Pyro Hedgehog4Ever: Thanks :) As for which chameleon it was...that'll be cleared up for definite at some point ;)
Maverick87: (blushes) Thanks, glad you're enjoying it so much :D Guardian's Choice...oh man, yeah, I better do something about that one. There's only one more chapter of it to come, but so far it's not really coming :(
Asher Tye: I think you hit it pretty much on the head ;) And thanks :D
D.C.111: Heh, thanks :P
Taranea: Oh yes, there is a sequel ;) As for the rest…well, this chapter kind of ties up some loose ends (in some cases not before time :P)
Matt Lans: Yeah :) As for Knux's sister...I did think about it when I first started this one, but somehow it just wouldn't have worked :(
Awdures: Thanks :D
MCM: Yeah, what indeed:P I'm sure Knuckles would agree with that. Besides, neither he nor Tails knew what was going to happen...
My Memoirs by Me
This is SO not good! Shadow and Omega have taken Bait prisoner and if that wasn't enough, I'm now plummeting into the ocean! Maybe the lasers would have been a better bet.
--Sonic the Hedgehog
Bait's Jurnal
Got outta that mist stuff, now foloeing Shaddoe. If I can get his Caos Emruld, I can get back to Sonic. I seen Shaddoe do Caos Controle befor. Looks easy.
--Bait the Jakkel
The shock as he hit the water stunned Sonic and water rushed into his eyes and mouth, flooding his nose. Panicking, he started thrashing around wildly, coughing and sputtering and only succeeded in driving his head further under the water.
He was just on the verge of thinking that he'd been better off in Robotnik's fortress when something hard and rubbery bumped him from underneath, then rose up, supporting the hedgehog's body.
A dolphin! Sonic laughed, partly in relief and partly in pure exhilaration. Around him, he could see several more dolphins leaping and playing. One flung itself a full ten feet into the air before coming down with a splash that drenched the hedgehog completely. Another – the same one that had just bumped him – swam past and turned, and Sonic was presented with a dorsal fin. Grabbing onto it, he found himself being towed rapidly through the water towards what looked like a cluster of brown-green mountains.
Tablebacks! The hedgehog grinned broadly. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.
A few seconds later, he changed his mind as the dolphin he was clinging onto abruptly dived underwater, taking Sonic with it. There was a sensation of rapid movement (Sonic had squeezed his eyes shut and couldn't see what was going on) followed by a brief, surprising period of weightlessness. The fin slid out from under his hand, and Sonic hit the ground seconds later. His eyes snapped open, revealing that the dolphin had somehow managed to catapult him onto the nearest tableback and a slow smile spread across his face, an expression of pure relief and exhilaration.
"Thanks." Most oceanic Mobians could understand land speech, and even if these couldn't, or were ferals, Sonic felt he had to say something. "I owe you guys. Big time. Uh." He spread his hands out to the side. "I'm sorry. I got nothing I can give you."
The pod chittered at him amiably, then turned and swam away. Sonic stood on the edge of the platform, watching until they were out of sight, and then took a look around his new home.
Intentionally or not, the dolphins had towed him to a turtle that was carrying buildings in surprisingly good condition and Sonic stuck his head inside each one curiously. There wasn't much – whoever had lived there had taken their belongings with them – but the roof was still intact and it was cooler inside. Admittedly being surrounded by water wasn't the hedgehog's idea of a good time, but at least the turtles wouldn't submerge themselves completely.
He wasn't unduly concerned about getting off either. Tablebacks were a global tourist attraction; there'd be a boat along soon enough and he could get a ride back to dry land. In the meantime, he'd kick back and catch some rays; it seemed a damn long time since he'd just relaxed and done nothing.
Sonic didn't know exactly how long he'd been there, only that it was sometime late the following morning when the white hull of a boat drifted past his turtle. With a slight pang of regret – water notwithstanding, living on a turtle's shell was pretty cool – Sonic measured the distance carefully, then raced forward and leapt. There was no telling when another ride would come along so conveniently; the two boats he'd seen before this one had been too far away for him to reach.
Landing on the boat's railing, he ground his way around until he came upon a family of young skunks. Skidding to a stop, he waved, grinning broadly.
"Hi! Where're you guys headed?"
There was a somewhat stunned silence, then the mother said, "Scrap Brain. We're on our way back from our vacation."
Sonic's grin widened. "Perfect! Mind if I tag along? I promise not to eat all your chilli dogs."
The parents exchanged looks, then the father said, "Well...yeah, if you want."
