Chapter Text
“I don’t think this is working.” One of Sonic the Hedgehog’s emerald green eyes peek open to look up at his red companion standing above him. Soft green grass of the Wachowski front lawn cushions his crisscrossed legs while he tries to stay relaxed, just as instructed.
“Thinking is not part of the process, hedgehog.” The echidna responds, tone sonorous and serious as ever. “It won’t be easy, it is a learned skill that my elders taught me. Once you’ve reached enlightenment the path will be clear and guide you through it until you become as tranquil and centered as I am.”
Both of Sonic’s bright green eyes blink this time, and it’s a battle to keep his own thoughts from showing on his face. “Don’t get me wrong, not saying you’re not totally enlightened and chill and all, but… how often did echidna warriors actually spend time meditating?”
“Mostly when a more persistent obstacle stood between us and our goals.” Which explained why Sonic only ever saw Knuckles meditate once in all the years he’s known him when he was still adjusting to moving in with them. “Such as this predicament, where it is specifically spiritual guidance that is needed.”
Sonic takes in a breath of fresh air, huffing out his exhale. “But I don’t get why this isn’t working without all that. It was so easy the first time! It just happened.”
“That may be just the problem, Sonic,” a little yellow two-tailed fox pipes up from between them. Devices of his are spread across the grass around him in preparation to take all the readings he needs from Sonic, one in particular already in his hand and aimed towards the blue hedgehog as they talk.
“Yes. This is the longest you’ve absorbed the emeralds in your possession. Perhaps you have become unpracticed with utilizing them in that time.”
“Exactly. It’s been a long time to have their powers in you without using them at all.” Tails voices his agreement with Knuckles, his scanner waving in his hand as he speaks. Sky blue eyes speculate, brimming with mystical curiosity. “And given all that’s happened since you last used them, maybe something’s changed.”
At that moment a cool autumn breeze passes through, gently ruffling three different colors of fur in the wind. Sonic’s foot begins tapping rapidly as he sits in thought. He knows they have a point. Before using his half of the emeralds to stop the Eclipse Canon, Sonic had never kept them with him for longer than a single fight. It had been nearly two months now. And it’s not as though he’s been paying much attention to the state of the emeralds he still houses within himself during everything that’s happened since then. Especially once finally getting home after their last adventure. In fact, if Knuckles hadn’t approached the team about the importance of retrieving the emeralds that are still left, now that Tom was back to his former health, they likely wouldn’t have crossed Sonic’s mind for a while. Not because he didn’t care about honoring their oath and getting them back to Knuckles, but rather because his mind had been occupied with everything but the jewels for weeks on end.
Precisely five of those gruesome weeks have passed since Tom was finally up and moving around again, allowing the three alien boys to feel comfortable enough to shift focus to their current mission instead. The sheriff of Green Hills had been lying in Urgent Care in a London hospital for nearly two weeks before they could finally get him home. It had felt like ages since they’d been home once Maddie’s house key turned the lock and they all stumbled in like a living barricade around Tom as if he were still made of glass. It had felt like years since seeing Ozzy once Wade brought him back to them after graciously agreeing to watch the scruffy best animal friend when Tom and Maddie joined their mission. Even being back at the safe haven that is their home after everything transpiring at the end of the summer still felt like a huge adjustment instead of a return to normal.
Maddie had promptly set up shifts and routines around taking care of Tom. Making lists of his medications and when to take them, assigning the boys certain tasks Tom couldn’t do himself to help him with and additional tasks to cover where Tom usually contributed as husband and father of the household. It went as smoothly as it should have for such a non-traditional but deeply loving and tight-knit family willing and able to do anything for each other. Having super-powered alien kids using a bit more flare and ease while getting such mundane tasks done that a mere human could only dream of didn’t hurt either.
It didn’t mean there weren’t rough days. Days where it was clear Tom was still feeling some aches and pains, despite the painkillers, and trying to hide it from the boys. Days where the boys grew nervous or restless the longer it took their father to heal. Days where Maddie didn’t do as well managing the stress of worrying for her husband’s wellbeing and her kids’ apparent trepidation, all while juggling working reduced shifts, keeping the house in order and making sure her family had everything they needed. Still, they began to recover as a family; back to movie nights and dinner outings and even enjoying the town’s home-cooked meals and homemade casseroles and pastries brought to their doorstep, paired with sweet handwritten notes and “Get Well Soon!” cards for Tom.
It was in the midst of all that, Sonic had approached Tails with a favor. When things were becoming stable again, though not perfect. Far from it, but it was long enough for Sonic to woe himself up to the idea of finally saying something. Doing something. Unsure but determined and hopeful, he sought out the little fox in private. Sonic had found him tinkering away in the garage that the family set up to now serve as his own workshop. It didn’t take long to be overcome with the young inventor’s organized clutter, just as it was when Sonic sought him out.
The kit’s ears had perked up with interest when the blue hedgehog had told him there was something he wanted to look into and couldn’t do on his own. After weeks having passed, Sonic asking if there was any possible way to find the black and red hedgehog, or at least if he was alive, was far from anything he might have guessed.
“I just figure…” Sonic’s eyes wandered about the space, confidence seeming to falter a bit before taking a deep breath and returning his gaze to his younger brother. “Walters had called him the ‘ultimate life form’, right?” At Tails’ nod, the hedgehog continued, idly picking at the edge of one of his gloves. “So between having the emeralds with him, and the canon being charged with his chaos energy and all… maybe he could've survived the explosion.”
“You've really been thinking about this,” Tails observed, unable to miss the desperate hope dimming his bright green eyes.
“Do you think it’s possible? I mean, if we both survived holding back that death ray just fine then maybe the explosion didn’t kill him either?”
“Those are certainly factors to consider.” The fox leaned back into his rolly chair, turning away from his overly occupied desk. “I guess part of it depends on if Shadow would be invulnerable to his own power, which he clearly had a lot of. And the fact that he was using the emeralds at the time could’ve given him a better chance. But it’s been so long, we haven’t heard anything about him from G.U.N. who would probably be looking for him too if they thought he was alive. There’s been nothing on the news either.” His tails flicked as a different thought came to mind. “If he is alive there’s also the matter of if I could even figure out where he ended up by now…” Tails found himself trailing off once his gaze found Sonic’s again, subtle but more dejected than before. Suddenly he realized maybe the worry coming off of him in waves for the past several weeks wasn’t just about Tom. “I guess I’m just surprised that after all this time you’re questioning if he’s alive all of a sudden.”
“... I learned things about him before we fought off Eggman’s drones together. And he had just gotten free from G.U.N. after so long but then not even a day later he...” Small blue shoulders sag, and Sonic crossed his arms, which looked more like a comforting hug around himself than anything. “If there is a chance that he actually survived after sacrificing himself for all of us, we at least have to look into it.”
