Lost Memories Chapter 4

Lost Memories Chap 4

Meanwhile back in the room of the two confused beings, they still stood there and stared at the door. For good ten minutes that was all they did. No speaking, no moving, only their breaths barley hearable. Both were in their own thoughts, trying to process everything they just heard. Neither of them wanted to believe it but at the same time they didn´t really had another choice. This Eggman guy seemed to know so much about them. It still was very confusing. Slowly their eyes started to move. From the door around the room, looking at anything closely until their orbs met each other. They stared at each other for what felt like forever. Let’s just say, it wasn´t the most comfortable view exchange. Both of them tried to say something, no matter what, but found themselves not being able to, which made the situation even more awkward. Turning their eyes away from another, they looked at something that suddenly seemed to catch their attention when it in real just made them stop to awkwardly gaze at each other without either of them saying a word. The black hedgehog looked out of the window seeing how the sun slowly sets while the red echidna looked at the different furniture. Until his purple eyes ended up on that stupid bed they had to share and can´t help but let out a very frustrated sigh. This sigh made one of the hedgehogs ears twitch and slowly he turned his head towards the echidna in order to look at him. Although Knuckles wasn´t looking at the black and red streaked hedgehog, he could tell that the other was staring at him. His instincts told him but he tried his best to ignore it. Slowly, as if a sudden move would make the other creature attack him, he made his way up to the bed. The red eyes of Shadow following every movement of the echidna. This stare, even though it wasn´t threatening, made the fur on the back of Knuckles neck stand up. He didn´t know why though.

However, it hit Knuckles off guard when the hedgehog attempted to speak. He honestly didn´t think the black hedgehog would be the first one who breaks the silence. It kind of relieved and made him nervous at the same time. Again he didn´t know why.

“So…” the black hedgehog started, mostly to break this awfully awkward silence that took place in the room ever since Eggman left.

Having a big question mark and a sweatdrop run down Knuckles head, he looked at the black hedgehog and waits for whatever he had to say. Actually, Shadow himself didn´t know what he wanted to say and seeing the other being waiting for him to continue, made thinking about a topic even harder. That moment he wished that he would have just shut up but he couldn´t back off now.

“…this… is all very confusing… isn´t it?” the black hedgehog said, while looking at the echidna who gave him a nod in respond.

“Yeah… very actually…” he replied.

Back was this awkward silence but it wasn´t so long like the last time. After some moments Shadow decided to go up to the bed slowly. He stopped at the echidnas’ side but made sure to give him enough space. Having his eyes on the freshly made bed he wondered if he should ask a quite stupid and in their case also embarrassing question. Of course Knuckles had no idea what was going on inside of his roommates mind so he just looked at him and eventually took a step away from him. Not that Shadow minded that but he still looked when the red head moved. Instead of asking why he made a step away, what Knuckles actually thought he would ask, he found himself being surprised again by what Shadow actually wanted to know.

“So… since I don´t think we have another choice… who sleeps on which side..?” the black and red hedgehog almost sighed.

Knuckles blinked a few times at that question due to the fact that he didn´t expected that at all. Turning his gaze on the bed, he thought about an answer. Actually he didn´t care but he just wanted to turn away from that burning stare of the hedgehog beside him. The question didn´t only feel awkward to him but also to the hedgehog. Though the scientist told them that they knew each other really good, they felt like complete strangers to each other due to them not being able to remember anything the egg shaped man told them. Especially the part of them apparently being a couple made them both freak out the most. The thought alone kind of felt wrong. Reason alone that they know absolutely nothing about each other.

However, the hedgehog waited patiently for the echidna to answer. He kept on looking at him but slowly let his eyes wander on the bed as well. At the same time the echidna moves his eyes towards the hedgehog, ready to answer his question. Shadow looked back at him when he began to speak.

“Well… I think I’ll take the left side… if that is okay with you” he said with half lidded eyes.

