Chapter 9: Speak
Ivan Robotnik
This was the machine that would destroy the blue blur once and for all, and Dr. Ivan Robotnik was holding it in his very hands.
There wasn’t much he could say he did himself with this project. He and the Blank Arms had been in a very loose allegiance, and Black Doom had leaked to him about a weapon called the Vertical Infinity. It was a powerful weapon that needed to be used with an infinite power, which Robotnik inferred was the ultimate power, since infinite and ultimate were practically synonyms.
The Doctor could not have been more pleased to realize that the ultimate power was already on Earth… a creature by the name of Shadow the hedgehog.
Getting Shadow to willingly work with him would be a problem, since the dark hedgehog held a grudge against him worse than Amy did. It would take planning, and that was Dr. Ivan Robotnik’s strong point- except if that damned blue hedgehog was involved!
But, to get back to the Vertical Infinity, it was a weapon of extreme power, but was in fact a tiny box. The Doctor had no idea what it would or could do, just that it was a purely biological weapon without a trace of metal. In the time that most of the creatures he hated were rushing about in the confusion of Shadow’s memories and the siege of the planet, Ivan Robotnik was hard at work creating this little box that he could not use without Shadow.
The Vertical Infinity had been explained to him by Black Doom himself. “When combined with infinite power,” he had said, “It will give my creation a powerful boost. Its powers are dormant now, but this should awaken them. It should lift the seal.” When Dr. Ivan asked about the control he could have over the power of the Vertical Infinity, the Black Doom said, “There is a component of the Vertical Infinity that could be altered to give someone else a little control over my creation. However, I do not think it would be wise to use that component. It will make the power significantly weaker.” But, Dr. Ivan thought gleefully, still strong enough to destroy the wretched hedgehog of cerulean color and mild-manner nature!
The mere thought that there was more to Shadow than met the eye made the doctor shiver. After all, Shadow was much stronger, physically, than Sonic was. He was also probably much smarter than the sometimes-too-slow-for-his-own-good blue hedgehog who terrorized Dr. Ivan’s night and day. If Shadow had powers to unlock, then perhaps he was more than the doctor himself had expected…
Shadow
There were two tugs at his heartstrings now. Firstly, he wanted to find his sister, with all his heart. He felt like she was alive and he needed to talk to her, to understand his real true purpose. He was sure that since she was not created by Gerald, but had been alive the entire time that Shadow had been created, she would also be able to tell him about how his purposes worked and what made them change and more importantly, if he had already fulfilled his purpose. If he could figure out what he was supposed to do, to be less confused about what he was, then he could easily fall prey to his other heartstring, the one pulling him to Sonic.
Sonic, he was strange, and even Shadow didn’t know why he hadn’t tried to pummel the smaller hedgehog into telling him what he wanted to hear. No, instead Shadow had done something he would have never done before. Normally, he would have probably strangled his opponent until they seemed close to death, and then he would drop them and order them to talk to him. But he hadn’t done that to Sonic.
He had straddled the smaller hedgehog, and that was making himself close with the enemy. If Sonic was his enemy.
Next, Shadow slightly remembered telling Sonic he liked the way he begged. That wasn’t like him either. Ordinarily he just commented on how pathetic it was for this prize to be begging for mercy. Shadow didn’t do mercy, just like he didn’t do pity or windows.
He did like the way Sonic begged though. Sonic tried to weasel his way out of every and any situation, even if his own pride was wounded. And that, Shadow realized, took great pride to do. Sonic was honorable, sure, but he had no problem hurting his own pride to get out of a situation… Shadow wasn’t sure about that. He wouldn’t sacrifice his own pride to… maybe Sonic was just trying to be nice, or something, because he had never done that before. Shadow thought, anyway.
What else had he done? He had terrorized his cerulean companion’s nerves. He would have to stop doing that, he realized. Touching Sonic in anyway caused him to lose control, and he couldn’t afford to lose control. Not yet.
But that was besides the point. Sonic had put up such a fight when Shadow had done that, and he had also moaned so beautifully that Shadow had been tempted to just poke him there, over and over again. And speaking of that, he had no idea that Sonic had such long fur or that Sonic actually had a curvy sort of figure. Or that he was so sensitive so far down his back.
Okay. He’d have to stop thinking about that, because he was sure he was drooling. That wasn’t good either.
He concentrated on his work. Sonic was much too weak to move walls and such, so Shadow had told him to clean up the bodies of the remaining Black Arms. Sonic had done so happily, as if he had already forgotten about Shadow’s last assault on him. Shadow hadn’t even started considering the worst part of his assault on Sonic, and he was already stumped.
Why did the blue hedgehog trust him? Certainly Shadow had done all in his power to chase him away.
But Sonic still managed to be all cheerful and busy, continuously annoying Shadow with his chatter about how next time Shadow had to let him have some fun too. Shadow was surprised he let Sonic annoy him. If Sonic had been Tails, he would have long since crushed him with a box.
“Sonic.” Shadow decided, aloud. His friend looked up at him, from where he was busily removing metal GUN robot parts from acidic blood.
“What’s up?” Sonic asked, cheerfully if nothing else. Shadow snorted.
