Advent of Equinox

Chapter Three - When Darkness Falls

“That isn’t me.”

Every word sounded like it was ground to powder as it came through Shadow’s tightly clenched teeth. Tails was staring at him as though he expected the winged hedgehog to flip out and kill everybody at any moment.

Sonic seemed to recover first, “Any idea who it could be, Shads?” the blue hedgehog was privately wondering if Shadow now knew how he had felt when the Ultimate Lifeform had first shown up – identity theft was no fun at all.

Of course, the question here also was who really was the real Shadow. Was it the one who actually looked like it, or… Sonic’s eyes briefly flitted over the form of the winged hedgehog before him, saw the taloned fists clenched with suppressed rage and knew he had already made up his mind. Those red eyes were filled with that burning fury he’d already witnessed before, and then there had been that moment when Sonic had found him, curled up and shivering – and the hero of Mobius was sure no clone could have faked that brief flash of fear and pain brought on by scarred memories he’d seen in the gaze of the other.

And even if he is a clone – he certainly thinks he’s the real Shadow and as such, he deserves my help. I swear, when I find out who did this…

Shadow met Sonic’s stare as if he had heard the other’s thoughts. The blue hedgehog wondered for a moment whether there even seemed to be the tiniest bit of relief  in it that Sonic was not about to question the other’s identity…

Shadow’s forehead creased in thought, “The Doctor - he had some… copies of me,” he said, somewhat hesitantly. Inside his head, thoughts and emotions were already tumbling over one another in the haphazard fashion of a tornado, tearing at barely-healed inner wounds like a tempest at the unprotected houses of a defenceless village.

Shadow stomped down on it hard.

That isn’t me. I won’t allow it to be.

He had been down that road one time too many already. He knew he was the real Shadow, even if he had woken up with those unnatural wings on his back. This was simply a copy. Had to be. Shadow’s clawed fists clenched even harder, the points of the talons now almost drawing blood as they dug into the skin of his palm.

I. Am. All of me.

Crimson eyes blazed as he held the emerald gaze of the other, daring the blue hedgehog to make a suggestion to the contrary. But there didn’t seem to be the slightest suspicion on Sonic’s part… Shadow swallowed, wondering where that strange feeling in the pit of his stomach could suddenly be coming from.

Tails piped up at this point, ears having pricked forward at Shadow’s words, “Copies?” the kit asked, “Like clones?”

Shadow shook his head, “I’m not certain if they were clones or robots.” He wasn’t about to divulge the fact that he’d been concerned for a while that he himself was actually one of those copies. They didn’t need that kind of information, and Sonic certainly didn’t need more ammunition.

Sonic snorted, “Sounds like ol’ Eggman’s style. He’s got a thing for robot doubles.”

“So what do we do, Sonic?” Tails asked, looking trustingly at his big brother, the years seeming to fall off him as all signs of his wisdom and ability as a scientist and engineer seemed to drop away to reveal the young child he still was.

Sonic just shrugged, “We go check it out,” he replied easily.

“How do you propose ‘we’ do that, Faker?” Shadow challenged him now only focused on the task at hand anymore as soon as he’d been able to rid himself of his other doubts, “I can’t run there and I still don’t know how to fly with these damn things.” The only other solution he could think of was Chaos Control – and he wasn’t sure he wanted to try using his Chaos powers in this state; the results could be unpredictable, ranging from a simple backlash to possibly even ending up in another dimension entirely.

“That’s easy, we take the Tornado.” Sonic replied brightly, flashing a grin at Shadow, whose expression darkened. Sonic was still treating this so… casually, in a way that almost offended Shadow. He didn’t find this in the least bit funny. He was just barely suppressing a terrible urge to find this impostor and grind him beneath his foot. How dare someone take his name and his form?! HE was the Ultimate Lifeform, not this inferior production-line copy!

“Um…” Tails shot an apprehensive glance at the glowering Shadow apparently not quite convinced that he was who he claimed to be, “If it’s ok, I think I’ll stay here and supervise those tests.”

