Chapter Text

Break Out

This time there was no excited chatter to fill the expectant atmosphere, instead the group was staring impatiently ahead, only waiting for the next movie to start.

They had already been waiting a short while, most of them just stuck in their own thoughts.

Sonic and Knuckles were still turning their image of family over in their heads. Especially the last scene right before the credits was making them ponder what could have been.

Tails was already brimming with nervous energy, thinking about what they were going to do after the projection. The voice had said that this was the last movie- would they just be sent back?

The kit had learned a lot… but he wanted to know more!

Internally he willed himself to pay extra much attention during this movie- who knows what kind of things they would learn?

Rouge was eager to find out how this movie was going to portray Shadow.

The black hedgehog was her best friend. She was probably the person that knew him best.

And she still had no idea what version of him was awaiting them.

Amy was looking forward to seeing more family moments.

Hopefully there were more moments of Tom and Maddie acting like parents.

If the trio was actually acting like siblings in this projection- she was just not at all prepared for the cuteness that would follow!

Shadow was honestly not sure what he was feeling right now.

On one hand he was actually sort of… honoured that whoever made these movies had chosen him to appear in the next movie. But on the other hand he really did not want to relive his past.

He already had been doing that enough in the past years.

…And it was not like the black hedgehog could actually leave once it became too much for him. He absolutely did not like that.

Shadow had to deal with this sooner or later.

The void around them finally darkened again, marking the beginning of the projection.

The white bright void around them darkened until the group was surrounded by pitch black darkness.

Once more golden rings flew towards them, illuminating with a soft light. The rings zoomed over a gigantic lake before stopping at the top of a snowy mountain.

They formed a semi-circle as large floating letters appeared inside, spelling ‘Paramount’. The scene faded back to black.

Music began to play as a pixelated Sonic running through Green Hills was shown. Zooming out more and more videos appeared, some of Sonic, others of strange and unfamiliar scenes.

The SEGA logo appeared before also fading out.

“You know,” Amy shook her head slowly, still staring at those small scenes shown. “At first I thought these videos looked kind of weird but I’m starting to get used to them.”

Sonic glanced at her for a moment, “What? The pixel thing?”

The pink hedgehog shrugged, “More like the ‘There are a lot of different worlds where a Sonic is running around’ thing. Kinda makes more sense now.”

“Oh.” Sonic nodded, frowning. “...I guess it does?”

White letters appeared, telling the group that the next scene was taking place on ‘PRISON ISLAND’.

Slowly the camera moved up, revealing a lone island in the middle of the ocean. It was dark and cloudy, clearly taking place at night. 

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

The camera panned closer to the island, the only building- a military base -was as big as the entire island.

Several new letters joined the former, spelling ‘Tokyo Bay, Japan’.

“Japan?” Sonic frowned. “Why are we in Japan?”

“At least we’re at a location that’s recognizable by name.” Rouge shrugged.

Knuckles interrupted, looking confused, “No, but actually- Why does it have an English name if it's in Japan?”

“Maybe it’s English based?” Tails guessed.

Shadow pinched his nose in frustration, “I have a feeling that we’re seeing my counterpart sooner rather than later.”

The group frowned at the black hedgehog but nobody said anything to contradict him, so the projection continued.

The scene cut to the inside of the military base, following a G.U.N. agent holding a tablet through the halls.

He walked past multiple soldiers at their posts, all armed with weapons as they stood guard before entering a room through a heavy door.

Inside the room the G.U.N. soldier walked up to a control panel where another agent was already sitting, watching something through the glass. The sitting agent was eating a doughnut.

The soldier put his tablet down, cheering, “Oh, yes! You got donuts.”

“I already ate all the Boston Cream.” The other agent did not look up from the glass to crash the soldier’s hopes.

Knuckles snorted, “Ah, yes. The real problems: Your favourite flavour is already gone.”

“You’re laughing.” Sonic shook his head, mock-serious. “But that happens to millions of people daily! Think of the children, Knux!” The blue hedgehog chuckled.

Stopping dead in his tracks, the soldier stared at the agent, annoyed, “Kyle!”

The agent in question, Kyle, shrugged sheepishly.

They both then turned to the glass, looking through at what was on the other side.

The camera moved over their shoulders and panned through the glass, moving into the room behind the glass.

“Oh.” Rouge frowned. “You were right, Shadow.”

On the other side in the center of the room stood a large tube, several pipes and tubes were connected to it, leading to all corners in the room. The tube was filled with some kind of see-through fluid, making the only inhabitant, Shadow the Hedgehog, float up and down in his cryogenic stasis.

The tube was lit up with red backlighting, making the scene look rather intimidating.

“Nothing against you, Shadow. But that red light makes everything look creepy.” Tails gasped, shaking his head.

Shadow flinched when the kit addressed him. Not noticeable, only enough for himself to notice and immediately he hated that he had done so.

The black hedgehog had been so busy staring at his on-screen counterpart, he had almost forgotten that he was in a void with… his friends.

This was going to be a long movie.

Amy nodded, “It doesn’t need the light. This whole situation is just… imprisoning someone who isn’t even aware of what’s happening? That’s just wrong.”

“I mean, the whole point of prisons is normally to think about your wrongdoings and do better in the future- so yeah, that’s a good point.” Sonic agreed.

“And they really made sure that Shadow is secure.” Rouge thought out loud, the frown from before still on her face. “There's an agent always watching the room, several armed soldiers are standing guard in front- we're in the middle of the ocean for Gaia’s sake!”

The bat pinched her nose, exhaling pure frustration.

“Imprisoning someone in the middle of the ocean is already cruel enough but you're right.” Sonic nodded.

Knuckles asked, “So this is GUNs work, right? They were the ones who found the Hedgehog and dragged him here?”

“Must be.” Tails agreed. “I’m more confused about this whole timeline thing. They said the location where they found Shadow is 50 years old, right? But GUN was only founded after Sonic made himself known on this planet… so, how could that be possible?”

Shadow sighed, “They’re good at lying, Fox.” The black hedgehog rubbed his temples, already feeling completely drained of all of his energy and they had barely started the movie. “They only told the Wachowskis that they were recently created but in reality, they’re decades old and were already working in the shadows. After all GUN is the reason why-”

He suddenly stopped, a pained expression on his face.

The others looked at him with a mixture between pity, expectance and worry.

Amy cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention to her, “Maybe we should continue watching?”

Sonic nodded, feeling just as awkward as the pink hedgehog looked, “Probably for the best, yes.”

The soldier glared ahead, “This place gives me the creeps.”

“At least I’m not the only one.” Tails joked but his attempt at lightening the mood fell flat when nobody laughed.

Kyle rolled his eyes, “Relax. That Popsicle hasn’t moved in 50 years.”

Shadow narrowed his eyes, glaring at the two agents, “...Popsicle?”

“Oh, come on, Shads.” Sonic grinned at the black hedgehog. “They just think you’re cool.”

“...Did you just… make a pun?” Shadow stared at the blue hedgehog, more confused than actually offended.

Sonic’s grin widened, eagerly nodding at the other hedgehog who only continued staring at him. After a moment or two, Sonic rolled his eyes, “Ice cold reception honestly.”

The others chuckled, all relieved that Sonic was always good at making things seem lighter.

Even Shadow had actually snorted, making the blue hedgehog insanely proud of himself.

The camera cut back to Shadow, so close to the tube that you could actually make out each individual bubble that floated to the top.

Shadow remained motionless.

“Do you guys remember Tom’s job of testing the speed of an empty road?” Knuckles chuckled. “I think this job is actually a contender for the title of most boring job in the world.”

Rouge snorted, “You’re saying this now.” She shook her head, “In a few minutes someone will break Shadow out and they will have the fight of their lives.”

“Also I actually don’t think it’s that boring?” Amy frowned. “It’s actually kind of calming.”

Shadow raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms as he waited for the pink hedgehog to elaborate.

Sonic stared at Amy, looking a bit amused, “Watching Shadow sleep is calming?”

She deadpanned, “I meant the tube, Sonic. The tube.” She rolled her eyes. “I think it’s the whole water aesthetic."

The black hedgehog frowned, “The calming effect of water is kind of ruined when you spend a few decades stuck in it.”

Amy sighed, nodding, “Yeah, I can imagine so. I probably wouldn’t like listening to water either after that experience.”

“Hey, just saying:” Sonic wiggled his eyebrows at Shadow. “If you’re ever looking for someone to hate water with,” He pointed his thumbs back at himself, grinning. “I’m your guy.”

Shadow snorted, shaking his head, “Thanks, Hedgehog. What a brilliant value you have.” His voice was dripping in sarcasm which just made Sonic grin harder.

The blue hedgehog mock-bowed, “Why thank you, Other Hedgehog.”

From out of nowhere, soft guitar music began playing, interrupting the group chatting.

“Uh…” Tails turned around, confused. “Do you guys hear that?”

“Is that… a guitar?” Sonic also looked around for the source.

Shadow stirred slowly, almost like he was dreaming.

Imagines played around the group, too fast to actually be recognized but the feeling that was meant to be displayed was obvious: Home.

Whatever on-screen Shadow was thinking of, was his home.

A blond girl was playing the guitar. Shadow was holding hands with said girl while watching the stars under the moonlight. Shadow and her running through a dark corridor, only lit up with emergency lights while alarms blared around them. Something was following them. The two were holding hands- until they suddenly weren’t anymore.

Shadow took a few steps back, already feeling himself hyperventilate.

It was her.

This version of himself also had a Maria. And he had also lost her.

Typical. What else had he been expecting? That this universe was some kind of wonderland where at least one version of himself was happy?

Stupid. He had to urge to hit himself- or did he want to hide? Why hadn’t those alarms stopped? And why where they still so loud-

“-dow. Hey, Shadow.” Rouge’s voice cut through the blaring alarms like a sharp knife through butter.

Suddenly everything was quiet. Too quiet.

He sucked in a breath, more gulping down air than actually breathing. His eyes looked for the bat- why was his vision so blurry?

Something squeezed his hands- no, not something. Someone. Rouge.

“Shadow, it’s okay.” Rouge’s hands were holding onto him tightly. Comfort. She ran her fingers over his hands while the black hedgehog was still trying to get his breathing under control.

Inhale. Too much air. Exhale. Inhale. Not enough- drowning. Exhale- how did normal people breathe again?

When Shadow’s breathing finally stabilized, he took notice of the others, all standing a short distance away from him and Rouge, trying their best to not look in their direction.

They had huddled close together, keeping a conversation going about- whatever they were talking about. On the other side of the room.

Great. Now Shadow felt even more like an outcast.

He felt the shame rise up in himself- they were only trying their best. They didn’t know what he needed- Damn. He didn’t even know what he needed.

Shadow rubbed a finger over his eyes, wiping away the remaining wetness and looking back at Rouge who smiled at him. “There you are. Hey.”

The black hedgehog squeezed her hands back, nodding at her once to let her know she could finally let go of him. She held the contact for a moment before slowly letting go.

He could breathe a little bit easier now.

Rouge and him slowly approached the group. As soon as they were noticed, relieved and reassuring smiles were sent their way.

Amy’s smile looked a bit strained. In fact her whole body language appeared tense.

Before he could open his mouth to comment on it, maybe ask her If she was feeling alright, the bat pulled him closer and whispered in his ear, “Amy scolded the voice for not warning us about… you know. She pretty much screamed at the ceiling- at first it seemed pretty much like a lost cause but after a few minutes of screaming-”

Shadow raised his eyebrows. Minutes? How long had he been throwing his tantrum?

“-the voice actually answered and promised us it would warn us If something like that was shown again.” Rouge grinned at him widely. “It was actually really impressive. I always knew that Blue had a lot of respect for Pink over there but seeing her in action, actually showed me why.”

Shadow blinked in response, “...Okay?” His voice still sounded a bit raspy- was it from his crying or had he actually been screaming?

…He should stop thinking about this.

Giving Rouge another nod, she turned around to the group, clapping her hands together and smiling, “Alright, back to the projection!”

The others nodded back at her, they all turned back to the projection just in time for it to continue.

The scene cut back to the tube where Shadow was still floating unconsciously.

He scowled, furrowing his brow. His head jerked from one side to the other like the memories were still haunting him.

Suddenly a beeping sound echoed through the otherwise silent room and a monitor flickered on.

The soldier noticed the beeping, he asked confused, “Is that normal?”

“No.” Kyle lunged forward, looking worriedly at the monitor.

Tails gasped, running up next to the agent, also looking at the monitor, “A heartbeat?”

Knuckles asked, confused, “Wait, did Shadow wake just from the-”

Kyle moved his chair to a digital computer, quickly typing something. He looked frantic as he explained, “Someone’s hacking the system.”

“What?” The soldier looked like he couldn’t believe what was happening.

“Hacking the system?” Tails frowned. “So someone is trying to help Shadow escape?”

“Didn’t we already know that?” Amy tilted her head, asking. “Eggman and Rouge freed Shadow.”

“Yeah but Eggman is ‘dead’” Sonic used his fingers to put an air quote around the word ‘dead’, rolling his eyes.

Tails nodded, finishing the thought, “And we haven’t seen Rouge yet.”

Amy frowned, “But that doesn’t mean anything- Knuckles’ appearance was also a surprise to us.”

“True.” Knuckles agreed. “She could still show up.”

The digital computer in front of them began glitching, flashing a ‘SYSTEM OVERLOAD’ and ‘ACCESS DENIED’ warning before a red Eggman logo showed up on screen.

Sonic groaned, rubbing his face in frustration, “Seriously?” He turned to the group, loudly exclaiming, “I told you guys he wasn’t dead yet.”

“Nobody doubted you, Sonic.” Rouge shook her head. “Besides, who else would free Shadow except for Robotnik?”

Shadow sighed, finally voicing one of the fears that had been on his mind since he had heard that this projection was going to be about him, “So basically my counterpart will spend this whole projection just doing the doctor’s bidding?”

The others gave him a blank look, not knowing the answer either which made Shadow groan.

Knuckles chuckled, more out of sympathy than actually finding humour in the situation, “Welcome to the club, pal.” He softly patted the black hedgehog on the shoulder which Shadow actually allowed, too annoyed to shrug the echidna off.

Kyle removed his hands from the keyboard, looking helplessly at the screen that was still glitching before them. “The containment tank is destabilizing."

He turned to the soldier, looking scared as he said, “He’s waking up.”

“And he is definitely not going to be in a good mood.” Knuckles shook his head.

The bat lightly punched the echidna on the shoulder, “He can actually hear you.” She rolled her eyes at him before frowning at the projection, “I’m actually more worried about what they’re planning to stop Shadow from leaving.”

“Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure Shads can get through it.” Sonic quipped, not seeming that worried for GUN after what they had pulled last movie.

Shadow was just watching the scene with a fixed frown on his face. He was pretty sure his counterpart was about to go on a murder spree- and there was not a lot GUN could do to actually stop him.

…That definitely wasn’t a good thing.

But his counterpart being free from GUN’s influence was. Even If said murder spree was necessary for his escape:

And it was not like he had ever called himself a good person.

The soldier’s eyes widened in shock. As soon as the warning had set in, he dashed to a wall and pressed a red emergency button.

Immediately searchlights turned on, alarms wailing loudly- even across the entire island.

The camera cut to a large group of G.U.N. soldiers. They ran up to a weapon rack, each grabbed a gun and then headed down the hallways and into the containment room.

The group of soldiers surrounded the tank, all aiming their weapons directly at Shadow.

“That’s a lot of soldiers…” Tails frowned, appearing worried. “...and a lot of guns.”

Knuckles whistled, looking around the room a little bit impressed, “Yep. That’s bad.”

“A welcome committee, huh?” Sonic shook his head, quietly chuckling to himself.

The blue hedgehog was not worried at all. He had seen Shadow deal with far worse.

The beeping in the background became louder as Shadow’s heartbeat sped up, increasing to its normal speed.

Inside the tank, Shadow clenched his fists and twitched, almost thrashing from one side to the other.

The heartbeat was still increasing, surpassing its normal speed until the monitor suddenly stopped, the machine flatlining.

Shadow’s expression calmed, his furrowed brows softening again.

Sonic raised an eyebrow at the scene. He turned to Shadow, asking, very amused, “Is your counterpart honestly playing with his prey right now?”

Shadow snorted, “I don’t think he’s awake enough for that yet.” But his lips were twitching like he was trying to keep himself from smirking.

“That’s just the calm before the storm.” Rouge smiled, looking almost fond of what was happening right now.

As Shadow’s self-proclaimed best friend (He totally loved her- he just wouldn’t admit it while anyone was in earshot) she loved seeing moments like these:

Shadow taking back the reins and standing up for himself.

The bat almost felt like a proud mother, giddily waiting for the amazing fight that was surely still to come.

One of the soldiers loudly exhaled, relief clearly visible in his face.

A bubble inside the cryogenic fluid slowly rose to the top, past Shadow’s face. As soon as the bubble had passed, Shadow’s eyes shot open.

He narrowed his eyes, orange chaos energy burning inside them- then the hedgehog made a fist and punched through the glass.

Glass shards in all sizes flew towards the group of soldiers, the fluid following close behind. Some drops hit the cables, making the machinery spark and ignite, causing steam to fill the room.

The group flinched backwards, dodging the flying shards more out of reflex than actual fear.

Shadow scoffed, crossing his arms, internally challenging his counterpart, ‘Let’s see what you got.’

The soldiers took a few steps backwards, clearly taken off-guard with the tube shattering.