His eyes didn´t showed boredom or annoyance, just blank unsureness about this whole situation they were in. Shadow could relate. It was exactly how he felt. That and a feeling of pure tiredness overcame him. Probably because of the lack of energy due to his healing body. This just wants to make him fall on the bed, face first, and sleep for at least a year.  Something Knuckles could relate to just as well. Anyway, they both looked at each other for a few more moments until Shadow replied to what Knuckles said before.

“Yeah, that’s fine with me. Wouldn´t know why it should bother me anyway…” the tired hedgehog told him.

Wearing a surveying expression the red echidna looked at the black furred hedgehog, seeing clearly how exhausted he was. Just now he noticed how tired he himself actually was as well. A huge yawn was the result. Shadow couldn´t help but let out a very low and tired chuckle at the sight. The echidna didn´t seem to notice though.

Howsoever, both then went to their own side of the bed, took their shoes off and sat on it. One thing that annoyed both was that there was only one bedcover but two pillows. Luckily for them the cover was large enough. Finally they lay down and covered themselves up, trying to stay away from each other as far as possible with their backs facing each other. After turning of the light, whose switch was above Shadows nightstand, they stared into the darkness. Overthinking and remembering everything that happened since they woke up. Remembering the story of how they got into this mess in the first place.  Remembering the name of the person who apparently was the cause of all this. Sonic. Both had no idea who he was and how he looked like, but that didn´t matter. After what they heard, they both longed for revenge. But first they had to come back to full health before going after this desire.

Three hours passed and Knuckles found himself not able to fall asleep though being tired as hell. His time feeling told him it was shortly before midnight but he wasn´t that sure.  He just kept on staring into the darkness and wouldn´t dare to turn around, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of doing so and finding Shadow facing him. This would be a lot more awkward than it already was even though he assumed that the hedgehog would be asleep by now. A quiet sigh found its way out of his mouth and decided he would take a peek though he had those thoughts in the back of his mind. So he turned around enough to see that the red streaked hedgehog was still lying there with his back facing him. He laid there completely motionlessly. With a slow blink Knuckles turned back to his original position, yawning tiredly. After some time his lids finally became heavy and the red echidna closed them without himself noticing, dozing off into some kind of half heavy sleep.

4 hours later he woke up again, letting out a heavy groan. Slowly he sat up and rubbed his eyes and then his head. Not knowing what time it was he scanned over the room in order to find a clock. When he did, he narrowed his eyes to get a look on what time it was.

“4:17 a.m….” he quietly said to himself.

He groaned another time with closed eyes and rubbed his head once more. A headache was the last thing he needed beside dozen of wound and burns and another guy lying in the same bed as him. Wait. He opened his purple orbs to look beside him only to find the other side of the bed empty. After he blinked a few times and looked around the room once again, but couldn´t spot the dark hedgehog. Didn´t take long until his eyes landed on the glass door beside the window that leads on some kind of balcony. Tilting his head he wondered if the dark one was out there. Instead of guessing he slowly stood up and made his way over to the balcony door and opened it. Actually missing that the door was already open by only a centimetre. He stepped outside and looked around, finding Shadow leaning against the building wall while sitting on the balcony railing and quietly gazing into the horizon above the sea. At first Knuckles thought Shadow didn´t notice him but was proven wrong when the black hedgehog began to speak out of nowhere.

“Couldn´t sleep?” he asked without looking at the red head.

At first Knuckles wasn´t sure if he should answer and just go back to sleep, since he knew where his roommate was. But then he noted that he wasn´t exactly tired anymore and decided to stay outside.

“Sort of...“ the echidna replied while walking beside Shadow and leaning against the wall as well, but in contrast to Shadow, he was standing.

“I see” was the hedgehogs own reply.

With a nod Knuckles responded and crossed his arms, gazing into the same direction as the hedgehog. They stayed like this for at least 5 minutes. With a comfortable silence between them for the first time. Then Knuckles slowly turned his head towards Shadow.

“What about you? Couldn´t sleep as well?” he asked him and a nod was his answer.

“Yes… I am out here for three hours already” Shadow answered, still not looking at his opposite who was blinking.

“You are out here since 1 a.m.?” the red head asked while tilting his head.