Sonic nodded, “Good idea, bro. We could use that info,” he said lightly, privately thinking that this was for the best. One of these Shadows had to turn out to be a fake, and no matter which one, he knew he didn’t want his kid brother anywhere near a possibly homicidal Ultimate Lifeform, copy or not. 

Tails visibly relaxed and rushed over to one of his workbenches, digging through the piles of gadgets and random circuitry scattered around until he retrieved a small black device which he handed over to Sonic.

“Here, Sonic. We can use this to keep in touch! Just clip it to your ear and we can talk anytime you want.” And I can tell you as soon as the results are through whether this Shadow’s the real one, his eyes seemed to add, even if it was obvious from his demeanour alone. The black hedgehog pretended not to care.

Sonic did as he was told, the small device looking a bit like a large black insect perched inside Sonic’s ear to Shadow’s jaded eyes.

“Cool.” Sonic smiled, ruffling his brother’s head-fur playfully. Unlike Tails, he wasn’t particularly worried about the venture. Strange as it sounded even inside his own head, he trusted Shadow. He had no concerns - until night fell, anyway…

“I’ll let you know what the tests results are as soon as I have them, Sonic!” Tails promised as his brother smiled and headed down the stairs to the hangar.

“Wait just a minute, faker,” Shadow said as he started to follow Sonic down the stairs, his wings brushing against the walls as he did so, “If Tails is staying here, just who is going to fly the plane?” he demanded as he stepped through the lower door.

Sonic turned back to him, a mischievous glint in his eyes and a huge grin on his face, his teeth shining brightly in the dimly-lit underground hanger, “Well, duh – I am!”

‘Oh,’ thought Shadow, ‘That’s what your life flashing before your eyes looks like.’

Shadow stood frozen in horror as Sonic calmly went over and hit a switch on the wall, opening up the skylight above them then proceeding to do… some sort of pre-flight checks on the plane.

“You… you have to be kidding me,” Shadow protested weakly, “Do you even have a pilot’s licence?”

Sonic glanced at him, his expression half puzzled and half amused, “Well, sure, Shads. I’ve had a pilot’s licence since I was thirteen.” And was flying way before that, too, except that’s nothing any authorities need to know about.

Shadow blinked at him in surprise, Sonic’s trademark grin re-appeared, “Hey, the Tornado was mine before Tails came along – didja think I wouldn’t know how to pilot my own plane?”

From anyone else, that statement might have sounded gently mocking, but from Sonic’s mouth it was a strange mix of pride and genuine curiosity. Shadow’s form lost some of its tension, his feathers slowly smoothing out again as he tried to assume a pose of indifference, “I never really thought about it.”

Whatever Sonic’s reply might have been, it was lost in the sound of the Tornado’s engine as it roared to life and the loud noise of the hydraulic lift as it propelled the two hedgehogs and the plane upwards to the surface.

Shadow squinted in the sudden brightness of daylight, watching as the cluster of palm trees leading up to the cliff bent obediently out of the way to leave a long, smooth runway.

“Hop in, Shadow.” Sonic smiled, gesturing towards the back seat. Hesitantly, the black hedgehog approached the blue-painted bi-plane, he ruffled his wings, realising with dread that there was no really graceful way he was going to get into that narrow seat in his current… condition. With a sigh, he poured power into his jet shoes, grabbed hold of the edge of the seat and managed to pull himself up, inelegantly tumbling into the chair. He managed after some effort to right himself and proceeded to twist this way and that, trying to tuck the large, recalcitrant wings into the narrow space behind him.

“Everything ok back there?” Sonic asked over his shoulder and Shadow could just hear the amusement dripping from every word.

“Just peachy,” Shadow growled, his tone daring the blue hedgehog to make a comment and give Shadow an excuse to feed Sonic his own sneakers.