When all the fluid had finally left the tube, Shadow calmly walked out of the hole. He scowled at the soldiers as once more orange chaos energy glowed in his eyes.

And then Shadow suddenly vanished.

The group stared at the spot where Shadow had just been standing a moment before, shocked and confused.

“Uh…” Tails blinked but nothing changed. “Did Shadow’s counterpart just use Chaos Control?”

Amy frowned, “I mean… what else could it be?”

“Okay… that isn’t so weird.” Sonic muttered to himself, slowly nodded before turning to the group, asking, “Did anybody see him have a chaos emerald?”

“No.” Rouge shook her head. “Why would he even have an emerald? He just came out of the tank…”

“There is no way he has one. The Master Emerald is probably still with my counterpart and the other chaos emeralds… they’re probably still missing.” Knuckles frowned, rubbing the back of his head.

"Weren't those the same thing in this universe?" Amy asked.

The echidna shrugged, "He had no emerald. That's what counts."

For a long moment the group stayed silent, until Shadow spoke up who had been quietly thinking the scene over in his head.

“My counterpart has no emerald, he didn’t even mouth the words ‘Chaos Control’.” Shadow pointed this out like it was a logical conclusion that was not still turning the others’ world views on their heads. “This version of myself is able to teleport without an emerald.”

“That’s insane.” Sonic shook his head, frowning.

“More insane than your counterpart stopping time?” Shadow shrugged, appearing nonchalant.

Internally the black hedgehog was just as freaked out as the others- If his counterpart was actually capable of teleporting without an emerald… What else could he do? And what could he do with an emerald?

Sonic nodded slowly, “...I guess… that makes sense.”

The soldiers tensed, some of them even looking around to spot the vanished hedgehog; All in vain.

Everything stayed quiet for a few seconds.

And then Shadow re-appeared behind one of the soldiers, kicking him in the face with such a force that knocked him across the room in the blink of a moment before vanishing again.

Amy winced, following the soldier fly across the room with her eyes. That had probably hurt.

She knew that Shadow’s counterpart was just defending himself and she didn’t blame him one bit for doing so- but ouch.

“Oh… that’s…” Tails trailed off, not knowing what to say.

He definitely understood now why Sonic and Rouge had not seemed worried before.

Knuckles chuckled, “They’re definitely in danger now.”

The echidna had felt slightly amused by the manpower they had sent against the black hedgehog- but he got it now: They probably should have sent more.

The group of soldiers faltered in their positions, looking nervously around the room.

Shadow appeared again- this time directly in front of another soldier. He uppercutted him before quickly teleporting to a different one, also taking this one out before vanishing again.

This went on for a little while: The black hedgehog appeared, quickly took out whoever he was targeting and disappeared again, leaving the remaining soldiers scared and panicking.

When only one soldier was left, Shadow suddenly took his time to re-appear.

“Oh, he’s definitely enjoying this.” Sonic chuckled, shaking his head with amusement.

Amy threw him a glance that screamed ‘Are you sure?!’, frowning, she replied, “He’s acting out of self-defense.”

Sonic snorted, “Yeah, sure.” He nodded, smirk on his face, “But he’s also enjoying the fight though.”

“To be fair, it does look kinda fun.” Tails admitted, immediately looking a little bit guilty when the pink hedgehog gave him a stern look. “...I mean… objectively…”

Rouge laughed, “He’s probably having the time of his life.”

She turned to Shadow, wordlessly prompting him to agree with her and after a moment he sighed, relenting, “...He’s doing okay.”

The bat rolled her eyes, making Shadow shrug. Did she honestly think he would compliment a stranger just because he was an alternate version of himself? Tough luck.

The remaining soldier looked around fearfully. He turned his back to the broken tank and faced the room, pausing to hear any noises that would give away Shadow’s location.

A popping sound came from behind him.

Visibly shaken, he slowly turned around- only for Shadow to punch him directly in his face once fully turned, flying so far he hit the observation window, cracking the glass.

Inside the observation room, Kyle and the soldier from before flinched back, staring in fright at the now cracked window.

“Wait. They’re still here?!” Tails gasped.

Knuckles shook his head, disbelieving, “I can’t believe they haven’t left yet.”

“And all they did was just watch the fight go down, huh?” Sonic chuckled. “That’s… quite a strategy.”

“Sonic, don’t be mean.” Amy sighed. “They had no idea that Shadow was this strong.”

“Or could teleport.” Sonic added gleefully. His voice then dropped a bit lower, sounding almost jealous, “...without an emerald.”

The pink hedgehog rolled her eyes, “...Or that.”

The two men slowly approached the cracked window again, peeking through apprehensively.

Kyle gasped, disbelieving of what he had just seen, “We need more guys.”

The soldier glanced at Kyle and back at the cracked window, “...That is all the guys.”

Shadow snorted. Seriously? 

About ten soldiers was all they got? At maximum fifteen people? Really?

He honestly wished his GUN was as incompetent as this universe’ institution. It would have made a lot of situations way easier to handle.

“Damn.” Knuckles muttered, looking extremely impressed. “They were either extremely underprepared-”

“Or Shadow’s counterpart is just that good.” Rouge finished, smirking.

Sonic grinned, “Either way: Shadow is free!”

“Yippie!” Tails cheered, smiling widely.

The soldier that had hit the broken glass, slowly fell to the ground.

Cutting to the outside of the military base, where a thunderstorm was raging on. 

Debris came flying when a wall exploded in a fiery fashion. From the dust emerged Shadow, calmly walking to the ledge of the island. He paused, staring ahead.

The camera turned, showing to the audience what the black hedgehog had been looking at: A city skyline.

Tails glanced at the city and back at on-screen Shadow, “Uh… so what’s the plan here?”

“Except for reaching land and getting off this island, you mean?” Amy raised an eyebrow at the kit.

The fox rolled his eyes, “I meant like: Does he want to go unnoticed? Because going to a city this big will probably cause him to get noticed pretty quickly.”

“Oh.” Amy frowned. “Yeah, you’re right about that…”

“On the other hand, Shadow instantly being spotted means that my counterpart will get here quicker.” Sonic shrugged.

Knuckles snorted, “So we can watch him get his ass kicked by Shadow’s counterpart. What a joy.”

“Hey!” Sonic glared at the echidna.

“What? You think your counterpart can take him?” Knuckles raised an eyebrow at the blue hedgehog. After a brief moment of silence, he added, “After my counterpart beat him in like- what- a few seconds?”

Sonic narrowed his eyes at the echidna who only stared back, challenging. He then relented, “...I’m pretty sure it was at least a few minutes but okay. You’re right.” He rolled his eyes. “I actually thought that maybe Shads and my counterpart are a bit smarter than us and will actually talk instead of fight.”

Shadow snorted, shaking his head in disbelief, “There is no way that that will ever happen.”

“Only in an ideal world, Blue.” Rouge agreed with the black hedgehog.

Shadow wasted no time, immediately teleporting himself off the ledge and straight onto the water surface. He then proceeded to hover skate over the water in the mainland’s direction.

The camera focused onto his face, displaying the determined look at a closer view.

“Am I the only one that thinks it is weird that Eggman didn’t stop him?” Tails pointed out, frowning.

Rouge nodded, “The fact he wasn’t there to guide Shadow from the moment he stepped out of that tank is really strange.”

“That is really not Eggman’s style.” Sonic agreed, “He usually loves to manipulate people one on one.”

“Maybe he’s doing something simultaneously and wants the distraction?” Amy guessed.

Shadow shook his head, “Or he wanted to see what my counterpart would do without any input. To get a feel for him first before meeting him.” He sighed deeply.

Shadow continued moving towards the camera, while the camera zoomed into his red eyes, still burning with the use of his chaos energy.

His red iris changed into a red whirl that turned until its colour changed to mostly black. The top of the whirl had blue highlights while the bottom glowed red.

The whirl moved further into the background as the title of the movie appeared, reading, ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’. 

‘Sonic’ was written in his signature blue colour, his spikes visibly forming the hole in the ‘c’. The other part was spelled with white letters except for the number that was coloured bright red.

“I have to admit: That transition was extremely cool.” Sonic nodded at the projection, looking impressed.

Tails nodded, “And Shadow charging directly at the camera was scary. Hope they don’t do that ever again.”

Shadow raised an eyebrow at the kit who rolled his eyes in response, “What? You’re intimidating- you know that!” The fox did not look even a bit embarrassed by admitting that.

The black hedgehog shrugged. He did like to make people fear him- but it was not like he was actually trying to intimidate people.

Often others would just look at him and be scared of what he could do- he had gotten used to that.

Rouge hummed, changing the topic, “I wonder If GUN will try to take Shadow’s counterpart down first or If Sonic will directly intervene?”

Amy shrugged, gesturing to the projection, “It’s not like we need to wait long.”

Chapter Text

Race Ya

Amy was right, there barely was a waiting period between this scene and the last.

After the title disappeared, the scene opened up in the Green Hills Forest in broad daylight.

The sudden light of this scene made the group blink, a mixture between disorientation and confusion filled the space.

Sonic groaned loudly, covering his eyes with his gloves. He muttered something about blinding lights but no one was paying attention to him.

“Where are we?” Amy blinked rapidly, only looking more confused when the sudden blinding light was replaced with green. “Trees? …Are we in a forest?”

“A forest?” Tails frowned, thinking for a moment before lighting up, “Oh! Green Hills is surrounded by a giant forest. I guess, this is it?” He gestured around.

Knuckles didn’t look impressed with the kit’s deduction, “Or… it’s only a random forest.”

The fox stuck his tongue out, making the echidna roll his eyes.

Amy meanwhile hummed in acknowledgement, barely listening to them while she looked around more closely.

Finally she spotted on-screen Tails and Knuckles standing next to each other. They were staring each other down.

The pink hedgehog smiled, pointing, “And there they are.”

The others followed her gaze and also noticed the fox kit and echidna.

“Why do they look like they’re ready to fight?” Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

Sonic snorted, “As If you’re not also always ready to fight.” The echidna chuckled in response, not denying the accusation.

“It looks more like they’re challenging each other.” Rouge laughed.

Amy clapped her hands together, excited. The projection had barely started and they were already seeing a brotherly competition?

She hoped there was more light-heartedness along the line. The pink hedgehog had a feeling they were going to need it.

Tails dropped into a running start pose. He fluffed out his twin tails while narrowing his eyes, staring ahead with a determined look on his face.

The same look could also be found on Knuckles’ face.

The echidna pounded his fists into the ground, readying himself to go fast.

Sonic’s eyes lit up with excitement, a grin already on his face, “Oh, it’s a race!”

“Great.” Knuckles rolled his eyes, looking more amused than annoyed. “It’s not like certain people clearly have an advantage here.”

Tails giggled, “You’re telling me, at least Sonic’s counterpart isn’t here to-”

Just as Tails had spoken, the hedgehog in question stepped up between Tails and Knuckles.

Sonic was the only one who did not appear ready for the race.

He was wearing a rubber duckie inner tube with sunglasses on its head and matching swimming flippers that made squeaky sounds with every step he took.

With one hand he was holding onto a chili dog, taking a bite, with the other hand he lifted his own pair of sunglasses.

Shadow snorted in amusement when he noticed what Sonic’s counterpart was wearing.

Eager to shove the memory of seeing his own counterpart down into his mind- and always ready to tease the blue hedgehog, he smirked, “Great rubber duck outfit you have there.”

“Right?” Sonic grinned back at him, not looking one bit embarrassed. Not unwilling to make fun of himself, especially now that Shadow was clearly back to feeling better, he joked, “Instead of my usual floatie, I should totally upgrade to a rubber duck tube.”

“Think they would suit me?” The blue hedgehog asked, still grinning.

Knuckles chuckled, “You consider that an upgrade?” He shook his head, “Seriously?”

“Upgrading your swim gear?” Amy asked, her voice sounding teasing. “Does that mean you would finally be getting into the water willingly then?”

Sonic’s grin immediately fell, turning serious. He warily stared at Amy, “There is no way on Earth I’m ever going willingly into water.” Amy just stared back at him, looking mischievous.

Rouge raised an eyebrow, looking at the hedgehog in curiosity, “What If you need to?” She added, “To defeat Robotnik?”

The blue hedgehog turned to her, batting his eyes. Instantly his grin was back in place, “Well, what are friends for, right?” He nudged her jokingly.

After a few seconds Sonic turned away and shrugged, “Beside I would go- I’m just really not doing it willingly."

Shadow rolled his eyes, “Nice loophole.”

“Thank you.” Sonic finger-gunned at him, looking very proud of himself. “I thought of it myself.”

Sonic’s mouth was still full with the bite he had taken as he looked between Tails and Knuckles, “Wait a second. I thought we were going tubing.”

When he looked closer at the two, he suddenly smiled, “Hold on, hold on. Is this a race?”

“Sibling race!” Tails cheered. “I sure hope I’m flying otherwise this would be over really fast.” The kit smiled excitedly.

Knuckles shrugged, “I’m not really a fan of races, sparring is more my thing.”

Amy snorted, “I don’t think you’re finding anyone who could match your strength in a sparring match soon.”

Tails glanced between the pink hedgehog and the red echidna before turning to Knuckles, sounding almost hopeful as he suggested, “...Or you could let Sonic and me win once or twice-”

Knuckles laughed. Tails’ hopeful look dropped. Sonic gave the echidna a pointed look.

He sighed, “...Maybe.”

“YES!” The kit pumped his fist into the air like he had already won said sparring match.

Knuckles glared at Sonic, muttering, “...But only rarely.”

Tails glared at Sonic, “You’re going down!” Before grinning, turning back to the direction he had been looking at before.

Knuckles did not even look at Sonic as he replied, “It is my destiny to claim the throne of Family Champion, hedgehog.”

Rouge looked amused, “You guys are taking this very seriously?”

“Of course, we do.” Tails giggled. “We’re taking this very seriously.”

“It’s about our honour.” Knuckles nodded, dramatically raising his fist while looking at the ground to their feet.

“Exactly.” Sonic nodded, grinning.

Sonic laughed, “Cute.” He stopped laughing, asking confidently, “Are you sure you wanna challenge the fastest creature in the universe?” He shrugged, “I mean, that’s kinda my whole brand.”

Sonic’s grin dropped, instead forming into a frown, “That’s…” He turned to the group, asking, “Do I always sound like that?” Already dreading the answer.

The others exchanged looks among each other before turning back to the blue hedgehog, replying in unison, “...Yes.”

“Wow.” Sonic pinched his nose, groaning.

Amy glanced at him, a little worried, “...Are you okay?”

“Yep.” He replied, still hiding his face behind his hands. “Just… taking that in.”

The pink hedgehog weakly patted him on the shoulder, smiling at him sympathetically.

He quickly spun around, forming a blue tornado. His clothes went flying as he took them off.

Once Sonic was undressed, he also went into a running start pose.

“Okay, Tom and Maddie, count us down.” The blue hedgehog grinned.

Across from the three, Tom and Maddie stood ready. The former was rubbing his hands while the latter held a green flag.

Rouge smiled, “You even have referees!”

“Impartial referees.” Tails nodded, smiling back at the bat.

Tom clapped twice before shouting, “Right!” He turned to Maddie, whispering to her, “Don’t worry, a little sibling rivalry is healthy. Me and my brothers used to do this kind of thing all the time.”

Amy gasped, “Tom has brothers? How come we’ve never seen them before?”

“Maybe they’re not close?” Rouge guessed, shrugging.

“That’s… sad.” The pink hedgehog frowned.

The bat nodded at Amy, “It would make sense, siblings often lose sight of each other when they get older.”

“Maybe they will show up in the future.” Shadow suggested, making his tone sound nonchalant. “Or they already did and we haven’t been watching.”

“That’s true.” Sonic nodded, gesturing towards the scene. “They already look a lot closer. Clearly, some time has passed.”

Maddie frowned at Tom, “Tom, your brothers are lunatics and neither of them were born with the power to trigger a global cataclysmic event.”

Knuckles snorted, “That must have been a boring childhood.”

Rouge rolled her eyes before turning to Amy, “And there’s the explanation: They think they’re lunatics.”

“Yeah…” Amy did not look any happier by that revelation.

Tom nodded slowly, “That’s a fair point.” He turned to the trio. “Did you hear that, boys? No cataclysmic events, okay? Let’s keep this cataclysmic-less.”

Sonic laughed, “If it only were that easy.”

Sonic’s counterpart replied, “Ten-four!”

“Got it!” Tails nodded.

“Understood,” Knuckles agreed. “Lord of the Donuts.”

Tails giggled, “The nickname is back.”

“The nickname never dies.” Amy smiled.

The trio then focused back on readying themselves for the race as soon as Maddie started speaking.

She began, “Then on your marks,” Giving them a short moment to lower them back down. “Get set… go!”

With that said, Maddie waved the green flag, officially starting the race.

Knuckles, Tails and Sonic sped right past the two humans, a gust of wind blowing behind the trio and nearly knocking Tom and Maddie over.

The group whooped and cheered after the racing trio.

“I do love a good race.” Sonic smiled widely, already excited to see this race play out.

“We know.” Shadow rolled his eyes, although looking more amused than actually annoyed. “As you keep saying.”

Rouge snorted, “You’re not better. Half the races you two are having are on you, Shadow.”

“Exactly.” The blue hedgehog grinned while Shadow just rolled his eyes once more.

The camera cut to Sonic, running through the forest and already in the lead.

He was talking to himself, using his announcer voice, “And way out in front, to the surprise of absolutely no one, it’s the Blue Blur, the Red-Shoed Rocket” Sonic turned around, now running the truck backwards.