“I don´t know how late it was when I stood up” he said slightly looking at the creature beside him.

“Well… when I got up with was a little past quarter past 4” he assured the black one.

“I see”

After that another comfortable silence took place between them. Both looking over the seemingly endless sea. A soft breeze passed them as they did nothing else than just look. But then Knuckles broke the silence once again.

“What where you doing out here?” he asked.

“….nothing actually. Just watching the ocean, star gazing and thinking about everything this man told us” he told him as he watched the calm waves coming.

With a calm sigh he looked at the dark furred being.

“…do you actually think he is telling the truth…? Um….Sh… Shadow, right?” he asked and got another nod as respond.

“I am not completely certain, but there is no doubt that he knows a lot about us, our preferences and such… I cannot tell if everything he speaks is the truth, but I guess right now and in this condition, we don´t have much of another choice as to give him a little of our trust…” he replied, still not looking at him but the sea.

Knuckles couldn´t help but raise one of his eyebrows slightly at the way Shadow spoke. It was kind of odd but at the same time it suited the dark one very well. A few minutes passed and neither of them said another word. They let the silence take place between them once again. But through this silence there popped another question into the red echidnas head. Not sure to whatever ignore it or daring to ask, he slowly moves his eyes on the hedgehog again who still looked into the horizon. As if it was the only thing that existed. Seeing that, Knuckles didn´t really wanted to pull him out of his little trance, but his curiosity got the better of him.

“…I… I still got one question…” he then asked.

Getting a ‘Hm?’ was Shadows way to show him that he had all his attention, even when he wasn´t looking at the red head.

“… What do you think about this… “us apparently being a couple” thing..?” he asked a little hesitating.

This made one of Shadows ears twitch and slowly he turned his head to look at the other male. Knuckles honesty couldn´t tell what was going on in the black hedgehogs mind. The look in his eyes told him absolutely nothing and slowly he regret to ask this dump question. The red head was about to say never mind but to his surprise the hedgehog decided to answer.

“I actually have no idea what I should think about that... I mean… yeah, the possibility of it being true is there but I really don´t want to believe that it is. It… just feels wrong” he told him, his voice sounding pretty much neutral but still a hint of doubt could be heard.

The echidna nodded in understanding. How could he not? It was the completely same feeling he had. The thought made his stomach feel weird. After they separated their looks from each other again, they found themselves watching the calm dark sea once more. Time seemed to fly by as they forgot of how long they were on the outside together already. Even though they did not speak that much. Knuckles decided that he would go back inside soon but forgot his wanted action as Shadow attempted to add something else to what he said before.

“I guess it is the best, if we don´t bring this topic up again… if possible” was what he had added.

At least a minutes of silent staring at the hedgehog passed before the echidna slowly began to nod. The red eyes of the hedgehog moved towards the red echidna when he started to move his head up and down.

“Yeah, I guess it is for the better” he replied, giving him a small but friendly smile which Shadow hesitatingly returned.

It wasn´t a big smile though, but enough for it to be seen. As they kept on friendly smiling at each other the almost missed the sun rising. When the first red-orange rays of light hit the metallic surface of the base, they seemed to snap back into reality and looked at the beautiful spectacle of nature. One ray hit them directly into the eyes and blinded them both for a few seconds, but that didn´t bother them this much. After their visions became clear again they continued to watch the happening. The view was almost breath taking as the sun painted the few light clouds, who floated silently over the water, into shades of orange, red and yellow. As the two beings watched the rising sun, they couldn´t help but feel hope rising in them as well. Why it was hope out of everything was something they couldn´t quite lay their fingers on. Perhaps it was because the rising sun was some kind of symbol for hope. So or so, it was just an amazing experience to watch. Shadow and Knuckles continued to watch it before starting to go back inside their room as quietly as the sun raised.  