“What are you all cheerful about?” He muttered.
“I…I didn’t realize.” Sonic grinned all the same. “It’s nothing.”
“Whatever.” Shadow muttered. “Why don’t you just run away now?”
“…?” Sonic looked almost as confused as Shadow felt. “Why would I do that?”
“…” Shadow wondered how thick Sonic was. “Let’s go back in time.” He said, slowly. “About an hour or so ago. What happened?”
“You tackled me. That hurt, so let’s not do that again.” Sonic said.
“Whatever. So, I tackled you, and then…”
“And then you started questioning me. You wanted me to explain what I had said to you.”
“And?”
“And I wouldn’t, so you started…” Sonic trailed off. Shadow nodded to himself. Exactly. “But…you didn’t mean for it to come across… like that. Did you?”
“I don’t know. Did I?”
“Shadow!” Sonic glared at him. “Could you stop dodging my questions and answer for once?”
“Sure, if you stop acting like Amy.” Shadow shrugged. “I have no problem answering any question you’ve got.”
Sonic scowled. “Yeah, whatever.” He muttered darkly. Shadow grinned.
“Funny. I would’ve said the same thing.”
Sonic’s dark expression did not change. “Shadow, you’re acting like a real jackass, and I’ve been trying not to curse that much lately.”
“I’ve been on the same diet.” Shadow replied, not bothering to call the younger hedgehog a name in retaliation. He liked making Sonic flustered; after all, Sonic was easy to embarrass.
“Be serious, would you?” Sonic asked, none too calmly. “I want to know why… why you did all of that for such a little thing!”
Shadow wasn’t sure how he could get out of such a pointed question, but he’d done more with less, or less with more, or however the silly cliché went. “Maybe I didn’t think it was such a little thing.”
“Maybe? Is that all you have?” Sonic asked, advancing on him, his emerald eyes flashing. “You mean you jumped me only because you had a hunch that it wasn’t a little thing?”
“Could you reword that?”
“Answer the question, Shadow!” Sonic commanded. Shadow couldn’t help but laugh.
“I can’t do that. I don’t know.” He chuckled, even as Sonic grew even more enraged.
“You don’t know?” Sonic growled.
Shadow only laughed harder. “You don’t scare me, Sonic.” He managed, grinning at his rival. “You’ve never scared me. You’re too good for that.”
Sonic only reach out and snatched his chest fur, pulling the duo as close together as they could possibly be without being smushed into each other. “What’s the deal, Shadow? Do you usually just play with people’s emotions like toys?”
Shadow smirked at this. “What emotion did I hurt, Sonic?” He asked, blithely. “And how am I supposed to fix it?”
Sonic growled again. “Don’t mess around, Shadow! You deliberately tortured me. You orchestrated that whole ordeal! And I want to know why!”
“You know why.” Shadow said, calmly. “But you’re over reacting. Only a few minutes ago, you were happy. So explain yourself.”
Sonic’s hand had long since stopped grabbing at Shadow’s chest fur. Shadow realized that he had spoken a long time ago, and now they were only staring at each other, Sonic’s hand caressing Shadow’s chest fur thoughtfully. Shadow wasn’t sure if he should wake Sonic or wait for him to wake himself.
Sonic managed fine on his own though, even though he didn’t notice his hand at all. “I…You…” He stuttered. Shadow made it a point to look down at Sonic’s hand. Sonic immediately stepped back. “…We…”
“Are enemies.” Shadow reminded Sonic.
“Are friends.” Sonic shook his head. “Friends who are having a problem that we need to work through. We have to stop over reacting.”
“Why is that?”
“Because… I can’t…I can’t deal with that.” Sonic sighed. “Amy always over reacts, and I’ll admit, I would have just as easily been Amy’s boyfriend if she wasn’t so annoying… and sensitive.”
“Speaking of sensitive…” Shadow brushed at his chest fur. “Don’t pull the chest fur. It’s not pleasant.”
Sonic stared at him, then burst into laughter. “You’re such a baby!” He laughed, when Shadow gave him a look. “All because I pulled at your fur a little! There, there, Shadow, I won’t touch it again!”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t touch it.” Shadow said indignantly. “I said you couldn’t pull it. It hurts, not to mention that you could probably rip if off my chest! You should think before you act!”
“Something like you do, right?” Sonic asked.
“I’m not you. I can control my temper.”
“Yeah, right, Shadow. So, what are we doing here again? Oh, that’s right. We’re cleaning up a mess that the Black Arms left behind after a party. Nope. Nothing to do with you destroying millions of aliens.”
“Cute.” Shadow muttered. “But I don’t like it when you’re happy.”
“And why not?”
“Because you’re annoying.” Shadow muttered.
Sonic smiled coyly at Shadow. “Would you like me to make it better, Shadow?” He asked. Shadow wrinkled his nose.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Sonic shrugged, grinning. “Nothing.”
“…You liar!”
Vertical Infinity by NiGHTShadow
Chapter notes:
=D I found a chapter of this I had written originally for later in the story (I write a lot of random scenes and not the actual chapters...-_-''). And I figured I could make it into something. So introducing chapter 10 of the slowest moving story you've ever read! Hooray!