“Ready for take-off!” Sonic announced brightly as the engine noise rose from a hum to a roar and began to slowly taxi down the runway, gaining speed as it went, the cliff-edge rushing up to meet them until the plane tipped over the edge and began to fall towards the ocean. Shadow’s fingers briefly dug into the fabric of his seat but then Sonic did something with the controls and the plane levelled out and began to climb. It rose ponderously until it was sailing through the clouds, the landscape below them skimming past. Shadow actually found himself relaxing as the cool breeze whipped through his quills and his feathers. Sonic had actually managed to shut his mouth for two minutes, and so it was… peaceful. He looked down to watch the sun reflected on the rippling ocean waves. A fierce urge to be able to do this under his own power swept over him and he suddenly couldn’t wait to find Rouge and learn how to do this properly, to soar like this, finally free…

He tore his gaze away from the dancing light over the ocean surface and searched for something else to occupy his thoughts. This sudden yearning wasn’t natural; it wasn’t him, this need for the sky, for open spaces. He needed a distraction.

Unfortunately, the only distraction available up here on a plane cruising at 10,000 feet was Sonic.

Shadow had never been an expert at starting up a conversation, but usefully their current situation provided him with a helpful opening, “So, if you have a licence, why don’t you fly this thing more often?”

“Hmm?” Sonic replied absently, fiddling with something on the console in front of him, “Well, Tails enjoys it way more than I do, it's kinda slow for me. An' Tails made loads of weird modifications to it; I don't even know what some of this stuff does, so I’m flying just on compass and air-speed indicator,” Sonic explained, gesturing vaguely towards the instruments.

That triggered a vague memory in Shadow’s mind, something he remembered reading about long ago, “Dead reckoning? You’re navigating by dead reckoning?” Shadow demanded, disbelieving. That involved mathematics, relatively complex mathematics at that, he had seriously trouble believing Sonic was capable of it. After all, the hedgehog usually seemed incapable of even understanding the simple equation of Highway + Incline = Not Intended For Skateboarding.

“Well, kinda. I’m used to figuring out how fast I’m going, and I know roughly what direction I need, so the rest is just making sure I take bearings every so often.”

The matter-of-fact tone completely threw Shadow, making him almost want to entirely re-assess the blue hedgehog in the cockpit.

“There is one thing that makes piloting the Tornado completely awesome, though,” Sonic commented, cutting into Shadow’s thoughts.

“What’s that?” Shadow asked curiously, wondering if he was going to get another insight into the blue hedgehog’s mind.

“This!” Sonic replied, suddenly pulling the stick back and sending the plane into a loop-de-loop that had Shadow yelping and clinging to his seat, his claws digging into the leather and plastic, Sonic’s crazy laughter ringing in his ears.

Scratch ‘re-assessment’. Think ‘Assassination’.

A short while later, long after they levelled out and Shadow regained his composure somewhat (after first venting his spleen at the crazed blue hedgehog at the controls, threatening, among other things, to stuff and mount his dead body as a hood ornament on the Tornado’s nose…) the city of Westopolis loomed into view over the horizon and Sonic set the plane into a long, shallow dive.

“Almost there,” Shadow commented, the muscles of his wings tensing up almost unconsciously at the thought of what would await him at their destination. 

“Yeah,” Sonic replied, glancing apprehensively towards the western horizon where the sky was just starting to turn orange, “And the sun will go down in an hour or so.”

Shadow glanced at him curiously, noticing the sudden tension in the other hedgehog’s shoulders, “So?”

“… it’s nothing, Shadow. No problem.” Sonic replied, a trace of uncharacteristic hesitation in his tone, “Hold on, we’re coming in to land.”

The rubber plane wheels screeched as they struck the concrete floor of the empty building lot where Sonic had brought them down. Shadow scrambled out of the seat and jumped down, his wings catching him slightly and slowing his fall, making him feel oddly light on his feet for a moment. He looked around. They were on the outskirts of the commercial district. The Bank wasn’t far away, even in his altered state he could make it there quickly.

“We’re not far,” Shadow said tersely, black ears twitching for any sounds out of the ordinary. 

“Lead on, Shads,” Sonic said with a gesture, apparently curious as to what the black hedgehog’s plan was.

Shadow shook his head, irritation crossing his face again as he felt the weight against his back, “I’m too slow like this,” he said and almost bit his tongue off. He couldn’t believe had just uttered those words, and to Sonic of all people. Sonic, oddly, said nothing, just stared at him, his eyes half amused and half sympathetic. Shadow looked away, “Go on ahead and have a look around. I’ll follow as fast as I can.”