“Red-Shoed Rocket?” Amy asked, amused.

Knuckles chuckled, shaking his head, “At least he’s confident.”

The blue hedgehog continued, “the one, the only-” Only to be cut off when Tails passed him above, flying over him.

Tails teased the other, “Come on, Sonic! Catch up!” He then punched the air with a cheering “Yeah!” before speeding ahead, leaving Sonic confused behind.

“What in the what, now?” Sonic sputtered, back to running forward instead of backward.

Sonic laughed before turning to Tails, “Apparently it’s more balanced than you guys thought.”

“Apparently.” The kit agreed, nodding. He grinned, “I prefer it that way.”

Knuckles raised an eyebrow, asking, “You don’t sound that surprised?”

“It’s not like you’re that slow.” Sonic shrugged in response. “Besides I like the challenge and I’m sure so does my counterpart.”

Knuckles then got his attention, also ahead of him, “I am also defeating you, hedgehog!”

“Seriously?” Sonic frowned before his eyes narrowed in determination. “All right, you know what? Time to light the afterburners.”

The blue hedgehog increased his speed, passing the echidna before sliding up a fallen tree trunk, leaping into the air.

He exclaimed, “Look! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Air Hedgehog!” With that said, he also passed Tails and returned to first place.

“Okay, I’ll give you that: ‘Air Hedgehog’ is a stupid name.” Sonic muttered to the amused Amy.

She lightly patted his shoulder, “Most of them are, Sonic.”

“Nah, Ames. Some of them are good.” He argued back but the pink hedgehog only rolled her eyes.

Still in midair, Sonic saluted at the fox kit before curling into a ball and dropping himself down. He dunked himself into a makeshift basketball hoop made out of tree branches.

The blue hedgehog continued on, still in ball form and rolled over a cliff, jumping from one hill to the next like he was part of a pinball machine before finally arriving safely on the ground.

Sonic uncurled and resumed running.

“That’s an insane race track.” Rouge shook her head, disbelieving. “They even have DIY obstacles!”

Tails nodded, “I wonder If they re-do the obstacles for every race or just keep this in case they ever want to do an impromptu race?”

“Probably the latter. The obstacles are made out of natural resources- so it’s not actually bad for the environment.” Amy answered.

Shadow nodded, “And they’re out of the way.” He nodded at the projection. “Like high up in trees or low on the ground.”

As he resumed running, Sonic ran through a hollow log, doing a brief loop before continuing on.

The hedgehog passed a wooden sign with the word ‘goal’ on it and slapped it as he passed, making it spin.

Sonic then slid to a halt, doing a victory dance and cheered, “Yes! I did it! I-” He cut himself off when he noticed Knuckles and Tails standing across from him, already there before him and impatiently tapping their feet in unison.

“Hey!” Sonic complained with an amused smile on his face. “Tapping my feet is my signature move!”

Tails giggled, “Well, not anymore!” He copied his counterpart’s pose and also began tapping his feet… only to quickly stop. The fox frowned, “Nevermind. That’s actually exhausting.”

Knuckles snorted, “I could have told you that.” He pointed at Sonic with his thumb over his shoulder, rolling his eyes, “That one has way too much energy.”

“That one can totally hear you.” The blue hedgehog rolled his eyes before sticking out his tongue, “Sounds like a you-problem actually. I’m perfectly happy with the amount of energy I have.”

Shadow smirked, “I’ll remember that next time you lose a race against me and complain about your lack of stamina.”

“Sure, you do that.” Sonic grinned at Shadow, who sighed in response.

“Lost?!” Sonic shouted, disbelieving. “How is that even possible? I do not lose!”

Knuckles put his hands on his hips, shouting back, “I am also defeating you, hedgehog.”

“You already said that, man.” Knuckles rolled his eyes at his counterpart’s behaviour.

Rouge joked, “He only said it twice in case Other Blue couldn’t hear him over all the losing.”

The echidna chuckled at the bat’s joke.

Sonic walked up to them, scratching the back of his head, “Okay, okay, I get it, man. No need to rub it in.”

As soon as the hedgehog had finished speaking, Tails exclaimed, also repeating himself from before, “Come on, Sonic! Catch up! Yeah!” He stared ahead, missing Sonic’s entire body with his eyes, instead just staring blindly into the air.

“Uh… okay?” Sonic shook his head, “That’s weird.”

Tails looked puzzled at his counterpart before his eyes widened with understanding. He snapped his fingers, explaining, “Oh! They must be holograms.”

“But why?” Amy frowned. “Wouldn’t the real Tails and Knuckles rather run a race with Sonic instead of sending doubles?”

Sonic groaned, already pinching his nose, “I swear to Gaia, If this is a trap-”

“I don’t think so, Sonic.” Tails shook his head. “Besides, my counterpart used the hologram technology before, so it wouldn’t be that weird.”

“Maybe they didn’t want to race?” Knuckles asked, scratching his chin.

Rouge frowned, “But they suggested the race in the first place?” Suddenly she ah’d, smiling.

The others looked at her in confusion but she only waved her hand, “I think I know what’s going on."

“And you’re not telling us… because?” Sonic asked.

The bat only smiled innocently. Next to her, Shadow rolled his eyes, “Because it’s more fun that way.”

Knuckles narrowed his eyes at Shadow, “Why do you sound like you also know what’s going on here?”

The black hedgehog shrugged, “Must be your imagination.”

He then smirked at Rouge when the others turned back to the projection, sharing a conspiratorial glance before also turning back to the scene.

Sonic frowned, immediately noticing that something was not right. He leaned closer, suspiciously staring at Tails and touching the kit’s nose, only for his finger to go right through the kit.

“Wait, what’s going on?” He took a few steps back, obviously shocked.

Sonic then slapped Knuckles across the face, “Why are you guys acting like…” Only to also phase through the echidna, making him glitch.

He then looked up and saw a pair of Tails’ holographic drones hovering above them and projecting their images, he gasped, “Holograms! Which means…” Sonic continued his victory from before, posing triumphantly, “I remain the undefeated speed champion of all time! Yes! And the crowd goes wild!”

Shadow shook his head, muttering something about a ‘one-track mind’.

“At least he got his victory dance.” Amy giggled.

Sonic snickered, "Sure." He turned around, looking through the trees, "Now we only need to find out why the others have abandoned my counterpart." He joked.

"Abandoning is a bit harsh, don't you think?" Rouge asked, amused.

Dramatically placing the back of his hand on his forehead, the blue hedgehog groaned, "They left him all alone. In the woods. Defenseless!"

Knuckles shoved Sonic playfully, making the hedgehog struggle to gain back his footing. He mock-glared at the echidna before grinning again.

Chapter Text

Surprise

Sonic took his time to finish the victory dance that had been interrupted before.

Then he frowned, tapping his chin as he thought out loud, “But also, what’s going on?”

Shadow raised an eyebrow, he snorted, “He’s asking this now?”

“Hey!” Sonic chuckled. “Don’t mock the victory dance.”

Rouge smirked at the black hedgehog, amused, “Exactly. The victory dance was very important, Shadow.”

The hedgehog in question glanced between the two before nodding, mock-serious, “Right. My mistake.”

Without waiting any longer, Sonic took off, sprinting through the forest until he had reached the spot where the race had originally started, coming to a complete stop at the sight that greeted him.

Right in front of the blue hedgehog stood Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, Tails and Ozzie, excitedly waiting for the hedgehog of the hour.

Behind them was a table with a white tablecloth and a huge cake on and many presents laying around it.

A giant banner hung between two trees, reading ‘Happy B-earth-day!’ with a self-drawn picture of Earth on it.

“Surprise!” They shouted at Sonic, grinning widely.

Amy lit up as soon as she saw the decorations, eagerly taking in the sight, “Aww! They threw him a birthday party.”

She turned to Sonic, still smiling, “Remember our last party?”

“When you got kidnapped and I had to save you on my birthday?” Sonic snorted. “Yep, I remember.”

Amy rolled her eyes, “Of course you focus on that. But at least the decorations were well done!”

The pink hedgehog turned back to the projection, only now noticing the banner. She raised an eyebrow and commented drily, “...Or maybe it’s not a birthday party.”

“I mean, it still reads birthday?” Tails tilted his head to the side, chuckling. “Just spelled… very wrong.”

“Maybe they let my counterpart make the banner.” Knuckles snorted, immediately raising his hands in defense at Amy’s stern look.

Sonic was shocked, clearly not having expected the party at all. He smiled, “But wait a sec, you guys…” He gestured at them, “What is all this? ‘Happy Bea Arthur Day’?”

“I’m sorry, ‘Arthur’? Where would you even-” Sonic squinted, leaning forward to inspect the banner closer. He gasped, “Oh, wait! I totally see it now.”

The blue hedgehog turned to Shadow, joking, “Maybe you’re right. I think my counterpart has a reading problem.”

“You’re only thinking this now?” Shadow snorted.

The others followed Sonic’s look and turned, also looking at the banner before turning back to Sonic.

Maddie explained, “Oh, it’s ‘Happy B-Earth-Day’.”

Tom nodded, taking over the explanation, “Today’s the anniversary of the day you came to Earth, bud, it’s your ‘Earth Day Birthday’.”

“Aww!” Amy squealed, smiling widely at the scene.

Rouge smiled, “That’s sweet.” She hummed, pondering, “I wonder If Other Blue has the same birthday as Blue over here.”

The bat turned to Sonic, nodding at him, “June 23rd, right?”

“Uh… yeah.” Sonic nodded absently, not really paying attention to the conversation the girls were having. He frowned, “Aren’t we like… forgetting something here?”

The blue hedgehog looked expectantly at the others. Except for Shadow and Knuckles nodding at him, the other members of the group just looked confused.

Tails stared at his older brother like he had gone insane, “Please don’t tell me you want us to sing you happy birthday just because your counterpart is having a party?” He shook his head. “It’s not even a birthday party!”

Sonic stared back, incredulously, “What? No!” He gestured energetically at the projection. “Isn’t it really… strange to throw a party for Sonic’s arrival on Earth? Considering what happened on that day?”

The others sans Knuckles and Shadow stared at him blankly, taking a long moment before it clicked for them. Immediately everyone stopped smiling.

“Maybe that date isn’t actually the best they could have picked.” Amy nodded slowly, now frowning.

“Some people actually do throw parties for death anniversaries though.” Rouge argued.

When the others threw her perplexed looks, she further explained, “Some people think you lead a happier life If you celebrate death. It makes death seem… less tragic.”

“It’s also a good way to remember your dead.” Shadow added, his voice solemn.

“Huh.” Tails blinked. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”

Knuckles shook his head, oddly relieved, “For a moment I thought you were talking about celebrating your enemies’ deaths.” Making Rouge snort in response.

“Maybe they kept that in mind?” Amy weakly suggested. “The party could also be for Longclaw… at least a little.”

Sonic frowned, “Do Tom and Maddie even know what happened? Did my counterpart ever tell them?”

“I’m pretty sure Tom knows or at least suspects.” Rouge answered.

Shadow asked, “Would the echidna’s counterpart not also be involved? He also lost his tribe.” The black hedgehog pointed out.

The group stayed silent for a long moment, thinking this over.

At last, Sonic spoke up, “You know what? I’m just gonna say that today is actually the day my counterpart stumbled into Tom and Maddie’s lives. And not the day he came to Earth.”

He turned to the others, waiting for criticism and mock-glared at them like he was daring them to argue but everyone just nodded in agreement.

“That’s probably for the best.” Rouge nodded.

“Wait a minute!” Tails gasped, “That means that Knuckles and I share a B-Earth-Day!” The kit grinned widely at the echidna who just blinked slowly in response.

“First a bedroom, now we’re sharing a birthday?” Knuckles rolled his eyes, pouting. “There is truly no privacy in this family.”

Sonic snorted, “You can always sleep in the garage.”

Tails lit up, “That’s like sleeping in my workshop!” He grinned excitedly.

“...That was a joke, bud.” Sonic shook his head. He then turned to Shadow, beginning to chuckle, “Which means that you and I also share a B-Earth-Day.” The blue hedgehog wiggled his eyebrows at the other, who only stared back at him, entirely unimpressed.

“Assuming my counterpart comes into contact with your little family.” Shadow deadpanned.

Sonic snorted, “As If he could stay away. At the end of the day we’re gonna be one sibling richer.” He shook his fist threateningly at Shadow, which did not look menacing at all as he still had a wide grin on his face.

“Absolutely not.” Shadow scoffed, shaking his head.

Knuckles only shook his head, muttering to Tails, “That’s gonna be one cramped attic.”

“I call dibs on the garage.” The kit whispered back, both of them chuckled at their respective jokes.

Sonic thought out loud, “So the race was just a distraction…” He continued, trying to sound convincing but utterly failing, “Which I totally did not fall for, by the way– Good try though– so you could throw a party for me?”

“Today, we honor you, hedgehog.” Knuckles said, approaching the hedgehog.

Tails also walked closer, smiling, “If it wasn’t for you, none of us would be here right now.”

“That’s true.” Tails agreed with his counterpart, smiling at his brother. “You are good at bringing people together. Apparently in every universe.”

Sonic smiled back at his brother before joking, “Well, I am pretty great in general.”

“...And you ruined it.” The kit rolled his eyes, making Sonic laugh.

Tom and Maddie also came closer, crouching down to Sonic’s height.

He smiled, “The boys are right, bud. You know, the day you came to this planet was the day all our lives changed forever.”

“I think your theory is actually spot on.” Amy commented. “They must be talking about the day Sonic came into their lives.”

Sonic nodded, “It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. He had already been on Earth for ten years before they even met.”

Knuckles shrugged, “It’s the thought that counts- not the day.”

“And we became a family.” Maddie finished, also smiling.

Ozzy, their family dog, laid between them and barked once loudly.

White letters appeared on the screen, translating him, “You stole my hoomans.”

Tails blinked, “Did they just-...” He rubbed his eyes, staring intently at the white letters, “They translated Ozzy?!”

“Why now? They never did that before.” Rouge asked, curiously.

Sonic stared at Ozzy, “I knew that dog had something against my counterpart!”

The others all stared at him, a mixture between exasperation and complete confusion.

“What?” The blue hedgehog shrugged. “Remember that blanket incident?”

Amy snorted, “The one that was two movies ago?”

Sonic nodded, “Yep.” He shook his fist at the dog, mock-glaring, “Forgive but never forget.”

“Yeah, you totally sound like you have forgiven him.” Tails shook his head, grinning.

The blue hedgehog grinned at the kit, “And never forgotten either.”

Sonic smiled, very touched by the gesture, “You guys, I don’t know what to say.”

“‘Thank you’ would be a good start.” Shadow raised an eyebrow.

Sonic nodded at the other hedgehog before shrugging, “True but my counterpart is really bad at having manners.”

Suddenly the blue hedgehog smirked, “Except… let’s party!” He raised his hands into the air, grinning.

The others brightened, smiling widely.

“All right!” Tom nodded, grinning. He high-fived Sonic who spun around in a circle before leaping into the air.

Knuckles laughed loudly, “It’s now on til the break of dawn!” Also raising his arms.

“Toga! Toga!” Tails cheered.

They all approached the decorated table as the camera scrolled up into the sky, showing the forest from the point of view of a bird.

“Wait, are we not watching the party?” Tails pouted. 

Amy sighed, also frowning, “Apparently not.”

The projection cut to Tom and Sonic walking together, clearly at a later time.

Tom was holding a football, throwing it from one hand to the other.

Sonic broke the silence between them, “Thanks for the surprise party. It really means a lot to me.”

“That’s probably the first time someone had ever thrown a party for Other Blue.” Rouge smiled.

Tails nodded, chuckling, “Unless Longclaw threw some while they were hiding.”

“I doubt it.” Knuckles snorted.

Tom smiled, “Ah, you deserve it, pal.”

Sonic smiled back before looking ahead, he suddenly spotted something in the distance.

The blue hedgehog gasped, “No way, is that…” Instead of finishing his sentence, he sped away, leaving Tom behind.

“What?” Tom sighed. “Dude… Could you just for once walk at my speed?” He slowly trailed after the vanished hedgehog.

Amy snorted, “That happens way too often.”

Sonic shrugged, “I would just carry Tom with me. Way faster than just waiting for him.”

“Or you could just… walk with him?” Rouge prompted, raising an eyebrow.

Sonic stared at her, “...I could.” He turned back to the projection.

The camera cut to Tom, climbing into a hole in the ground. He dropped down, landing on his feet and looked around.

The group looked around, immediately noticing what their surroundings were.

“Aw! Sonic’s cave.” Tails gasped.

Knuckles commented, “He probably hasn’t been back here since he moved into Tom and Maddie’s house.”

Tom chuckled, “Whoa. Sonic! This is your–”

“Yep.” Sonic smiled widely. “My old cave.”

The human and the blue hedgehog looked around, taking in the current state of the cave.

Tom shook his head, disbelieving, “Oh, man. I can’t believe this is where you lived all those years.”

“It is really impressive.” Shadow admitted.

Amy nodded, “Especially with how young he was.”

“And traumatized.” Rouge added, agreeing.

Sonic walked over to his old ping-pong table and noticed his nun-chucks lying there, he picked them up, gasping, “Hey! My state-of-the-art security system!”

He swung them quickly around, letting out a battle cry but only hit himself in the face before falling down.

Knuckles snorted, “He still hasn’t improved with them.”

