Shadow and Sonic were racing through one of the deep forest zones.  Both hedgehogs wove sharply around trees and thick branches without so much as missing a beat.

Shadow grabbed a hold of a nearby vine, using his momentum from his run to swing his body around a massive tree that was blocking the path.  Sonic neatly hopped along its heavy branches and met Shadow on the opposite side.  Both took off again without a word being exchanged between them.

Sonic didn’t have to ask Shadow where they were going, the ebony hedgehog had already said the desert and that was still a few zones away.  Sonic couldn’t help but notice Shadow didn’t look at all happy about going to the desert but didn’t ask why.  His rival was perpetually cranky over something; Sonic didn’t take it personally so he figured the desert wouldn’t either.

Green eyes slanted towards the dark form moving beside him.  Shadow seemed distracted, so Sonic figured the other wouldn't care about being quietly observed.  The ultimate life form moved as silently as his namesake, the only sound coming from him being the occasional 'swish' from his hover skates.  He had to squint to see the other, as Shadow's fur was beginning to blend in with the darkness of the forest.  The sun was setting and Sonic found it was growing harder and harder to see Shadow. 

Only the soft glow from the lingering trails of chaos energy illuminated the dark hedgehog.  Shadow was either too caught up in his thoughts and hadn't noticed how dark it had gotten, or the Ultimate life form got bragging rights about having Ultimate eyesight.  The latter of which Sonic found unlikely seeing that Shadow was technically a hedgehog and their eyesight was mediocre at best. 

But what did he know?  Sonic was just a Not-Ultimate-Life-form.

Hmph.

"Hey Shads," Sonic piped up, knowing he needed to get the other's attention after he had to swerve to narrowly avoid a tree. 

Shadow's ears flicked to show that he was listening but his gaze was still far away.  Sonic figured Shadow was busy having a flashback or something, so he decided to have mercy on his rival and be quick.  After all, Shadow certainly seemed to love his haunting mid-life crisis flashbacks, it would be a crime against humanity should Sonic disturb Shadow from whatever disillusioned fantasy he was currently having.

"It's getting pretty dark out here," Sonic continued, stating the obvious.  Green eyes lifted to the heavy canopy overhead.  He could see snatched of the night sky peeking through the foliage, a dusky orange bleeding through the leaves to expose the dying sun, "We should set up camp for the night.  It won't be safe to run in the dark."  Especially if Sonic had no idea where the hell Shadow was.  He didn't want to get a chaos spear to the face because he accidentally ran Shadow off a ravine or something equally ridiculous.

Sonic was relieved when Shadow gave a nod of consent and they both began to gradually slow their pace until they stopped near a small outcrop of rocks that edged around a Cliffside.  They found a cave in the Cliffside that could serve as shelter for the night and ducked inside. 

They decided since no one was trying to immediately kill them then it would be safe enough to build a small fire.  They scattered and began to gather wood and underbrush that could burn easily.  Soon they had a merry fire going and the two hedgehog picked seats on either side of it, once more lapsing into silence.

Sonic pulled out a chili dog he had ordered in Station Square and pulled off the foil.  As soon as the dog was free, Sonic promptly began to devour his treat.  Shadow's muzzle wrinkled with disgust and he turned up his nose at the gooey mass of beans, meat, cheese, and only Chaos knew what else.

Sonic happily ignored Shadow's dislike for his favorite food and looked over at his grumpy partner, "Want some?" He offered, holding out the food. Sonic knew that if Shadow just gave the chili dog a taste that the grouchy hedgehog would love it.

"I'd rather lick sewage soaked shards of glass," Shadow replied blandly without missing a beat.  Then, almost as if it was an afterthought, he added a quiet 'No thank you' at the end.

"Oh well, more for me," Sonic grinned and polished off the rest of his food, "But if you're really hungry, I'm sure I can hook you up with Mario. He spends a lot of time hanging out in the sewers; I bet he can find that glass for you."

Shadow gave Sonic a poisonous glare, to which the hero happily ignored.  Sonic crumpled up his wrapped and tossed it into Shadow's pack as there were no garbage cans around.  This earned him yet another murderous glare from the cranky Shadow, but the ebony hedgehog didn't comment on the gesture.  He obviously disliked litterers more than Sonic.

Instead he quirked an eyeridge at the blue hero and Sonic thought he might have imagined the corner of Shadow's mouth twitching with amusement.

Wow, I have one heck of an imagination. Sonic thought to himself with a quiet snort.

