re back-to-back. Their ears turn in circles, following the speedy monster stalking them. They can hear its claws dig into the earth as it runs. It snuffles hungrily as it commits their scents to memory. Shadow hmphs. No way is he letting this thing sneak up on him again. It’s time for a little revenge.

“There!” Sonic shouts.

Shadow whips his head around and he sees it. It’s a… giant pink flicky? It’s a bird with enough fluff to outweigh both he and Sonic. Its wide eyes are connected by a thin purple mask. Its beak spans the entirety of its soft head. It’s nothing more than a little birdie.

“Aww, look at this guy!” Sonic looks at Shadow and jams his thumb in the direction of the “monster”. “This is just a big flicky. I don’t know why they’d be scared of this th—”

Sonic’s body slammed by the flicky. He goes tumbling straight into a tree, splatting against it. He peels off it limply. “Ow,” He says flatly.

Fists up and teeth bared, Shadow faces the bird. If this giant chicken wants a tussle, then he’ll give it one. He revs his shoes and draws a fist back. His knuckles leave a dent in the dirt. Damn, it dodged. He’s going to have to use a bit more speed to catch this thing. It’s impressive really, that some bird is forcing him to kick it into second gear.

He goes on the offensive again. No time to play games when he and Sonic need to drag the Boscage crew back to the forest floor to find the shard. The flames on his shoes slice molten currents through the air. The flicky side-steps. The metal bludgeons the earth when he lands. The flicky jukes him with a taunting caw.

“Hold on!” Sonic’s back on his feet. “Don’t hurt the guy!”

“We’re here to hurt the guy,” Shadow growls. Sonic and his bleeding heart. Even when they’ve been given the go ahead to stop up their good-two-shoes wounds, Sonic’s got his gushing all over the floor. Shadow’s sympathy is dry as he spin dashes straight for the bird’s head.

“No, I mean--!” Sonic spins and bumps his ball into Shadow’s. Shadow goes spinning off his trajectory.

The black hedgehog lands on his feet. His nose curls and he barks, “Hey!”

“I mean don’t seriously hurt her. We just need to scare her off.”

The flicky dashes in. The hedgehog’s tumble out of the way before they’re pecked.

“Whoa!” A root grabs Sonic’s foot. Face first into the mud he goes. Something, something no good deed, Sonic thinks. If he wasn’t so attuned with animals, Sonic would flick the flicky off the face of the jungle. But he knows why the bird is here. It’s not malicious, it’s here to protect its territory. Sonic can tell from the twitch of its claws to the caw of its beak. Sonic lifts his gooey head.

“Kwaa!” The territorial flicky roars.

Don’t bump into me, hedgehog.”  Is the only warning Shadow gives before his foot bumps into the back of Sonic’s head. Sonic’s face goes right back in the mud.

Sonic lifts his head again, double-gunked up. Oh, so Shadow wants a fight, huh? Before Shadow can ready for another attack from the flicky, Sonic sweeps Shadow’s legs. The black hedgehog falls flat into the dirt himself. Shadow gets up with knives in his eyes.  

Sonic easily catches the blades and drops them at his feet. “Oh, whoops. Didn’t mean to bump into you, Shads.”

Shadow lunges. He and Sonic lock hands and both bare their teeth. If Sonic wants to be an idiot, then Shadow has no problem serving him up with potatoes and carrots alongside the flicky. Maybe he’ll add a gravy sauce while he’s at it. Their hand-locked grapple is interrupted as the flicky rushes in. They’re both shoulder checked into a tree. They’re the ones being cooked.

“Oof,” Sonic’s flat body slides down the bark. “Totally forgot about the flicky.”

Shadow’s body accordions off the wood. The flicky, right. Unfolding from the floor, he quickly scans the clearing. The chicken’s gone. His ears snap up. It’s back in the surrounding underbrush, just out of sight. It’s gearing up for another sneak attack.

“You’re no help,” Shadow growls. He snaps a nearby hanging vine and pulls it into his hands. As the flicky circles, he hurriedly ties the makeshift rope into a lasso. The moment the flicky barrels out of the brush, he whips the loop around and rings it around the bird’s neck.

Shadow pulls the rope taught. “Got you.”

The bird goes down hard as Shadow steps on the rope for the extra weight to keep the bird tethered. Before it can recover, Shadow rushes in. With skill that Sonic didn’t know Shadow had, the black hedgehog ropes the vine around its wings and feet, hog tying it into a chicken fit for rotisserie.

“There.” Shadow dusts the vine’s wet wax off his hands.

“That’s not the monster.” A voice calls out.

Shadow and Sonic crane their neck upwards to see Prim standing on a branch in the treetops.

Before Sonic can say, “what?”, he’s sent spiraling backwards. He manages to hedgehog curl to protect his limbs from smacking over the ground. What the heck was that?! The flicky’s tied up, and there’s no way it shimmied out of its restraints without him or Shadow noticing. When he lifts his head, he’s met with a shock of complementary pink to the green landscape.

“Amy?”  Sonic’s eyebrows hit the canopy.

Chapter Text

“Amy?” Sonic’s eyebrows jump straight into the canopy.

“That’s the monster.” Prim calls out.

Shadow and Sonic crane their necks upwards to see Prim in a break of the canopy. Sonic is confused. The monster? What is she on about? Amy isn’t a monster.

Before he can say “What?”, the complimentary pink to the landscape’s green batters up. Amy hits first base across Sonic’s face, second as she sweeps his legs, and then third as she smacks the blue hedgehog across the back.

While boxes of cracker jacks pop across Sonic’s vision, the peanut gallery goes on the offensive. Shadow curls and spin dashes at the violent imitation of Amy.