Three hours passed until they finally made their way to meet Eggman. They both decided to take a short nap before they would go and see their so called boss or partner or whatever. Turned out the nap took slightly longer than it should, by two hours. Seemed like they were more tired than what they themselves thought but at the same time the two creatures weren´t that surprised. Knuckles barely slept four hours before and Shadow didn´t seem to have slept at all. If it wasn´t for two hasty and loud robots they wouldn´t have woken up at all this morning. So, slowly and tiredly they followed the two robots to the tall man with the moustache. A little later they reached what seemed to be a kitchen. It wasn´t that much of an ordinary one but it still reminded of a normal one. This here was just bigger than most kitchens would normally be. Didn´t matter that much though. As long as they could use it for what it was made, everything was fine.

After some loud yelling at the robots for their graceful entrance, small talk that got interrupted by certain robots which ended up in even more yelling and aching hedgehog and echidna ears, they finally got their deserved breakfast. At first they didn´t want anything but a loud growl from the hedgehogs stomach gave away their true need for food. While preparing the meal, Eggman asked them if they started to remember. To his secret glee they had to negate. Barely an hour later everyone was finished. Shadow and Knuckles looked satisfied and fed up, which would help their recovery greatly. Eggman could only smile at the satisfied faces they made. It even was an honest one.

Right afterwards Eggman offered them to finally take a peek at the person who apparently caused their current state. Shadow and Knuckles looked at each other for a brief moment before giving the doctor a nod. Their enthusiasm made him grin evilly. He led them towards his main computer room, where they got to see their traitor. When he finally showed the two a picture of Sonic, he took a little bit of glee from their reaction. Both informed him about a feeling of instant annoyance as soon as they lied their eyes on him. A perfect sign, because it would be much easier to make them believe him more with feelings like this. It would even make it easier to keep Shadow on his side, since he was a rather sceptical person by nature. Knuckles would be less of a problem, but of course Eggman still had to watch his act.

The doctor then turned back to the computer and opened other files of his blue opponent. He showed them videos, told them his weaknesses and the fact that he can naturally reach the speed of sound. Shadow and Knuckles wouldn´t admit that in front of the human, but they were mildly impressed by the blue hedgehog. They wondered how they should take on someone with that kind of speed. By the looks on their faces, Eggman could tell what they were thinking. He suspected something like this, but he planned to get rid of it instantly. While Shadow and Knuckles still analysed their enemy, the scientist slowly stood up and went to the door with his arms crossed behind his back. After seeing how the blue boy looked like and remembering the story the mad scientist told them, Knuckles and Shadow were even more determined to get revenge. And the fact that this picture alone made them feel annoyed did nothing but fuel the fire inside of them.

As Eggman reached the door, he turned around and looked at his partners. It was like he could feel their motivation to take action which made him smirk. Orbot and Cubot looked up at their creator. They have never seen him this confident with a play that started not how he had actually planned. Maybe the reason for it was because of all people he could have hit with his laser, it happened to be Sonics biggest and strongest rivals. This confident look on their creators face almost scared them.

“Shadow. Knuckles” he began to get their attention. “It’s time for me to show you something else. So follow me”

And with that he left the room, followed by his robots companions. For a few seconds the black hedgehog and the red echidna remained where they stood. They looked at each other before starting to follow the scientist. After seemingly endless numbers off corridors they reached another, huge room. But in here stood little to nothing and caused two big question marks to appear above Shadow and Knuckles’ head.

“What is this here?” the dark furred hedgehog asked.

“This here is my trainings room” Eggman explained and looked down at them.

“Ah, right, you said something about training yesterday but… how should we train here? There is nothing here” Knuckles pointed out with crossed arms.

“I am aware that there is nothing in here. For now at least. Later you can choose what you want to train with, with the control over there” the tall human told them and pointed towards a control on the wall.

“I see… but what did you bring us in here for? When we apparently only are allowed to train ‘later’” Shadow questioned and crossed his arms just like his red companion.

“To tell you about your own strength and powers”

That got their full attention. They had powers as well? Maybe they were more surprised than they should have been. Nonetheless Eggman made them eager to know what kind of powers they possessed.

“Alright, alright! Calm down you two. I will tell you or else I wouldn´t have brought you here” he said.