“You’re still the most consistent hedgehog I know.” Tails remarks with a hint of a smile. Sonic doesn’t ask for elaborate, and Tails doesn’t offer any. “I can try.”
The tension in the hedgehog’s shoulders, just barely noticeably, eased up in relief. “Thanks, buddy.”
“Ya know, you make a good point about the emeralds. If he does still have them, maybe I could try and track their energy,” Tails started off, already staring in a random direction as his mind took off in different directions all at once. With a snap of the fingers, his ears perked up further, “And! Commander Walters also said his chaos energy went way beyond any other living creature’s.” The small fox pushed himself across the floor to grab a rectangular device as he rattled off. “Considering how powerful both are, they might just help us find him more easily from wherever he’s ended up.”
Following along, Sonic nodded. “Great, so what do we need to do?”
“Actually, if I could take some readings from you as reference, that would help a lot.”
“Really?” His head tilts to the side the request unexpected.
“You probably don’t remember, but when you were falling to earth after holding back the Eclipse Canon, it was like the emeralds stopped working for you. You turned blue again when you fell unconscious, but Knuckles and I never actually saw the emeralds leave you. If you’ve still got the other half of the emeralds Shadow would have, plus your own chaos energy, a fresh scan of each would increase our chances of pinpointing him even if he’s somewhere really far away.”
“Sounds fair to me. Take as many scans as you need.”
“Great! I could try and analyze the similarities and differences and use them to help emit a wider range that can scan across a much farther radius than this scanner ever could in order to search for the emeralds’ powers or any trace of chaos energy. It’s simple really. I mean it’s just a matter of considering both data sets between your threshold of chaos energy and what I already…”
It was all out of Sonic’s hands from there, his little brother locked into the project as soon as the gears in his brain started turning. In just a couple short days, the two-tailed hero had managed to set up a device on their roof to detect chaos signatures and master emeralds outside of what already existed at the house.
Impressive and helpful as he was, Tails still reminded Sonic of the limits of creating a satellite that could stretch for as far as they wanted. He would try like he said. For Sonic, he always would. But as a scientist and engineer, being realistic and acknowledging possible limits was part of the process of success.
“I just don’t want to get your hopes up. If there’s something wrong with the emeralds you have or they don’t work anymore it wouldn’t be as easy to scan for them. And your chaos energy is different from Shadow’s, the same way it is for you and Knuckles, so using yours might or might not make a difference in searching for Shadow’s. Not to mention how him being able to survive the explosion at all is just a theory right now and if he did we don’t know how far he got before the canon finally… He may not even be on Earth, Sonic.”
The fox had been too distracted in his own info dump that he failed to see Sonic’s ears deflating until their eyes met again. The hedgehog shook his head, and kept the melancholy from his voice. “No, I know… I know it's a long shot but I figured if I fell back to Earth like I almost did, maybe he did the same. And if so, he’s still gotta be around this big blue dot somewhere.”
“It’s a lot of hypothesizing…” This time, he notices the expression crack on Sonic's face. “But, it’s still worth a shot.” A smile comes to his lips, reassurance still coming easy. “Who knows, anything is possible, right?”
It was from there that the genius fox got to work, taking as many readings as he could from Sonic, enthusiastic to find very faint signatures from the chaos emeralds inside him—much to Sonic’s own surprise—and repurposing them amping out the satellite dish on their roof to emit a scan for as far as possible across the entire world for any trace of mystical energy outside of the Wachowski house. And if he used the space satellite to help amplify those efforts, well, it was for a good cause.
He worked diligently and got pulled into the challenge of it, too. There were so many elements to factor in but the young scientist’s brain was always shifting around puzzle pieces to make sense of all the moving pieces and find the best possible outcome.
In a matter of two days he managed to set up a system that reversed the used of his handheld energy reading scanner to continuously scan across the globe, and let Sonic know if it were ever to catch something, a message and coordinates would be sent straight to his laptop and Sonic would be the first to know. Sonic could tell part of the young fox seemed to enjoy the challenge. They were essentially looking for a needle in a haystack, but Sonic knew if anyone could create an ultra-powered magnet to ensure their success, it would be Tails.
And yet, despite all of the little alien’s hard work, for a long while, nothing happened. The fox would periodically check that the device was still working properly and perform maintenance every now and then, then give the disappointing news when Sonic asked just about every other day if his machine caught anything.
It was hard, reiterating to his brother that the scan still might not be reaching far enough without any data to go off of. That without multiple satellites to station around the world and increase his efforts, they wouldn’t be enough. He could keep working on expanding the search radius and finding a way to confirm how far it was going even without having another variable stationed somewhere across the world that could trigger an alert or not. It just wasn’t likely until something else changed.
No one else knew of their search, including Knuckles, which Sonic felt bad about. Not that either of them were trying to hide it or would lie if it were somehow ever brought up, but for Sonic, something about letting everyone know and increasing expectations felt like asking for disappointing results. Luckily, Tails seemed to understand the sensitivity and didn’t mention anything about the project either. Sonic wouldn’t have tried to keep it from the others if Tails wanted to tell, and Tails never did. It was easy to figure Sonic had a reason for asking about it in private. So Tails simply promised him to keep running the scan, to keep doing whatever he could, and make sure Sonic would immediately know if anything ever changed.
Sonic couldn’t say he was surprised later on down the line when his genius of a brother finally, and reluctantly, had to tell him that at that point with nothing to show, finding the mysterious hedgehog was highly unlikely. They had reached four weeks into the search with nothing to show for it. None of Tails’ explanations helped comfort him much. Sure, there could be a number of unknown reasons nothing’s showing up just as he said. Which meant that the other hedgehog could be out there an okay despite their lack of results. Sonic’s hope was alive, it just wasn’t enough. If Shadow was really somewhere out there, Sonic needed to see if he was okay, and more than just alive. Not alone and not lost anymore. The desperation to know, to act on the need to find him gnawed at him for weeks on end in a way he just couldn’t shake, but all he could do was wait and keep holding his breath.
And so life went on. The boys continued to help around the house as much as possible, Tom insisting on doing the same in whatever form he could despite his injuries. Whether it be folding laundry while resting on the couch, or slicing vegetables at the kitchen table to help prepare for dinner, even though the boys were usually already helping do the same. More appropriate for his situation, Tom would also make sure to keep their kids preoccupied with intense video game tournaments when he could tell Maddie needed some space to get things done or take a breather. A particularly effective aid for her. It was in his nature, after all, to help whenever and wherever he could. And as soon as he was physically able, despite his wife’s and sons’ insistence to take it easy.