“Get off my flicky!” She yells as she swings against Shadow’s ball, hitting a homerun and sending the black hedgehog flying out of the park and into the canopy.

Sonic stands and shakes his head. Green outfit, wooden hair accessories, and a snarl that makes him shake in his nonexistent boots; the only thing that reminds him of Amy is the pink fur and the massive hammer in her hands.

“Great.” Shadow hops down from the tree he landed in and picks a stray leaf out of his quills. He sighs. “Another one.”

Amy growls and charges towards Sonic once again. Before he can get pancaked with a nice side of muddy syrup, he springboards out of the way. “Amy’s the monster? But she’s so kind and sweet and totally not a monst—ah!” Sonic barely misses being smacked across the face again.

“How many times do I have to tell you that’s not Amy?” Shadow ughs and runs a hand down his face. After this, he’s sitting Sonic in front of a white board and outlining exactly why the doppelgangers aren’t their friends. One plus one equals not your friends!

The name’s Rose, Thorn Rose!” She roars at the boys.

Shadow hmphs. “Whatever your name is, you’re going down.”

Shadow jumps as Thorn pounces. She rears back and bears her fangs. Shadow pulls back a fist and it collides with the flat of her hammer. The force of an immovable hammer against an unstoppable fist sends both of them flying backwards. She digs her claws into the dirt as she slides back, skidding to a muddy stop. Shadow lands on the trunk of a tree and jumps back into the fray.

“Get out of my jungle!” She roars again.

Shadow punches, he kicks, and grunts. But every blow is parried by her hammer. Each one sends a spark across his bracelets. They catch ablaze in a torrent of rainbows. They slip in and over themselves as they shift hotly through reality. But Shadow has no time for that. There is only one thing right now, and that thing is pummeling Thorn into the wet dirt.

However, it quickly becomes clear that Shadow can’t brute force his way past her defenses. He spins to Sonic and nods at the blue hedgehog. Sonic nods back. Shadow dashes behind Thorn, sticks two fingers in his mouth, and whistles. The sound turns her head, and before she can turn back, Sonic spin dashes into her hammer.

She gasps. The weapon flies out of her hand. Shadow’s body tenses as he follows the trajectory of her hammer. The flight path is headed straight to two small flickies perched in a tree. They’re as good as fried chicken if the hammer bashes into them.

Shadow rockets up and intercepts. He grabs the handle and uses its force to circle it and throw it harmlessly into the ground below. 

“Watch where you throw that thing.” He lands on its handle which flips it up. He catches it and levels it with his gaze directed at Thorn. He glances at the flickies, and starts as one, surprised, totters on the branch and falls. 

“Whoa!” Sonic dives and catches it before it can become just another side dish to a load of potatoes. “Sorry little guy. You and your friend get out of here before you get hurt.”

The two flickies don’t need to be told twice. They hop a few steps before flying off, chirping in relief at escaping a five piece for four-dollar bucket.

“You,” Thorn begins, “Saved them.”

Shadow thrusts the hammer out further, eyes thin. “Don’t think about it too hard.”

Thorn stays firmly in place. She looks between the two boys. Her eyebrows are set pensively, and her mouth is drawn thin.

“Come on,” Shadow growls. Before he can take the offensive, he feels Sonic grab onto his shoulder. What’s the blue hedgehog doing now?

“I don’t think she wants to fight us anymore. Look at her.” Sonic gestures to Thorn.

Don’t tell Shadow that Sonic’s bleeding heart is reaching flatline levels. “She started this fight and I’m going to end it,” he says.

Sonic grips Shadow tighter and addresses Thorn. “I’m Sonic. And my friend here is Shadow.”

“Don’t introduce us!” Shadow almost smacks Sonic upside the head.

“I’m telling you; she doesn’t want to hurt us anymore.” Sonic knows why she’s here. She’s protecting her territory the same as the flicky. And now that Sonic and Shadow are proving they’re not a threat, she’s becoming tame. 

“Why did you save those flickies? Thorn asks.  

Sonic puts his hands up peacefully. “We saw a couple of buddies in trouble, and we had to save ‘em. We can put aside our beef for a second to help someone in need.”

Shadow hmphs. So Sonic is really going to play peacemaker with the beast who so brazenly attacked them. Of course. Shadow isn’t sure why he expected any different. He really needs to grab a few gauzes and stop up Sonic’s wounded heart. He lowers the hammer slightly.

“Your bracelets,” The pink hedgehog’s eyes widen slightly. “They look like the Great Green.”

“Hmm?” Shadow looks down at his accessories. He was so focused on the fight, he hadn’t realized the brilliant rainbow flowing across his wrists.

“Great Green?” Sonic repeats.

“It has the same glow.” Thorn gestures to the wavering lights.

Sonic turns to Shadow. “Dude, if this Great Green looks like your bracelets, then it must have something to do with the shard!”

“Maybe.” Shadow lowers the hammer a little more.

“Thorn, can you take us to the Great Green? Shadow and I are trying to get home, and anything that looks like our gear will help us get there.”

“I suppose—as thank you for helping those flickies. But first, can you untie mine?” She thumbs towards the rotisserie’ed bird with a straight expression on her face. The bird caws indignantly. 

“Oh right, right! Sorry, haha. It was attacking us and we just sorta, kinda,” Sonic looks away with a wavering smile as he twirls his fingers around each other. His shoulders raise and he slightly widens his smiling grimace. “Reacted?” 

While Sonic is busy trying to explain why he and Shadow served up Thorn Rose’s partner on a silver platter, Shadow approaches the pink hedgehog. The two lock eyes, brown to green, and Shadow says, “Here.” He shoves her hammer into her arms without a second look. He turns his attention to the flicky.

