-::-

Nack rolled his eyes as he watched his employer cram two plushies' faces together from the corner of his eye. She obviously had too many bolts loose in the head. He growled in frustration as he cleaned off the scope of his weapon. His thumb caressed the safety lingeringly, as if wishing nothing more than to turn his gun on the insane woman behind him.

They were both in Oil Ocean Zone, waiting for his target to appear. Mary Sue, in a fit of boredom, had pulled out two plush dolls: Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose. Now she was in the process of forcing the blue doll to eat the pink one's face.

"Sonamy forever," Mary purred as she continued to jam the plushies together.

Nack quirked a slow eyeridge and had to turn around to shoot her an incredulous look, "Don't you want you kill Sonic?" He demanded. When did Sonic and Amy become a strange and mutant version of Brangelina? Chaos, the only thing that would sound stranger would be if she somehow managed to combine Sonic's name with Shadow. Nack suppressed a shiver. He didn't even want to know what that would sound like.

Mary Sue hadn't told him everything about her plan just that it ended up with the deaths of Sonic and his entire merry little band of friends. He was completely fine with that fact, but Mary Sue was a contradiction in and of herself. She seemed utterly fascinated with Sonic despite her irrational need to kill him.

"YOU... WILL... LOVE... HER!" Mary Sue continued wrapped up too firmly in the fantasy world she created to notice Nack's presence much less his question. She jammed the Sonic doll into the Amy doll with each word she snarled.

Nack slowly continued to clean his scope, his mouth hanging open slightly as he watched Mary. The human had spread out her plushies inside of a refurbished (Eggman carrier?). The weasel might have imagined he saw tears in the plushies eyes as Mary continued to smash them together, abusively forcing them to 'kiss.'

Yet it was nothing compared to what she had done to a variety of Shadow dolls, all of which were fixed in what looked like miniature torture devices and makeshift pyres. That was a lot of hate for one hedgehog.

Nack had to admit, there was something fairly disturbing with the sight, but honestly the image of Mary Sue cramming Sonic and Amy together was even more terrifying. If he was in either of those two plushies place, Nack was certain he'd want to switch with the Shadow dolls any day of the week.

"You know..." Nack began as he watched Mary Sue continuously shove the dolls together until it looked like their heads were about to get torn off, "...I think Blue bats for the other team."

Two dark brown and furious eyes snapped up to give Nack the single most murderous glare he had ever seen in his life.

"Not in my fanfiction he doesn't," Mary hissed, giving Nack the dirtiest glare had ever been on the receiving end of.

Ooo-kay.

Nack simply shrugged, having gotten a bit used to his employers insanity by now. Mary Sue had apparently failed to notice a specific detail about Mobians in her rabid attempt to plot her evil scheme.

Mobians weren't humans. Nor were they animals. However, that didn't mean they failed to inherit animalistic characteristics from their feral cousins. Wild animals in nature did not often make a distinction between genders and neither did Mobians. Humans on the other hand, who were more suppressed in their sexuality, saw things in black and white. Straight or Gay.

He didn't bother attempting to point this out to Mary. After all, it would no doubt earn him another babbling rant about things that made absolutely no sense to Nack.

He sank down on his perch and leveled his gun. Nack peered through his scope, deciding to keep his mouth shut and leave Mary to her dolls. He had a job to do...

"'Oh Amy! I want to get married and have lots of hedgehog babies!'" Mary cooed in a masculine voice.

Nack's fingers inched towards the flask at his side.

...But before then, he'd need to get totally plastered first.

-::-

"I don't know how you could handle all that blasted sand," Shadow growled as he shook himself clean of the last grains of the itchy substance from his fur. He glared over at his grinning comrade as they entered the gooey place that was Oil Ocean Zone.

It had taken them a short amount of time to get to the polluted area. Now they were standing by the banks of a greasy ocean, the oil slicks so thick they could probably run across it without much difficulty. Although Shadow didn't care to try it, he was certain the heat from his jetshoes would set the entire zone on fire.

Sonic smirked and tucked his hands behind his head quills, flashing the grumpy hedgehog a brilliant smile that he absolutely knew would aggravate the other's nerves, "It's like lounging on the beach."

"And yet you spend all your time by the ocean, despite being inexplicably terrified of it," Shadow said blandly. His muzzle wrinkled with disgust as he surveyed the polluted area, his lips curled in a quiet snarl. He hated seeing pollution and trash. To see a Zone full of that nonsense churned his stomach.

The beautiful blue planet he had seen from the space colony with Maria over half a century ago was dying. The people here were wasteful and cruel, unable to see the destruction they were causing to the vibrant life of their planet. Pollution came hard and heavy on the heels of those living on Mobius, winding a trail of death over everything they touched.

Seeing Oil Ocean Zone disgusted Shadow. It had made him nauseous the first time he had come here and it still did to this day. Pollution. Waste.

If one decided just to clean the area up, there was the possibility this ocean could be usable. Shadow didn't want to consider how much sea life had been killed by this type of neglect.