And Tom Wachowski, true to form, stayed in high spirits during the long middle stage of recovery. And as time went on his chipper optimism felt less and less like an attempt to keep Sonic, Tails and Knuckles from worrying. His genuine high spirits took some time to actually sink in, little faces gradually less tense when wearing strained smiles for his sake, and a blue one in particular no longer so quiet and treating him so fragile when around the Donut Lord. Even accepting hugs and embraces more readily until he was again back to acting too cool and grown up to do such things with his dad-slash-best-friend.
Lucky for Tom, because he never strained himself too much, weeks of rest and what felt a bit like house arrest, worked wonders. It wasn’t much longer he stayed in his arm cast and his bruised ribs were only so sore now, not requiring medication nearly as often. Even slowly returning to work over a span of a couple weeks. even then it was a lot of sitting behind a desk, doing what he could in the form of paperwork and other business possible to fulfill by a healing sheriff sentenced behind a desk until he was fully back at it as usual.
Present day, the underlying stress of his healing journey has almost all melted away from the Wachowski household. They all had felt how antsy Tom was to get back to real work. Out from behind the desk, even if it was just to get back to escorting ducklings across crosswalks and cleaning out gutters, but it was finally beginning to feel like a return to their true normal.
All except for Sonic’s noticeable lingering pensiveness.
Despite keeping the search for Shadow between him and Tails, it was apparent Sonic’s own anxiety stemming from the lack of news about the dark hedgehog remains visible to everyone else too, just under the impression that Tom’s close call is still hitting him the hardest. Even with his lighter mood and resumed playful jabs tossed back and forth with Tom, his overall not as optimistic and cheery disposition was felt all around the house.
His parents naturally could only guess it was the fear still lingering behind while still having to adjust to such a harrowing experience for the first time. It hadn’t slipped Tom or Maddie’s minds that the last time Sonic had lost a parent it had changed the entire trajectory of his life. Tails was the only one who knew the true reason why. One that he still didn’t share with anyone, even with Knuckles who was under the suspicion the blue hedgehogs’s dampened mood may have been in part to the conversation they had just over a month ago, soon after they first got back home.
The echidna had brought up the matter at the end of a particularly long day, once Tom was already in bed asleep for the night and things were winding down from a long day. He had found him in the attic, their still shared room and called attention to the possibility that G.U.N. knew about the emeralds after they were used to save the planet. With half of them now unaccounted for, the echidna was itching to make sure the remaining ones Sonic still held could get tucked away safely. Sonic had been quick to agree, realizing for the first time he had completely forgotten about the emeralds in the midst of everything going on. Strangely enough, he’d had no indicator reminding him they were still there, residing somewhere in him even though he didn’t feel the typical underlying buzz of energy in his body that he usually would when having them.
More importantly, Sonic thought of how that fight with Shadow had them darting all over the world, flying from continent to continent in their super forms. Not to mention how much power it took them to stop the canon from hitting earth. If G.U.N. knew just how powerful the weapon they built was, they had plenty reason to question how Sonic’s team managed to stop it so sufficiently. The task force hadn’t come for them yet if they didn’t know, but they could still find out. For all Sonic knew, there was only a delay because they were once again handling massive damage control with the media and press across the world.
When Sonic told him as much, they agreed to work on getting them back and finding out what to do with them once Tom was doing better. It was almost two years successfully managed to hide the gem from Walters and his so called Guardian Unit of Nations, but even after successfully taking Robotnik and his giant killer robot down, Tom, Maddie and Sonic especially knew they’d likely still be suspicious
Bided their time before they waiting to capture Sonic despite Tom and Maddie’s claim not knowing where the little blue guy ran off to after punting Robotnik through that portal to the Mushroom Planet. Something as powerful as the Master Emerald would warrant just as much suspicion.
After the whole electrocuting and sticking two of their kids in cages for the sake of “protecting” the world from them ordeal, Maddie and Tom easily fed Walters a lie that the emerald was destroyed after Sonic used it to take down Eggman. G.U.N. notoriously didn’t have the best history, despite how much of it they tried to erase. They certainly didn’t need to know that any more so-called “uncontrolled extra-terrestrials” possessed yet another thing they’d most certainly want to get their hands on.
Which leaves the team where they are now. Their first time sitting down and attempting to extract the emeralds now that they’ve reached a point where the family’s all finally getting into a groove that was more like what their home felt like before. And yet, ten minutes into it with no dramatic shifting of plains or dawning enlightenments befell them.
“We might need to come up with a plan B if we’re banking on a hedgehog mastering echidna meditation.”
“Do not be so quick to lose faith in our current strategy. The echidna way of meditation does not always take effect immediately. It may take minutes. Or hours, if needed. Perhaps days.”
“Wait, you really think that–“
“Perhaps months or even years of waiting!” The porcupine interjects, a spiked fist clenching in the air. “But a warrior shows patience and steely focus through every second, even if we must wait here for decades!”
“Okay I may be taking a while longer than usual to get these things out but I am not that slow.” Sonic finally cuts in.
“Maybe you’re still fatigued from using them.” Tails points out, twisting a dial on the gadget in hand. “The first time you ever used the emerald it was just for a couple minutes. It was a completely different scenario this time. Fighting Eggman’s robots for so long and holding back a beam capable of ending the world for as long as you did clearly took a bigger toll than any of us expected.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Sonic waves off, leaning back into the grass propped up with his other hand as nonchalant smile. “I only fell unconscious once and I think that was more the canon than the emeralds.”
“Sonic, when we were with Tom in the hospital you were practically passed out the whole time!”
The hedgehog blinks, staring at his younger brother for a few silent seconds. “I mean, I know you said I slept more than usual but I don’t remember being out for that long.”
“Because you were slumbering with the unawareness of a fallen tree.”
“I… Wait, a what?”
“A tree that is dead and lays on the ground so is therefore unaware of its surroundings. This is a common earth saying, hedgehog.”
“He means a log. You slept like a log.” Tails’ tired expression shifts from the blue one to the red one. “It might be time for you to give up on figurative language at this point.”
“Nonsense, fox. I have already figured the language of Earth like a true champion!”
“That’s not what I said and that’s not what ‘figurative’ means…”
The little squabble faded from his ears as Sonic thought back to the end of their time in the hospital. He hadn’t thought too much of it when everyone had told him about how much he slept back in London. How he spent most of the time settled in against his dad and sleeping even more than he did. They told him of how he’d had his family worried until it seemed he could finally go more than a half a day before needing a long nap again and seemed completely fine otherwise. It was far from the first time Sonic had conked out after one of their adventures, but sleeping through the majority of two weeks sounded a little more serious than what he remembered.
“Was it… really that bad?”
“You slept even more than the Lord of Donuts did. You looked as though you had passed on to the great battleground in the sky during each slumber.”
“For two weeks!” Tails reiterated. “You were clearly recovering from straining yourself so much. You literally passed out in space from using them. Part of it was probably the canon, but it had to have taken a lot of strain to use the emeralds how you did, too.”