“And how would he?” Sonic grinned. “He hasn’t been here for a long time and I doubt he’s got a pair at home.”

Tails giggled, “I wouldn’t be surprised If he did.”

“Still works.” Sonic picked himself up.

Tom walked over to a wall, now completely covered in vines. As he pulled back the vines, revealing a drawing of a young Sonic and Longclaw sitting together on a loop-the-loop, Tom asked, “Hey, bud. What’s this?”

“Oh.” Rouge frowned, “Was this here the last time?”

Shadow shook his head, “I’m not sure. If it was- we didn’t see it.”

Sonic walked closer, explaining, “You know, I drew that on my first night on Earth. I wanted to remember where I came from.”

“That does sound like Tom hadn’t known.” Sonic muttered, scratching the back of his head. “I could have sworn my counterpart at least explained parts of it when in the first movie?”

Amy shook her head, smiling sadly, “Maybe he wanted to move on?“

“Maybe Tom and Maddie don’t know about our counterparts’ pasts at all.” Knuckles shrugged. “They don’t seem like the type to actually talk a lot about their memories.”

Tails raised an eyebrow, “Tom and Maddie or our counterparts?”

The echidna rolled his eyes, “Our counterparts. Tom at least talked about his father to Sonic.”

“Ah.” The kit nodded. “Yeah, true.”

Sonic turned sad, now looking solemnly at the drawing he made. “I still miss her.” He sighed.

Tom looked at Sonic, who still looked sad. Sonic asked, “You think Longclaw would be proud of me?”

“Well, that depends of course.” Tails tapped his chin in thought. “The last wish she had for Sonic was to stay hidden… and he failed at that. Also we don’t know what her opinion would be now that Sonic is friends with Knuckles-”

“Bud.” Sonic gave the kit a pointed look, making him sheepishly rub the back of his head.

“Right, sorry. Longclaw would definitely be proud of him.” Tails gave Sonic’s counterpart two thumbs up, a sheepish smile still on his face.

The blue hedgehog rolled his eyes, also turning back to the projection.

Tom nodded slowly, “I know she would, pal.” He continued, his voice now sounding raspier with how emotional this topic was getting. “Because even though you lost her at such a young age, you didn’t let your pain change who you are… in here.”

He tapped Sonic’s chest, making the blue hedgehog look down at himself.

“Aw, that’s a really sweet sentiment!” Amy smiled.

“It’s surprisingly profound.” Shadow nodded, frowning. “Is it just me or has Thomas become wiser?”

Sonic shook his head, agreeing, “Since the second movie Tom is always imparting his wisdom on my counterpart.”

“Fatherhood really changes people.” Knuckles joked, making Sonic chuckle.

Shadow nodded once more, “Maybe that’s it.” He shrugged.

Sonic looked back up to Tom, smiling, “Yeah. In my lungs.”

Rouge snorted, “...So close.”

“Right area, just the wrong organ.” Tails giggled.

Tom chuckled, “Or your heart.”

“Heart, right.” Sonic nodded to himself. “Yeah, makes more sense. Not lungs, heart.”

Tom smiled wider, “That’s the thing about life, Sonic, it’s all about the choices we make. You’re gonna make some good ones and, knowing you, you’re gonna make some bad ones.”

“That’s true.” Tails giggled.

Amy shook her head, laughing, “Especially with how this version of Sonic always throws himself headfirst into danger.”

“Exactly.” Shadow smirked, “If there’s one thing we can count on then that Sonic will always make bad decisions.”

Sonic snorted, “Not all decisions that I take are bad ones.”

The black hedgehog raised an eyebrow.

“I decided to be friends with you?” Sonic elaborated, making Shadow shrug.

He replied drily, “A terrible decision really.”

Sonic looked a bit offended but Tom continued before he could argue, “But… as long as you remember to listen to your heart, you’ll make the right choice when it matters most.” He nodded at the hedgehog who smiled in response.

“Again, that’s good advice.” Knuckles nodded.

Rouge hummed, “I wonder If there is going to be a running theme.” She continued after a short pause, “The second projection was clearly about responsibility.”

The bat gestured towards the two on-screen people still having their heart-to-heart, “Maybe this time it’s going to be about trust?”

“Or family.” Tails nodded. “Especially with us three now being siblings…”

Sonic nodded slowly, “Maybe it’s gonna be both. Or something entirely else.”

“Thanks.” Sonic nodded back, still smiling. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Suddenly the projection cut away from the moment between Tom and Sonic, instead showing a lone Shadow walking through the busy streets of Tokyo.

The black hedgehog scowled, already wet with the heavy rain that was coming down from the sky.

“Huh.” Knuckles tilted his head to the side, squinted at the scene. “That was an abrupt scene change.” He shook his head, disbelieving.

It felt almost like- Shadow’s eyes widened, realizing what the projection was trying to do..

He turned to Sonic, trying to gauge the other’s reaction and If he had already noticed the same thing as him but the blue hedgehog was already watching him.

For a moment they held their eye contact before they both looked away.

Sonic explained, “I think they’re drawing parallels between my and Shadow’s counterpart.” He frowned.

“That does make sense. It’s not that far off.” Amy nodded. She glanced between the two hedgehogs, quipping, “You both do look a lot alike.”

Rouge snorted at the scandalised look both hedgehogs had on their faces.

“Don’t look so offended, Blue.” She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t remember that GUN incident?”

“I do.” Sonic rolled his eyes.  “I still don’t see it.”

Tails giggled, “I mean, there are certain people in this room who have mistaken one for the other.” He looked expectant at Amy who shrugged in response.

“The lighting was weird and I hadn’t known of Shadow’s existence yet.” She defended herself.

Sonic continued speaking, now acting as a voice-over, “I’d probably be a totally different hedgehog.”

Shadow nodded to himself, even more confident about his and Sonic’s theory.

The idea of this version of the blue hedgehog being compared to him, was not that strange. He held a lot of sympathy for the kid, especially with how he had lost Longclaw.

The black hedgehog was actually rather curious to see how this projection was going to continue. Would the two of them have a heart-to-heart, just like on-screen Knuckles and Sonic did?

Sonic had suggested that his counterpart was going to end up being part of the Wachowski family but he was not sure.

He had a bad feeling about how this projection was going to end- he still hoped that his feeling was wrong.

The black hedgehog looked to his left, just in time to watch a taxi swerve past him, splashing him with water from a puddle. His left hand came up to shield his eyes from the splash.

“Seriously?” Amy frowned. “That’s just rude.” She shook her head.

He groaned, dropping his arm again. Shadow’s breathing picked up as he turned, looking around in the city he was in.

A giant electronic billboard got his attention, showing the current year.

“2024?” Shadow frowned, thinking out-loud. “I’ve been trapped for 50 years?”

For a long moment the group stayed silent, everyone just gaping in shock.

“Wow. That’s a deep voice.” Tails gasped.

Amy smiled, “Everyone here just gets a deep voice.”

“Except for Sonic.” Rouge joked, making the pink hedgehog snort.

Sonic did not even argue as he was still blinking in confusion at the projections, “That voice… sounds kind of familiar?”

“What?” Tails frowned at his brother. He thought about it for a few seconds before he suddenly understood what Sonic meant. “Oh! It’s the voice!”

“Uh… yep? It’s a voice?” The blue hedgehog frowned.

“No, no.” He waved his hand rapidly. “It’s that voice from that one movie night!”

Sonic’s eyes lit up as he understood, “Oh, that Keanu guy? The ‘National Treasure’?” He put air quotes about the nickname that his counterpart had given the guy.

Knuckles snickered, “You remembered his name?”

“He had a nice voice.” Sonic shrugged before gesturing at the projection. “Has, I guess. Good for you, Shads!” He gave the other hedgehog a thumbs up.

Shadow rolled his eyes, “Thank you.”

He was a little bit peeved that no one even mentioned the fact that his counterpart had been stuck in the tank for fifty years- they had been too distracted by his on-screen voice.

Maybe they did not react because they were already used to the fact through him. Still- a little reaction would have been nice.

The black hedgehog did not move, still thinking the realisation over when suddenly something else caught his attention.

Shadow frowned in sympathy, looking at his counterpart.

That really was no easy realisation to have: Especially with the other realisations that were going to follow.

He turned to see a G.U.N. tank truck driving closer to him, soldiers with shields appeared and surrounded him. They were shouting and pointing their gun directly at his head.

The more Shadow turned, the more soldiers seemed to show up, along with more police cruisers and motorcycles.

“We’ve got you surrounded!” A voice yelled, belonging to one of the many soldiers.

“Duh.” Tails rolled his eyes, frowning.

Sonic frowned, “They do realize that surrounding someone with Shadow's powers is probably not a smart move right?”

“They shoot first and then ask questions.” Rouge scoffed.

“That's stupid.” Knuckles glared at the many GUN soldiers on-screen. “They're leaving the hedgehog no choice but to fight back.”

Amy suggested weakly, “Shadow could run.”

“They would hunt him down.” Shadow shook his head, sounding like someone who spoke from experience.

The pink hedgehog nodded, “Right.”

Shadow shouted back, “Why… won’t you leave me… ALONE?!” He raised his voice at the last word, making the soldiers around him raise their weapons higher.

Another voice called out, “Take him down!”

The black hedgehog scowled as orange chaos energy emerged from his pupils.

Shadow rolled his eyes. These GUN soldiers were just as stupid as those agents in their universe.

“No wonder he's going to fight.” Knuckles groaned, frustrated with how GUN was acting.

The camera zoomed closer to Shadow’s face until only his glowing red eyes were visible.

Said eyes changed into a burnt marshmallow, held by Knuckles. The projection had changed back to the Wachowski family where everyone was roasting marshmallows around a campfire.

“Huh?” Tails blinked. “I totally forgot that they were still having Sonic's party.” The kit shook his head.

Rouge frowned, asking, “So this is probably when Sonic finds out what is happening in Tokyo and heads over there?”

Amy nodded, “Probably. I wonder how, though, they're in the middle of a forest.”

Knuckles glared at his overcooked marshmallow, “I have dishonored my marshmallow.”

“It’s really just a question of temperature and distance.” Tails shrugged, roasting his own marshmallow with a blowtorch attached to the device he had used to track Sonic with.

Knuckles snorted, “Right. Of course, my counterpart would say that.” He rolled his eyes, amused.

“That does look like sibling behaviour to me.” Sonic laughed.

Tails stuck out his tongue, making Sonic roll his eyes too.

Maddie reminded them, smiling gently, “It’s not a competition.”

“This is so nice.” Tom commented, mirroring Maddie’s smile.

She nodded, “Peace.” 

“Quiet.” Tom added.

“Great.” Amy sighed. “They're jinxing fate.”

“To be fair: They don't know what we know.” Rouge shrugged.

“Finally.” Maddie smiled wider. Tom closed his eyes, agreeing, “Finally!”

Ozzy, who was laying down close to the family, suddenly lifted his head and barked.

Wind blew through the forest as a searchlight shined on them, a helicopter sound becoming louder with every second.

The helicopter then became visible, its searchlight seeming even brighter now.

Tails gasped, “A helicopter?” 

“Seriously?” Sonic frowned. “Isn't that a little bit overkill?”

“It's fast.” Shadow shrugged. “And they wanted to reach you fast.”

Everyone stood up, facing the helicopter.

“Hey!” Sonic yelled, “We’re trying to have a family moment down here!”

The helicopter lowered down on a clearing. Sonic, Knuckles and Tails were close by, Tom and Maddie followed suit.

The doors to the helicopter slid open and two G.U.N. agents jumped out, holding guns.

“What did we do?” Maddie asked.

Tom pointed at the trio in front of him, “Or what did they do?”

Knuckles chuckled, “They have a lot of trust in them.”

“I mean,” Rouge smirked, “Would you?”

“Nope.” The echidna snorted.

Tails whispered to Sonic, “What did you do?”

Sonic shrugged, whispering back, “I don’t know. I do a lot of stuff.”

Sonic raised an eyebrow at his younger brother, “Your counterpart has absolutely no faith in mine.”

Tails giggled, “To be fair, my counterpart probably often plays an accomplice.”

“Even worse, you traitor!” Sonic chuckled.

The two G.U.N. agents stood guard on both sides of the helicopter door.

Then a woman stepped out, approaching the Wachowski family.

She nodded at Tom and Maddie, “Mr. and Mrs. Wachowski.” She then took off the sunglasses she was wearing, looking at the trio, “Aliens.”

“Human.” Sonic mock-saluted at her, making the others snort.

Knuckles put his hands on his hips, glaring at the director as Tails raised his arms in a ‘What did I do?’ gesture.

Sonic yelped, indignant, “‘Aliens’? Excuse me?” He glanced at Tails who nodded at him reassuringly. “It’s not like we’re from different planets–”

“Now, who's gonna tell him?” Amy joked.

Rouge grinned, “Give him a minute.”

He realized the same thing as the group did and interrupted himself, “Oh, yeah, we are. I guess we are aliens.” Sonic waved his hand dismissively, “Please continue.”

The woman replied, her eyes still fixated on the trio, “I’m Director Rockwell. There is a very dangerous situation unfolding right now in Tokyo.”

“GUN wants Sonic's help?” Shadow raised an eyebrow. “My counterpart is not going to be very friendly, once he finds out about GUNs involvement.”

Sonic frowned, “Just because GUN asks doesn't mean they're going there on GUN’s orders.”

The black hedgehog raised an eyebrow.

“...At least not without a discussion first.” Sonic concluded.

“Commander Walters is requesting Team Sonic’s immediate assistance.” She concluded.

Knuckles frowned, “‘Team Sonic’? Who picked that name?”

“Didn't Sonic pick that name out?” Rouge asked, chuckling.

“No.” Amy shook her head. “He just called them a team. I guess GUN came up with it?” She questioned.

“Guess so.” Knuckles nodded.

Sonic snapped his fingers, “Love it! Ten out of ten, no notes.”

He continued, “Tom and Maddie,” The couple briefly glanced at each other before looking back at Sonic. “Put the s’mores on ice because Team Sonic is off to save the day!”

The scene cut to a later time as the helicopter’s top blades began spinning, preparing for take-off.

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were standing in the open door, waving to the couple as the helicopter slowly rose off the ground.

Shadow gave Sonic a pointed look, who sighed deeply in response, “Alright, I thought they would resist longer.” He admitted.

“Especially after the last movie.” Amy frowned. “As If they've completely forgiven him after they helped defeat Eggman?”

“Helped? They didn't even do anything!” Tails shook his head.

“Exactly!” The pink hedgehog agreed.

Maddie shouted over the noise, “Remember, make good choices!”

Tom nodded along, giving them a smile and a thumbs up. Ozzy lifted his paw, telling the helicopter goodbye as it finally departed.

“This will be interesting…” Rouge muttered to herself, already eager to see how the first meeting between Shadow and Sonic was going to play out.

Chapter Text

Faker!

The projection changed to the skyline of Tokyo, still darkened by the night.

A ring portal opened up just before the helicopter from the last scene flew through, now also being in Tokyo, Japan.

“Taking the fast route, huh?” Sonic joked.

“We have a helicopter.” Tails raised an eyebrow, shaking his head. “And we still took a ring portal here.”

Sonic snickered, “We might be lazy but at least we’re efficient.”

"Seriously what was even the point for the helicopter then?!" The kit groaned, the others just shrugged.

The scene cut to the inside of the helicopter where Tails was sitting behind the wheel and controlling the vehicle, wearing a captain’s helmet.

“Good evening and welcome to Tails Air flight 1012. We’re looking at an on-time arrival into Tokyo.” The kit announced.

Knuckles chuckled, “Of course, we let the fox drive.” He rolled his eyes.

“Well, he can’t hit anybody with the vehicle If everyone is already inside.” Rouge pointed out. “...At least as long as we’re still in the air.”

Amy laughed, “Normally I would say that the ride through a portal is very short and surely nothing could happen… but I’ve also seen Tails drive.”

“Hey!” Tails gasped, mock-glaring at the pink hedgehog. “I take a lot of pride in my driving skills.”

Shadow snorted, “As long as Sonic didn’t teach you…”

The kit shook his head, grinning widely.

“Alright then.” The black hedgehog replied.

Sonic’s offended reaction was completely ignored by the duo.

Sonic entered the cockpit, asking Tails, “Okay, Captain, we got a rogue alien on the loose. How do we find him?”

“Rogue alien?” Shadow scoffed, gestured towards the projection. “You are also aliens!”

Sonic shrugged, in a 'So?' gesture. He grinned, “Also that’s a stupid question: Just look for explosions!”

A giant explosion set off right below the helicopter, making the blue hedgehog and the kit look down with surprise.

The smoke that rose from the explosion was fiery red.

“See?” Sonic pumped his fist in the air, grinning. “I do know my Shadows!”

“As If the street wouldn’t have exploded If you were down there.” Amy pointed out, shaking her head with an amused smile on her face.

The blue hedgehog shrugged, “Hey, I would be the last person to deny that.” He added, “But I’m not missing, so?” He stuck his tongue out at the pink hedgehog who rolled her eyes.

“Uh,” Tails looked nervously at the explosion below them. “Start with the giant fireball?”

Sonic nodded, smiling, “I love it! Let’s start with the giant fireball!”

Knuckles shook his head, addressing Sonic, “This version of you is so positive. Do they even know who’s down there?”

“Well… they’re expecting an alien.” Sonic shrugged, not really sure of what their counterparts were aware of.

Tails’ eyes widened, “Oh! It could be the first time your counterpart sees another hedgehog!”