They both lapsed into silence again -- or rather Sonic did as Shadow hadn't been saying anything to begin with -- taking turns poking at the fire with nearby sticks to keep it going. 

Sonic stared into the fire, his thoughts going numb as he watched it dance in slow arcs through the air.  He could feel Tails' case digging into his back against the cave wall. Sonic had taken it with him when they left the beach, stowing the drill bits carefully into his quills.  He hadn't told Shadow that he had taken them.  Knowing the other, Shadow probably would have wanted him to turn them into GUN for evidence.

GUN. Sonic had enough run-ins with them to last several lifetimes.  It seemed like there was always something breaking out loose from the pits of Hell to wreck havoc on Mobius.  There was constantly a Monster of the Week to hurt and maim thousands of people, and it was usually up to Sonic to tear them down a notch.  Sonic had yet to find the use of GUN.  It seemed like the only thing they ever did was shoot at any creature that moved around them, the trigger happy morons.  It was hard for Sonic to obey GUN's rules when he didn't have much respect for them.

He appreciated that they helped, but in most cases they just added to the body count.  They were more people for him to worry about.

Excluding Team Dark.

In most cases they were a welcome sight when Sonic was in a tight squeeze.  He could always count on Shadow to back him up...

Sonic jolted at the realization that he had excluded both Omega and Rouge.  He quickly backtracked and rubbed his hand through his quills nervously.  Sonic meant he could always count on Team Dark to back him up...!

Right?

But on that train of thought... Sonic's eyes drifted over towards the dark racer. Shadow wasn't looking at him anymore and instead had his crimson gaze turned outside, watching the entrance vigilantly.  Shadow was a bit of a hard ass when it came to following the rules GUN set.  He followed his mission objectives to the letter and fought to have the highest success rate that was physically possible. 

Sonic doubted Shadow worked so hard out of any real respect he harbored for GUN, especially considering his rocky history with the military, but he did it because he honestly believed GUN could help save the world.

He didn't understand the dark hedgehog all that well, despite the fact that Sonic knew him for about six years. He knew Shadow was ruthless when it came to doing what he felt was right.  Shadow had no problem with blurring the line of morality that Sonic had carefully toed around all his life.  He crossed back and forth between the boundaries of right and wrong, good and evil, and hero and villain until he found the place where he belonged: GUN.

Shadow saw things in shades of grey.

Sonic saw things in black or white.

They were two entirely different characters.

Tails' case pinched at his back when Sonic shifted, causing his train of thought to immediately screech to a halt. Sonic had to swallow thickly past a lump in his throat and his heart hammered against his chest.  Tails...

His brother was gone.  Taken by his arch nemesis for what, Sonic couldn't even begin to fathom the reason.

But GUN knew where Eggman was.  Shadow did.

Something twitched at Sonic's mind and he frowned slightly.  A sudden thought struck him that had his quills flexing in irritation. 

Say what he wanted about GUN, they were anything but inefficient.  They always attempted to apprehend criminals as quickly as possible to minimize destruction.  Why hadn't GUN tried to stop Eggman before Tails had been captured?

A rush of anger struck Sonic squarely in the chest and he kept his drilling gaze on the oblivious agent in front of him.

"So why do you know where Eggman's hanging out anyway?" Sonic asked quietly, keeping his voice as light and carefree as he could.

Shadow's ear swiveled in his direction but the dark hedgehog didn't turn around to look at him.

"Well GUN finds that it is useful to know the whereabouts of a madman who tries to take over the world every couple of months," Shadow replied simply.

Sonic snorted and rolled his eyes at the response.  He picked up a nearby stick and poked at the fire, never once pulling his gaze away from Shadow, "That doesn't answer my question though.  Why do you know where Eggman's base is?"

Still somewhat upset, Sonic puffed himself up in an imitation of a military man, mocking a certain commander's voice since he had heard it so often, "That's information on a need to know basis! Isn't it?"

Sonic was rewarded with smirk pulling up at the corner of Shadow's lips.  Obviously Sonic's impersonation of Commander Tower's was entirely too accurate for the apathetic hedgehog to outright ignore.

"Since I'm the one providing the information, I don't see why you should question where I got it from," Shadow turned towards Sonic, finally dragging his attention away from the forest.  He paused when he spotted the hero's rigid stance, seeing that there was something very wrong with his companion.

"Well, look at whose being so secretive now," Sonic muttered keenly and poked at the fire, causing a shower of burning ashes to float through the air. 