With a sigh that resembles more of a groan, Sonic lets himself fall back into the grass and look up at the cloudy blue sky. “Okay, fine. Maybe I was dead to the world for a while there, but I don’t see why that would be a problem now. I’m back to my usual blue blaze of glory. And I was way weaker right before I used the emerald to stop Robotnik the first time.”
Tails sits too, looking down at his blue brother from beside him. “It could be any reason, Sonic. It might not make a difference that you’re back to your former strength. Maybe the emerald’s power burned out after you stayed in the path of that beam for so long. Its power could be strained from holding back the blast.” He gingerly replaces the yellow gadget down beside him, replacing it with his laptop. “Maybe it’s just different now that all the emeralds aren’t together. We don’t have very many previous experiences to go off of here.”
“I spent many years learning everything there is to know about the Master Emerald.” Knuckles remains standing in thought, not looming above them too much thanks to his still short stature, despite being the tallest of the three. “Its powers cannot be burned out, and I see no reason they wouldn’t work even when separated, but if the other half was destroyed, perhaps it might have affected the portion you hold now.”
Sonic nearly flinched. Or rather, he nearly let it show that he did on the inside. The implication that if they were destroyed they would’ve been destroyed along with Shadow had taken him off guard, even when he knows it’s a real possibility the second hedgehog’s been gone this whole time. The Master Emerald is endlessly powerful, but it had still shattered once. If Shadow was taken out with the explosion, it’s only logical to think the emeralds went with him, too. It’s not the first time he’s considered this, although he’s really tried not to. He would quickly remind self that the Master Emerald had managed to put itself back together after falling apart on him, which was enough for Sonic to entertain the idea that they could have managed to survive the blast either way. Same as Shadow could have…
Despite his efforts, Tails sees the slight wince in Sonic’s body in the form of a subtle tense in his shoulders, and moves the conversation along. “Either way, there’s no way for us to know without the rest of them to conduct the experiment. I just don’t have enough variables to work off of.”
If Sonic could sink further into the ground, he would, just to be dramatic and further drive home his dissatisfaction. “This would be so much easier if I could just use them to do the whole power up thing.”
“Maybe so, but with how much energy it sends out and the whole spectacle it makes–“
“We’d be risking popping up on G.U.N.’s radar, I know,” he recites with a grimace. “Not to mention we really don’t need to startle the people of Green Hills again. There really should be a more subtle way of using these things. So far I give ‘em a four out of ten rating.”
“What you’ve accomplished with the emeralds has been beyond honorable. This is just another obstacle we must face with them.”
“I know, I know. We saved the earth twice with the emeralds. But this? This has never happened before. I’ve never, like… powered down with them still inside of me like this.” Which maybe isn’t completely true. Sonic remembers sitting and talking with Shadow on the moon vividly. In his normal blue form after he let Shadow go before he nearly…
He hadn’t thought about releasing his super form back then. Looking back, maybe they responded to the anger draining from his body all at once. Sonic wasn’t sure now, but back then it was at least more of a choice. Losing his super form while intercepting that beam wasn’t. And neither was it for Shadow after Sonic had punched him all the way to the moon. Only now he didn’t have Shadow to do some dramatic moment with and bring back their whole power up together. It doesn’t seem worth mentioning when even that moment was a whole show in and of itself. Even if they could extract the emeralds that way again, it would certainly alert a number of people they don't want it too now that they’re back on Earth.
“What if they broke like they did the first time?” Tails pipes up again from between the two, looking between the brothers both above and below him. “It was in pieces and the color had dimmed completely until it reassembled itself just before Robotnik tried to stomp on you.”
“So you propose a giant foot to make the hedgehog fear for his life may be the solution.”
“No, Knuckles.”
“Yeah, if I’m not gonna let you punch these things out of me I’m not exactly open to being nearly stomped on again either.”
“I would not have punched you at full strength. Only enough to–“
“Shatter my ribs? I’m still gonna pass for now. Thanks.” Sonic’s limbs are splayed out in every direction, looking up into the vast sky as if that would grant him an answer. “What if it’s just different when all them are separated? Maybe they’re… too far apart, or if they powered down while Shadow had the rest too and then the canon exploded they could’ve…”
The oldest and youngest share a grim look when the middle trails off and his expression becomes sad and distant. Knuckles instantly recognizes it as the same face he’s been wearing even after Tom’s recovery. “Is that what troubles your mind? Grief for the other hedgehog?”
“It’s not grief, it’s just…” He trails off again, still staring off into the sky until he decides to switch gears again. “Maybe you’re right, Tails. About them breaking again, losing their power. I don’t know how to describe it but I can tell they’re still here. I couldn’t at all before but it just… feels like a really weak connection? If I really focus I can feel them but it’s really faint.”
“Oh, they’re there alright.”
Knuckles turns to Tails who switches attention between his laptop and the small scanner he’s hooked up to it. “How can you be so sure?”
The fox turns his laptop around to show the both of them a screen showing some graph data only he could and would bother to decipher. “It’s easy to pick up readings like this, plus I still have a record of the emerald’s energy output from the first time Sonic and Robotnik used them. But you’re right, the energy readings are lower this time.” The fox clicks a few keys and another graph appears alongside, with much more noticeable results. The new one, Sonic notices, has a much older time stamp and much higher spiking activity that immediately caught his eye. “I’m not surprised you’ve barely been able to notice them. It might as well be like they’re not there with how diminished their powers are. What I don’t know is if it’s because they might be weakened or because you don’t have all seven with you. But even with just half I don’t see why they would barely register like this. Then there’s the factor that you’re usually all golden and glowing and flying around when you have them, it could be that since you’re not actively using them and in your super form to draw full power from them that they’re not putting off as much energy. As if they’re preserving themselves from being used so intensely from before.”
Sonic’s mouth twists in thought, and his eyes roam over to Tails. “So it’s like, when I don’t use my phone when it’s plugged in so the battery charges faster?”
“I wouldn’t exactly…” Tails begins, but then with a glance between his teammates before him, he just smiles. “Sure, let’s go with that.”
“Then I completely understand!” The hedgehog gives him a thumbs up and bright smile, before becoming conflicted again. “It’s starting to sound like this many ideas is more of a bad thing than good thing though.”
“Like I said, there’s no way for me to narrow down any theories without the rest of the emeralds, or since you can’t actively use the ones you have.”
A silence stretches between the three, weighing possibilities and mulling options. Trying to do anything other than extract them wasn’t an option. There was no doubt between any of them that they could handle a worst case scenario if G.U.N. we’re to find out of them and pursue the emeralds, but they’ve been involved in their mess enough for a lifetime. The entire Wachowski team agreed that none of them are willing to risk G.U.N. to come running if they were to pick up any kind of activity. Which is exactly where they met their rock and hard place.
What a conundrum this was.