"Cool!" Sonic leapt neatly down onto the deck. "Man, am I glad to be off that tableback! Water's really not me, you know?"
"S-Sonic?"
Glancing down, Sonic saw the biggest of the skunk kits had been pushed forward by the other three as a spokesperson and he dropped to one knee with a grin.
"Hey kids. What's up?"
There was a whispered conversation along the lines of, "You ask him." "No, you!" before the kit cleared his throat.
"We were wondering..." he began nervously.
"Yeah?" Sonic prompted after a few minutes had gone by in silence.
"Well...we got one of your comics from one of the other kids only we couldn't get the next one and find out what happened so...um..."
The hedgehog's grin broadened. "Say no more." He'd long since given up trying to explain to people that the things that happened to him in the comic weren't real and was a lot more laid back about them than he'd been when they'd first appeared. Besides, talking about this might help take his mind off the water surrounding him. "What do you want to know?"
"How'd you escape after Robotnik turned you into a mosquito?"
"After Robotnik turned me into a mosquito?" Sonic echoed. He had to admit, whoever wrote those comics had one hell of a vivid imagination. "Well...you're gonna have to refresh my memory a little on that one, kids. How'd I get turned into a mosquito?"
More conferring, then the kit said, "Robotnik forced the waitress at Chilli-Dogs-R-We to put the mosquito formula in your sauce."
"Oh, that's right, now I remember." Sonic settled down on the floor, mind racing frantically. "C'mon down here and I'll tell you."
The smallest kit opened his mouth, shut it again and then whispered something into the ear of its nearest sibling.
"He wants to know if he can touch your spikes," the older skunk translated.
Sonic blinked, slightly taken aback by this abrupt change in topic. "Sure you can. Just watch the edges, okay kiddo? They're sharp."
A small hand touched one of his upper quills, rubbing it inquisitively and finally becoming bold enough to move down to one of the smaller quills further down Sonic's back.
"Right," Sonic said aloud, shifting his weight in an effort to stop the now too-curious skunk from slicing its own fingers off. "So before I begin, what are all your names?"
"I'm Diver," the oldest bragged, "an' that's Speedy an' Scratch an' Stripe, only we all call Stripe Stinky 'cause he's too young to control his scent glands prop'ly yet!"
Sonic's expression froze momentarily and he glanced down at the smallest kit, who had stopped exploring his quills and was now snuggling contentedly into his ribs. "Really?"
A concerted nod from all four of them.
"Yeah!" Scratch grinned broadly. "Once he even sprayed the teacher an' we all had to go home for the rest of the day an' we got a substitute for the rest of the week!"
"What, on purpose?"
"Er..." Scratch rubbed the side of his snout as he considered. "I dunno. Stinky says it wasn't, but me an' the others think it was."
Sonic shrugged. "Hey, I used to hang out with a skunk who did it on purpose. He used it as an excuse to get out of a test at school."
Three pairs of big eyes stared at him.
"You went to school?" Diver said at last.
"Sure I did, for about as long as it took me to read and write. I quit when I was seven, though. Sometimes I kinda wonder how things would've panned out if I hadn't."
"You quit school?"
Sonic, who had had plenty of experience in cub mentality thanks to his time with Tails, raised an eye ridge. "That doesn't mean you should. I didn't have a family like yours to make sure I went every day." At least, not after I turned seven, he added wryly to himself. He'd made his somewhat dramatic exit through the kitchen window of Mighty's home shortly after that birthday and never gone back except for the odd meal.
"I wanna hear the story," Stinky piped up suddenly. Sonic grinned down at the little skunk.
"Yeah, you're right; we're getting sidetracked. Okay. So...after Robotnik turned me into a mosquito, he had one of his robots capture me—" the kits gasped in unison, eyes huge— "and take me into a swamp. Once I was there, I made friends with the other mosquitos and they agreed to help me find a cure, so they all flew off to different parts of Mobius and brought back what I needed."
"What did you need?" Scratch interrupted.
"Leopard fur, eye of newt, chocolate buttons, two cans of soda – one diet, one regular – and a fishcake," Sonic reeled off glibly, not missing a beat. "Anyway, they poured all this into a hollow tree stump and I dived in and I was myself again."
This time simultaneous sighs of relief ran through the group.
"So what then?" Speedy wanted to know.
Scratch rolled his eyes. "He went and kicked Robotnik's butt, duh!"
"Yeah, you got that right," Sonic agreed easily.
"What'd he say when he saw you standing there?" Diver asked.