“Okay, Shads,” Sonic said with a thumbs-up, “I’ll circle the perimeter and check back with you if I can’t find that other Shadow. See ya later!” He turned and shot off, the backwash of air making Shadow’s wings fan out. The Ultimate Lifeform moved to follow at a considerably more sedate pace when he heard a noise.

A faint ‘swoosh-swoosh’ that was very familiar to Shadow’s ears, since up until earlier today, he had heard it every time he ran anywhere.

He turned and his eyes widened when he found himself looking at… himself.

The copy was racing towards him, the bottom of his – its – rocket shoes glowing deep red, body leaned forward as it skated smoothly, arms and legs in perfect synchronisation. The movements were achingly familiar to Shadow, almost as natural to him as breathing.

But, despite the perfection of the motions, there was still something very wrong. The copy’s eyes were cold, empty of any intelligence beyond a kind of animal cunning, filled instead with a dreadful purpose.

I knew it. Shadow thought, feeling the cold knot of apprehension inside dissolve as that particular doubt was cast aside once and for all, but another formed almost simultaneously. This… thing moved as perfectly as he himself, and he was seriously incapacitated… why did Sonic have to run off now of all times?!

Shadow was almost tempted to hit himself as soon as he caught himself feeling worried about a fight and hoping for the blue idiot’s assistance of all things.

The clone had slowed down now, its gaze narrowing as it regarded Shadow, eventually stopping. Shadow automatically dropped into a defensive stance, wobbling slightly when the weight of his wings once more knocked him off balance. He growled and the clone cocked its head to one side as if assessing him, its eyes glittering icily, calculation in their garnet depths.

Shadow tensed as he saw the clone’s weight shift. He gathered up the ambient chaos power in the air as the clone leapt suddenly towards him with deadly grace. The winged hedgehog thrust out a hand, channelling the violent, deadly power of chaos through his palms and shouted;

“Chaos Spear!”

Nothing happened.

Shadow didn’t even have time to cry out his surprise before the clone crashed into him with stunning force. Moving with the momentum, he managed to avoid the worst of it, shifting his centre of balance to toss the copy over his shoulder in a smooth judo throw, the movement so automatic that Shadow momentarily forgot that the other hedgehog would hit his wings before it hit the ground.

One of the clone’s hands grabbed the top of one of his pinions as it began its descent, fingers wrapping around, digging roughly through the feathers and into the fine membrane of skin. Shadow shrieked the terrible echoing screech of a bird in agony as he felt the bone bending under the weight of his clone, pulling him backwards as the fingers tore into the delicate flesh. Shadow half turned and reached back with one taloned hand to slash at the arm that held him. He was rewarded with an animalistic hiss of furious pain as the grip on his wing was abruptly released, allowing him to stumble forward slightly. He regained his balance, backing off quickly to re-assess his options.

The clone was glaring at him, greenish blood dripping from the wounded arm but otherwise showing no particular sign of distress, bared teeth glinting as fiercely as his eyes in the bloody glow of the setting sun. Shadow, on the other hand, felt his mind in turmoil. None of his usual tactics were applicable here. He had no Chaos powers, he couldn’t use his gun and even the most basic attack in the form of a simple spin dash was denied to him in this form.

He snarled in frustrated rage as the clone began to move in for another attack. His right wing was throbbing with unaccustomed pain; he could feel warm blood as it began to seep into his feathers. He held his wings as still as he could to avoid jarring them any further. The copy closed slowly in on him, moving like a large predator that was only further excited by the smell of its victim’s wounds.

With no other options available, Shadow did the only other thing he could think of; he turned tail and fled further into the abandoned industrial estate. The red-orange light of sunset bathed the empty concrete ground as Shadow lurked, taking refuge in the deep shadows cast by the evening light underneath an old, rusted fire escape, desperately trying to think up other options. For only the second time in his life he was involved in a battle where he had no idea what to do.

The sound of metal on concrete reached his ears and he turned to see the clone’s eyes glinting with reflected amber light. Shadow braced himself, ignoring the pain from his wounded wing, fully prepared to go hand-to-hand with this creature if he needed to. He was the Ultimate Lifeform! He was NOT prepared to lose to this thing!