He bends back slightly as the bird squawks and thrusts its head out to bite. “Tch.” But he follows through and unties the bird as asked. He simply steers clear of the sharp parts. Once free, the bird gives Shadow one last threatening squawk before reuniting with its partner.

Satisfied, Thorn nods at the boys. “Alright, follow me. Keep up. I won’t stop for you.”

“Not a problem!” Sonic zips to her in the blink of an eye. “I’m the king of speed. Shadow, he’s more of a prince. Come on, Shads!”

The black hedgehog sighs. This isn’t going to go well. If there’s one thing he’s learned in his life, it’s to never trust pink-quilled, hammer-wielding mad women with a pink chicken for a pet. But what does he know? Here he is, not listening to his lessons and following said mad woman into the thick jungle. He takes a step forward and his ears tick up.

“Don’t go.”

He whips his head around but there’s nothing there. It must’ve been an animal’s wind-whispered cry. He shakes his head and follows the other two hedgehogs. 

☆☆☆

The trek through the forest this time is tolerable. Thorn knows where she’s going. She knows every step and climb to easily traverse the landscape. Sonic and Shadow literally follow in her footsteps, successfully steering clear of any grabbing roots or tying vines. They even dodge the reaching brambles.

The conversation is nonexistent, and Shadow prefers to keep it that way. There is a blue hedgehog, however, that can’t sit in silence for more than three minutes of his life. He would explode on minute three, second one.

“So, you live out here in the jungle, Thorn?” Sonic asks.

“Yes. The jungle is my home.”

“How come you don't live with your friends?”

“Friends?” Thorn's brow furrows. She reaches out and pets her flicky. “My flicky is my only friend.”

“The tree dwellers aren’t your pals?”

“No. They stopped being my friends long ago.”

Shadow rolls his eyes. He wasn’t planning on being privy to twenty questions with Thorn Rose, but Sonic always insists on carrying a mic to interview whoever they come across. And worst of all, he usually gets the person to open up. Shadow couldn’t care less even if she cured cancer or brought about world peace by finally defeating Eggman.

“But why? You guys are so tight. You bake cakes and make friendship bracelets—"

“She's not Amy.” Shadow reminds him for the umpteenth time. 

“I don't know who Amy is,” Thorn says, “but I would never make a friendship bracelet for those scavengers.”

It's at that moment that Shadow's mouth falls open. They've come into a clearing, and it's been cleared. 

Lone stumps squat uselessly in the ground. Shredded bushes hang limply, leaves marred. Burrows have been dug up. Haphazard mounds of dirt dot the clearing's trampled grass and wilted flowers. Shreds of vines dangle helplessly. This place has been robbed.

“Eggman,” Sonic whispers. 

Thorn bends down and touches her fingertips to a hunched over stump. “Who?”

“Eggman? You know, mustache, a gazillion robots.”

“I don't know who that is. The scavengers did this.”

It's Shadow's turn to put on the interviewer cap. “Scavengers?”

“The ones you think are my friends. They come down to the forest floor and they take.” Her hands curl into fists. She's looking past the stump now. “And take, and take, and take! It's all they do!”

Shadow toes a mound of dirt. “So that's why you've been sending them up into the canopy. You're trying to prevent this.”

“Exactly.”

“Have you seen them recently?” Sonic asks. “They're skin and bones! They need to get down here to get food.”

“Why should I care? They…”

The conversation turns to white noise as Shadow looks at the landscape. The heavy knot has tied itself into his chest again. His hands curl into fists and shake in time with his breathing. Look at what they have done here. Look at what they have taken and the destruction they have left behind.

He can feel the withering shake of the leaves and smell the wet dirt stained with greenery. He can hear the pain of the forest. Its death rattle is prolonged by the desire to regrow, yet it desperately knows that the damage is too great to heal. It’s in his hands. It’s in his chest. It’s in his head.

He wants to retribute the same damage to the scavengers as they have wrought here.

But why?

“We should leave.” Shadow says through clenched teeth. “We need to get to the Great Green.” He whips his head around.

“It hurts.” He hears.

“It hurts so bad.” He hears again.

“Don’t let them come again.” And again.

“Shadow?” Another voice, familiar this time. “You good?” Sonic asks.

“I—” Shadow looks around for the source of the voices. He searches the brush and the trees, but he can’t find it. He shakes the feeling from his head. No time. He must focus. There are more important things than the fleeting cries of animals on the wind. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just taken aback by all the destruction here. I’m okay.”

“You look like you’re gonna puke,” Sonic says.

“No.”

“For real though. If you feel like you gotta throw up—”

“I don’t need to throw up, Sonic.” Shadow’s voice is a little louder than he intends it to be. “I told you, I’m fine.”

Thorn Rose is at the edge of the clearing, stepping back into the brush. “Hurry up. I told you I won’t wait for you.”

Sonic knows Shadow is totally not fine. He’s on edge and sweating. And he still won’t share what’s wrong with him. What’s Sonic to do? He can’t force Shadow to share, no matter how much he wants to. He has to wait it out until the black hedgehog decides he’s ready. He probably won’t be until after he pukes.

“Coming!” Sonic calls. He takes one long, last look at Shadow before accepting that Shadow thinks he’s fine. He speeds after Thorn.

☆☆☆

Shadow’s not sure how much more time passes. All he’s aware of is the strange possession to carefully place his feet around flowers and growing plants. Eventually, the group comes across a curtain of vines.

Thorn places her hand between them. “We’re here.” She draws them back to reveal the last clearing of their journey.