“Still wonder what for… it’s not like he couldn´t tell us in that computer-thing-room…” Knuckles whispered towards Shadow and caused him to chuckle faintly.

“I will start with you, Shadow” Dr.Eggman said and moved his eyes towards the dark one.

Knuckles cursed under his breath for Shadow getting to know his stuff first. To his annoyance, Shadow shot him a smirk.

“So, with those shoes you wear you are also able to reach the speed of sound just like Sonic does. Without them you are still really fast but unfortunately not fast enough to catch up with him anymore. Further, when you concentrate your energy into one of your hands, you are able to create energy spears called ‘Chaos Spear’” Eggman started.

Shadow looked at his hands and wondered if that really is true. When Eggman attempted to continue he gave him his attention again.

“You can also make yourself explode. This attack is called ‘Chaos Blast’. You being a hedgehog made you also able to curl into a ball and starts spinning at a high amount of speed. This attack is called ‘Spindash’ or ‘Spinattack’. And least, what is quite much your trademark… you are able to teleport yourself wherever you want if you have one Chaos Emerald with you. This is called ‘Chaos Control’” he finished to explain.  

Even though Shadow had no idea why most of his powers started with ‘Chaos’ or what a Chaos Emerald was, he was very excited to know that he had so many different abilities and attacks. The only thing that was fishy to him was the explosion attack. It sounded very painful. And he wasn´t really eager to kill himself. Or wouldn´t it harm him? He would ask later how that should exactly work. Right the excited echidna beside him distracted Shadow a little. After hearing all the cool abilities Shadow had, Knuckles wanted also to know what he can do, which is understandable and only fair.

“Wow, that’s quite cool! What can I do then?” he asked eagerly.

“Umm…”

“Can I also shoot something out of my hands?? Or can I maybe control minds? Or can I maybe control one of the elements? Tell me already!” he demanded, curious just like a child would be.

“Uhh… well… ehem… actually… you are… reeeeeeeeally strong… like… really” the doctor said, feeling a sweattrop run down his head.

That big smile on the echidnas face dropped immediately. The disappointment could be clearly seen on his face.

“And… and that’s it???” he asked not really wanting to believe that.

“Well… you also can make some kind of drill attack” the human said copying its movements with one finger of one of his hands. “… that… and you can also dig quite well…”

With a half open mouth he stared at Eggman. This was really it? No cool shooting ability? His disappointment was enormous. From the corner of his eyes, Shadow watched the echidnas’ reaction. With gritted teeth, Knuckles clenched his fist. That was just not fair in his book.

“Ah, fuck it!” he shouted and before he knew what he was doing, he took a swing with his fist and punched straight into the hard metallic wall and caused a big hole with his hand stuck in there now.

With wide eyes he stared at his stuck fist and the hole he had just created. Not less surprised the hedgehog looked as well, his eyes opened as wide as his lids would let him. On the other hand, Eggman grabbed his own head.

“. . . . . “

Slowly Knuckles pulled his hand back, causing the hole to get bigger. He took a few steps back until he stood beside the black hedgehog who had his eyes still focused on the hole that was now there. After getting over his shock the doctor needed to facepalm hard.

“Oh, come ooooon! I just repaired that wall!” he groaned.

Knuckles had to blink a few times but was still staring at what he caused. Slowly he moved his wide eyes towards Eggman.

“Y-you know what..? Nevermind” was all he could muster after what just happened.

“You know… I really hope you never get pissed at me” Shadow then said, still having a very surprised look on his face.

An awkward grin appeared on Knuckles face in return. With a deep groan, Eggman rubbed the space between his eyes. He looked up, at the hole and sighed.

“Well… Orbot, Cubot… remember me to fix this later…” he sighed.

“Alright, boss” Orbot replied.

With that the scientist turned towards the two smaller creatures, having his eyes half lidded behind his glasses. Knuckles couldn´t help but give him an apologetic grin.

“Heh… Umm… sorry for that…”

“….whatever…. let’s forget about that and just move on… alright?” Dr.Eggman said with the most enthusiastic voice you have ever heard.