The copy charged at him, jet shoes hissing over the ground. But then, Shadow suddenly felt a rush of wind as the air was simultaneously pierced by both an attack and a high-pitched, female yell:

“DRILL KICK!”

A white-booted foot met the clone’s head with impressive force, knocking it bodily to the ground, the gemstone it had had concealed within its quills bouncing away to land on the concrete with a faint ‘clink’.

“I’ll take that!” The female Mobian said as she landed, snatching up the gem and gazing at it admiringly. She placed one booted foot on the clone’s chest, “You gonna behave now, sweetie?” she asked the semi-conscious clone mockingly.

“Thank you, Rouge,” Shadow said softly, still hiding within the gloom.

Rouge’s head whipped around. She stared into the darkness, her body tensing up when all she saw was a pair of red eyes in the shadows.

“Shadow…?” She asked cautiously, her body still poised for an attack. “C’mon out where I can see you, Shadow,” she coaxed, though her body language still didn’t match the tone of her words.

Slowly, reluctantly, Shadow stepped out of the darkness and into the fading orange sunlight. Rouge’s eyes widened when she saw him. Shadow braced himself for a barrage of questions, but Rouge simply pursed her lips speculatively and began walking in a slow circuit around Shadow's altered form, stepping over the clone still twitching weakly on the ground, one hand reaching out to lightly trail across the feathers as Shadow tried hard not to squirm. “Not bad, Shadow,” she said with a smile, “I like the new look - but what happened?” She glanced down at the clone’s still from, “And I'm taking a wild guess that the bank job earlier was him and not you?”

“Good guess,” Shadow replied, his casual tone matching hers in the way he usually talked to the female bat he lived and worked together with, “But you weren’t just guessing, were you?” he asked, and couldn’t quite conceal a small undertone of something akin to hope in his words…had one of the few people on the planet he’d like to call his friend actually recognized him?

 “Of course I wasn’t, Shadow,” she replied, before a small smirk tugged at the edge of her mouth to reveal the tip of a fang. “After all, I see your scowling face day in and day out at my club. I knew this had to be the real you - even if you do look like you’re about to star in a nativity play,”

The black hedgehog relaxed just a bit, “…thank you. To answer your questions, I’m not sure exactly what happened yet, either. Tails is still doing tests. Sonic speculated it might be to do with that strange eclipse.”

Rouge raised an eye-ridge, “Sonic’s with you?” she asked, surprised.

“I sure am!” A cheerful voice said from behind them. The relentlessly cheerful hedgehog jogged over to them, waving amiably to Rouge.

"Hey, Rouge!" Sonic said, "What did I miss?" he asked, before suddenly noticing the clone on the floor. “Oh. Quite a bit, apparently….”

"I could ask you the same question," Rouge said, setting one hand on her hip, she gestured towards Shadow and the clone, "Care to explain what's going on?"

"Well, I can't help you much with Shadow's evil twin over there," Sonic said easily, pointing to the copy, "We came here to check that out. As for Hedge-hawk over there…" he grinned at Shadow, who glowered darkly, "Well, we think its somethin' to do with that Eclipse, similar to what happened a month ago."

Rouge gave Sonic a curious look, “You mean all the earthquakes we had? The land splitting apart? There’s been nothing like that this time. Besides, I don’t see what this has to do with Shadow’s new look. Or with this.” She held up the Emerald she was holding to show it to them. The gem still looked perfect, a flawlessly cut sapphire crystal, but it looked… odd. The Chaos Emeralds usually glowed with their own inner fire, but there was no radiance from this gem; the only light that shone through its perfect facets came from the wan radiance of the last rays of the sun and the dull glow of the orange streetlamps that were slowly flickering to life around them.

“What happened to the Chaos Emerald?” Shadow asked with some concern. If the Emeralds were affected, that might just explain why his own powers were short-circuiting.

“It happened last time,” Sonic explained, “There was somethin’ about the balance between Light and Dark Gaia going out of whack.” Sonic blinked, then looked more closely at Shadow, “Hey, Shads, you’re hurt!” the blue speedster reached out, stepping forward to inspect the wound. Shadow recoiled, backing away.