Shadow gasps and steps in. Vines hang proudly around all edges of the clearing, the canopy extends and blankets the top, and the flowers create colorful pathways. The trees open to create a large, sky-filled circle, allowing a beam of golden sunlight to wash over the green cave. It’s completely silent. Not even the whistle of the wind penetrates the guarding tree trunks. And standing regal amid the center, roots prostrated towards it, is a glimmering palm tree. Shadow’s mouth falls open.

“OMG It’s the tree!” Sonic points to it and gapes at Shadow. “The Great Green is our palm tree!”

“So it is,” Shadow responds. This is the venerated heart of the jungle, Shadow knows it in his own. All the creatures of the jungle bow their heads and clasps their hands towards this clearing. The rainbow light flowing across its prismatic bark is more of a blessing than the sunlight dripping through the leaves above.

“Check it out!” Sonic exclaims. “Our gear is glowing; that’s gotta mean the shard’s nearby.” Sonic approaches the tree. His shoes grow brighter until he’s red hot on top of the rock. “Ah-ha!” He unsheathes his gloves’ claws and starts digging straight down.

“Wait, don’t—” Shadow reaches his hand out but shakes his head. Hedgehogs are burrowing animals after all.

“Someone hand me a leaf.” The blue hedgehog calls from inside the fresh hole.

Thorn Rose plucks a thick, large leaf from the edge of the clearing and tosses it down the hole. A few moments later, Sonic pops back up with a smile and one green, glowing shard wrapped safely in a leaf. “Tada! Special delivery for Shadow T. Hedgehog.”

Shadow’s eyes widen and his head snaps to the side.

“Watch out!” A voice calls.

“Don’t trust her!” Another voice.

“Leave!” And a third.

“Ah!” Shadow’s eardrums are full of the voices around him. He drops to his knees and covers his ears to try and keep them out.

“Shadow!” Sonic puts the shard under his arm. “Are you ok—”

“No!” Shadow finally admits as his eyeballs start to float from the pressure of the noise. He can finally admit to himself what this is. “It’s the jungle! I can hear the jungle!”

“Watch out! Watch out! Watch out!” The voices repeat.

Shadow’s blurred eyes try to find their bearings. He sees a pink outline running towards them, a blob of a hammer poised at its hip. Thorn Rose is running to swing.

Shadow can barely find his words among the ones overlapping in his head. “Sonic, watch out!”

Despite the warning, Sonic has no time to watch as he’s smacked across the back. The shard flies out of his hands, twirling in the air until it lands in Thorn Rose’s own waiting hands.

“Did you really think I would let you take the heart of the jungle for yourself?” She raises the shard above her head. It catches the sunlight and a sheen flitters across it. “With this, I can make sure the scavengers stay out of the jungle for good!”

She places the shard to her hammer. A slither of vines unfurls from the shard. They coil around the weapon until the rock is firmly meshed with it. Thorn holds the handle tightly in both her hands.

Sonic rubs his arm that he landed on when he was sent tumbling. “Thorn, whatever you’re thinking of doing, don’t do it!”

She growls and slams her hammer down onto the ground. A vine, thick is Sonic, sprouts out from the dirt and shoots through the canopy. She slams her hammer down again and again, creating a thick wall of impenetrable greenery. She sets her sights on Shadow.

“Shadow!” Sonic leaps between the hedgehogs. Before he can scoop up the black one, the ground rumbles beneath them. “What the?!” The ground cracks open underneath them and a tree sprouts from the maw. They’re both shot upwards.

Sonic holds Shadow in one arm and flails with the other. They’re airborne over the canopy! He twists and sees a shoddy, brown landing pad. With all the strength he can muster in the air, he changes their trajectory and lands them safely on the platform below. They skid to a woody stop.

“Ugh, Sonic?” Shadow raises his head that landed safely on Sonic’s peach stomach. “Are you okay?”

Sonic sits up, causing Shadow to roll off him. He holds the back of his own head and winces. “Yeah. Just a headache. I’ll be feeling that next Tuesday. Oof.”

Shadow reaches a hand out to Sonic, but before he can touch him, he sees a familiar gaggle of green standing a stone’s throw away from them. His hand curls into a fist as he bears his fangs.  

The scavengers.

Chapter Text

Sonic’s eyes are still spinning when he and Shadow skid to a stop on the wooden platform. They both shakily sit up as their bodies adjust to solid ground.

“I am never flying vine again.” Sonic groans as he rolls over onto his stomach. “Are you alright?” he asks Shadow.

The red-striped hedgehog stands, brushes off his knees, and sets his sights on the spear-wielding scavengers. They hold their weapons out, eyebrows furrowed and teeth bared. Mangey is ready to pounce, claws unsheathed. Gnarly thrusts out his spear in warning.

“So what are you doing with the monster, huh?” Gnarly asks. “Plotting against us?”

Shadow ignores him.

“You were getting awfully familiar with her.” Prim follows Gnarly’s words.

Mangey growls.

“Did you get any food?” Hangry asks in his dopey voice.

Shadow’s shoes’ engines leave scorch marks on the wood as he stomps over. Everything is their fault. If they hadn’t torn up the jungle, none of this would be happening. The jungle would be vibrant and lifeful, and more importantly, he and Sonic would already have the shard. They wouldn’t be fighting some crazy, jungle dwelling, hammer wielding, pink, mad hedgehog!

The scavengers snarl and hold their weapons higher.

“Don’t come any closer, hedgehog.” Prim warns.

Shadow stops just short of the range of their spears. His fists clench.

