CHAPTER 05:

There seemed to be an hour there where SWATbots were searching the junk yard for any signs of the hedgehogs. Eventually when they turned up nothing, they moved on.
The junk that had fallen on top of the hedgehogs eventually began to move and lift up, supported from beneath by Sonic himself as he looked out from under. He grunted to Shadow beneath him. “Nngh, they're gone.”

With great strength, Sonic began to toss the large scrap metal away. Shadow panted a bit as he crawled out from other. “Thanks Chaos. I don't think I could of handled being trapped much longer.”

“Yeah I could actually sense you beginning to panic a bit when we got buried. You okay?”

Shadow nodded as he helped Sonic out of the remaining rubble. “Yeah, I just don't do well with tightly enclosed spaces. Long story. Tell no one.”

“Oh, believe me, I got my own problems. It's cool,” Sonic grunted as he brushed his gloved hands off, though most of him still had bad oil splatters on his bandages, gloves and fur.

Shadow nodded. “Water, I know...” he paused for a moment, looking  to the tossed scrap metal. “Um...now that I think about it...how did you-”

Sonic waved him off, knowing he was about to ask how he lifted all that heavy metal by himself. “Like everything else, I DON'T KNOW...”

Shadow held his hands up defensively. “Okay okay. Let's just get out of here while the way's clear.”

“My thought exactly,” Sonic agreed, as the two ran towards the edge of the junkyard to get out of the city.

KNOTHOLE – HOURS LATER

“Sonic, I expected better of you!”

The two hedgehogs stood there in the village as Princess Sally paced back and forth in front of them, berating the two for leaving the village. “You know you were supposed to wait until I had everyone prepared to go into the city. We don't know what dangers we would see in the city, and I don't want to see you getting hurt!”

“Well, to be fair, he wasn't alone,” Shadow pointed out. “And-”

Sally stopped in front of Shadow and glared at him, cutting him off. “I don't know who you are, and for all we know, you could be an ally of Robotnik trying to take out Sonic after the fact as a form of revenge.”

“Excuse me? Paranoid much?” Shadow asked, his quills raising rather defensively in rising anger.

“Yeah Sal, he's cool, really!” Sonic spoke up, looking to Shadow and putting a hand on Shadow's shoulder to try and calm him down.

Shadow looked to Sonic in mild surprise, as the blue hedgehog offered a bit of a smile. Sonic was sticking up for him, even after the two had a fight?

Actually that seemed on par with Sonic's nature.

Sally continued to glare at Shadow, not trusting him. “Friend or not, don't encourage him,” she warned the hedgehog.

Sonic threw his head back and groaned in exasperation. “Sally, if we hadn't of raced to Robotropolis, we would of never discovered that the city was up and running, or that Snively was running it!”

“And it sounds like you were lucky to get out!” Sally snapped back.

Sonic threw his hands up. “I give up, I'm going home! I need to change my bandages anyway.”

“Fine!” Sally yelled back and marched away.

Shadow could only watch as the two parted ways, and Shadow followed after Sonic. “Hey, you okay?”

Sonic sighed. “Sometimes I think Sally doesn't give me enough credit. I can take care of myself!”

“Sounds like she cares for your well being, that's all,” Shadow responded.

Sonic looked back to Shadow as they walked. “Maybe. I mean, I know she just recovered from her accident and all...but...”

“...what?”

Sonic sighed. “I don't know. Something's nagging at my brain. I can't put my finger on it.”

Shadow shrugged. “I think you're just frustrated, that's all. Doesn't help that you're going through changes. That reminds me, we'd better get you to the doctor.”

Sonic shook his head. “No...I'm fine. Really. I just want to get home.”

“Sonic, I really don't think-”

“Shadow-” Sonic began, stopping where he was and turning to face Shadow. “I can see that we're friends in the future, and its obvious you want to have that friendship with me. I think it's cool. You're able to run with me and keep up. Barely anyone can do that. So please...I ask you...trust me. I can't go to the doctor. Not yet.”