Sonic nodded slowly, now a frown making its way on his face, “...That’s true. Man, that would be weird.”

Shadow also frowned. He had no idea how their first meeting would go, there were too many conditions that had changed. Their circumstances were completely different after all.

His counterpart had not even impersonated Sonic- he did not even know him. Technically they didn't have an agenda against each other.

He was only on the run from GUN… the same GUN who had asked for ‘Team Sonic’s assistance and were sending them headfirst into battle against an obviously stronger opponent.

Someone who could teleport without using any emeralds nor having to shout ‘chaos control’ every time.

…Damn. This was not going to be easy for the trio. And Shadow really did not know whether he wanted to turn away from the projection or glare at it, in hope that his counterpart might snap out of whatever state he was in and see reason.

Not that reason would help.

Shadow himself was in his right mind and even he often wanted to punch Sonic in the face. He was pretty sure that was just their normal state of relationship at this point.

Tails put his helmet down and gave the control back to the original pilot. He then left the cockpit and joined Sonic and Knuckles at the helicopter slide door.

The echidna was punching the air, grunting and grinning while he jumped from one foot to the other, “Finally, some action!”

Knuckles squinted at the projection, seizing up his counterpart before commenting drily, “I have no idea If my counterpart’s strength will actually do anything or If he’s also about to get his butt kicked.”

“That’s the beauty of these projections.” Rouge snickered. “No matter what happens: We could have never guessed what happens next.”

Amy sighed, “They’re really just children, huh?” She shook her head, frowning.

“It’s really weird.” Sonic nodded, crossing his arms. “They are the same age as we are but they seem way more childish.”

Tails hummed, thinking it over, “Maybe it’s because of our different upbringings?”

“They seem to be relatively the same though. Surely not enough to cause this much difference in personalities.” Rouge frowned.

The kit shrugged, “Well, then… no idea.”

“Clearly, there is only one answer.” Shadow turned to the group, his face completely serious as he continued, “It must be SEGA’s fault.”

The group blinked at him, mostly just confused but when the black hedgehog’s lip twitched, slowly forming into a smirk, they all realized that he was joking.

“Definitely.” Sonic nodded, grinning at Shadow. “Whatever SEGA is… it’s their fault.”

Tails nodded at Knuckles, “Okay, time to gear up.” He pulled out a device that started as a rectangle yellow box and slowly turned into two rings, bound together.

The kit held them up, showing them to Sonic and Knuckles, “Titanium handcuffs, completely indestructible!”

Tails snorted, sarcastically complimenting himself, “Nice job, me!” He shook his head. “They’re going to be completely useless.”

The thought alone of his counterpart chasing Shadow around and threatening him to handcuff him, made the kit giggle.

“Welp.” Sonic shrugged, having a ‘What can you do?’ expression on his face. “It’s not like your counterpart knew that Shadow can teleport.”

“At least he knew the alien was anthropomorphic.” Rouge pointed out. “Or maybe he guessed… and If he did, then it was really lucky.”

Shadow nodded, “A Black Arms would have broken this fox’ mind.”

Knuckles shook his head, “I don’t need your silly gizmos, fox. And do you know why?” He began grinning, “Because I am…”

“...one million percent muscle.” Sonic and Tails finished in unison with Knuckles, both looking completely unamused.

“One million percent muscle?” Sonic and Tails repeated, both grinning widely.

The kit giggled, “That’s a very Knuckles thing to say.”

“Totally.” The blue hedgehog nodded, chuckling, “And apparently Knux says that so much we can recite it with him.”

The echidna in the room with them sighed, “I wouldn’t be surprised If my counterpart actually said that daily.” He rolled his eyes.

Knuckles nodded at them, smiling, “Yes, good. You’ve been listening.”

An alarm started blaring as a red light glowed brightly behind him, who turned around, confused.

The pilot from the cockpit called out to them, “We’re over the drop zone.”

“Aaand of course, you’re jumping.” Amy smiled, amusedly.

Sonic shrugged before he joked, “It’s faster than taking the stairs.”

“All right, here we go.” Sonic nodded to the other two. “Showtime!”

He then walked over to the helicopter door and slid the door open.

The trio took a long moment to look down and watch the city below.

The group leaned closer, also looking outside just like the trio was.

“The view is amazing.” Tails gasped.

Rouge smiled, agreeing with the fox kit, “A city at night always feels so tranquil.”

“It does look peaceful.” Sonic nodded before shrugging, “I prefer being away from cities though, less noise and pollution.”

Amy smiled, “Nature is best.”

“You do realize that there are no chili dog stands in nature, right?” Knuckles snorted, teasing the blue hedgehog.

Sonic snapped his finger at the echidna, grinning, “But the best napping spots are there.”

Sonic put his hands on his hips, talking to Tails and Knuckles, “Now, look, we don’t know If it’s Godzilla or Hello Kitty down there, but as long as we stick together, there is nothing we can’t handle.” He smiled widely, nodding at them reassuringly.

“Hello Kitty?” Shadow scoffed, crossing his arms. “First they call me an alien and now I’m a cat? What’s next?” He rolled his eyes.

“Hello Kitty is pretty cute though, so technically Sonic’s counterpart just called you cute.” Amy pointed out, amused.

The black hedgehog stared at her for a moment before replying, “...That’s worse than being called a cat.”

Sonic snorted, “They haven’t seen you yet. Don’t worry: You’re more of a Godzilla than Hello Kitty.”

When Shadow stared at him blankly, Sonic elaborated, “Which is like… a giant lizard… that destroys cities.”

“So I’m either a cat or a lizard?” Shadow deadpanned, asking, making Rouge snort in amusement.

“But Godzilla is really cool!” Tails argued, “So, according to Sonic’s counterpart, there are either cool aliens or cute ones.”

Knuckles chuckled, “We all know what you are, Tails.”

The kit nodded, keeping his face serious, “Thank you, I always knew you all thought that I am very cool.”

“Sure, kid.” The echidna shook his head, still chuckling. “Sure.”

Sonic continued, “‘Team Sonic’ on three. One,” He put his own fist forward. “Two,” Tails did the same. “Three.” Knuckles’ fist joined the other two.

They grinned at each other, all yelling, “Team…”

Sonic and Tails finished together, “Sonic!” While Knuckles alone shouted, “Knuckles!”

“Nono, I agree. Team Knuckles sounds way better.” Sonic grinned.

“Nah.” Knuckles shook his head. “My counterpart shouldn’t lead. Besides that way when something goes wrong, it’s your responsibility.”

The blue hedgehog raised an eyebrow, “You mean ‘If’ something goes wrong, right?”

“Did I stutter?” The echidna shrugged.

Sonic groaned, rolling his eyes at Knuckles’ antics just before Director Rockwell entered the room.

She stared at them, silently telling them to jump already.

“Why does she look like she’s ready to push us out?” Tails nervously stared at the director.

Amy glared at her, “She better not. That’s dangerous.”

Team Sonic turned around, facing her.

Sonic looked at Tails and Knuckles before turning back to the director, quipping, “Talk about low-budget flights. No food or movies? We’re out of here!”

Sonic gasped before he began grinning widely, “Oh, wait! I’ve said that before!”

“What? That exact phrase… or what do you mean?” Rouge asked, confused.

“Yep.” The blue hedgehog nodded. “That was during the whole Shadow thing,” He nodded at Shadow briefly before continuing, “GUN kidnapped me and I had to jump out of the helicopter to escape.”

The group stared blankly at him, not entirely sure If he was kidding or not.

“You jump out of helicopters in your free time but are surprised when the echidna apparently often gets hit by cars?” Shadow frowned at him.

Sonic shrugged, turning back to the projection. Just before the showing continued, he snapped his finger as he remembered, “Oh, I said ‘I like running better’ just after that!” He smiled, “That was fun.”

Rouge turned to Amy and Tails, who looked mostly unconcerned with what Sonic was saying. She asked, “Is he joking?”

Tails shrugged, “Probably not.”

When the bat just continued staring at them, Amy waved her hand dismissively, “You get used to it, believe me.”

With that said, Team Sonic leaped out of the helicopter in unison, still staring at Director Rockwell before they turned and pointed their noses to the city below.

“See?” Sonic pointed at the trio that was rapidly distancing himself from the helicopter. “It’s not that weird to jump out of a helicopter.”

“Sure.” Rouge nodded, asking. “Did you have Tails with you?”

The blue hedgehog frowned, shaking his head, “No?”

“Then it’s weird.” Shadow and the bat replied in unison, making Sonic roll his eyes.

The camera followed the trio out of the helicopter and the song “Neon” by One Ok Rock began playing as the trio plummeted together.

The group subtly shivered as the phantom wind hit them. The air swishing past them, not actually feeling cold but the sensation felt similar.

Amy smiled, closing her eyes, “It does make it more fun when you don’t have to worry about sticking the landing.”

“Or surviving the landing.” Rouge snorted.

The pink hedgehog opened her eyes to look back at the bat, amused. “...True.”

Speeding through clouds and past skyscrapers, when they came close enough to the ground, Tails spun his twin tails quickly and grabbed Sonic’s arms as Knuckles’ grabbed Sonic’s feet.

The kit tossed the two into the air, both him and Sonic curling up for a moment before landing neatly on the ground. Knuckles landed with his fist first, completely shielding himself from the impact.

“But that was an awesome landing.” Sonic grinned.

“10 out of 10.” Knuckles nodded, agreeing,  “Nice use of twin tails.”

Tails bowed, smiling widely, “Why thank you!”

After landing, Knuckles, Sonic and Tails posed confidently, appearing ready for the fight, only to look immediately surprised at the destruction they were met with.

Many G.U.N. vehicles and Tokyo police cruisers were standing around, all wrecked, some of them actively on fire amidst the rubble.

The remaining soldiers and civilians were running around, helping each other to safety.

“What happened here?” Knuckles asked, his voice audible sounding baffled.

“Well…” Shadow frowned. “My counterpart did.”

"The civilians seem fine though." Tails pointed out, "And GUN deserves it."

Amy nodded slowly, “I mean, yes. It was self-defense.”

Sonic replied, “Looks like G.U.N. got their butts kicked.” He looked around, now more alert than ever. “Keep your eyes open. Tails, anything?”

The fox kit already had his gadget out, tapping a few buttons before gasping at the results, “Whoa! These energy readings are off the charts!”

“Huh.” Knuckles scratched his chin in thought. “I wonder If on-screen Sonic and Shadow have similar readings?”

“Considering that my counterpart built this gadget especially for Sonic’s readings and now they’re off the charts… probably not.” Tails shook his head.

Sonic nodded slowly, “This Shadow is basically made out of chaos energy with how often he uses it, so it does make sense.”

Tails showed the gadget’s screen to Sonic, who could not even take a look at it before a sudden noise distracted them.

They turned towards the noise, only to see a huge tank truck thrown at them out of a smoke cloud.

Sonic could barely yell, “Look out!” before Knuckles pushed the fox kit and hedgehog behind himself, bracing himself.

The group startled and flinched, closing their eyes in time with on-screen Sonic and Tails, awaiting the impact.

A loud sound echoed through the space, indicating that the thrown truck had hit… something.

“You can all open your eyes.” Shadow called out to the group. “The echidna caught it.”

They opened their eyes, immediately met with the blinding headlights of the truck that Knuckles’ counterpart was holding above his head effortlessly with both hands.

“...Okay. I have to admit, I didn’t expect that.” Sonic shook his head, disbelieving.

Amy nodded, “I expected them to dodge.” She laughed, “But I guess that’s also a good way to stop the truck.”

“Very impressive too.” Rouge agreed, smiling at Knuckles, who shrugged, “My counterpart caught it, not me.”

Tails smiled widely at on-screen Knuckles, cheering, “And thank you for catching it, Knuckles!”

Sonic and Tails apprehensively opened their eyes again, they relax as soon as they see Knuckles hold the truck effortlessly.

He turned to them, now holding the truck with just one hand, “One… million… percent.” The echidna winked at Sonic before throwing the truck aside.

“He’s so confident.” Amy snorted.

Rouge shrugged, “I mean, he did catch the truck.”

Knuckles turned around and together the trio looked into the direction the truck had come from, inside the huge fire smoke cloud an ominous shadow of a hedgehog appeared.

A car was lying upside down, creating a makeshift ramp that Shadow was slowly climbing. He paused at the top of the burning car, finally revealing himself fully to the trio.

Shadow glared at them, wordlessly sizing them up.

“Well… there’s Shadow.” Tails muttered.

Sonic sighed, “And so the fight begins.”

“There doesn’t have to be one.” Amy frowned, “A calm discussion for once would be nice.”

Rouge nodded, “Well, yes... but doubtful that’s going to happen.”

The trio was astonished at seeing another hedgehog.

Sonic openly gaped at him, he walked closer to Tails and Knuckles, muttering, “Whoa! Are you guys seeing this?”

“He looks just like you.” Tails frowned, unsure of what to think of this strange black hedgehog.

Sonic put his hands on either side of his mouth, forming a tunnel before shouting, “I still don’t see it!”

“It’s mostly the vibe.” Amy explained. “...And your quills.”

The blue hedgehog shook his head, “That doesn’t clear anything up.” He turned to Shadow, asking, “Does it?”

“Nope.” Shadow also denied.

“Impossible!” Knuckles cried out.

Shadow was watching the trio argue calmly. When he had finally finished observing them, he stated, “You’re a colorful bunch.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” Sonic glared at on-screen Shadow, offended. “I like my blue fur!”

Knuckles frowned, “My fur literally has the same fur as his highlights? What is he even on about?”

Rouge snickered, “I love that of all the things that have happened so far, this offends you the most.”

Tails just shrugged, not really upset either way.

“It is really funny that that’s the first thing Shadow has ever said to Sonic in this universe.” Amy laughed.

Shadow snorted, nodding, "You're right, Rose." He chuckled, “Interesting first words for my counterpart.”

Sonic did not even react, still too weirded out by this other hedgehog in front of him, “Um, excuse me. Why do you look like me?”

“I don’t look like you.” Shadow frowned, “You look like me!”

Rouge shook her head, exasperated, “That’s the same thing.”

“No, it’s not!” Shadow and Sonic replied in unison, making the bat roll her eyes.

He asked, sounding slightly distressed, “Why do you look like me?”

“Hey, you know what?” Sonic shouted back, “I’ll ask the questions, new hedgehog!”

“Seriously?” Shadow rolled his eyes, “My counterpart has been on Earth longer than you!”

“Which my counterpart doesn’t know, so?” Sonic shrugged, grinning.

The blue hedgehog questioned the other harshly, “Who are you?! Why do you look like me?!

Amy frowned, “How are you even supposed to answer that question? It’s not like you could actively decide what you look like.”

"Short answer? Genetics!" Tails quipped, giggling.

“It’s a complete waste of time.” Shadow shook his head.

On-screen Shadow agreed with himself, “This is a waste of time. Walk away.” He raised his hand and clenched it into a fist. “Before you get hurt.”

Sonic raised his own hand to placate the other hedgehog, “Whoa, whoa, easy buddy.” With his other hand he pulled out the handcuffs that Tails had made, showing them to Shadow. “We don’t want to fight you.”

“Showing him the handcuffs isn’t a good move.” Knuckles pointed out, “That’s probably going to aggravate him.”

Rouge nodded, “Especially with how he’s been trapped for 50 years already.”

“Which my counterpart also didn’t know.” Sonic muttered, annoyed.

“Actually, Sonic,” Knuckles whispered to the blue hedgehog. “I would like to fight.”

Tails sighed, “Just when I thought that we could solve this peacefully.”

“Nobody’s fighting yet.” Amy frowned.

Sonic pushed Knuckles’ face away from himself, making the echidna groan, “Not now.” He turned back to Shadow, making him an offer, “Why don’t you just stop throwing cars at us for a second and come down here to talk?”

Shadow glared at him, “You jumped out of a G.U.N. helicopter. There’s nothing to talk about.” He turned away from the trio, starting to walk away.

Shadow groaned, pinching his nose in frustration. He knew his counterpart was going to have to say something about this.

The black hedgehog just hoped this was not going to be the reason why everything was going to the dogs.

“Arriving with a GUN logo really wasn’t the smartest idea.” Amy sighed.

Knuckles asked, shaking his head, “Is it just me or does this version of Shadow feel… strangely calm? Normally he would have already attacked.”

Tails nodded, “Maybe he’s sick of fighting?” He shrugged, “I honestly wouldn’t blame him.”

Almost like Knuckles’ counterpart had heard the question, he inserted himself into the conversation, “All right, then.” Knuckles readied himself to attack, “Enough!” He ran towards Shadow.

Sonic tried to stop him but was unsuccessful, “Knuckles, no!”

“Seriously?!” Knuckles groaned. “I get that fighting is great but this is not the time!”

Sonic frowned, “Why do I have the feeling that this fight is going to be absolutely brutal?”

“It probably will.” Rouge agreed.

The echidna jumped, now charging at the black hedgehog through the air while yelling, “Let us talk with our fists!”

Shadow’s back was still turned to the trio but he turned his head, watching Knuckles come closer for a few seconds as everything around them slowed down.

The group recognized immediately when the time slowed down, causing them to tense.

“My counterpart will definitely get his butt kicked.” Knuckles deadpanned.

“Oh definitely.” Sonic nodded, “And my counterpart will try to fight Shadow next because his friend- sorry, brother got hurt.” He sighed, rubbing his face with one hand.

Tails frowned, “So we all get our butts kicked? Great.”

“There goes the peace.” Amy sighed.