“I’m fine,” the black hedgehog said through gritted teeth.

An uncharacteristically hard look came into Sonic’s eyes, “C’mon, Shadow, stop makin’ this so difficult for both of us, huh? Let me help you,” he insisted, ignoring a faint snort from Rouge in the background, indicating the bat knew that the proud black hedgehog would let himself be helped by anybody as soon as pigs flew – but, then again…

Shadow struggled against the urge to retreat, knowing it would be hopeless – he couldn’t outrun Sonic now. His breath quickened. He felt helpless, and it was not a feeling he enjoyed and he certainly didn’t want to feel like this in front of his rival and one of his tiny collection of friends. He despised feeling vulnerable. Shadow stood frozen, his mind and body torn by conflicting impulses as Sonic slowly approached.

“Easy, Shads,” Sonic said calmly as he drew in closer, his tone akin one of an experienced handler approaching a hurt animal, “I just wanna see how bad you got hurt.” Sonic’s gloved hand touched his wing, and he twitched. He closed his eyes, trying to ignore the entire thing, until he felt Sonic’s other hand, gently patting another part of his wing in a gentle, soothing rhythm. His body seemed to relax, the calming strokes against his feathers relaxing him as Sonic inspected his wound.

“Doesn’t seem too bad,” the blue hero reported as he slowly drew his hands away, carefully smoothing the bent feathers back into place. Shadow opened his eyes, regarding the other hedgehog, confusion in his ruby stare. Whatever questions were implicit in Shadow’s eyes, Sonic ignored them, instead turning to stare out across the city, “Though I don’t think you’ll need to worry about it for too much longer,” Sonic said, nodding towards the horizon, where the last slivers of the sun had finally vanished beneath the landscape.

"What are you talking about, Fake-" his caustic question was interrupted when he felt a sudden ache in-between his shoulder blades. The ache quickly turned into a mildly burning, itching sensation, Shadow writhed, trying to be rid of the uncomfortable feeling. The amber-coloured gem around his neck glittered, then burst into a sudden brightness the illuminated the entire area. Rouge and Sonic looked on with goggle-eyed expressions as a strong wind rose, twisting and swirling around Shadow, tugging and pulling at his wings and quills as it grew more intense, blowing like a miniature whirlwind.

A sudden burst of black and white feathers obscured the black hedgehog from view and the phantom winds subsided as quickly as they had arisen, leaving Shadow standing there, gasping and wingless, looking as he had before this entire mess started.

There was dead silence for a moment before Rouge took a breath and said;

"What the HELL was that?"

"As soon as we figure it out, you'll be the first to know!" Sonic replied, his tone superficially cheerful as usual, but Shadow could just pick out some kind of dark undercurrent to the words.

Shadow and Rouge looked at the blue hedgehog, who was apprehensively scanning the sky, "What are you looking for, Sonic, UFOs?" she asked with a smirk, curious about this slightly odd behaviour - peculiar even for Sonic.

"The moon," Sonic replied, tension clear in his usually relaxed voice.

Rouge and Shadow exchanged a puzzled look, "It's Autumn and we're on the west coast, Sonic. The moon won't rise for another half hour or so, yet."

The tension seemed to ooze out of Sonic's form and he smiled at them suddenly, "Heh, that's good."

"Why? What aren't you saying, Faker?"

"Nothing, I… hey! Where did that copy go?"

"What?" Shadow demanded, quickly looking around, "Damn!" Shadow cursed, "It must have escaped when you two were gawking at me."

"Hey, don't blame us, Shads. Your personal bishie wind was pretty distracting…" Sonic said with just a trace of a grin. Privately, of course, he couldn’t help but marvel again at the unfairness of the universe – if he had gotten a transformation scene like this, it would probably end up looking like an exploding ball of fur, which wouldn’t be half as cool.  

Shadow, oblivious to this, rounded on him, holding up his left hand with the tips of his fingers exposed through his torn gloves, glowing yellow-gold with Chaos Energy, crackling faintly in the cool evening air, "My what?" he demanded in a dangerously quiet voice.