"Hey now, there's nothing wrong with getting a tan," Sonic huffed, his quills fluffing up in irritation to Shadow's prod. He zipped over to Shadow's side and spotted the dark expression on his partner's face, "Don't like the zone?" He asked.

"Not in particular," Shadow admitted, ruby eyes never pulling away from the black, bubbling surface.

Sonic nodded and his lips pressed in a firm line as he too looked at the greasy ocean, "Yeah, this place reeks." His muzzle wrinkled as he cringed away from the edge, "This place is just one fire hazard waiting to happen."

"Don't glare at it too hard Shads," Sonic joked, "The heat from your glare would cause this whole place to go up in flames."

"And I'd imagine the heat from the hot air in your head would cause similar results," Shadow cut in, "Lets' find that emerald so we can leave." He muttered.

Sonic sulked and darted ahead, "Alright. Alright Mr. Grumpy." He snorted and looked over his shoulder, "Hey Faker..." He sang.

Shadow stiffened and glared over at Sonic as he followed along at a much slower pace. Ruby eyes glared at the hero with aggravated heat, knowing just what Sonic was going to say.

"No," He said shortly. Sonic's face fell for a moment and blue ears twitched.

"But I didn't say anything yet!" He protested.

Ruby eyes narrowed into slits, "I don't care." Shadow said firmly. He didn't need Sonic to say anything, it was more than clear what the hedgehog was going to say, "The answer is no."

"C'mon, lets' hear it."

"No, that joke is old!" Shadow glared at the blue hedgehog poisonously.

Sonic wouldn't have any of that. He darted swiftly over to Shadow's side and slung an arm over his partner's shoulders. Sonic leaned in close, a mischievous grin painted over his face, unaware to the sudden spike to Shadow's heart rate. Shadow shifted from the sudden close proximity of the other to get some space, trying to ignore how his heart raced at Sonic's unwanted touch.

"C'mon Faker," Sonic purred, a fawn elbow nudging Shadow's side, "You know you want to do it."

"No means NO, or can't you understand that?" Shadow all but snarled. He threw Sonic's arms off him and stormed off ahead, muttering obscenities under his breath. He settled a hand over the tuft of fur on his chest in an attempt to calm his heart. When it finally slowed, Shadow was left with just his thoughts. Shadow hated Sonic for afflicting him with this strange disease that affected his heart so potently. It was an odd sort of pressure in Shadow's chest that he hated and loved all at the same time.

Shadow also knew what it meant. He was no fool.

He liked Sonic far more than he was ever comfortable with admitting.

And he hated Sonic for making him feel that way.

They walked in silence, Sonic pouting over Shadow's surliness. The blue furred demon would keep sneaking disgruntled little glares over his shoulder, not seeming to care if Shadow saw him. In fact, whenever Shadow did catch him in the act, Sonic would make sure to stick out his tongue and blow him a raspberry just for the kicks.

Shadow mentally groaned as he thought about how poor his taste was. Why Sonic of all people? He didn't want to explore the answer to the question, so instead he eyed Sonic. It was rapidly becoming clear that Sonic was not going to stop with his childish sulking. No, not until Shadow rewarded his bad behavior and gave him what he wanted.

Sighing, Shadow finally relented, deciding to swallow a bit of pride for the sake of salvaging what was left of his precarious sanity.

"Where's that DAMN fourth chaos emerald?" Shadow grumbled reluctantly under his breath. He watched as blue ears perked up and the cobalt hero spun around with a victorious, shit-eating grin plastered across his muzzle.

"I knew you couldn't resist me Faker!" Sonic teased, settling his hands on blue hips. He batted large jade eyes at Shadow, causing the dark hedgehog's quills to flex with irritation.

Shadow strode past Sonic impassively, not knowing why he had even bothered trying to please that stupid... insufferable... infuriating... Faker. An embarrassed flush was creeping up under Shadow's dark coat and his only saving grace was it wasn't visible to its cause.

He stopped midstride as he heard the metallic sound of something sliding into place and the soft clicking of a barrel being turned. Shadow frowned, ears twisting and straining for the source of the noise.

"Hey Shads!" Sonic called after the cranky hedgehog, "C'mon I was just joking!"

Shadow held out a hand to stop Sonic and frowned, "Be quiet." he muttered.

Shadow had heard that sound before. In GUN training areas and in shooting ranges it was a familiar sound. Shadow, who had fired a gun on more than one occasion, would recognize the sound of a chamber turning into place from a mile away. He wasn't the only one. Sonic was falling silent, ears twitching alertly for the sound Shadow had heard.

'A gun?' Sonic's ears strained on the top of his head, searching for its source amongst the slimy machinery of Oil Ocean Zone. A single gun was easy to miss, but Sonic had heard the sounds of guns reloading and firing all of his young life. He whirled around as the obvious struck him and he spotted the glint of the weapon high above, "Behind us!" He shouted the warning and took off towards the source. A second too late.