“If the emeralds are weakened, then they are not a risk for the time being.” The echidna says with an air of finality. “Which means should an enemy should try and obtain them from us…”
“They’d probably be useless.” Tails picks up the thought, nodding. “And at the very least, since the energy output is so minimal, there’s no way for G.U.N. to pick up on it unless they’re practically right here with you like I am.”
Despite his teammates’ optimistic conclusion, Sonic’s mouth twists in displeasure again. Much less ceremoniously, the hedgehog sits up to look at them more directly. “Even so, we agreed if G.U.N. were to ever somehow find out about the emerald still existing it would be better for us to not get caught with it on us.” He shifts uncomfortably, eyes meeting theirs before looking away. He really wants to at least respect that part of the oath after what happened to get him in this mess in the first place. And no matter what, the emeralds need to be secure in second location like before. Well, preferably better than before. “I can get them back, I just… need to figure out how.”
“Meditation does not seem to be your biggest strength.”
“Yeah well, you guys know I’m not exactly a sit still kinda guy.” For the first time, he seems a tinge guilt-ridden about it.
“Yes, and your mind wanders all over much too often. Meditation takes a calm mind and much discipline. You must clear all thoughts away and leave it quiet and empty,” the echidna presses a large fist against his chest proudly, “such as mine always is.”
It was Sonic and Tails’ turn to exchange a look, Sonic restraining both a smile and an urge to make the joke sitting on the tip of his tongue. “Right, well, if you think your zen warrior echidna meditation stuff will help, I’ll try to work on it.”
“Very well. I shall be your guide until you’ve succeeded. And when you do we will finally reclaim the emeralds, but until they are properly retrieved, we know they are safe with you.”
Sonic gets onto his feet now, and looks Knuckles in eye, determined. “I will get them back. I promise, Knuckles.”
Knuckles sets a hand on a blue shoulder, knowing how his teammate still feels bad about how things have ended up. (And probably will until they can get them back). “It has been both our destinies since birth to guard these emeralds, as proven by our success in finding it in the first place. Clearly it is not yet time for us to procure them, but at some point I’m certain it will be. And when that moment comes, we will continue to keep them safe.”
“Together.” Tails also hops to his feet, smiling as he shoves his fist into air between the three of them.
“That is right, fox” Knuckles grins and extends his own fist, dwarfing Tails’ next to him, and leaving a remaining gap.
Sonic looks between the two, sunken spirit lightening at their smiles and awaiting expressions sent his way. A smile of relief and appreciation for them being so patient after his breaking the pact and taking the master emerald is what got them here in the first place. Even if it was the right thing to do in order to stop the canon in the end, there was still an oath to make right. But it’s easy to see his team—his brothers—weren’t holding it against him.
“Right.” For the first time in a while, Sonic’s beaming smile appears as he sticks out his fist, blue connecting with red and yellow. “Together.”
Shadow’s eyes slowly blink open to a blurry sight. At first all he saw was sunshine. An endless light blue sky—clear of clouds but still somehow unfocused in his vision—that was bright enough to make him snap his eyes right back shut.
It takes a grunt and way more effort than it should to pull a shaky arm up so he can cover his eyes from the excess light against his eyelids. Even when he opens heavy eyelids now, the brightness around him still hurts, but less. Less enough his ember eyes can try once more to find out where he is.
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Not much really, with his brain feeling in a state of reboot and waking confusion. But he certainly never would’ve expected what he’s seeing now.
He’d never had the pleasure of seeing so many colors, he almost thinks it isn’t real. A field of tulips stretched all around him, vibrant hues surrounding him along with the the heavy smell of flowery breeze and rich soil and fresh earth. Just him and his black and red pelt against the myriad of much more lively colors for as far as he could see. No movement besides the flowers swaying anytime the wind came through to say hello. No other signs of life in sight.
There’s too much going on, and yet nothing going on in his head to help process the situation. Too many questions mainly connected to how he got here and why he ended up here of all places to start with. His mind is nearly paralyzed with the overwhelming unanswered questions swarming him, filled with cotton and disallowing him to gain his bearings and think rationally.
One thought pops up, proposing in a rather cliché fashion that maybe this was heaven. But in his moment of sobriety, Shadow doesn’t believe he’d be so lucky.
That idea thrown aside, the lessened noise in his mind helps him to finally try and think more clearly. Naturally his brain attempts to look back first. To try and access his most recent memory of what happened before ending up here.
But with a scrambled head and exhausted body, all he manages initially is that he survived an explosion, and judging by the impact crater engraved in the dirt and all the damaged flowers outlining it, he crash landed somewhere back onto Earth.
It was a strange feeling, the slow process of his thoughts and brain power slowly piecing back together the further his body and mind woke up.
Although it’s not everyday he gets hit as hard as he vaguely remembers from that explosion.
With a shake of his head, Shadow feels minutely more aware. His shielding hand slowly lowers and this time it’s not so difficult to bear all the sunlight. The next thing he immediately becomes aware of is how he sticks out like a sore thumb here. His black pelt amongst every other color of the rainbow out in broad daylight left him feeling too exposed for his liking. Even with no one around as far as she can see, his instincts alert him that it isn’t safe. That was enough to get him struggling onto his feet, fighting through his exhaustion with much more effort than he should have. His body was practically lead, pulling him down as he fought the pull of gravity in order to stumble onto his feet.
Distantly, he finds himself surprised the crater around him isn’t any larger, but it’s probably better that way. When he leaves here—wherever he ends up going—there will already be a clear indication he was there to whoever may come across it. A nagging fact that settled into his stomach and stayed there, firm and rude. But, Apparently he hasn’t been unconscious long enough to be stumbled upon by anyone. It still told him nothing of how long he was unconscious for, which meant danger could still be coming.
He doesn’t know what kind, but there’s something loud but muted in his fogged up head telling him someone could be coming for him—multiple someones, probably dangerous—and he has neither the time nor desire to question it.
The red-striped hedgehog looks in every direction, stubbornly pushing past the wave of dizziness any time he turns his head, to find a safe direction to go. Somewhere to find better cover instead of out in the open. Somewhere that might possibly clue him in on just where he is. Only, there are practically nothing but tulips as far as he could see. Even with eagle-like vision, the field seemed to stretch endlessly. So much so that he really does begin to wonder if he ended up in some corny flower-filled purgatory. But at the very least, the glimpse of trees in the distance offer some sign of where he could go, finding more cover there than in the field.
Shadow hopes they can lead him to somewhere with more answers than questions, but the tree line still sits on the outskirts of his vision. How gigantic does this meadow need to be? Walking or skating that far won’t get him out of the open under the sun fast enough. So instead of attempting to travel for who knows how far when he’s having enough trouble standing, Shadow closes his eyes, and decides to try teleporting himself somewhere across the field. Far enough to gain some ground and better gauge where to go from here. He has to brace himself against the atypical effort it takes to remain standing and perform the jump at the same time. Eyes closed, he draws from that feeling in his core and tugs at it.