“Wait! Hold on!” Sonic hops onto Shadow’s back. One hand flies over Shadow’s shoulders and the other slaps over Shadow’s face. “Everyone just chill out. The vibes are totally off.”

Shadow reaches behind him and grabs onto Sonic’s shoulders. He pulls one, two, three times but the blue hedgehog is stuck like a koala on its mom’s back. He finally gives up and accepts his new baby. His arms fall limply at his side and he huffs.

“Are you cool, dude?” Sonic whispers loudly to Shadow.

“Yes. Get off of me.”

Sonic climbs down. He dusts off Shadow’s side and beams proudly at his therapist work. The scavengers, however, still need a session. He frowns at their pointing weapons. He puts the tip of his finger to the tip of Gnarly’s spear and lowers it slightly.

“We weren’t plotting against you. Thorn was just showing us the way to the shard. You know, the thing you were supposed to help us get.”

Mangey growls again and barks.

Gnarly’s eyes thin. “We were helping you get it. We were collecting food and you ran off with her.”

Shadow runs a hand down his face. “is that all you can think about? Don’t you have any sympathy for the jungle?” He shakes his head. “I’m going to get that shard.” As he whips around to hop back into the jungle, he hears another invisible voice. 

“We warned you!” silently says the voice. 

“She was no good!” a second one.

“Shadow?” Sonic asks. “Okay, you definitely look like you’re gonna puke. Does anyone have any ginger?”

“Shh!” Shadow walks to the edge of the platform. “I can hear it.”

“Hear what?” Prim asks.

“The jungle,” Shadow answers.

“Aha!” exclaims Gnarly. “So it’s true! The trees do speak! I’m not crazy after all!”

Shadow rolls his eyes, but he finally decides to listen. This time is different. He can hear the voices clearly. They don’t crowd up his brain. He walks to the edge of the platform and looks out into the jungle. 

“I apologize for the children of the forest. They know not how to control their volume.” says a new, deeper voice in his head. 

Shadow gets the impression that this voice is something older, something wiser. It’s been here longer than Sonic, Shadow, and the scavengers’ lives combined. It dawns on Shadow what this particular voice is—It’s the Great Green!

Shadow has felt this sensation all those many years ago on the ARK. A being such as himself, a Black Arms, is able to communicate telepathically with its own species. Being a creature that can hear the internal voices of others must be why he’s so sensitive to the sounds of the jungle. 

Shadow knows he doesn’t need to verbally talk. He opens his mind up to the tree. 

Shadow thinks, "So you're the ones who've been messing with my head."

“Yes, unintentionally. Since you’re connected to the jungle you feel our pain the same as we feel yours. That’s why the children have been warning you of dangers.

Shadow’s thoughts continue. “And your children couldn’t have stayed out of my head?

“They do not understand the nature of your being. They could never consider that something that’s not of the forest is connected to us. 

“Shadow?” Sonic asks out loud.

Shadow ignores him. 

The tree telepathically continues. “You’ve lost more than yourselves.”

Shadow scoffs and thinks, “And how do you figure that?

“You’ve lost your home, your Green Hill.”

Shadow jumps back away from the jungle. He does not like that the tree has read his mind. He backs up until he’s standing firmly within the group of the scavengers and Sonic. He slaps his hands on the side of his head. He growls out loud, “Stay out of my head.” 

“What’s going on?” Prim asks. She holds her spear up once again.

“The Great Green is speaking to me.” Shadow says seriously.

The tree silently continues, “Calm down, child. We wish you no harm. I apologize for prodding.” 

This exactly what it was like with the Black Arms aboard the ARK. There were no independent thoughts, there was no privacy. Every member knew all your past and present thoughts. Shadow was a fool to think that it would be any different with this freaky tree hive mind. 

“Hear me, black hedgehog,” The tree says telepathically, “I will do what is within my power to help you and your companion return home. But you must first help me.”

Shadow listens.

“The proclaimed protector of this jungle has lost her way. The vines and trees she sprouts is suffocating the light from the forest floor. The plants and animals are losing their energy to live.”

“So you want us to stop Thorn Rose to keep the forest alive,” Shadow thinks.

“Correct, black hedgehog.” The tree says silently. “In exchange, I will reward you with the heart of the jungle.”

Shadow sucks in a deep breath. This is for Green Hill. This is for Sonic. He thinks, “Fine. If you help us get home, then we’ll stop her.”

“Please hurry, I feel myself grow weak as well.”

Shadow cuts off the connection from the forest. He looks back at the rest of the group. The scavengers still bear their teeth and Sonic still has his arms crossed while he stares down the angry mob.

Shadow addresses everyone, “We need to stop Thorn Rose, she’s hurting the jungle.”

“Oh!” Sonic exclaims. “I know. We’ll get everyone to make up. Then all this vine growing nonsense can end.”

Prim scoffs, “Why do we needs to make up with her? We’ll just get her ourselves!” She shouts and holds her spear up in the air. “Are you with me, boys?”

“Yeah!” They all yell in a cacophony  of agreement.

They barrel towards the edge of the platform and hop into the jungle. The hedgehogs can hear them repelling down to the forest floor. Shadow crosses his arms with a sigh. Sonic looks at the invisible watch on his wrist. Only a few moments pass before the scavengers are sent flying upwards out of the canopy with their tails between their legs. The group eats wood as they land on the platform in front of the hedgehogs. 

Prim is the first to raise her wobbly head. “Okay. We need to change tactics.”

Sonic nods and says gently, “What I’m saying is, you need to find some common ground.”

“But we don’t have any ground.” Hangry scratches his head.  

Mangey nods in agreement.

Prim frowns. “We used to be friends. We only took what we needed to survive, and even that was too much for her. One day, as we were gathering supplies, she attacked us and drove us into the trees. There’s no common ground anymore.”