Yes, this was sarcasm. So, after some time of explaining to Shadow of how certain attacks of his can be used and what he needs to do, he told him to give them all at least one try. Except for Chaos Blast because Shadow refused to do that one for as long as he didn’t need it. Eggman also told Knuckles to go to sit beside Orbot and Cubot and NOT to touch anything. First awkwardly grinning but then rolling his purple eyes, he did what Eggman told him to and sat down beside the two robots, watching his roommate and so called boss.

First Eggman told Shadow to try the Spindash. That one wasn´t a big problem for the dark hedgehog due to him making this out of pure hedgehog instinct. When they came to his Chaos Spear it was more of a problem.

“So… how exactly do I have to do this now?” he asked and looked at the man with the moustache.

“Concentrate the energy you have inside into your hand. When it starts to glow, take a swing and shoot your energy spears” he explained to him.

Shadow nodded in understanding and made himself ready do to exactly what the man told him to. So he focused on his hand in order to bring his energy in there. After a minute of hard concentrating his hand slowly started to glow. Then he put his hand back for a swing. When he moved it forward fast, his hand stopped glowing and except for a fart noise nothing came out of it. A blink and a hard laughing echidna and two just as hard laughing robots were the result.

“Shut your laughing over there!” the embarrassed hedgehog shouted.

And slowly they also calmed down again. He stopped glaring at them and looked at his hand instead. With a fist, closed eyes and gritted teeth, he focused once again on his hand. This time even harder. He wanted this to succeed. So his hand started to glow, stronger than before. Shadow opened his eyes and grinned victoriously. But it didn´t last long as suddenly energy sparks came out of his hand and shot in every direction. A few towards Knuckles and the two small robots. All three of them screamed. Orbot and Cubot hold onto the red echidna while he ran away from the strong sparks of energy, trying his best not to get electrocuted. Eggman did the same. Shadow tried to stop it but he had no control over it. To everyone’s luck the energy died down some time later. Eggman and Knuckles were out of breath and Shadow scratched the back of his head. The red echidna glared at him.

“What was that for?! Were you trying to kill us??” he hissed at Shadow.

“Not really although you kinda deserved it after laughing at me before” he grinned back.

“Why you?!“ he started but got interrupted by a certain man.

“Next time we try that out… remember me to get into another room” he said between coughs.

A sweattrop found its way down the hedgehogs head. He saw already a lot of training coming towards him in order to control all of his attacks. Anyway, after checking everything for damage, he continued his first training with Shadow in order to get him used to his attacks. After some more tries, they moved away from chaos spear to Shadows trademark ability. For this Eggman pulled out a Chaos Emerald and gave it to the dark hedgehog. As he held it in his hands and looked at it, he had to tilt his head. He wondered what this was. Knuckles looked just as curious at the emerald.

“What is this?” Shadow then questioned the doctor.

“This is a Chaos Emerald. A really powerful jewel. There are only seven of them around. They hold a high amount of chaos energy within them and are a great energy supplier for pretty much everything that needs a lot of energy to work” Dr.Eggman explained.

Hearing this explanation was enough for them to put two and two together.

“I see… so those falling into hands of people, who don´t know how to use them correctly, is a great danger then. Am I right?” Knuckles then said.

“100% right, Knuckles” the human grinned.

“So, I guess... you are also very interested to get all seven into your hands due to them being so powerful, right?” Shadow then added.

“Also this is correct, my dear hedgehog. You need to know…” Eggman started and turned his back towards them, with his arms crossed behind his back. “If you manage to get all seven of them, you are able to unleash a power so incredible strong that you are literally able to destroy the whole moon with one blow. Naturally, this makes their power also very feared. Though, they are neither good nor bad. It’s all about the one who uses them…”

This made Shadow and Knuckles first look at each other but then at the shiny emerald in the black and red hedgehogs’ hand. Hard to believe that such small objects have such a huge destructive energy.

“Anyways, Shadow… let’s continue. This will also be the last thing for today. You two are still not fully healed and need some more rest”

Shadow and Knuckled nodded.