What followed immediately after was excruciating pain.
Where he should’ve felt a rush and brief spark of energy tugging at his core, there had been a painful crackling that blinks him only several feet ahead from where he just stood before that crackle flared more intensely, and threw him back with a violence as though some invisible force had come straight at him, head on.
Shadow’s backside hits rather soft soil, but the intense impact is enough to cause plenty of pain to already sore joints. With a drawn out groan through gritted teeth, he forces his eyes open once more, met with black spots dancing across his vision.
Shadow couldn’t say how long he laid there this time, face scrunched in wait for the pain to subside, but clearly it wasn’t for long enough. The next time he dared blink his eyes open, his vision had only cleared minutely. His head rang at a less shrill volume, but the dizziness had come back full force.
Slowly, his head rolls to the side, unruly quills shifting against the ground as he barely manages to lift his head and lift his arm up. His eyes immediately find what he was searching for, met with the devastating sight of a bare black and red wrist.
One where gold should be.
Only Shadow remembers taking them off, having known it would give him the strength he needed to push the threat far away enough before exploding. The glimpse of a memory rushes back all at once in a disappointing whirlwind. Another groan, one of frustration this time, leaves Shadow’s chest as he lets his head and arm fall back into the dirt, everything going black before his eyes can even fall closed.
Shadow had no idea how much time passed by the next time he woke up. Had no idea how much time passed since the canon fiasco that put him here in the first place. But he did, thankfully, feel more aware this time. His body was just as exhausted, but his head clearer. Like the rest had done him some good this time, however minute the difference was. Upon his second awakening, it became more apparent how the sky hadn’t changed. There was still a bright sun, likely moved across the sky since he passed out, but he definitely had no frame of reference from the brief time he was last awake, barely, for such a short amount of time.
There’s a crick in his neck and it still takes him more effort than it should to sit up. Rippling pain across his abdomen. His hand instinctively moves to his chest, open palm pressing against the pain, other arm weakly supporting him to stay up. Another groan rips from his throat, and the sensation takes him back to decades ago when he last felt this, before he had gotten his–
Shadow Nearly falls in his back again when both hands shoot up so he can see them, met with exactly what he suspected. Barren wrists.
Right. The gold always fastened securely around his wrists were gone… More easily now, he can remember when his brain looks back. Remembers when he abandoned them to more quickly and easily push the canon away from the earth that thankfully still seemed to be in tact.
He had always known better than to take them off. It was made explicitly clear what could happen if he did, but it was easy to make that choice when he realized he wanted to save what he came so close to destroying. He had known he was going to die that day, even after switching sides. So it had made no sense to worry for even a second about leaving his rings behind. Little did he know.
The volatile reaction when he had just tried to jump replays in his mind, and it makes the dark hedgehog nearly curse. It could’ve been so much worse. For himself, especially anyone else if any people had been around. He can at least be grateful he hadn’t put anyone else at risk, but this made it clear that using his powers from now on was out of the question.
Shadow slumps forward, fatigued and frustrated. His gloves dirty as his hands tense, taking fistfuls of soil with them. But the frustration doesn’t last for long and soon gives way into resignation, the hedgehog already too exhausted to hold onto to any kind of anger. He closes his eyes and takes another deep breath, shoulders slumping in on him now while his hands relax. He leans forward, crossing his arms over his knees and staring downward in
This doesn’t change anything. He still needs to move, especially now that he’ll be slowed down. So with one last disdainful look at his bare gloves, he slowly fixes himself to get to his feet again. That’s when his movement causes a glint to catch his eye, making him pause. The sun had caught the gold of the pair of rings he still has left on his ankles, glinting brightly in the broad daylight he wasn’t used to being exposed to. But it’s what gave him an idea. A sort of temporary fix to one of his issues. Shadow carefully removes the rings from around his ankles, and moves both of them to his wrists, where more chaos energy exits the most. It helps him feel minutely better at the familiar weight placed there again.
He’s caught between finding shelter to hide or trying to find his two missing needles in this giant haystack called Earth. This giant land of flowers would be hard enough to look through if they were even there. But more likely they could’ve fallen somewhere completely different than where he has when he released them from up in space. All the black hedgehog can think back to now is pushing the canon with everything he had, flashes of Maria, and blinding white before his memories moved on to empty static. But the rings were long gone before the canon ever exploded, so if they did fall to Earth, it means they could be anywhere. Likely millions of miles away from Shadow if his luck was running its course as usual.
Both needs to run and focus solely on his rings continue to set off screaming alarms in his mind. He would have to get his other inhibitors if Shadow’s going to use his powers. Even if he isn’t, even. It’s too risky to be without them, especially with the way he’s already forgotten about their absence and knocked himself out. But at the same time, the longer he stood in a field of vibrant blooming hues contrasting his shiny black, he also feels like some invisible target is sitting on his back from somewhere he couldn’t see. He feels way too exposed and naked with no rings and no shelter.
Eventually the urge to move and get out of clear view wins. He knows he won’t come up with a solution about his rings while he’s too paranoid about being so exposed, and at this point finding them isn’t going to happen sooner than he can hide away. He can find somewhere he feels a little safer and then focus on the step after that.
Once Shadow got up and got going, there wasn’t much way of knowing how long Shadow had travelled besides the long set sun towing dusk along, and then nightfall. As exhausted as the hedgehog was, Shadow felt the universe had granted him an unusual stroke of luck as he moved through a darkening forest with no unfortunate encounters with anyone. He had been forced to pace himself while unable to teleport or even feeling strong enough to skate on his hover shoes to go faster. But eventually he stumbled onto ground that seemed safe.
A giant park isn’t what he preferred nor what he was expecting, but then he wasn’t expecting the field of tulips either.
Truth be told he would’ve kept going under any other circumstances. A public park with slides and swings and picnic tables meant people. But clearly it was late enough that no one was out partaking in the fun. What gave Shadow a glimmer of hope, was a little building he saw amongst the skate areas and basketball court. Actual shelter. Thankful for his night-colored fur and a lack of proper lighting in the park due to only a few dim light poles, he managed to jog over, still glancing around to make sure he truly was alone. The door, unsurprisingly, was locked when he tried it, but that obstacle was overcome easily with a rough twist of the knob and harsh shove into the shack. His strength was still plenty there enough to allow him to break in at least.
He stumbles into the small building, taking in the cluttered space. It was almost as small as it had looked on the outside, but housed more than seemed possible. Shadow’s eyes run over piles of abandoned park items. There are some shelves of sports equipment. Balls and bats and rackets. Small paddle boats in the corner and a pile of ratty nets that must’ve been for tennis or maybe volleyball. Up against the far wall was a stack of canoes stretching from the floor to the ceiling with a group of discarded paddles unceremoniously dropped beside them and lying across the floor. The space was already so crowded there was only enough room left for a narrow walkway where no junk took up any space. Which is just fine with Shadow as he closes the door and immediately drags a number of items to barricade it from the inside.