Shadow watched the dying embers waft through the air as if they were glowing confetti.  Something in Sonic's tone had the quills on his back flexing instinctively for a battle, but Shadow couldn't tell what was bothering the other.

Finally he looked over the fire to meet Sonic's gaze, "If you must know, I gathered the information myself.  That's why I know of its location."

Sonic ears twitched as he listened. He was baiting Shadow into telling him what he wanted to know and he stared at the ebony hedgehog suspiciously.  However Shadow was looking at him guardedly, as if knowing that Sonic was fishing for something. The hero knew there was no point dancing around the subject, so he decided to take the direct route.  He leaned forward to prop his muzzle on his hand.

"If GUN knew where Eggman was, why didn't they storm in and arrest him before he nabbed Tails?" Sonic demanded, finally voicing his thoughts. 

He glared over at the agent sitting across from him. Shadow's ebony fur was dyed orange thanks to the glow of the fire and his ruby eyes, fiercely lit like burning embers, rose to meet Sonic's challenging gaze.

"What are you suggesting?" Shadow murmured softly.  The quills on the ebony racer's back flexed with readiness as he recognized the suspicion in Sonic's eyes.

"I don't know," Sonic continued to watch his dark counterpart sharply, "I just know it's not usually GUN's style to sit around when one of their most dangerous felons roams free.  GUN hasn't been doing so hot a job."

Shadow's eyes narrowed at the crack and he let out a low, angry growl. Was Sonic honestly insinuating that GUN was doing nothing?

"You've done a fine job of apprehending the doctor yourself," Shadow said ruthlessly, annoyed that Sonic was suggesting hadn't been doing their job.

There was a flash of hurt surprise that crossed over Sonic's face, yet almost as soon as it had appeared, it was gone and replaced with an angry mask.  It had Shadow immediately regretting his words.

Normally he wouldn't have let anyone get a rise out of him like that, but Sonic had somehow managed to get under his quills.  Sonic was good at that and Shadow didn't know why.  It didn't help that he had been on edge as of late. The constant presence of Sonic had been doing funny things to him. 

The two hedgehogs fell into an angry silence, both staring daggers at one another.  Unlike the silence that had stretched between them earlier, this one was tense and unforgiving.

Despite the proud set to Sonic's shoulders, Shadow could sense the faint traces of hurt clinging to his rival.  He didn't know how he knew that, but he did.  His comment had hit a sensitive nerve with the hedgehog, just as the GUN soldiers' had from earlier.  Shadow mentally cringed as he realized that made him no better than the careless grunt.  Shadow didn't know why he said that.

It was all too clear that Sonic fought the doctor with everything he had and that often put him into suicidal situations. How often had Sonic's heroism lead to the defeat of the mad doctor and the safety of the entire planet?  It was forgivable for Sonic to be a bit distracted after such occurrences. Chaos only knew Shadow was confused and disoriented sometimes after battles like that.

Battles he had fought with Sonic side by side, often times while they were both Super.  Both connected...

No, Shadow thought savagely. He was not going to be travelling down that train of thought again.

He returned to his previous thoughts in an effort to distract him. 

He had been through enough battles with Sonic to know that he knew better than to say something so cruel to the other.

Shadow didn't care if the doctor got away on occasion. 

But Shadow was no 'hero.'

Not like Sonic.

Sonic was a hero who tried to save everyone, be they close friends or complete strangers.  Shadow's sympathies didn't stretch that far.  He would respect those who died, but Sonic would genuinely grieve for the loss of a life he had never met before. 

That was a heavy burden to carry alone.

Eggman's capture meant a great deal to Sonic.  It meant innocent lives were safe from his experiments and robots.

And because Eggman had walked free, Tails had been captured.

Or so they thought -- Shadow had yet to hear back from Rouge.

The dark hedgehog pondered on the possibilities of locking the doctor away.  If Eggman was locked up, there would be nothing for Sonic to do. Of course, the hyperactive hero would become eternally bored as a result, but Shadow figured Sonic would rather go crazy from his restlessness than have innocents hurt.

He looked over at the sullen hero and suppressed a sigh.

Shadow was never one to put much merit in psychology, but he was willing to bet that Sonic's sudden aggression stemmed from his Batman-Hero complex.

Sonic was so used to carrying the weight of being a hero, Shadow very much doubted his rival knew he was even shouldering one any longer.

Deciding he had enough of this silence and general grouchiness, Shadow decided to speak up.