The shot rang out and caught Shadow on the shoulder, the hedgehog having been caught against the pier without enough room to twist away completely. Shadow grunted as a wave of vertigo hit him and pain coursed up through his body. He could survive being shot. Quite easily in fact... but the excruciating pain in his shoulder told him this was his fault for not paying closer attention

So wrapped up in his thoughts, Shadow never noticed how the world had tilted on its access until he was falling off the pier, sideways into the sludge of the ocean. It sucked hard on his body and Shadow sank quickly. He swore and blindly struck out for the pier with his good arm, a gloved hand gripping the slippery pier post as best he could. For some reason, being in the waters had given him renewed strength.

Shadow didn't know how long it was possible for him to last on like this, but he didn't feel frightened or concerned. His right side was going numb as his hot blood splashed down his chest and neck - yet he still felt completely fine. He growled as he fought through the pain, which was gradually receding and managed to drag himself up on top of the oil slicked wood. As he did so, he finally noticed something increasingly strange...

A small burst of Chaos energy. Below him, down in the thick waters. Curious, Shadow reached his good hand down to the sticky surface, his ears folding back as the motion jarred his shoulder. He paid it no attention; instead he was focused on what was currently drawing his focus. He would have never noticed had he not fallen into the waters...

-::-

Meanwhile, Sonic had raced up to the gunner's station and ripped the weapon from a startled Nack's hands. Vibrant green eyes glared at the weasel hard, his gloved hands gripping the weapon a safe distance from the mercenary.

"Who are you?" Sonic growled, "And what do you want?" He glared down at the weasel's unconcerned gaze. Sonic wondered why the mercenary was so calm when he was disarmed and at his mercy, when something large, heavy and metal crashed down on him from above.

Stars exploded in Sonic's vision for a moment and he fell back away from Nack, giving the weasel enough time to scramble aboard the ship which had attempted to give Sonic a concussion. Luckily for Sonic, the driver didn't seem to know how hard his head was, and the most a blow like that could give him was a headache for a few hours.

Mary Sue drifted over in her egg transit, her eyes gleaming with interest as she looked down at the hero picking himself up, "This is Nack the Weasel. He's my hired gun and associate." She patted the weasel on his head fondly, ignoring the rather profane way the mercenary was glaring at her.

"And who are you?" Sonic demanded, squinting up at the human. His head hurt and his rear was sore, but he was clear headed enough to realize the gear this woman was sporting was of a similar make of Eggman's older models. They had found the person who was playing with Eggman's old toys. He connected the dots quickly and he growled, his quills bristling angrily, "You're the one who has Tails, aren't you?" He demanded.

"The name is Mary Sue," she purred, her gaze flicking over at Sonic even as she pulled her ship up higher, "If I were you, I wouldn't worry about who I am, or how Miles is doing." Her lips twitched in amusement as she looked over at the peer, "After all, it seems like your little friend needs your help."

It felt like a rock plummeted down into Sonic's belly and he whirled around to see where Shadow was. He had hardly noticed the other wasn't behind him, and now... Green eyes landed on the dark form, curled up on the pier, his body covered in grease, oil and slime. "Shadow!" He turned to glare over at Mary Sue, but she was already moving out of his jumping range. Not that it would stop him...

He was torn for the moment, not knowing whether or not to chase down Mary Sue to find Tails or go help Shadow. Sonic hesitated for a moment as the choice was obvious, Shadow needed his help now. He turned on his heel and bolted for Shadow, dropping down on a knee so he could help the other sit up.

He took in the damage, and had to fight a sigh of relief that followed. Shadow was awake, conscious and cranky. So that meant that he was completely fine. Mary had just played to his heroism, knowing Sonic couldn't leave Shadow behind if he thought he was hurt. Technically he was hurt, as bullets tended to do nasty things to people who were made out of flesh – but Shadow always seemed to be the exception to that rule.

"Hey Faker," Sonic growled soothingly and he looked the other over, "Man, you must be losing your touch if you're getting shot like that." His lips twitched weakly at his joke and he grimaced as he took in Shadow's appearance. Blood was mixed with oil and grease, coating nearly every inch of Shadow's ebony fur with dark brown smog.

"Your bedside manner needs work Hedgehog," Shadow grunted a retort and he stood up, swatting away the hero's helping hand with impatience, "Where's the gunner?" He frowned over at Sonic and dragged a hand over his shoulder to apply pressure.

Sonic rubbed a sheepish hand through his quills and glanced over at Shadow, "He got away." He looked at the other hedgehog seriously, "Are you alright to be standing up like that? You've got a bullet in your arm." He wasn't going to tell Shadow about the woman who had Tails just yet. He would talk to him about her when Shadow wasn't supporting a hole in his arm.

"I'll be fine," Shadow pulled his palm away, "It was a clean shot." Ruby eyes eyed Sonic, "More importantly, we have a problem."

Sonic blinked in confusion, "Aside from the obvious?"

Shadow looked down at the thick water and nodded. A grim smirk flicked over his face and he eyed Sonic, "I found the Chaos emerald." He muttered, ignoring how Sonic hopped over to his side.

"Really?" The racer asked excitedly. Sonic wondered why this would be a problem, but the expression on Shadow's face stopped Sonic from asking.

Shadow pointed down to the murky waters.

"It's down below."

-::-