The black hedgehog teleported into the air, right in front of the echidna, whose eyes slowly widened in surprise but much too slow to react.

Shadow grabbed Knuckles’ fist that came at him swinging tightly, twisting it and making the echidna shout in pain.

“Oh…” Rouge winced, “That didn’t sound good.”

Knuckles shrugged, “At least my counterpart finally learns how hurtful crushed hands can be.”

Amy gave him a pointed look, making the echidna shrug once more, “What? He can handle it.” He waved his hand dismissively.

He pulled himself under the flying echidna, kicking him straight into his stomach, knocking him high into the air.

Repeatedly Shadow teleported around, kicking him from one place to the next, higher and higher before he finally pummeled him hard into the ground.

Tails followed the fight with his eyes, his head turning with every teleportation and punch that Shadow made, “This kind of reminds me of pinball machines.”

“Huh.” Sonic tilted his head to the side before chuckling, “You’re right, I see it.”

Knuckles bounced on the concrete once before crashing into a souvenir shop.

Sonic and Tails, who had watched this fight horrified from the ground, both shouted in unison, “Knuckles!”

“At least it’s over.” Knuckles sighed, frowning at his counterpart.

The fox kit and hedgehog sped over to the hurt echidna, helping him to his feet.

Sonic asked worriedly, “Knuckles! Knuckles, are you okay?”

“No, not really.” Knuckles replied before grunting in pain as Tails and Sonic pulled him further upward.

The echidna exhaled in relief, “See? He’s fine.”

“You didn’t know that though.” Rouge pointed out.

“My counterpart is clearly holding himself back.” Shadow commented drily. “He’s been more ruthless to the GUN agents.”

Sonic nodded, “But that makes sense. He clearly has a grudge against GUN and rightly so.”

“And my counterpart still thinks they’re part of GUN.” The black hedgehog pointed out, continuing, “But he treats them better.”

Tails hummed, “Might be because they don’t have any weapons pointed at him. It’s just them.”

“Just them?” Sonic snorted, “I look forward to on-screen Shadow finding out that my counterpart is as fast as he is.” Making Shadow roll his eyes.

Shadow teleported himself onto the street across the souvenir shop, glaring at the trio.

“Who is this guy?” Tails asked as the trio made their way closer to the black hedgehog, mocking back into battle pose.

“Right.” Tails giggled, “I just realized they don’t even know each other’s names.”

Knuckles laughed, “An introduction would be hilarious.” He forcefully changed his face into a frown before deepening his voice, clearly imitating the black hedgehog in the room with them, “‘I’m Shadow the Hedgehog and now leave me alone’.”

“I do not sound like that.” Shadow scoffed, glaring at the echidna, who did not look even a little bit intimidated, “That’s what you think.” Knuckles shrugged.

Knuckles whispered to the two next to them, trying to warn them, “He is much more impressive than the hedgehog I fought previously.”

“The hedgehog he fought before-?” Sonic looked mock-offended at on-screen Knuckles, crossing his arms. “Wow.”

“There, there.” Amy snorted, lightly patting the blue hedgehog’s arm whose frown turned into a pout.

Rouge laughed, “I’m always surprised how different you and your counterparts are.” She said to the echidna.

“I don’t think I could act like that,” Knuckles shook his head, frowning. “Even If I wanted to.”

Sonic groaned, offended, “Dude,” He turned to glare at Knuckles. “I’m standing right here.” The blue hedgehog turned back, facing Shadow again. “Now, come on! He can’t take us all at once.”

Tails groaned, “Why would you say that?” He hid his face behind his hands, his voice muffled as he muttered, “You’re basically asking for him to beat us up?”

“‘Us’?” Sonic shook his head, snorting, “Tails, we’re smarter than that, come on.”

“Are you though?” Knuckles asked, chuckling.

The blue hedgehog stuck his tongue out at the echidna, “Mostly? Yes.”

Tails began flying as the trio glared ahead at the spot where Shadow had just stood a moment before.

But Shadow was already in motion. He suddenly appeared behind them, startling the trio before kicking Tails out of the air.

The black hedgehog turned to face Sonic, only to teleport past him and kick Knuckles away.

"He left Other Blue for last?" Rouge asked, amused. "This version of you definitely has a bone to pick with him." She muttered to Shadow, grinning.

The black hedgehog shrugged, "Sonic's counterpart is the spokesperson for the group. It makes sense to focus on him."

"Mhm." Rouge nodded at him, grinning.

When Sonic was the last one standing, Shadow teleported close to him and grabbed him by the neck. Activating his Air shoes, they soared high up into the air as Sonic struggled to free himself.

The group was watching from the ground, already knowing in what direction this fight was going to go.

The same thing had happened to Knuckles after all.

Shadow let go of Sonic, teleporting himself even higher before once again activating his Air shoes, holding the other once more by the neck, only to forcefully smash him into the concrete below.

The impact created a wave of dust that spread through the streets.

“Seriously? Why always the neck?!” Sonic turned to Shadow, glaring at him. “What’s your counterpart’s obsession with my counterpart’s neck?!”

The other hedgehog shrugged, “It’s a good way to shut you up.”

“They are better ways to shut me up!” Sonic argued back.

Shadow narrowed his eyes at him, frowning for a moment before rolling his eyes, “I’m not bringing you food to shut you up.”

“Oh, come on-” Sonic wanted to argue but the black hedgehog interrupted him, “Besides you seem like the type to talk with your mouth full.”

“He does do that.” Amy chimed in, watching them fight from the sidelines.

Sonic mock-glared at the pink hedgehog, only for his little brother to betray him, “Yep. He’s done that ever since I knew him.” The blue hedgehog rolled his eyes, turning away from the while pouting.

Sonic struggled to pick himself up from the ground as he weakly said, “Okay, he took us all at once.” He collapsed, revealing Shadow who was still standing behind him.

The black hedgehog walked past him, insulting him as a “Weakling.”

Sonic rolled his eyes, "Rude. I have to say I like you a lot more than this version of you, Shads."

"Huh." Shadow raised his eyebrow at the other hedgehog, observing him for a moment before joking, smirking, "You do realize that this is just like every fight that ever happened between us?"

"Oh, come on." The blue hedgehog pouted. "We're completely evenly matched." He gestured at the projection, "This is just insane."

Shadow followed the other's gaze before he nodded, admitting, "We don't have that much of a power difference between us."

"Exactly!" Sonic grinned. "Ours is basically non-existent. Just enough for everyone to know that I'm better."

The black hedgehog scoffed, "No chance in hell."

"Agree to disagree." Sonic shrugged, still grinning.

Sonic looked up, just in time to see Shadow mount a G.U.N. motorcycle. He kicked up a gun from the ground, now holding it tightly in his hand before looking crossly at Sonic.

“Where did he get the motorcycle from?” Tails squinted at the projection before the realization dawned on him, his entire expression lighting up. He turned to Shadow, pointing at him in his excitement. “You also stole a vehicle? Welcome to the grand theft auto club!” The kit raised his right hand, offering the black hedgehog a high-five.

Shadow crossed his arms, staring at the fox, before looking at the offered hand. Fox. Hand. He silently raised an eyebrow, making no effort to accept the high-five and therefore making Tails drop his hand.

The kit rolled his eyes, “I forgot you hate fun.”

“Fox.” Tails’ perked up when Shadow addressed him. “High-fives are beneath me.”

The fox narrowed his eyes at the black hedgehog, before slowly lifting his hand again, this time offering him a fist bump.

Shadow stared at the hand, before loudly sighing. He gave in and accepted the fist bump- he withdrew his hand immediately but the damage was already done.

Tails was grinning widely, looking like Christmas and his birthday had come early. At least the fox was silent and not openly discussing it with the others.

Speaking of others, Shadow was fully prepared to ignore the smiles and grins from the others in the group. He turned back to the projection, crossing his arms once more.

Shadow’s eyes were focused on Sonic as he warned, “Don’t try to follow me.”

Tails giggled, “Oh, he read him like a book.”

“It’s not hard, he looks like a troublemaker.” Amy laughed, shaking her head, amused.

Shadow sighed, looking at Sonic, who was still grinning widely from what Shadow had just done, “Let me guess: He’s going to follow him?”

“You can bet on that.” The blue hedgehog replied, smugly.

Sonic got back on his feet just as the black hedgehog sped off with the motorcycle, he glared at the leaving hedgehog.

Tails walked up to the blue hedgehog, pleading at him with his eyes, “Sonic, I know that look. Going after him is a bad idea.”

“A bad idea for a hedgehog.” Sonic nodded his head, mock-serious. “A good idea for hedgehog-kind.”

Knuckles snorted, “I have no idea what you’re talking about but a bad idea has never stopped you before.”

Sonic readied himself to speed after the motorcycle, his eyes lit up with his own blue chaos energy, “When has that ever stopped me?” With that the blue hedgehog gave chase.

"Predictable." Knuckles snorted.

Shadow just sighed. Of course, any version of blue hedgehog wouldn't just leave other people in peace.

Specially If said people could actually beat him in a fight. Easily.

He raced through the streets of Tokyo, mostly just looking like a blue blur with how fast he had been going before finally catching up to Shadow, an orange trail also following him with how fast he had been going.

When Sonic was finally running next to the motorcycle, he could not help but announce his presence with a quip, “I got to ask, one hedgehog to another, who does your highlights?”

Shadow stared at the projection, exasperated.

Was Sonic really trying to get on his counterpart's bad side this badly?

Amy snorted, "As If he can't tell that they're natural."

"I don't think Blue's counterpart actually has a lot of knowledge about quill dying." Rouge chuckled.

"Didn't he dye his quills when he was home alone with Ozzy?" Tails asked, frowning. "Or did I imagine that?"

The bat smiled at the kit, "He didn't. Other Blue just styled his quills with hair spray."

"Good thing too." Sonic visibly shuddered before he replied, "Dying your quills is terrible. The products stink and you actually have to let it dry which is just boring."

Amy stared at him, shaking her head, "You're just using the wrong products." Before asking a follow-up question, "And when did you even dye your quills?"

"Doesn't matter- never doing that one again." The blue hedgehog shrugged, still having a disgusted look on his face.

Shadow scowled when he noticed Sonic’s face in the mirror. He drew his gun and fired multiple shots at his pursuer.

The blue hedgehog swerved from light to right, dodging every blast and leaping out of traffic’s way, somehow managing to not lose speed while following the motorcycle.

He then curled into a ball and leaped at Shadow, who teleported himself and the motorcycle out of harm’s way.

“Teleporting with the motorcycle feels like cheating!” Sonic complained loudly.

Shadow shrugged, “My counterpart warned him not to follow.”

The blue hedgehog pointed at the other, each word another jab, “Not. Fair.”

Sonic almost collided with a bus, instead he uncurled and wall-ran on the side of the bus.

Shadow appeared behind Sonic and tried to hit him with the gun.

“Hey!” The blue hedgehog complained, dodging every hit. “Dangerously weaving through traffic is my thing!”

Knuckles chuckled, “Good thing this isn’t a bike race.” He shook his head, “I’m pretty sure both wouldn’t survive Sonic’s driving.”

“That would be a chaotic fight.” Rouge snorted.

Sonic opened his mouth to argue but paused instead. After a few seconds, he relented, “You know what? That’s fair.”

Sonic jumped from bus to truck to escape the other’s gun shots before he curled into a ball and tried to hit him once more but Shadow teleported himself away.

When the street was blocked by multiple cars, Sonic used the hood of a car to catapult himself into the air, falling through the cab of a truck in slow motion, completely startling the driver. 

He grinned at the human, “Coming through!” before safely landing on his feet, back on the street he resumed running.

Tails giggled, "That man must have been so confused."

"He probably could not even understand what happened." Knuckles snorted.

"It might have been too fast to even see." Rouge snickered.

Suddenly Shadow appeared above Sonic, aiming to land directly on top of him to crush him with his bike.

Sonic gasped and managed to dodge in time before leaping at the motorcycle and grabbing the back of the back. He threw his weight back and tried to push his heels into the ground, in order to stop the vehicle.

“Why are you running away?” The blue hedgehog grunted, struggling to keep his hold on the bike. “We were just getting started.”

Rouge seemed really impressed at the blue hedgehog's stubbornness. "Other Blue is really persistent."

"Shadow's counterpart is the only other hedgehog he's ever seen." Sonic shrugged, "Who could really blame him there?"

Tails nodded, "I wonder why Shadow isn't more curious about Sonic."

"He still thinks the trio are GUN agents, remember?" The bat answered. "Besides Shadow isn't really the type to ask for help."

The black hedgehog scoffed but did not argue.

It would have been an interesting idea If his counterpart had actually asked the trio for help. Too bad that would never happen.

Swerving to the left with the motorcycle, Sonic was slammed into the door window of a passing bus, creating an indent in the glass, making two young girls inside the bus startle and gasp in shock.

As soon as Shadow drove into a tunnel, he dropped the gun and turned to Sonic, snarling, “The more you talk, the harder I want to hit you.”

Shadow wordlessly nodded in agreement. That was a sentiment he definitely could agree with.

Even If he respected Sonic as an evenly matched adversary- the blue hedgehog was annoying.

Knuckles chuckled, "That sounds like something my counterpart would have said in that first fight."

"That sounds like something you would say to me today." Sonic quipped back, snorting.

The black hedgehog revved the engine, making it roar and the motorcycle drove faster.

They exited through the other side of the tunnel and raced towards a train crossing.

Sonic shouted in fright when he noticed the locked crossing where a train was just passing, “Watch out!”

But Shadow sped right towards the train, no sign of stopping. Just as they are about to collide, Shadow teleported them from the road and straight into the air.

The sudden loss of ground beneath his feet made Sonic lose his grip, causing him to free fall. He groaned, “Ugh, I’m gonna throw up!”

"You know, considering his driving skills and the fact that he jumps out of helicopters without fear- Sonic should probably be used to this feeling already." Amy shook her head.

"The feeling of free falling?" Sonic asked. "Or diving into dangerous situations and feeling the consequences?"

The pink hedgehog only nodded in response, "Yep."

Shadow revved the engine again, the motorcycle began to glow orange as the black hedgehog channeled a burst of chaos energy directly into the bike.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Sonic yelled, trying to grab onto the bike but failed as the motorcycle leaped against the side of the Tokyo Tower, driving up the wall- the blue hedgehog managed to follow behind on foot.

"Uh…" Tails frowned, "Isn't Shadow going to run out of 'road' real soon?"

The two hedgehogs headed up the tower, colliding against each other again and again. Each trying to make the other hedgehog fall to their doom.

When the wall suddenly ended halfway up the tower, Sonic crashed and fell onto the ground while Shadow continued, soaring high into the air.

Shadow slid on the tower, holding Sonic’s eye contact before finally, when the bike had completely left the tower and went higher than the top, jumping off the motorcycle before aiming his fist right at Sonic, burning with orange chaos energy.

"Okay, I didn't expect that." Tails shook his head, still frowning.

"Nice move, though." Knuckles nodded, impressed. "He often uses gravity to his advantage. That's a good way to save energy."

On the platform Sonic’s own chaos energy flared up as he leaped at Shadow.

Amy gasped, "Oh, no. Sonic exploding is bad enough and now that there's actually two of them…" She trailed off, frowning as she thought about what their collision could do.

"Another blackout's incoming." Rouge finished the pink hedgehog's thought.

As soon as both hedgehogs collided, the force of the impact caused an explosion of pure white chaos energy. It spread through the clouds, several lightning strikes hitting the city before the entire city lost its power.

"And there's the blackout." Rouge sighed.

Sonic shrugged, "Sorry, Tokyo?" The blue hedgehog didn't sound apologetic at all.

"Tokyo is a megacity." Shadow frowned, "They probably get their power back in the next few minutes." 

Chapter Text

Tails Knows A Place

After the blackout, the lights turned back on as the camera panned to Sonic lying on a rooftop.

He groaned, slowly sitting up and holding a hand to his head, “1.21 gigawatts.”

Rouge smiled, looking amused, "Back to the future?"

"Huh?" Sonic frowned at the bat in confusion before realizing what she meant, "Ah. I guess so? I'm not really a movie guy." He shrugged.

Shadow hummed, "I would have thought you've seen that movie a million times."

A clanking sound alerted the blue hedgehog when he tried to use his other hand.

Sonic looked at his hand, revealing that he was handcuffed to a rail with Tails’ yellow handcuffs.

"Wait, what?" Sonic gasped, only now realizing what they were seeing on screen, "Seriously? He was knocked unconscious?!"

It was not the first time his counterpart had lost consciousness and let's be real: It probably wouldn't be the last with how these projections kept going. But the impact of their fists had been enough to knock his counterpart out? And deeply too, otherwise he would have woken up with the sound of the handcuffs...

That was worrisome.

To be fair, the fact that they had caused an entire blackout together was not better at all.

The giggle of his younger brother pulled him out of his thoughts, Sonic raised an eyebrow, silently asking what the kit found so funny.

Tails snickered, "Shadow handcuffed him while he was unconscious."

Sonic frowned, only now actually realizing what the yellow handcuffs around his counterpart's wrist meant. Wow.

Amy snorted, "At least that way Tails and Knuckles can finally catch up to him. They've probably been worried sick."

"I told you guys that showing Shadow the handcuffs was not a smart idea." Knuckles chuckled, making Tails laugh even harder.

"He handcuffed him?" Sonic asked, still staring at the handcuffs like this was the first time he had seen them. "How did he even figure out how to use them?!"