The hedgehog hesitated. Even now he didn't feel comfortable putting words into Robotnik's mouth. Granted he would be hard-pressed to come up with anything more trite and/or cliché than the stuff in the comics, but even so...
"Take a guess," he said aloud.
The four kits piped up at once, all clamouring to be heard over the other, and this very quickly degenerated into a contest between them as to who could invent the coolest dialogue. Temporarily forgotten, Sonic extricated himself and went to join the parents at the railings. Leaning back, he grinned at the group – who were now reenacting the battle of Sonic Vs. Robotnik with appropriate dialogue and sound effects – and shook his head wryly.
"Man, they're cute when they're that age."
"That wasn't true, was it?" the mother said suddenly in an undertone.
"What, the whole my rallying the mosquito masses to my aid thing? Not a word of it," Sonic answered cheerfully. "But then neither was Robotnik's turning me into a mosquito in the first place. Man, where do people come up with these ideas?"
The father shifted. "I guess they think that anything's possible with Robotnik."
Sonic glanced up at the sky, back in the direction they'd come from. There was no sign of Robotnik's Egg Carrier; either it had cloaked or just flown away. Who knew what scheme he was dreaming up?
The rest of the two day voyage to Scrap Brain passed without incident; Sonic spent most of the time playing games and telling stories to the kits and sleeping on the deck under the stars. He hadn't realised just how claustrophobic the Egg Carrier and that so-called facility had been.
A glimpse of a familiar two-tailed fox caught Sonic's attention as they were pulling up to the dock, and the hedgehog sucked in his breath sharply.
Tails!
"You got the date?" he said aloud.
"Uh." More interested in the mooring ropes, the father skunk barely spared Sonic a glance. "November second, I think."
"Thanks." Sonic fell silent, mind ticking over.
November second. Tails' birthday was four days ago; man, I can't just show up in front of him empty handed!
Well, it looked like he'd have plenty of time to think about it; the kits didn't want Sonic to go, and the hedgehog had to spend a lot of time reassuring them that yes, they'd see him again and no, he didn't want a small gang of 'butt-kicking super-cool sidekicks' as Scratch put it. Eventually (after signing several autographs on what looked like every item the entire litter owned) Sonic managed to get away and start looking for Tails and a birthday gift for the fox, not necessarily in that order.
A sign caught his eye and he swerved off to one side, grinning as he ducked into the hardware store. Fingers crossed Knuckles hadn't already got one of these for Tails...
"In organic terms, you are obtaining certain degrees of indulgence and warmth in your cardiac system," Omega informed Shadow.
"The phrase you're looking for is getting soft, and no I'm damn well not!"
"Then how would you explain that?" Omega pointed to where Bait was curled up under a tree fifty yards away and snoring slightly.
"Shut the hell up," the hedgehog snarled in an undertone. As snappy comebacks went, it wasn't quite up to his usual standard, but it would have to do.
The worst of it was he was starting to worry that Omega had a point. Maybe he was getting soft.
The truth was – and if he couldn't say it here in his head then where could he say it? – the truth was that he didn't know what to do with the kid. Having been in control of almost every situation he'd found himself in, Shadow had no idea how to handle this lost feeling.
"Then why didn't you just Chaos Control away?" Omega persisted.
"I said shut up!" Shadow snapped.
"Negative. It's a valid question."
"It's a stupid question," Shadow corrected him, not particularly truthfully.
"Then how about this? Why didn't you either blast the jackal or Chaos Control away when he started following us?" When Shadow didn't answer right away, Omega added, "As I said, you are getting soft. You could have killed him."
Shadow shook his head, feeling that he was on reasonably familiar ground here. "No. I couldn't."
"Why not?" Omega said. "He's nothing more than an immature jackal cub, and a somewhat unintelligent specimen at that."
"He's not unintelligent, Omega; he's uneducated. There's a big difference." The hedgehog looked over to the jackal's sleeping form. "Besides, he deserves something for sheer guts."
"Ah. In that case, allow me—"
"Omega!" Shadow grabbed the cannon that was extending from the robot's chest and attempted to shunt it back into place. "That's not what I meant."
"Did you know he was following us out of Genocide City?"
Shadow opened his mouth, shut it again and finally said, "That doesn't matter."
"You did, didn't you?"
"I said it doesn't matter!"
"You knew the jackal was following us and you permitted him to continue until we arrived in..." Omega swivelled his head around, scanning their surroundings. "Aquatic Ruin."