Sonic cradles his chin in his hand and taps his foot. His eyes look back and forth, flipping through a book of invisible options until he settles on one. He points his finger in the air, “We’ll just get everyone to apologize.”

“Apologize? She’s the reason we’re starving. If anything, we need an apology from her.” Prim responds.

Sonics ears slump slightly and his expression turns earnest. His voice softens. “Yeah, well, you destroyed the forest so she’s feeling really betrayed right now. You just need to extend an olive branch. Hehe, branch.” He nudges Shadow with his elbow with one raised eyebrow and a smile. “Get it? Branch?”

Shadow crosses his arms and waits for the nudging to stop. He’s not sure how long his own olive branch will be. His olives have already soured and fallen off the branch. Thorn Rose is a problem, one that’s selfishly barreling her way through the forest. And yet here Sonic is, determined to pluck a few olives from his own branch and hold them out to her.

The forest begins to rumble. A waving earthquake rolls the wooden platforms. The sea of leaves sway to a rising, shaking tide. The surge heaves shrieking, terrified flickies out of the green ocean. The platforms will sink if they don’t act soon.

Shadow scans the scavengers. Hangry, Mangey, and Gnarly are nodding and agreeing on apologies together. Prim stands to the side, looking down at the jungle pensively. She’s plotting something. Shadow isn’t sure what, but her apology will be tainted. She raises her head.

“Okay, fine,” She says, spinning a web. “We’ll apologize to Thorn Rose.” She smiles easily and hides her venomous fangs. “You’re right, Sonic. Thorn Rose is our friend.” She sits on deceitful silk, ready to strike.

Shadow’s ready this time. The moment her true, aposematic colors come to light, he’s going to swoop in and cut her off. The question is, when is she going to do so? Shadow hopes that whatever she’s spinning will happen after they apologize to Thorn. That way, he and Sonic can grab the crystal to get home.

They repel down to the forest floor. The cold, stifling darkness is a pillow held down over their faces. They can barely see the wet, squishy leaves on the ground. The humidity sticks heavily to their bodies. Again, there’s no rustling, or chirping, or croaking. But this time, the silence is somehow more deafening. Shadow closes his eyes, and this time Sonic refrains from commenting that he looks like he’s going to upchuck. The black hedgehog opens a tiny channel of his mind to the forest.

“The jungle says she’s this way.” Shadow points in a direction. The group nods and follows his lead.

They’re only a few minutes into their hike when they come across a stroke of pink amidst the green. Thorn Rose, her back to them, stands incarcerated by a cage of vegetation. The warden’s hammer is gripped tightly in her hand, and her shoulders heave as if she has been doing nothing but exhaustively slam her vine-growing weapon on the ground. She whips around when the group enters the miniature yard clear of skyward-reaching vines.

Mangey barks at her

“Thorn, wait!” Sonic thrusts his hands out peacefully. “Before you attack us, please listen to what your friends have to say.”

Thorn grips her hammer tighter. “And why should I listen to you?”

“Because your friends came to apologize. You guys remember how those go, right?” Sonic grabs Shadow by the wrist and pulls him in. Sonic holds Shadow’s chin in one hand. The blue hedgehog imitates Prim’s voice, “Hi Thorn, I love the bird you’re riding.”

He moves Shadow’s mouth as he imitates Thorn Rose, “Thanks Prim, My bird is one of a kind. That’s an excellent treetop village you’ve built.”

 Shadow’s bewilderment keeps him in place.

Then, as Prim, Sonic says, “Thanks it does the job. Why are we arguing again?”

Sonic moves Shadow’s mouth as he once again imitates Thorn, “I have no idea. Hugs?”

Sonic imitates Prim one last time, “Huggies!”

The blue hedgehog  bear hugs the black one and lifts one leg up. He rubs the side of his face against Shadow’s with a big smile. Shadow struggles.

“Will you get off of me?” Shadow hisses.

“Don’t be prickly Shadow, I know you love hugging me.”

“I do not.” Shadow slams a foot down on top of Sonic’s.

The blue hedgehog lets the black one go and grabs onto his own aching foot while he hops on the other. “Ow, ow, ow, ow! Totally uncalled for, dude!”

Shadow hmphs and brushes his own hair backwards.

Sonic, still hopping on one foot, manages a smile and says to the group, “We start there, then move onto a constructive, conversational volley about our issues…minus breaking each other’s feet.” He openly stares at Shadow. “ahem.”

Shadow brushes his hair upwards.

Sonic winces as he puts his damaged foot down. He says softly, “So let’s talk this through, come to a peaceful agreement, and who knows? Maybe by the end of it, we’ll all be laughing.”

Thorn Rose’s grip loosens on the hammer she so tightly held to her chest. She looks down at her feet as a moment of clarity passes through her mind. “Maybe…Maybe I’ve been too harsh but I…” She tightly closes her eyes.

“Quick!” Prim shouts. “She’s distracted!” Prim lunges, spear in hand.  

“Get her!” Gnarly shouts.

“For the food!” Hangry follows.

Mangey howls and pounces. 

This is what Shadow was waiting for. Prim’s fangs are bared and her true colors are on display.

“Huh?!” Sonic jumps as the scavengers lunge. “What are you doing!? This was not the plan, guys!”

Thorn reacts before a spear can skewer her. She growls and her grip tightens once again. “I knew it. I knew I couldn’t trust you.” She smashes her hammer on the ground.

Vines shoot up underneath Gnarly, Hangry, and Mangey. They’re launched upwards through the trees. The vines that tossed them clog up the breaks in the canopy.