Once satisfied, he looks over the small room once again, before making his way through the scarce walkway left clear. His gloved hand brushes across the surface of one of the paddle boats he passes by and rubs at the collected dust. The storage room itself didn’t seem to have been disrupted in a while. There were few items left in good condition abandoned in comparison to the older broken stuff thrown in. The hedgehog looked around and felt this little shack was at least good enough for the night. Shadow had another few seconds feeling grateful, and even safe before trudging his way over to the bottom canoe, belaboredly climbing in, and instantly falling into a deep sleep.
That storage building had become his private little safe haven for the next several weeks.
It would be a number of days after first finding it before Shadow woke up again, still barricaded and alone, much to his comfort. There was still no way of him telling how long it had been since he passed out, especially with the initial waking delirium, but the ache in his stomach was pretty self-explanatory. After everything, he figures he shouldn’t be surprised he’s finally hungry. He’s more annoyed it means he’ll have to venture out to satiate the problem.
As much as he wanted to ignore it, Shadow knows he’s at the weakest he’s ever been. It’s best to find sustenance and help him get back to full strength as soon as possible, even though it won’t be easy.
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he cautiously pushed away his barricade and cracked the building door open, but apparently it wasn’t the dead of night. It had been night when he last passed out, but not as dark as now. Although he can tell more time had passed than just a few hours or a day. Less leaves on the trees and a lot more on the ground, plus a drop in temperature with wind chill that he guessed didn’t happen over a mere night. He didn’t have time to worry about the implications. He’s just glad to still see no around as far as he could tell.
Shadow creeps out of the storage shack, extra careful of the dry crumbly leaves that would certainly give away his location should anyone be nearby. Back to the wall and moving slow and careful, he peeks around the corner of the small building, met with more grass and trees and the distant tennis court and grills in eating areas off to the side.
He advances, eyes both watching ahead and checking over his shoulder. Even in the dark, he begins to notice other parts of the park he hadn’t seen before. The lake and parking lots and a skate park, too. It’s a huge park. Shadow counts himself lucky no one was around, lurking for a late night stroll or indulging in the recreation and solitude while no one else was around. The further he looks around, he realizes it was both an advantage and inconvenience that the park was so big it wasn’t next to any houses or neighborhoods. But for all the land that was covered, there were some dirt paths he could make out, leading to an exit feeding out onto the main road. A road that when he followed with his eyes, disappeared into more half dressed trees preventing him from seeing anywhere beyond where the roads go.
But it was good enough. It had to be. Shadow disappears into the forest once more and follows the road leading to what he hoped would be the outskirts of civilization, just far enough to offer him some insight of his location and the opportunity to find food.
It hadn’t felt like too much time had passed once Shadow began to see lights coming from not far away. The trip was delayed a handful times whenever a car would pass by on the road, making him freeze and duck behind the trees gracious enough to give him cover every time bright headlights threatened to expose him. He had gone far enough that he couldn’t see his little impromptu shack of shelter and grew more uncomfortable the farther he travelled from it. But he knew the lights up ahead were a good sign and meant he wouldn’t have to venture much further. The rest at least did him some good, as he could tell by his lessened fatigue and ability to do much more than limp and trudge through endless trees. And his blessed air shoes were there to make the journey that much easier when his stomach actually growled for the first time in his entire life.
It must be a little earlier in the night than he had expected. What he stumbled upon first was a half empty pub, still erupting with enough life that he kept his distance before creeping closer. He saw people scattered throughout the little establishment, mostly sitting in tall stools against a wooden bar, drinks in hand or eyes glued to the strangest form of what must’ve been a television that he’s ever seen. A couple others sit in booths, also watching the large television.
There were patio doors open to the outside even though none of the customers stay out there, but it allows Shadow to see and hear inside. Although his initial focus was on food and the lingering smell of it made its way to his nose, setting off another growl in his stomach, he follows the patrons’ gazes to the screens. One played some sports game with muted captions, but the TV to its right is the one people seem to be paying attention to more.
The volume’s on for this one, showing a woman at a desk, speaking in an accent Shadow doesn’t recognize, but fortunately still in English. “It’s been just over two weeks since the deadly threat to our planet passed. Details on who attempted this worldwide attack, and who thankfully prevented it, are still being withheld by the Guardian Unit of Nations. However, hordes of cellphone footage and personal accounts continue to circulate all over media, demanding answers and questioning if an attempted annihilation like this can be expected again. Despite their best efforts, G.U.N. has been unable to evade the suspicions and accusations that they in some way were involved with the terrifying activity seen that day, as well as the mass damage done to the moon, still serving as undeniable proof of the threat that the earth was under.
Up next on Rotterdam Nightly News, reports on what further impacts scientists believe we can expect on the environment due to the reshaping of the moon…”
Again, the hedgehog looks back in his scarce catalogue of memory. It wasn’t possible he was really passed out for weeks, was it? His memory may be foggy at best but he couldn’t believe went weeks lying in a crater in the middle of nowhere, completely unconscious.
He’s ripped from his thoughts by boisterous cheering, making him flinch before seeing another group at the end of the bar excited from whatever game seemed to be playing on a different TV. He shakes his head, eyes squeezed shut and attempted to clear his mind. Or at least set all the information he just heard on the back burner for now. He still needs to get back to his main objective.
The lighting isn’t too much, the bright TV’s sat above the shelves of drinks helped but mostly the place was illuminated by the circular bulbs strung out across the ceiling offering a warm glow but not much visibility around the edges of the building. Perfect for him to lurk in while waiting. It seems for some reason most of the patrons were more interested in a steady supply of green and brown slim bottles and no actual food. With a tensing line of his mouth, Shadow had begun to back away from the wall, considering finding a different way around to find access to the kitchen. It was then he nearly missed a man sluggishly pulling himself out of his lone booth, catching himself before he could collapse into the middle of the floor. Shadow quickly pressed closer to the wall as the human counted out dollar bills, taking longer than he probably should have before seeming to settle on the right amount and dropping the cash at the end of the table.
He wasn’t stumbling too much on his way out, but what Shadow’s fiery eyes remain on is the plate left behind in the abandoned corner. Or rather the food sitting on it, maybe half eaten and likely gone cold.