The hedgehog shifted his weight irritably, not quite looking at the robot. Much as he despised himself for what he perceived as weakness, Shadow had found that he couldn't just leave the jackal to die. He didn't know what happened to people in Genocide City Zone in any great detail, but he didn't like the thought of abandoning Bait to find out the hard way either.
Exactly. Doing that would have been almost tantamount to killing the jackal myself. We're out of Genocide City and now I can walk away with a clear conscience.
That was all very well, but he'd been thinking that for the past ten hours and so far he hadn't done anything of the kind. Next to him, Omega turned and started walking back the way they'd come.
"Where are you going?" Shadow demanded.
"Sensors indicate a significant lack of adequate sustenance in the surrounding area."
The black hedgehog curled his lip. "Since when do you eat?"
"Since never. But stored data also indicates the prolonged lack of nourishment may have long-term effects on an organic's health."
Shadow opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. It didn't seem worth it.
"Fine. Just don't draw too much attention to yourself."
"Affirmative," the one-ton robot assured him, then turned and clanked off.
Leaning against a tree, Shadow folded his arms and stared at nothing while he thought. Omega's bringing in food was admittedly the least of his worries – the robot did it often enough after all – but what the hell was he supposed to do about that damn jackal?
Shadow debated with himself for a few minutes, then thought Screw it. Walking over to Bait, he nudged the jackal's shoulder hard with one foot.
"Get up."
Bait jerked awake, eyes groggy and unfocused. "I dint do it!"
Shadow folded his arms. "Never mind that. Get on your feet."
The jackal obeyed, clinging to a tree for support as his injured ribs screamed in agony. Shadow stood there watching, face impassive as Bait fought to keep any traces of that pain from showing.
He wasn't doing too bad a job of it either, Shadow allowed grudgingly. He'd seen plenty of people try to conceal pain – usually pain that Shadow himself had inflicted – and not all of them had succeeded as well as the jackal.
Nodding towards Bait's ribs, he said coolly, "You'll want to get that looked at. There should be a hospital somewhere around here."
He could almost see the cogs turning in Bait's head as the still muzzy jackal fought to puzzle this one out. Eventually Bait said, "So…first you beat the crap outta me an' now you wanna patch me up? How's that work, mister?"
Shadow shrugged. "I may not like you, jackal, but that doesn't mean I want you to suffer unnecessarily. We had our fight, and it didn't make you feel any better. In fact, judging from the bruising around your ribs, I'd say it had the opposite effect," the black hedgehog added, more curtly than usual. He wasn't exactly proud of his part in all that; he'd only hit Bait in the hopes that it might knock some sense into the jackal. "We did this your way and it didn't work. Now it's going to be my way or the highway. More specifically, it's going to be my way for me and the highway for you."
"Like back in that Gen'cide City place?" Bait dared to ask.
Shadow hesitated, then took the plunge. Reputation be damned; if he didn't ask the question now, it would torment him forever.
"How the hell did you manage to track us out of there?"
Bait shrugged slightly. "Followed your skates. They make a kinda noise, like zow, zow, zow, zow. I jus' followed that sound."
"Impressive," Shadow said, and for once he meant it. That was a good point to remember; just because he relied mostly on his eyes didn't mean others were as handicapped. "You're still not coming along with me."
The jackal folded his arms stubbornly. "I ain't leavin', not 'til you take me to Sonic."
He didn't even have time to blink before Shadow was on him, one hand around his throat. There was no pressure applied, but the mere thought of suffocation was enough to silence the jackal.
"Get this straight," Shadow said softly. "I am not here to take your orders." Leaning in, he lowered his voice even more. "Do not antagonise me. You have no idea what I'm capable of."
A chill ran down Bait's spine. "You're bluffin'."
"I assure you I'm not. I'm not like your pathetic brother, cub; if I make a threat, I have every intention of carrying it out."
The jackal didn't move, hardly dared to breathe. Something inside him said that Shadow was telling the truth.
"It's a free Zone. If I wanna walk in the same direction as what you are, you got no right to stop me."
Shadow smiled slightly. "Ah. In that case..." Releasing Bait, he pulled out the Chaos Emerald. "Chaos—"
The jackal lunged, seizing Shadow's wrist before the hedgehog had time to say the final word.
"You go an' you're jus' gonna take me with you."
Shadow paused, eyeing him coolly. There was no question that Bait was terrified of the likely repercussions – the hedgehog could almost smell the fear emanating from him in waves – just as there was no question that the jackal wasn't going to give in. So far his fear of being abandoned was greater than his fear of what Shadow might do to him.