“I can’t believe I thought you came to apologize.” The pink hedgehog growls at Prim.

Prim clutches her weapon in her hand. “And I can’t believe you betrayed us like that! How could you choose the jungle over your own friends?”

Sonic and Shadow rush between the two girls. Sonic faces Thorn, Shadow faces Prim.

Sonic shakily laughs, “Calm down. Tensions are a little high right now, haha, but Amy told me there’s no wrong way to feel. We can talk through the anger.”

Thorn Rose stamps her foot. “There’s no talking with them. They only understand fighting!”

“You’re not sticking to the plan.” Shadow says to Prim.

The bat holds her spear out. “We need to attack her while she’s weak.”

Thorn holds her hammer above her head. She pulls back before slamming the weapon on the ground. One last, massive vine shoots out and grabs Prim. The bat hurtles into the air as the last bit of sunlight is locked out from the canopy.

Thorn Rose pants. The final vine locks the green prison completely. Not a single ray of light breaks in from the thick, suffocating leaves. She lowers her hammer.

“Finally. They’re gone and the jungle is safe.”

Sonic flails his arms. “Thorn, you destroyed their home! They’ll starve!”

She holds her head high with a frown. “This is what it takes to save the jungle. You don’t understand.”

Shadow points his finger at her. “No, you don’t understand. All you—all the scavengers—can think about is your own damn goals.”

It’s an amalgam of selfishness, stubbornness, and the purposeful turning of blind eyes to the suffering of others. It’s at that moment that Shadow can metaphorically feel his finger point inwards at himself. He suddenly feels all the fingers Sonic has pointed his way for the past couple of days. Is he really, truly like the tree dwellers he despises?

No.

He can’t be. Shadow does think of others. His priority has been Green Hill. He has thought of nothing but Sonic and Sonic’s friends since the moment they landed in New Yoke. He’s the one thinking of others among a sea of people selfishly clinging to their own needs.

Sonic grips the side of his own head, shakes it, and ughs. “Why can’t you guys understand that you have to live together? You know what, let’s go see what the Great Green has to say about this. Shadow, come on.”

Shadow takes one last look at Thorn and nods at Sonic. “Let’s.”

The pink hedgehog’s voice is nothing but a whisper as the boys speed off. “Don’t you dare!”  She hops on her bird and they speed off towards the boys. “Hurry! We can’t let them reach the Great Green, Birdie!”

The bird caws in agreement. They dash through the brush, dodging the overgrowth as they run. They’re gaining on the hedgehogs until a large, jutting branch, catches the bird across the side. Thorn is launched as she and her bird go tumbling over each other.

She cradles her head as she sits up. “Birdie!”

The bird shakily stands and caws. Thorn Rose approaches and pats her bird’s side.

“I know, but we have to hurry. Who knows what they’ll do to the Great Green?”  She hops back onto her partner. They continue to chase the hedgehogs.

Far ahead of Thorn, Sonic, using his gloves’ claws to climb up and over the snaking trees asks Shadow, “Can you believe them, Shads? They had the perfect opportunity to make up and they didn’t take it.”

Shadow stays silent as he jumps over a giant root.

“I’m going to make them see how much they need each other.”

Despite juking massive vines and winding trees, the jog doesn’t take long. They stop before they enter the Great Green’s clearing. The vined gate is black and withered. Sonic sticks his hands through to pull the curtain back, but several vines snap and limply fall to the ground.

“Oh no.” Sonic rushes in.

Shadow can feel his heart in his shoes. The grass is melted into brown puddles. The flowers are blackly curled. The vines have sloughed off into gray mush. And on its decaying throne sits the Great Green. It’s bark is dried and its withered leaves fall off its crown. The king of the jungle is dethroned by perpetual darkness.

Shadow hears the silent tree in his ears.

“Help us.”

Sonic takes a few steps around the clearing. “All the extra trees are keeping the Great Green from getting sunlight.” His ears droop as he reaches out to the tree. “Don’t worry, we’re going to save you.”

Their ears pop up at a sound barreling towards them. Bursting into the sanctuary, riding her pink flicky, is Thorn. The bird shrieks at the perceived intruders. Thorn roars as she jumps off and runs towards the boys. Sonic spins and Shadow skates out of the way.

“Get out! Don’t you dare touch the Great Green!” Her hammer harmlessly hits the dead ground.

“Us? You’re the one killing the Great Green.” Sonic gestures widely at the decay. “Can’t you see the destruction you’re leaving behind?”

She lunges at Sonic and misses again.

“Can’t you see the people you’re hurting?”

She slams her hammer into a patch of brown flowers, missing Sonic once again.

“You’re blinded by trying to save the Great Green!”

She tries to slice, and her hammer flies through the hanging vines, cutting them down.

“All you’re doing is hurting yourself!” Sonic skrrts to a stop and holds his ground.

The pink hedgehog rushes in once again, and Sonic crouches. She goes in for one last swing, aiming to deal one final blow against Sonic; but the blue one shoots his leg upwards, kicking the hammer straight on the space between the handle and Thorn’s fingers.

Thorn Rose gasps as the weapon flies out of her hands and straight into the canopy.

The hammer bursts through the tree line, gashing the leaves. A torrent of light washes into the clearing, blinding all three hedgehogs. They throw their hands up to shield their dark-adjusted eyes, but they can all feel the rush of warmth across their fur. Blinking the darkness from his eyes, Shadow turns his head skywards and is embraced by the soothing heat.

It’s in that moment, in the light, that Thorn sees what she’s done. She falls to her knees and her voice wavers. “What have I done? All I wanted was to protect the forest, and I’ve been killing it.”