Once again, Shadow has to resist the muscle memory of immediately teleporting over to the table and snatching up the wasted food. Another close call with his uninhibited energy lashing out isn’t what he needs right now. Even with his reserves working with such low energy, trying to use his powers has always had pretty bad reactions without his inhibitor rings. The only reason he can think of that his rough landing back in the field wasn’t worse is because of his chaos energy being so low. Even with the remaining half of his rings secured around his wrists now, it’s not something he’s willing to risk. Especially not with people near him this time. So instead, the hungry alien takes a steadying breath and a tentative step through the shadows towards the table with his waiting sustenance before anyone else can take it from him.
This went as such for a few more weeks. Shadow couldn’t keep track of time much, passed out the majority of the days in his little private building. After that first night out and back, the dark hedgehog fell into an unintentional, unplanned cycle. Sleeping for days on end, waking up at the most random time of day or night, only sneaking out during the latter to get himself food, then immediately skating back to his make do sanctuary, and falling into another long sleep for days on end. Time passed in strange waves for him, considering his joke of a new sleep schedule. He would barricade the storage doors, make his way over to the stack of canoes occupying a corner, and crawl inside before becoming dead to the world for the most erratic increments of times. He’d go to sleep, awkwardly snuggled up inside his canoe, wake up in a confused dazed until he could to pull himself together and venture out for food again.
The first string of unconsciousness lasted for another eight days, after which he continued to carve out time between to scrounge together some food, then proceed to sleep it off for the next five days. So on and so forth, he went though the motions, barely processing the days passing or remembering much of his time awake until he eventually gets to a point of spending the better half of the days awake rather than asleep. Usually he was nocturnal, practically in line with his natural species’ biology, but there were times he actually awoke during sunlight hours. He would open his eyes and not have to rely on night vision, fragments of sunlight spilling through the cracks of the barricaded doorframe. He could hear dozens of people outside; laughing kids and grunting tennis players and the grind of wheels on the smooth concrete of the skating pit.
While the sound of the hordes of people alarmed him at first, making the lone hedgehog tense and take a stance of defense, he eventually became used to it when no one ever tried to enter his claimed space or seemed to pose any threat. His spikes no longer raising at the layers of outside presence, and he even felt comfortable enough to doze off when he would fall into yet another long sleep.
Finding food became somewhat easier, too. Once he deemed it dark and late enough, he didn’t always have to go far, finding leftover food and nearly empty water bottles people occasionally left at picnic tables or in trash cans. Other times he was able to trek farther past the tavern when it was much too busy and boisterous for him to sneak a bite. There was an outdoor marketplace further into town. A magical godsend for him to scavenge when the hour grew late enough for children, couples, parents and the vendors to be gone. Sneaking around in the daytime or even at dusk when the sun had sunken into the horizon was still impossible and a risk shadow wasn’t willing to take, but he was still fortunate enough to scrounge together lost food at the end of the day. Peaches knocked off of a food cart and rolling under a blanketed stand unnoticed. Perishable berries or stale bread thrown out at the end of the day when they’re no longer considered fit to sell despite being perfectly good. And while he knew a beggar couldn’t be a chooser, it was easier to consume the assortment of left behind food at the fresh market than the small bags of weirdly tasting triangle chip remnants occasionally littering the park, or unhygienic pickings from strangers not grateful enough to finish their meals at whatever food places he stalked that week.
It wasn’t until two months later when he could stay awake for longer, more normal periods of time and didn’t have to eat so often that his brain was clearing of fog and fatigue enough that his mind could drift to other places. Those places being the foggy memories of what happened before waking in the crater.
He hadn’t realized how much he had been in a daze, almost on autopilot as his thoughts—or maybe rather, his instincts—were only ever on food, safety and sleep whenever he was awake. It was like a switch had been flipped now that he was rested and no longer needing food too often, and the past came flooding back in frenzied waves as if his awake mind finally allowed it to happen. The headspace to clearly review his latest memories from before he awoke in the field of flowers.
With his head on straight once again, Shadow couldn’t escape the aftermath of what happened at the end of summer in London either. Once he was able to stay awake for the better parts of the day, there were times he could hear conversations. Whether it be at the park or when he crept into town and there were still enough people around to hear talking. The whole spectacle of Shadow and the professor’s plan was still the hottest topic to constantly go back to. It was like the pieces had finally fallen into place once the chatter from outside reminded him exactly what happened before the storage building and the meadow.
He overheard the humans’ occasional conspiracy theories and rumors of what the giant laser was that narrowly missed the earth and who saved the planet from it. He heard concerned and disturbed murmurs of those who seemed too uncomfortable to talk about the close call, but still did. One day, he even heard a group of kids gathered right by his shack talking loudly over each other about it. Insisting upon their own stories heard through the grapevine and unreliable narrations of their firsthand experiences. Talks of the government being the one to shoot the laser and wanting to blast enemy countries off the face of the planet. Guesses that involved London hiding an entire cache of high tech weapons in River Thames that they secretly planned to take over the world with for decades. And a lasting remark of seeing erratic shooting stars in the sky minutes before it all went down. Faint yellow and white streaks across the sky, the boy had said, seen minutes before the giant explosion that left behind an array of colors in the sky for days.
It was that particular remark that got Shadow thinking about that yellow streak.
Normally blue…
And in some of his first few moments of clarity in months, he finally jolted to full awakeness. Somewhere outside the small world of this place called Rotterdam he had forgotten existed, that yellow streak might be out there. It dawned on him like a ton of bricks. Like a bucket of ice water poured over him. Like an excruciating merciless beam charged with his own power hitting him at full force. In all his floundering through unconsciousness and brain fog during consciousness, the world hardly existed beyond his little shack or the town he’d go to find food in. But with a harrowing shock back to reality, Shadow was suddenly more awake and coherent than he had been in months. The real world had finally slammed into his little bubble pocketing him away from actual life. And now all he could think about was what happened to that yellow streak after the explosion.
What became of him when he fell from the laser’s beam and Shadow went on without him.
The world was safe. He knows that much from the news and his existence here, that their plan had worked completely. But there was no plan for after stopping the canon. Shadow wasn’t supposed to be here. Whether on team bad guys or good guys, that day was supposed to end with him dead. And now he’s still here and just now realizing he has no idea what happened to his lookalike so many months after the near disaster.
Could he have survived the fall to Earth even after his super form disappeared? Did his friends save him, or was there a chance they were still on the canon when it detonated, too? Did the blue-turned-golden hedgehog make it out the other side safely after managing to save the world?
Shadow’s thoughts were spinning so fast they were dizzying. Dizzying enough he sincerely hoped he didn’t pass out again. The passage of time through the last several weeks without thinking about where the other hedgehog ended up coming down on Shadow all at once. Because he was here, feeling somewhat safe, lying dormant in a canoe after who knows how long while he didn’t even know if the one who truly saved the world made it out okay. It gave him a rush of urgency through his body, curiosity killing him, and concern for his blue counterpart admittedly right at its side, too.
With his newfound clarity, Shadow the Hedgehog knew exactly what he was going to do next.
He needed to find Sonic.