“Okay, so what do you want me to do?” the dark hedgehog questioned.

“All I want you to do is to focus on the emerald and then say ‘Chaos Control’”

“Okay, but what will that cause?”

“It will only teleport you somewhere nearby. Don´t worry. But before you do that, take this here” Eggman said and put a communicator around Shadows wrist.

The hedgehog looked suspicious at the small electronic object.

“What is this for?” he asked and raises a brow.

“There is a little camera in there, so I can see where you landed. We can also speak over it”

“Alright”

“Good. Knuckles, you come with me” Eggman said and looked at the red echidna.

Looking back at the human, he nodded and followed him to where a little monitor stood. The red head wasn´t sure if that one had stood there all the time or if Orbot and Cubot just brought it in. But he guessed it didn´t really matter. He was more curious at what it was for in the first place. As soon as Eggman and Knuckles turned around to watch Shadow, he began to focus on the emerald.

“Chaos Control!”

And in a flash the hedgehog had vanished. At first the four who were left behind did nothing and just waited for the hedgehog to respond over his communicator. But they forgot about that when they suddenly heard some quiet but hard swearing.

“What the hell..?!” could be heard quiet low.

Blinking and looking around, all four tried to find from where is was coming. That was until it hit Eggman. So he turned on the monitor just to see all white. That kind of looked like a snowstorm. His jaw dropped a little. Knuckles could only raise an eyebrow. Wherever Shadow landed, it looked like it was somewhere high. They heard the hedgehog swear again, putting his hands up in the air what made them discover some sharp looking rocks.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!” Shadow shouted out.

Not really believing what they were seeing, they couldn´t help but tilt their heads. With one hell of a glare Shadow stared into the communicator.

“Where the heck am I?!?” he shouted, demanding an answer immediately.

Cleaning his glasses first to make sure he didn´t see wrong, Dr.Eggman then answered.

“Well… I am not completely sure but…. This looks kinda like the Himalaya” he assured him.

“WHAT?!?!” could be heard from the other side.

“Umm… Doc? Didn´t you say he would land somewhere ‘nearby’?” Knuckles then questioned him.

“Well… to be honest… I did thought that but…. I was really not expecting this...” he answered, while awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

“Get me outta here!!” Shadow shouted.

“Calm down, Shadow! Just use chaos control again” the human tried to calm him as he looked back at the screen.

“Fine… Chaos Control!” the hedgehog shouted another time.

The next time he opened his eyes, he saw nothing but sand, sand and more sand as far as the eye could see. This second everyone was silent. The only noise that could be heard was the noise of the dessert wind. When a steppe runner crossed Shadow, he lost it.

“Are you freaking kidding me?!” he shouted as loud as he could.

Back in the base, everyone stared at the screen once again, while Shadows swearing was raging in the background.

“Now… it looks like he is in the Sahara…” Eggman announce, more to himself than to the others but whatever.

“Wow, he does have luck! I would love to visit two hostile areas like this at the same day!” Cubot cheered loudly in excitement, what made the other robot facepalm and feeling lightly ashamed.

It passed a few moments until Eggman came to his next decision, while the hedgehog on the other side was still swearing like no morning. He must admit, Shadows vocabulary was quite huge due to him knowing words the human wasn´t even aware that existed. Knuckles was also quite impressed. He really needed to remember some of those words he heard. Suddenly he was also very glad he didn´t had that kind of power. The last thing he wanted was to end up somewhere like Shadow while not being at full health. Howsoever, slowly he looked up at the taller man, who was still looking at the screen.

“…Maybe… I should get him back before he ends up on the ground of the Mariana Trench…” he said to himself.

In the back of his mind was the thought of Shadow still being injured. So suddenly appearing in the coldest of the coldest and then change to the hottest of the hottest in a blink, wasn´t the heathiest thing ever. Despite having this also in mind there still appeared a taunting grin on the echidnas’ muzzle.

“Well… that at least SOUNDS like a plan…” the echidna teased and earned an embarrassed chuckle from the scientist.

To be continued…