“We used to be friends,” Thorn continues. Her eyes shimmer. “All they did was take, never giving back. I tried to talk to them, but they wouldn’t listen. I tried so hard. But I couldn’t stand seeing the jungle be scarred any longer and I snapped. I chased them up into the canopy, hoping that the jungle could heal. But once I had done that, I couldn’t go back to who I used to be.” Hot tears flow down her face.

Her bird coos softly and approaches. It rubs her head gently. She wipes her face with her hands and sniffles. “And I miss them! I should never have done what I did, but there’s no going back. How can I ever apologize to them?”

“Thorn…”

The hedgehogs turn and see Prim standing at the edge of the sanctum. The rest of the tree-dwellers step into the clearing. Their spears are sheathed and their ears are low. Prim turns and surreptitiously wipes her face. But Shadow can see her plain as day.

Prim clears her throat and continues, “We never considered…” She trails off as she steps forward and crouches. She fingers the brown petal of a once pink flower. “Once we were sent into the canopy, I had no idea how to apologize either. You shut us out, literally, and we couldn’t apologize, no matter how hard we wanted to. So I grew bitter and decided that you were the one in the wrong.”

The bat goes on, “But we were wrong. You’re right, we were hurting the forest and we should have listened.”

Thorn stands. “We both should have listened to each other. We both made mistakes.”

“I’m sorry.” Prim says.

“I’m sorry too.” Thorn says back.

The two take tentative steps towards each other, as if the other might run away. They reach each other and hold their arms out. Slowly, they come together, carefully holding onto each other, unsure of themselves.

Suddenly, Thorn grips Prim tightly, putting her head in the crook of The bat’s neck. Prim stiffens, unsure of what to do, but after a couple of moments, her shoulders relax. Her eyes slip closed as she gently embraces Thorn tighter. They’ve completed a true, forgiving hug.

Shadow stands there amidst the wash of light. He watches as the vines unfurl into strokes of green once again. The grass turns vibrant and brushes towards the sky. The flowers brighten and dapple blues, yellows, and pinks across the clearing. The trunk of the Great Green is painted hardy brown, and fresh sprigs of palm leaves glow brightly as they unfold in the sunlight. The tree’s rainbow crown has been returned to its rightful place.

This is the gift of caring for others, Shadow realizes. It’s just as precious as the life-giving light gently swaying down from the sky to the forest floor.

‘It seems you’ve learned something about yourself.” The Great Green says silently to Shadow.

Shadow remains quiet. But in his heart, he knows he has. He turns to his side and sees Sonic staring at him, a wide smile on his face.

“Aww, bring it in, big guy.” Sonic’s arms open wide and he goes in for a hug.

“No.” Shadow plants a hand on Sonic’s face and keeps the blue hedgehog’s arms from reaching him. He rolls his eyes skyward as if the sun can help him.

“We’re sorry too!” Hangry’s dopey voice is full of tears.  He plucks a leaf from a nearby bush and blows his nose.

“We didn’t mean it, honestly, Thorn!” Gnarly boo-hoos openly. He hugs his spear to his chest.

Mangey howls tearfully. He wipes his face with both hands, but it does nothing to stop the torrent of snot flowing down his face.

Prim turns slightly to look at the snotty display, still embraced, and smiles. She shrugs and looks back at Thorn. “Boys.”

“Boys.” Thorn confirms with a nod and a smile.

Sonic stops harassing Shadow about the hug that then black hedgehog is denying himself and walks to Thorn Rose’s bird. He carefully pats its side. “Go ahead. Stretch your wings.”

The bird shuffles for a moment while it looks up at the sky. It caws and stretches its wings wide. Dirt stirs as it takes off. Its voice carries on the wind as it flies through the break in the canopy, up and away from the clearing.

Smiling at a job well done, Sonic approaches Mangey. The little guy’s is wiping the snot and tears from his face with little coordination. Yuck. The fox’s bottom lip quivers as Sonic approaches.

“Come on, buddy. Try spinning your tails.” He rotates a finger in a circle.

Mangey manages to free one eye from tears. The little buddy’s voice is mangled as he asks, “My tails?”

“Yeah!”

The fox sniffles one last time as he does as Sonic says. His tails start rotating around each other. His face lights up as his butt lifts off the ground. Score! This is what Sonic’s talking about! The fox giggles as the rest of his body lifts. He laughs as he follows after Birdie, free from the confines of the jungle.

Sonic sticks his fists on his hips and puffs out his chest. “Yeah, I’m pretty great.”

Thorn, face clear, approaches Sonic. “How can we repay you?”

Shadow steps up. “For one, you can give us the shard.”

“I got it!” Hammer in hand, Hangry crawls out form the brush where the weapon had landed. He walks to Sonic with another snot stained face. Double yuck. But Sonic def appreciates the cat doing the leg work for him.

“Thanks, big guy.” Sonic holds a thumbs up to him.

“Here you go.”

“Wait.” Before Sonic can hop out of the way, Hangry holds the hammer out to Sonic. Time seems to pass in slow motion as the shard touches the blue hedgehog’s hand.

“Shad--!” Is Sonic’s last, cut off word before his body spaghettifies into the crystal.

Hangry jumps backwards and drops the hammer.

“Uh?! Whuh?! Huh?!” Shadow sputters and juts his arms in front of himself. “Sonic!”

Hangry’s simple response is, “Uh-oh.”

Shadow wastes no time. Who knows where Sonic has gone now. Will Shadow even teleport to the same place as Sonic? Did Sonic even make it to a place?! There’s too many questions unanswered and he needs them answered now. He dives for the crystal and grabs it.