"They're handcuffs. It's not that hard." Shadow pointed out. The black hedgehog was just relieved that their counterparts' fight was finally over- and a good thing too that they hadn't hurt each other too badly.

"Why wasn't there a safety option that only we could use them?" The blue hedgehog continued to be completely confused by this turn of events.

"Tails probably didn't expect that they would be used against them." Rouge replied when she noticed that the kit was still to busy laughing his butt off to answer.

Sonic shook his head, still not believing that his had happened, "…That's stupid."

When Tails finally finished laughing- the projection continued.

He frowned at the handcuffs, taking a moment to realize what had happened. The blue hedgehog rolled his eyes, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!”

The reaction of Sonic's counterpart made the kit start giggling again. But it was quiet enough, so the projection continued anyway.

…Though Sonic rolled his eyes when he noticed his brother's reaction.

Sonic tried to break free, testing the strength of the cuffs once, twice before he heard Tails calling his name.

Tails flew over to him, dropping Knuckles onto the roof before running up to Sonic, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, guys.” Sonic smiled, looking really relieved now that his brothers were here. “And before you ask, I handcuffed myself for tactical reasons that I do not have time to explain.”

"Right." Tails nodded, trying to keep his face straight but failing miserably considering he was still wheezing. "That makes sense."

"Good strategy." Knuckles teased, "That probably made Shadow leave him alone."

Amy snorted, "Fighting a chained hedgehog would be something that Shadow surely wouldn't do."

The fox kit looked at him sternly, not buying the excuse one bit, “You shouldn’t have gone off on your own. We’re supposed to be a team.” With that said, he opened Sonic’s handcuffs.

“Sorry, buddy.” Sonic was rubbing his sore wrists, looking apologetically at his younger brother. “Still working on this teamwork thing.” He stood up.

"That sounds like the lessons we had to and still have to teach you occasionally." Amy smiled at on-screen Sonic before turning to her Sonic, raising her eyebrow.

Sonic nodded, "Yeah." He rubbed the back of his head for a moment before joking, "It kinda feels like my counterpart is speedrunning my life."

"Finally someone that is faster than you." Knuckles chuckled.

Knuckles approached the two, asking, “So now what?”

"Your counterpart did not actually seem upset that Other Blue fought Shadow alone." Rouge commented.

Knuckles shrugged, "I mean, he did the same thing in the beginning, he just didn't get very far." The echidna continued, pointing out, "My counterpart is not used to team fighting either, so why be upset when he's in the same boat?"

“Well, I’m not jumping out of any more helicopters until we get some answers from G.U.N.” Sonic frowned, “We need somewhere to regroup.”

Sonic nodded, "Distrusting GUN is smart."

"It is kind of weird that they trusted them in the first place." Amy frowned, "But they definitely shouldn't after seeing Shadow's counterpart's aversion to them."

"And having a plan would also be nice." Tails added.

Tails thought for a few moments before smiling determinably, “I know just the place.”

The kit narrowed his eyes at his counterpart, "Why does that grin look so… suspicious?"

"Who knows what kind of place your counterpart has in mind." Sonic snorted.

"As long as it's calm enough to talk…" Shadow shrugged, not really caring where the trio went next.

There was an abrupt cut to the next location.

It was a restaurant. The background music seemed happy as Japanese singers sang along.

The restaurant's theme was clearly 'Chao Garden' as everyone who worked there, was wearing a giant Chao costume.

Giant Chaos were walking around, serving numerous customers while two people in Chao costumes danced on a stage.

"What in the-…" Sonic openly gaped at their surroundings. He had no idea of what to make of this.

Shadow frowned, "Is this… a Chao-themed restaurant?" He shook his head, muttering, "How would they even know what Chaos are?"

Tails blinked, "To be fair, it does seem like something that my counterpart would like." He stared at one giant Chao costume, entertaining a table with kids. "…They look a little creepy though."

"Creepy? It's for children." Knuckles asked, confused.

"Chaos are not supposed to be this tall…" Tails muttered, slightly shifting away from the many service workers in Chao costumes.

Rouge inspected the decoration of the place closer, eventually she nodded, clearly satisfied, "I like this place. They clearly care a lot and it shows."

"It's a little bit loud for a conversation though." Amy pointed out, "But I'm pretty sure that's the point." She shrugged, the restaurant not really matching what she normally like in restaurants.

The camera cut to Sonic, Knuckles and Tails sitting at a table, surrounded by three giant Chaos.

A worker prompted them to say 'cheese' in Japanese before taking a photo of them.

Tails was clearly the only one who was enjoying their location. Sonic was looking annoyed while Knuckles startled, alarmed by the camera flash.

Knuckles yelped, flailing his arms, "It's an ambush! You'll never take us alive, foul beasts!" He threatened the Chaos behind him with his fists, who of course did not change their expression because they were only people inside costumes.

"Knuckles agrees with me!" Tails shouted, pointing at the echidna on screen. "He also thinks they look scary!"

The echidna snorted, "You're way braver than him though."

The kit frowned, crossing his arms, "Just because I'm brave doesn't mean I can't be scared sometimes."

"Those are literally costumes, bud. They're just normal people." Sonic smiled reassuringly at his brother, who pouted.

"Still big and scary." He turned away from the projection.

Sonic stared at Knuckles, completely confused while Tails kept smiling, clearly at peace in this restaurant, "Calm down, Knuckles." He explained, "This is a Chao Garden. One of the top ten must-see spots in all of Tokyo! It's a perfect place for us to blend in."

"It's literally called a 'Chao Garden'?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.

Sonic shrugged, "The costumes actually look like Chaos."

"That's so weird." Amy laughed, shaking her head.

"They do blend in well." Rouge nodding, grinning. "It's a very colourful restaurant and they are a colorful bunch. Perfectly picked!"

Shadow rolled his eyes at hearing the bat quote his counterpart's first words. He had to admit, the restaurant looked... acceptable.

Two young girls walked up to the trio, they asked, addressing only Tails, "Are you Detective Pikachu?"

"What?" Tails frowned.

Sonic shrugged, "I have no idea who that is."

Sonic's counterpart lit up, grinning, "Yes, he is!"

"He does look like a Pokémon!" Knuckles laughed.

Knuckles squinted at the projection, "…Apparently it's a Pokémon."

"…I have no idea what that is either." Tails shook his head.

Tails glared at Knuckles, looking very annoyed.

Knuckles pointed at him before pulling his hands close to his face, mimicking an animal as he called out, "Pika Pika!"

"I have the feeling, I'm supposed to be offended though…" Tails frowned.

Amy shrugged, "Can't be that bad If it's beloved by children."

"Yeah." Shadow rolled his eyes. "Because children always know best."

Sonic laughed along with Knuckles before his eyes widened, spotting someone approaching them.

"Commander Walters!" He frowned, just before the commander reached their table, immediately pulling up a seat.

"Rude." Rouge shook her head, "Didn't even ask for permission."

"What is the commander doing in a place like this?" Tails asked incredulously. 

Ignoring the other two, Commander Walters turned to Sonic, addressing only him as a greeting, "Sonic."

He then nodded at Tails and Knuckles, "Thank God you're all okay. I'm sure you have questions."

"Pretty much, yeah." Sonic deadpanned.

"They're confused." Amy pointed out, "The only thing they have at this point are questions."

Knuckles nodded, "At least he seems willing to answer."

"Which won't be a guarantee that he won't lie." Shadow crossed his arms, staring intently at the projection.

Sonic glared at the Commander, clearly not liking the fact that G.U.N. send him and his brothers into a dangerous situation without knowing all the facts.

"Just a big ticked-off red and black one." He leaned closer to the human, asking, "Who was that guy?"

Suddenly the projection froze without anyone speaking up, causing confusion in the group.

"Why…" Tails frowned, glancing back at the others. "…did it stop?"

"…Heroes…"

The voice that kept haunting them, time and time again spoke up. They were used to it by now, only that this was the first time that it spoke up during a projection.

Amy was glaring at the ceiling, despite it not actually being the direction where the voice was coming from.

She was still angry at the voice from earlier, when it had not thought about warning them about-

Her eyes widened with realization, she directly addressed the voice, making more a statement than asking a question, "You're here to warn us, right?"

A beat of silence happened and then…

"…For the next few minutes a flashback will play, directly explaining Shadow the Hedgehog's origins…"

Shadow felt himself tense, barely able to hold himself back from screaming in frustration.

It's hardly been half an hour since the first few flashbacks happened. And now he had to deal with another one?

He grit his teeth together. His mouth already tasting like iron but the pain was a nice distraction. The black hedgehog choked out, "Is there a chance for me to sit this out?"

Shadow hated to show weakness but If there was any chance-

"…You have to watch…"

The voice immediately ruined any hope he built himself up in his head. Of course. Great.

"Shadow." Rouge was trying to get his attention, already sending reassuringly looks his way. "You're not alone."

'That was the worst part.' He quietly thought to himself but the bat wasn't done.

She made brief eye-contact with every other person in the group, earning a nod from everyone before she turned back to the black hedgehog, "We're here for you."

Great. Now Rouge was starting to make sappy her normal mood.

As If Sonic was listening in to his negative thoughts, he chimed in, assuring him in his own way, "We can always take a break, when we need it."

His first thought was to dismiss the idea. He did not need breaks- but Sonic had not just talked about him. He talked about them.

This was not just about him. They were all going to suffer and was this not a strange thought to realize?

Shadow closed his eyes, taking one last moment for himself- probably the last one where the attention was not exclusively on him.

Then he opened his eyes and nodded, primarily at Sonic but also at the entire group before crossing his arms and turning his attention back to the projection.

After a few seconds, the others followed. And the projection continued.

Commander Walters did not waste any time to start his explanation. He seemed almost regretful as he looked directly at the blue hedgehog, "Shadow's story began a lot like yours, Sonic."

He nodded for emphasis, continuing, "But where you found family and friends on this planet, Shadow found only pain and loss."

Amy kept her eyes on the projection as she frowned, "They're really driving these parallels between you two."

"If that's not the reason why they reconcile, I don't even know anymore." Sonic agreed with the pink hedgehog.

The scene changed to a flashback, showing a field in the dark of the night.

A large crater was in the middle of the field, surrounded by multiple cars and trucks, civilians peering inside the crater with unconcealed curiosity.

The commander's voice moved into narration, explaining what they were seeing, "It begins over 50 years ago, with a meteor crash in a quiet corner of Oklahoma."

Slowly tilting, the camera showed a black and red meteor inside the crater, still partially on fire from entering the atmosphere and barely visible from the smoke that was caused by the impact.

"…A meteor?" Shadow felt himself openly gape at the projection. He just could not help it, that was a change he never would have predicted.

His counterpart had not been created in a laboratory? Or at least his origins had not sprung from Earth?

…Or at least that was what Commander Walters was telling them. Who even knew If he was telling them the truth.

It probably didn't mean anything either way- maybe the commander was lying to make his counterpart feel more alien to them? It would have been a weak attempt- but the thought of his counterpart not starting in a lab made the black hedgehog feel... strangely lost.

"Maybe Shadow should be the leader of the alien club." Knuckles chuckled. "He actually arrived here by meteor- that must win him some points."

Tails gasped, "Does that mean there's a planet nearby where other Shadows reside?" After a moment, he muttered to himself, "…Or he's been traveling for a really long time."

"I like that second theory." Sonic snorted, grinning at his brother. "That makes Grandpa over there even older." He winked at Knuckles, "Maybe you're right, he's definitely old enough to qualify as leader."

Shadow rolled his eyes, not overly offended but still feeling a little bit annoyed, "You do realize that wisdom only comes with age, right?"

"Who needs wisdom when you have luck on your side?" The blue hedgehog joked, nudging the other with his elbow, actually managing to make Shadow snort in amusement.

Their surroundings changed to Prison Island, where a large crane was lowering the meteor into a tank full of green liquid.

"The meteorite contained a life-form." The narration continued.

"Right." Amy frowned at the tank, really uncomfortable at seeing the tank from before again. "He's really only saying the most important parts here, huh?"

Rouge nodded, "Most of it is probably classified. He's only saying enough, so Other Blue and the others don't ask questions."

"Cool." Sonic deadpanned, not at all sounding like he meant that. "One time our counterparts actually have someone explain something to them and they only get the short version. Go figures."

Chunks of meteor dissolve, revealing Shadow's eyes that immediately shot open.

Walters clarified, "The ultimate life-form."

"And there is the annoying title I never hear the end of." Sonic rolled his eyes.

"You would hear it less," Shadow replied a little distracted, "If you stopped underestimating me." His counterpart had woken up- just like that? No artificial waking necessary? 

The blue hedgehog muttered to Knuckles, joking, "Quite an ego on that one." Making the echidna chuckle.

The scene changed to a large room, resembling a stadion, only that the running track ran along the walls.

Shadow was idly standing on the ground before his orange chaos energy lit up his eyes, doing many laps around the room in the matter of seconds.

In the middle of the giant room was a bridge where scientists monitored the black hedgehog's speed, watching him race in awe.

"Shadow's power—" The commander continued with his narration, "His 'chaos energy'— went far beyond any living creature."

Shadow clenched his fists as he glared at his counterpart doing laps like a hamster in a running wheel.

He remembered the tests- some of them making him learn new information about himself, most of them humiliating and none of them fun. But why would a test subject need fun anyway?

The others followed Shadow's counterpart with wide, amazed eyes.

Sonic whistled, looking very impressed, "He probably could have gotten away, If he hadn't used his chaos energy to power the bike."

"He probably wasn't expecting that your counterpart could even remotely keep up with him." Amy giggled.

"And the annoying factor didn't help." Knuckles snorted.

Multiple machines printed charts, showing Shadow's speed in medical lines. One scientist picked up one of the charts, inspecting it more closely before holding it behind his back.

A single orange quill, glowing brightly, was also in the scientist's hand.

Tails had tried to peek at the medical charts but got a look at the orange quill instead. He blinked before exclaiming, "Wait, is that-"

The projection had already changed to the next scene, making the fox kit frown.

"What's wrong, kid?" Rouge turned to Tails, looking at him worried.

"I think I saw someone holding a hedgehog quill." He replied, still frowning. "Who would-?" He cut himself off, thinking.

Sonic squinted at thin air. "Eggman's grandfather?"

"It was routine for scientists to inspect my quills." Shadow shrugged. "It could be any scientist."

"Don't sound so casual now. One moment you're thinking about nothing and the next moment you see someone licking your quills." The blue hedgehog pointed at the other warningly, more sounding like a oracle announcing the next prophecy than a jokingly warning.

Shadow scoffed, "The doctor would never do that."

"Says you." Sonic snorted before shrugging, "I'm just saying, it could run in the family." The only response the blue hedgehog got was a glare being sent his way, making the blue hedgehog relent, "...Or it's someone completely different."

The narration continued, "The scientist who discovered him believed this power would usher in a new era for humanity." The projection changed to the outside of the military base where Shadow was kept. "But Shadow's power proved too dangerous."

Without any warning, the laboratory exploded, sending flames everywhere.

Shadow felt himself flinch, barely noticeable to the others but still very noticeable to him. So the GUN raid had happened in this universe too? Of course, Walters wouldn't mention that bit. The black hedgehog's thought sounded bitter, even to him.

It would be a real tragedy If GUN actually had the ability to see their own flaws. The black hedgehog had been tense ever since the warning from the voice had come and he really had not expected the explosion in the first place. Nor how massive it was.

And he had been expecting an entirely different sound to ring out-

Shadow stopped himself from going down that mental road, instead tuning back into conversations to distract himself.

"They're putting the blame on the hedgehog?" Knuckles frowned, shaking his head with displeasure. "Seriously?"

"That's what GUN does best. They do love pointing fingers." Rouge sighed.

Amy glared at the projection, crossing her arms, "Of course, they do." She rolled her eyes.

Shadow turned back to the projection. At least the others knew how stupid GUN's excuse actually was. That made him feel a little bit better.

"A terrible accident destroyed the lab, taking human lives with it." The commander continued narrating, "The project leader was blamed for the incident and imprisoned."

After a few moments, a white coated scient was hauled away by two G.U.N. agents, the camera movement was deliberate as to not reveal the person's face.

Tails gasped, "That's the same guy!" He pointed at the scientist being led away, still holding onto an orange quill in his handcuffed hands. "They didn't even take away Shadow's quill." The kit frowned.

"They have never seen something like Shadow before." Amy explained. "They have no idea how powerful it is."

Knuckles shook his head, "I don't think these are the right hands for such power."

"That's definitely not good." Rouge crossed her arms.

Shadow silently nodded along with the bat, this felt strange. If this scientist was actually Gerald… why weren't they showing his face?

The projection changed to a traumatized looking Shadow being forced into a stasis tube by a soldier wielding an electric prod.

"Hey!" Sonic shouted, yelling at the soldier, "Seriously? He hasn't even done anything."

Tails nodded, frowning, "I knew that Shadow had reasons to distrust GUN." He glared at the projection, just like the others were doing, "But this is just downright evil."

Shadow watched the scene with a stony face, mostly feeling numb. He barely remembered anything about that night. The only thing he remembered clearly was-

...her.

Commander Walters explained, "With the program cancelled…" Shadow desperately looked around, his face looked onto the doors where the fire was still visible.

He was searching for someone but was only met with fire. "…Shadow was a loose end no one knew how to deal with."

Shadow closed his eyes, counting down from ten to keep himself calm. Listening to the narration wasn't ideal but at least it was better than seeing this damn tube again.