Rouge stepped between them, holding out her hands to separate them, "Now, now, boys," she chided, "Fighting amongst ourselves won't help anything."

"Hmph. Fine," Shadow said shortly. He lowered his hand, staring at it and flexing his fingers curiously.

"Something wrong, Shadow?" Rouge asked.

He frowned, "When I was… changed… I couldn't use my Chaos Spear. I'm not sure any of my Chaos powers were working in that form," he explained, "I was wondering if it was connected to what seems to have happened to the Emeralds, but my powers seem to be functioning again."

"Hmm," Rouge said thoughtfully, her own black wings flicking in contemplation.

"Maybe it’s a trade-off?" Sonic suggested, "You get some other cool stuff at the expense of not being able to use your Chaos abilities?" There was an odd certainty behind the suggestion that made Shadow suspicious. Sonic definitely knew more than he was saying, which was unusual for the talkative hedgehog. Getting him to speak up had never been a problem before - quite the reverse in fact. Sonic had a secret, and while he had managed to keep the actual secret safe, concealing the fact that he had one was quite outside Sonic's capabilities.

"I fail to see exactly what advantages those chaos-damned wings gave me," Shadow growled back.

"Oh, relax, Shadow," Rouge said, lightly tapping him on the arm, "I'll give you a few flying lessons and then you'll see!” Glancing over at Sonic she added: “Has he tried flying yet?”

“Uh-huh. Went straight into a poplar,” Sonic replied, sounding disproportionally cheered by that fact. 

"Yeah, assuming I'll even need them, now," Shadow snapped, folding his arms and directing a death glare at the blue speedster. He wondered briefly whether Sonic would be quick enough to dodge a Chaos Spear if he threw it right now…

"Trust me, Shads, this isn't over yet." Sonic said in a strangely grim tone, immediately snapping Shadow out of his imagined revenge scenarios "So, what now? What were you even doing out here, Rouge?"

"GUN sent me, of course. Speaking of that, I better report in," Rouge said, "Commander Bennett will want to know what happened over here."

Shadow cocked an eye-ridge at her, "They put Bennett in charge?"

"Sure. After Graves made such a mess of the Black Arms incident, he got kicked upstairs and Bennett was assigned to replace him as Field Commander."

"Hmph," Shadow grunted, "We might actually have someone marginally sane to speak to for once."

"With GUN that sure makes a nice change," Sonic agreed, not having forgotten being chased down a city hill by a giant truck crashing through cars, fire hydrants and the occasional stray cat.

"You two boys want to come along?" Rouge suggested, "Shouldn't take too long, and my report will be more believable if you're there to back up my word," she smirked, "We wouldn't want GUN troops chasing you both down again, do we?"

Shadow rolled his eyes, "Fine," he said.

Sonic just shrugged, "Sure. Then we can head back and hear what Tails has to say about those tests."

“Follow me then, gentlemen,” Rouge said, taking a few quick jogging steps and then leaping into the air ahead of them. The two hedgehogs followed, Shadow reflecting somewhat resentfully on how Rouge made it look all too easy.

How come she can even lift *off* with wings about a tenth the size of mine?

It didn’t take them long to find the GUN soldiers stationed around the bank. Commander Bennett himself was fairly easy to spot – a tall human with dark hair and a slightly laconic air about him. He casually exuded a calm authority while all around him soldiers and police were swarming around, investigating the scene of attack, trying to chase away reporters and attempting to tentatively patch up the gaping hole in the wall - all the while having to deal with terrified citizens (not a few of whom seemed to forget their terror as soon as Sonic came into view and started shouting for autographs instead…). All three of the sapients were glad that at least the Commander provided a bit of a serene spot amongst the chaos. 

For the first time that Sonic could remember, dealing with GUN was fairly easy. There was none of the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ mentality he was used to (and none of the half-the-size-of-a-human-deserves-half-the-respect-of-a-human shtick, either…). Instead, Bennett listened quietly to Rouge’s report, asking for occasional points of clarification from Sonic or Shadow. The black hedgehog himself again answered much more sparsely than the blue speedster, privately wondering whether there would already be GUN’s scientists poking away at him if he had showed up in his earlier state.