"I'm trying to help you find Tails," Shadow said with as much patience as possible.

The blue hedgehog merely turned his emerald gaze into the fire, choosing not to reply.  In most cases Shadow would have been relieved from a break in his rival’s constant chatter, but this silence was disconcerting.  Shadow didn't like thinking he was the cause to Sonic's current distress.

"You're right," Shadow muttered.  He pointedly ignored the way Sonic's eyes shot up in surprise, "SUN doesn't work that way.  Had they known the Doctor's exact location a team would have been dispatched immediately to apprehend him."

Sonic blinked slowly as he worked on processing the agent’s words.  He sat up on his haunches and peered at the impassive racer closely, "What're you trying to say Shadow?  You said you knew where ol' Egghead was."

"No. You said that. I just didn't correct you," Shadow shrugged, "I never completed the mission because a hedgehog decided to throw a very wild party on the beach."

The agent looked so serious, Sonic honestly couldn't tell if Shadow had attempted to crack a joke or not.  Regardless, it surprised a laugh out of Sonic that soon had him in stitches of unexpected mirth.  Slowly his anger and annoyance melted away and by the time he was finished, Sonic was beginning to feel a bit better about the general situation.

Sure Tails was still captured and Shadow didn't really seem to know where Eggman's lair was.  Both those things sucked.

But if Sonic could still crack a grin over it, the situation couldn't be all that bad yet.

As his chuckles began to trail off, Sonic was vaguely aware that Shadow was staring at him like he was a crazy person.  Sonic didn't care, he merely continued to chuckle under his breath.

Shaking his head, Sonic glanced up at the perplexed looking Shadow and his lips tugged into a cocky grin.

"So you don't know where Eggman is?" Sonic asked, some of his humor finally dying down, but his smile staying in place.

Shadow watched Sonic strangely, almost as if he was halfway expecting his rival to spontaneously combust.  He wouldn't admit it out loud, but Shadow was somewhat relieved to see that Sonic was back to his usual idiotic self.

"Yes and no," Shadow corrected slowly. He lifted a well burnt stick from the fire and turned towards the cave wall.  He began to scratch a diagram with the ash against the stone.  A small gust of wind rippling through Shadow's fur told him that his companion had joined him.

Sure enough Sonic was squatting next to Shadow, green eyes staring raptly at what was a roughly drawn map of the desert.

Shadow was surprised at the thrilling shock that coursed through his body at Sonic's sudden close proximity.  He forcibly strangled the strange feeling, somewhat alarmed by the lingering sensation.

He cleared his throat to dislodge it of the sudden lump which had formed and directed his attention to the wall, attempting to calm his suddenly racing heart. What was wrong with him?

"I've narrowed down the area by this perimeter," Shadow sketched out a circle in the map, "If Eggman's base is in the desert, then it'll be here."

Sonic looked at the area and smiled brightly, "That looks like it'll only take us a few hours to scope out the area." He grinned and sat down where he crouched, "That is if I'm leading, but your slow butt would probably fall behind." He grinned teasingly up at Ultimate Life form.

Shadow quirked an eyeridge as he sat down beside Sonic.  He knew when the other was trying to bait him in for a race and it was clear that Sonic was trying to relieve some of the earlier tension with his unspoken challenge.

"We'll see about that then," Shadow murmured and leaned back against the rock face.

The two hedgehogs curled up in a comfortable silence near the fire, the thoughts of racing and rescuing Tails not far from either hedgehog's mind as they tried to drift off for the night.

Then, a twitching Sonic nudged Shadow's foot with his sneaker. 

"Hey Faker..."

A ruby eye opened irritably and glared at the restless Sonic.

"What is it?" Shadow growled, wanting nothing more than to just try and get some sleep before he had to deal with the hyperactive hedgehog and the not-kidnapped fox tomorrow.

"Read me a bedtime story," Sonic flashed the dark hedgehog a cheeky grin.

Shadow stared at Sonic numbly for a moment and narrowed his eyes, "You're not serious are you?"

"I sure am," Sonic smirked, green eyes burning with mirth.

Shadow thought on it for a moment before a wicked smirk crawled over his muzzle, "Fine then." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. He ignored Sonic's surprised look, obviously the blue racer hadn't actually been expecting him to be told a bedtime story.

"This story is called 'The Night of the Werehog,'" Shadow smirked as Sonic's confusion immediately melted into a glare of irritation. 

The blue hedgehog flopped over and curled up to go to bed, "Good night Shadow."

"Good night Faker."