Shadow frowned, staring at Sonic for a moment. He didn't like what was happening to Sonic. But at the same time, he did want to trust him. He wanted to have a friendship with this Sonic, to really start over and not just be that rival to him. He didn't want to admit that he admired the hedgehog. If he could be a better friend...this was probably his only chance. So he nodded hesitantly. “...okay. I trust you.”

Sonic gave him a soft smile. “...thank you. That means a lot.” He finally turned to continue heading home.

Shadow followed after him. “By the way, thanks for sticking up for me back there. I know we just had that fight and all-”

“It's okay. I was frustrated, you were frustrated. I donno, something just tells me to trust you...” Sonic responded. “Anyway, mind if I have some time to myself for a bit? I need to take care of some things.”

Shadow nodded. “Yeah, just come find me later when you want to talk some more.”

“I will,” Sonic said as they parted ways.

Shadow stood there, trying to think for a bit before he headed back to village center, wandering about and looking around. He was trying to let everything sink in and hope Sonic would be as okay as he promised.

Eventually he spotted Uncle Chuck in the distance and approached him. “Excuse me, Sir Charles?”

Chuck turned, facing the black hedgehog. “Yes? Shadow, right?”

“Yes sir. Would you be okay if we spoke privately for a few minutes?”

Charles nodded and led Shadow over to an area just out of sight of public. “What can I do for you?”

Shadow sighed. “It's about Sonic.”

Charles nodded with understanding. “I heard about your unauthorized trip to Robotropolis. My nephew's a handful, isn't he?”

Shadow shrugged. “I'm used to it. But that's not my main concern.”

Charles looked at Shadow for a bit. “What's on your mind, lad?”

Shadow sighed and took the time to explain all the things about Sonic that he observed...the increased sight, hearing, strength, knowledge. Charles frowned as he listened. This wasn't good. “I honestly think that the temporal storm has affected things outside of Knothole,” Shadow concluded. “And its getting to Sonic somehow.”

“What draws you to this conclusion?”

Shadow frowned. “Because when we confronted Snively, we learned that Robotnik wasn't taken out by the Ultimate Annihilator, he was taken down with the Death Egg.”

Charles did a double take at this. “That can't be right...”

Shadow nodded. “Information in the Robotropolis computers were also off. Knothole was not in the database at all, and mentions of resistance scattered about under the city was also mentioned. I do believe it would be vital to try and get more information when we do go back to the city. If there are others below the city, we should try and find them.”

Charles frowned. “Anything else?”

Shadow shook his head. “Nothing that we were able to get for the time being. I'm more concerned about Sonic right now...”

BACK AT SONIC'S HOME

Sonic emptied the contents of his backpack on a table. There were more than just tools in the bag, as he had grabbed some scrap metal when they were buried in the junkyard earlier. He grabbed a tool and began to fiddle with some pieces. He frowned after a moment, looking at his bandages. They seemed to be soaked in motor oil. He set down the tool and metal, and went to take off the bandages, revealing a few patches where Shadow had punctured him with his quills. The wounds were scabbed over with metal, with slight oil leaking from the edges. Biting his lower lip, Sonic went over to the shelf where he kept his bandages at. But as he reached for the tool, he stopped, looking at his gloved hands, stained with oil from earlier. He slowly reached to pull off a glove, revealing metal-covered hands. He looked at his metallic hand, studying it with worrying eyes, before he pulled off his other glove, looking at it as well.

“...can't help it...I'm scared...” he seemed to murmur to himself. He turned to head to his room and grab some clean gloves from the drawer. “I know...I know...I'm just worried about how the others will react...”

As he put the gloves on, he sighed. “...yeah...its hard to respond silently...the talking in my head throws me off, really.”

He eventually went back to grabbing the bandages. “...well, if you're right about Shadow...I'm glad we met. I'm just not ready to tell him. He'll start blaming himself. He's already getting to believe that his mere presence is affecting me. If he knew about you guys...well...we can only hope we can stop the others before Shadow accidentally infects anyone else.”

He wrapped up his chest, covering his wounds. “Are you sure you can't reverse the effects?”

Sonic walked back over to the scrap metal he was working on. “No...I totally get it. Let's just try and get this machine together...before its too late.”

As Sonic stared at the project in his hands, his eyes began to glow red a bit.