When they had finished, Bennett folded his arms thoughtfully, “Hm. This could be a dangerous situation. If Doctor Robotnik is behind these attacks, then we need to be on our guard. I’ll inform GUN Central to be on the lookout for similar incidences. You’re correct that Robotnik does have a history of creating robot duplicates, and that’s enough of a security risk all by itself. I assume he will be your next port of call?” he asked, quirking a dark eyebrow at Shadow and Sonic.

“That was the plan,” Sonic replied easily, who actually hadn’t thought that far ahead yet but knew that at some point he’d have to deal with Robotnik again anyway.

“After we’ve done a little research, yes,” Shadow clarified with a slightly exasperated look at Sonic, whose ‘research’ usually only extended to ‘Where is that base, again?’ and not much further.

The GUN Commander nodded, “Then, if you don’t mind, I’d like to assign Rouge to act as liaison. She can keep GUN informed and can supply you with any intelligence we have about the situation.”

The three sapients exchanged a look. Rouge grinned and gave a half-shrug and Shadow nodded fractionally. Sonic smiled at Bennett, “Ok, sure.”

Bennett smiled, “Then I wish you all luck. We’ll try and keep Mobius safe while you’re busy.”

“I appreciate that.” Sonic smiled, taking the human’s larger hand in a firm handshake and giving him a thumbs-up with the other.

“I’ll join you boys in a minute,” Rouge said, “Just need to file that report and finish up a few things.”

The two hedgehogs nodded and turned to leave, running easily through the darkened streets back towards the Tornado. They paused for a moment when they reached the plane, Shadow was frowning, flexing his hands.

“Somethin’ wrong, Shads?” Sonic asked.

“It feels strange to have my fingers working again,” Shadow replied absently. “That, and my gloves are completely ruined.”

Sonic glanced over at the dark, star-speckled sky, hesitated briefly and then sighed. “Here, you can borrow mine for a while,” Sonic said, peeling off his own white gloves to reveal a set of surprisingly delicate fingers and offering them to Shadow.

Shadow could only stare. Most sapients didn’t wear much in the way of clothing, and since the little they did wear tended to be more for effect than practicality, what they did wear had acquired a strange kind of significance. Handing over one’s gloves was a highly symbolic act of trust, even of intimacy. Shadow hesitated, “Are you sure?” he asked, reluctant to take them.

“Yeah,” Sonic said with a wan smile, pushing them into Shadow’s hands, “Not gonna need ‘em in a minute anyway.”

Shadow frowned, “What is that supposed to mean?”

Sonic closed his eyes, tensing as if expecting a fight. He stepped away from Shadow and opened his eyes, a look of something very much like terror flickering across those emerald eyes for just a moment.

“This,” Sonic said as silvery light washed over the cracked concrete.

Tendrils of dark smoke seemed to wrap themselves around Sonic’s form. His muscles tensed up, bulging impossibly, veins throbbing with rapid pulse-beat. Sonic dropped to his knees, his face contorted into a grimace of intolerable pain even as his mouth began to distort, his teeth growing longer and sharper as they took on the aspects of a predator. Shadow looked on in horror, again not knowing what to do as Sonic writhed, the sound of creaking bones exploding in his ears. Shadow felt frozen, unable to do anything other than look on helplessly while the hero of Mobius’ hands turned into massive, monstrous paws. Moonlight bathed the thick shaggy pelt of fur that had sprouted over Sonic’s body as the altered hedgehog crouched, hunched-over and moaning as the transformation finally came to an end.

“Sonic?” Shadow asked, dumbfounded.

“I told you,” Sonic - or this new, bestial Sonic – said, even his voice dreadfully changed into a low, gravely bass. He looked up, a feral gleam briefly flashing across his eyes before he seemed to recover himself. “I told you I wouldn’t need those gloves.”

To be continued…

Author's Notes - Just to let you guys know, Taranea and Skyblaze will be attending this years 'Summer of Sonic' convention in London in August. If any of our readers is also going, please feel free to come over and say 'hi'. Skyblaze will be dressed as Blaze the Cat (in the company of Shadow). Taranea may well be dressed as Maria.

Hope to see some people there.