Amy and Rouge exchanged pained looks. No one deserved this treatment- especially not him.

Shadow's counterpart was basically a child at this point! Still was in the future- a child that had too much power and no one to trust. And they knew exactly what he had gone through moments earlier. He didn't need weapons pointed at him, he needed a hug!

Sonic crossed his arms and glared ahead. He knew that attacking the projection was fruitless but he wouldn't mind knocking some sense into them.

It's not like the blue hedgehog had ever been a fan of GUN. The organisation didn't like him either- mostly they just tolerated each other but their treatment of Shadow was something he definitely would never forgive them.

Shadow began to pound on the glass of his tube, not even making a dent in the glass as it slowly lowered into the ground.

The tube slowly filled with stasis liquid, raising higher with every second while GUN soldiers kept their weapons aimed directly at the black hedgehog.

"Too dangerous to be walking free," Shadow slowly began to panic as he noticed the rising liquid. "Too valuable to destroy."

"Valuable?" Tails hissed, the fur on his twin tails fluffed as he stared in indignation. "He's a person, not some damn object!"

Sonic frowned at his little brother, feeling a bit miffed at the swearing but more focused on the kit's wellbeing, "You okay, bud?"

The fox continued glaring at the projection, waving the blue hedgehog's concerns away as he kept seething on the inside.

Tails' brother nodded, reluctantly turning back to the projection to continue his own glare. He had been right: This was hard to watch for everyone.

The camera panned over to a young Walters, watching the tube lower itself down with crossed arms.

"Is that the commander?" Sonic frowned, thankful that the projection was not focusing on Shadow drowning anymore.

While he knew that Shadow's counterpart was not actually drowning and could definitely breathe in the liquid- the action of seeing someone slowly be submerged into a liquid still made him feel slightly panicky.

Shadow opened his eyes again, immediately recognizing the face of Commander Walters. "Yep. That's him." The black hedgehog nodded.

"Hopefully Shadow never meets the commander." Rouge scoffed. "For Shadow's sake."

"We've been joking this whole time about Olive Garden guy but I never expected him to be the one that put Shadow on ice." Knuckles shook his head.

Amy nodded, "I wouldn't be surprised If Shadow's counterpart attacks the commander on sight."

Shadow frowned. Knowing himself, his counterpart would probably do more than just attacking the commander.

"So, I had him placed into stasis…" Shadow resigned himself to his fate and looked up instead, making direct eye contact with Commander Walters, a vengeful scowl on his face.

The commander returned the eye contact, looking more thoughtful than regretful as he finally finished his narration, "Indefinitely."

"Walters probably hoped Shadow would never escape." Sonic was still glaring at the commander.

Amy shrugged, not looking one bit sorry for him, "Tough luck."

The flashback ended, changing their surroundings back to the Chao Garden where Commander Walters had just finished telling his story to the trio.

Shadow immediately relaxed, relieved that the whole flashback scene was over.

The others seemed similarly relieved.

"So, wait-" Tails took a deep breath before continuing. "-Walters is apparently the main person for putting Shadow into the tube- or at least he claims to be, right?" The kit barely paused before finishing his thought, "So did he get his commander rank by 'neutralizing'-" He raised his arms to do air quotes during the last word he had spoken. "-Shadow?"

Knuckles' eyes widened, thinking the fox' thought over before nodding, "...I think you might actually be onto something here."

Amy's fingers twitched like they were trying to reach for her hammer, only to come up empty. She sounded oddly calm as she threatened, "...If I only had my hammer-"

"Walters wouldn't be able to tell this story If we actually had anything to say about it." Sonic growled, still glaring at the commander on-screen.

Rouge scoffed, "Oh, no, Blue." She shook her head, a sharp smile revealing her true feelings, "I'm sure we could make him talk and tell the whole story."

"My counterpart can take revenge on his own terms." Shadow reminded the bloodthirsty group, although feeling a little bit flattered at hearing their support. The blue hedgehog and bat nodded curtly back at him- but his intervention didn't stop their thoughts from imaging what they could actually do If they were inside this universe.

Sonic frowned, not looking impressed with the story, "Wait a second. If Shadow's been on ice for 50 years, someone had to help him escape."

"That's what our counterparts focus on?" Knuckles shook his head. "Seriously?"

"More like my counterpart." Sonic frowned, "I have no idea how he doesn't question that story more."

"Focusing on who he could fight will do that to you." Rouge sighed before weakly joking, "At least Eggman is someone he can defeat."

The blue hedgehog was in no mood to argue, he just nodded at the bat whose weak smile dropped completely in response.

"True." Commander Walters nodded. "But there's only a few people in the world who even know of Shadow's existence."

Tails pointed out, "Which doesn't narrow it down at all because Walters will probably not tell them who is on that list."

"Files can be hacked." Rouge shrugged. "There are probably more people on that list than even he knows."

Suddenly the ceiling lights in the restaurant flickered off, making everyone look around in surprise.

Team Sonic seemed suspicious, already sensing… something.

When the stage lights turned on, revealing three Chao performers dancing to a Japanese cover of 'I Want You Back' by the Jackson 5 on stage.

Everyone clapped and cheered, dancing along with the stage dancers. Even the restaurant staff enjoyed themselves.

"Uh… that's suspicious?" Sonic slowly blinked, his rage now temporarily forgotten as he watched the show in confusion.

Tails gasped, "Surely, that's a trap right?" The kit looked around, desperate to hear agreement from the others. "They cut the power!" The fox pointed at the stage.

He still thought that these giant Chaos were creepy. Now that they're obviously doing a distraction- his fear had definitely not gotten better.

His counterpart cheered, not believing how 'lucky' they had gotten to see this show, "A live show?! Yeah!"

Sonic relaxed as soon as he noticed how happy Tails was, softly smiling along.

Knuckles frowned, seemingly not knowing how to react to the situation they were stuck in.

Commander Walters hid his face behind his hand, clearly annoyed and frustrated but none of the trio paid him any attention anymore.

None of them noticed the battalion of Badniks creeping up behind him, watching them through the window front. They opened their sides, revealing the missiles they stored inside.

Shadow scoffed, turning away from the stage and was immediately met with the army of Badniks. He commented drily, "…We have company."

The rest of the group also turned around, staring out of the window.

"Huh." Amy shook her head, disbelieving. "So, first Eggman frees Shadow and now he's back to attack GUN?"

"Attacking GUN?" Rouge frowned. "The only GUN agent here is Commander No Empathy over there." She gestured towards Walters who still had his eyes closed.

"It could be an attack for Team Sonic." The pink hedgehog shrugged, agreeing.

Out of nowhere Sonic turned his head and finally noticed the row of Badniks. "Get down!" He yelled.

The Badniks immediately fired their missiles while the others turned around to see what Sonic had been yelling about.

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all managed to duck away from the table where the missiles where aiming at. It exploded, making the commander, who had been too slow to react, fall backwards.

The group barely reacted at seeing Commander Walters get knocked back.

Sparks flew from the table and landed on the stage where the three Chao were still standing, looking around confused and scared. A fire broke out, causing the entire restaurant to panic.

Guests shoved each other out of the way and stampeded towards the exit.

Sonic pinched his nose in frustration, he groaned, "Of course, they're shoving each other-" He cut himself off, taking a moment to compose himself before announcing to the others. "If we're not getting a break soon, I will riot."

"Like an actual break?" Knuckles asked. "Or are you just hoping for funnier scenes?"

"Scenes that don't annoy me to death would be nice." The blue hedgehog quipped before sighing, "No, I'm overreacting… but seriously sometimes it feels like my counterpart is barely thinking about any complications and consequences." Sonic rolled his eyes.

Amy nodded, sending him an understanding look, "People just don't typically work well under pressure."

Sonic slowly picked himself up, still recovering from the impact of the blast when all of the badniks were already closing in on them, aiming their red lasers directly at the trio.

"Egg drones?" Sonic asked, staring at the Badniks confused.

Tails shook his head, "But Robotnik is supposed to be dead!"

Rouge snorted, "Never stopped him before."

Suddenly a masked motorcyclist crashed through the window, making it shatter entirely before circling the room and turning to face the Badniks.

One of the drones fired a missile at the mysterious figure but calmly turned his head to the side, dodging it in the process.

The missile hit the refreshment stand behind the figure instead, completely destroying it.

"Do we know them?" Tails frowned, rubbing his chin in thought. "The only one who has driven a motorcycle until this moment has been Shadow and that's clearly a human."

Amy tilted her head to the side, squinting, "That figure does look suspiciously familiar…"

"The question is rather If they're here to help or only want to make everything worse." Shadow commented.

"Considering that the Badniks shot at them?" Sonic asked before shrugging, "They might help."

Rouge nodded, "Let's hope that's the case."

Team Sonic only stared confused at the newcomer.

Sonic gasped, "Konnichi-what?"

Sonic facepalmed over the pun his counterpart had just made. No words necessary to convey how disappointed he just was.

Knuckles snorted, "The differences between you two have never been more obvious."

He grinned at the blue hedgehog, "You keep having language conversations and your counterpart does," The echidna gestured at the projection, chuckling, "this."

The cyclist did not say anything in response, instead they raised their hands, showing off their energy wrist plates. The bar lit up, raising the power level.

They revved their bike engine before driving forward, lifting the motorcycle onto its back wheels.

Turning in a circle, the motorcyclist used one of his hand to shoot at the Badniks, hitting them one by one.

When only a few Badniks were still remaining, they pressed a button on their glove, shocking the drones and disabling them.

Amy glanced at the deactivated Badniks before drily stating, "So, Stone's back."

"The gloves and the control over Eggman tech is a dead giveaway." Rouge nodded.

Sonic did not even react to the Badniks falling to the floor, instead he joked, addressing the cyclist directly, "I'm sorry, we already had our big motorcycle chase for the evening."

Tails snickered, "He didn't even thank him."

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Knuckles chuckled. "Only one motorcycle race per day?"

Rouge laughed, "A motorcycle race should be a treat, not routine apparently."

The motorcyclist then drove right out of the restaurant, without even having said a single word.

Team Sonic immediately sped to a big pile of rubble, after Knuckles removed one big part off the pile- Commander Walters was revealed, looking extremely weak and hurt.

Sonic gasped, "Commander Walters!" His expression turned worried when he noticed the commander's fatal wounds. "Are you okay?"

"Oh." Sonic frowned. "We totally forgot about him."

"At least my counterpart won't get to him." Shadow stated drily.

Amy nodded, "That's definitely better for him than meeting your counterpart's wrath."

"And we really didn't know him that all." Knuckles replied.

"At least he has been doing his job efficiently." Rouge shrugged.

Walters replied, "Sonic…" He reached into his vest and pulled out a small wallet like object, handing it to Sonic who took it immediately, "Take this."

"What is it?" The blue hedgehog questioned.

Commander Walters explained, "A key… to the most powerful weapon G.U.N. has ever built." He groaned, clearly in pain before continuing. "You're the only one I trust to keep it safe."

"Wait." Sonic pinched his nose, exhaling loudly before asking, "So, in the last movie Commander Walters still completely distrusted Team Sonic, didn't even believe them that Eggman was back before he saw actual proof-"

He paused for a moment, pressing his hands close to his face like he was forming a tent before pointing to the screen, continuing, "And now he just hands my counterpart a very important key card?"

The blue hedgehog threw his hands into the air, shrieking, "Just like that?!"

"Walters really did a complete 180 on them." Rouge agreed before pointing out. "But he also knows that he needs them to have any chance at beating Shadow."

"Also he's desperate." Knuckles chimed in, drawing attention to the state the commander was in. "He's dying and there are a lot of wrong hands where that card could fall into."

"Wrong hands?" Tails frowned, thinking for a moment before his eyes lit up with understanding, "Oh! He doesn't trust GUN anymore?"

"Why else bring it up with Sonic?" The bat shrugged, nodding.

"Actually, yeah, why bring it up with him and why here?" Amy asked. "It almost feels like he knew he was in danger before this attack happened…"

"Maybe he expected Shadow to immediately look for him?" Tails guessed.

Shadow scoffed, crossing his arms, "Then he must not have known my counterpart very well." He shook his head, "He only wanted to be left alone, he only defended himself when he was attacked."

The 'He's not on a revenge path like I was' stayed unsaid.

Sonic looked confused at the key card inside his hand before looking back to Commander Walters, who made his last exhale before dying.

"Commander Walters…" The blue hedgehog gasped, looking full of grief.

Amy sighed, "At least his death was quick…"

Emergency sirens outside made Team Sonic perk up.

G.U.N. tankers arrived on scene, where immediately numerous agents jumped out of the vehicles, all armed with loaded guns.

Tokyo police cruisers were right behind him, blazing their own red lights as the Japanese officers secured the area.

"And that's an incredibly quick reaction from GUN." Tails sighed.

"They're panicking." Shadow explained, "Of course, they would show up at every incident."

Amy nodded, "And Walters probably told someone where he was heading."

Rouge snorted in amusement, "Or he was tracked."

A small team of G.U.N. soldiers ran right into the restaurant, their guns ready, "Alpha team, fan out!" They split up and searched, "Do we have eyes? Secure the perimeter!"

When nothing attacked him and they had declared the restaurant as "Clear!", Director Rockwell entered, only to be immediately stopped by a G.U.N. soldier.

He told her, "Medevac is en route."

"Medevac?" Knuckles asked.

Tails replied, "Medical evacuation. The wounded are transported to a hospital."

"Oh." The echidna nodded, "That's good."

Rockwell did not seem to care about that information, instead she walked straight up to Commander Walter's body and reached into his vest.

She did not look happy when her hands came back empty-handed.

"Not trusting GUN was definitely the right strategy." Rouge snorted, "The only thing she cared about was that stupid key."

"When is it not?" Sonic chuckled. "I'm just not sure Team Sonic was the right choice here."

The bat shrugged, "Still the only choice he might have had."

Director Rockwell sighed, "His launch key is missing."

She continued searching his body before finding the Polaroid picture that a waitress had taken earlier of Team Sonic.

Rockwell glared at it, "I knew they couldn't be trusted." She crumbled up the picture in her hand.

"Hey!" Tails glared, complaining, "That was probably a good picture!"

Sonic threw him a confused look, "There were Chaos on it?"

"Oh." The kit shook his head, "Nevermind then."

The projection cut to Sonic, Knuckles and Tails running away at normal speed. They were wearing Chao mascot heads.

Sonic abruptly stopped, making Tails and Knuckles run into him, groaning.

Tails removed his costume head, asking, "Why are we running from G.U.N.? Aren't we on the same team?"

"First of all," Tails stared at his counterpart like he had lost his mind. "I never want to see him wear that again." He shuddered dramatically before continuing, "Second of all, seriously? No alarm bells? None?!"

Knuckles nodded, "They are a little naive but they're basically at the beginning of their journey."

"Beginning?" Sonic frowned, "Huh. Yeah… they've been through so much at this point, I keep forgetting that their speedrunning and still inexperienced." He chuckled.

Knuckles and Sonic also removed their Chao heads, as the blue hedgehog replied, "Until we get more information, we're not trusting anyone."

"Good call." Amy nodded.

Sonic sighed, "Thank Gaia, he's finally making good decisions." Making the others snort at Sonic's tired tone.

Sonic pointed into the direction where the mysterious biker had driven into, "Follow me."

The trio chased the biker down at high speed, finally catching up to them at the docks.

The motorcyclist moved came to a stop at the end of the docks, turning to face the just now arriving trio.

Sonic shouted, "Hold it right there, Tokyo Drift!" He moved into a fighting stance, the other two following him suit. "Who are you?"

"Tokyo Drift?" Tails frowned. "What's up with these nicknames that your counterpart keeps making up?"

Sonic shook his head, "No idea." He shrugged, "Apparently he likes references. My nicknames at least make sense." The blue hedgehog declared proudly.

"Continue dreaming." Shadow snorted, making the other pout.

Rouge sighed, "They still haven't figured out that it's Stone?" She sounded disappointed.

The biker removed his helmet, revealing himself to be Agent Stone.

"It's the Goat Milker!" Knuckles gasped, pointing dramatically at him.

Stone mimicked Knuckles, "'It's the Goat Milker!'" He dropped his mocking voice, continuing calmly, "Relax. I'm not here to fight."

"Obviously." Knuckles rolled his eyes. "He saved them."

Sonic snorted, "Imagine him just attacking them after saving them." He chuckled, "Confusing the enemy!"

"Then why are you here?" Sonic asked.

Tails frowned, "And why did you free Shadow?"

"Are you kidding?" Stone stared at them like they were insane for assuming that. "The last thing we want is more super-powered hedgehogs running around."

"What?" Shadow frowned. Who else would free his counterpart except for the doctor?

Tails gasped, "So there's a third party that freed Shadow?"

"Maybe I have a counterpart that acted on her own?" Rouge guessed, shrugging.

Sonic shook his head, "Something is really wrong here."

"The doctor had nothing to do with it." Stone continued. "And I can prove it."

He pulled a remote out of his pocket and pressed a button. Something deep in the water beeped in response.

Then a second later, a giant crab-like Badnik surfaced, staring them down.

Team Sonic slowly backed away from the wet crab.

"Uh." Tails frowned. "Are we sure he isn't attacking them?"

Amy shook her head, "The crab doesn't look very friendly."

Stone just smiled at them, gesturing to the giant crab behind him, "Please, join me in the crab."

"Sure." Rouge snorted. "Most normal sentence I've ever heard."

"It's not like he's bringing them directly to Eggman." Sonic said sarcastically. "Good choice."