Well, we'll just see about that.
With one smooth move, Shadow tore his wrist out of Bait's hold, then swung his arm around to backhand the jackal squarely across the jaw, sending him sprawling in the mud. Arms folded, he stared down at the jackal coldly, waiting to see how Bait would react.
The jackal struggled to his feet, blood dribbling from a split lip. Wiping it away with the back of his hand, he clung to a branch and fixed Shadow with a look that wasn't accusatory so much as resigned.
"So much for not hittin' cubs."
"I said I didn't fight cubs, jackal. I never said I don't hit them...and I don't think I've ever met one as tenacious and irritating as you. You pushed me too far. That's all."
Bait flattened his ears. "You said you understood."
"I do. I also said that your brother's death will only buy you licence to act like a little turd around me for so long, although since I said it to that blue hedgehog and not you, I suppose you can hardly be blamed for your lack of awareness." Shadow paused, considering his options. He wasn't sadistic by nature, and although his ideas of obligation were vastly different to Sonic's, they were still present. He'd killed the jackal's brother and separated him – albeit inadvertently – from the only other person who might be persuaded to take him in, and he hadn't planned on doing either.
"Alright," he said tersely.
Bait froze. "What?"
"You want to stick around until your blue bodyguard shows up? Fine. But Omega and I have better things to do than feed and shelter you. You can hang around near us, but as far as care goes, you can take care of yourself. As soon as we find that hedgehog, I'm offloading you onto him whether he wants you or not."
Turning, he strode away to the warmth of the campfire; the night was unusually chilly for Aquatic Ruin.
"Shadow!"
"What?" Shadow all but snarled, not looking at the jackal.
Bait swallowed. "What 'bout Raker?"
Understanding what the jackal was really asking, Shadow half turned to regard him coolly.
"Sonic dealt with that. I believe he tossed him out one of the airlocks."
Bait paled. "He what?"
"It was that or dump him in the energy vat for recycling," Shadow said brutally. "In fact, I'm surprised Sonic didn't go for that option; at least that way your brother might finally have been of some use."
Bait clenched his fists. "You take that back, Shads!"
The hedgehog lifted an eye ridge, slowly, as though Bait wasn't worth the energy the action took.
"Or?"
"Or I'll make you!" Bait hurtled forward, tripped on a rock and slipped sideways. Gravity and his own momentum took hold and he rolled down the steep slope into the nearby lake with a splash.
Shadow looked down at him and snickered quietly. "Yeah. You do that, jackal. You make me."
Humiliated, Bait scrambled out, shaking himself dry. "I meant to do that!"
"Sure you did." Shadow folded his arms. "Alright. Since I dislike seeing anyone make a fool of themselves – and since you seem to be unusually gifted in that respect – I'm willing to go back to our original deal. You stop taking your own insecurities out on me, and I'll Chaos Control you to a Zone and leave you there."
Chaos Control! Bait tensed. An idea had just occurred to him, one that was so bold and so audacious that it froze him to the spot.
Suppose he stole the Chaos Emerald from Shadow and used it himself? It was risky – in fact, it was more than simply risky; it bordered on the downright suicidal – but that Chaos Control thing seemed easy enough. And once he had the Emerald, Shadow could skate around all he wanted; Bait could just Chaos Control away from him!
Well, if Shadow wasn't going to help him (and Bait had to admit the hedgehog had every good reason not to) then he'd just have to help himself.
"Mister?"
"What?"
Bait swallowed hard, fighting down the sudden sick feeling that had materialised in his stomach.
"You...uh...you gotta be pretty tired, right mister? I mean, you been goin' all this time an' I never seen you sleep, so...you gotta be zonked, huh?"
"Hm." Shadow kept his attention focused on the dying embers of the campfire, no trace of his thoughts showing on his face. "Maybe. Why?"
"Well...I were jus' thinkin'...y'know, if you wanted to, mebbe, get some sleep...I could keep watch?" Bait finished hopefully.
Shadow raised an eye ridge, still not looking at Bait. "Really? Do you feel we're in danger here?"
The jackal nodded vigorously. "Yeah! 'Cause...the people from that Zone could be followin' us."
"I see. But Omega's more than capable of dealing with anyone who thinks he can kill me while I'm asleep," Shadow remarked to the fire, his tone both a statement and a warning.
Bait squirmed. "Yeah, but...but he might not get back, huh mister? An' 'sides, I were thinkin' more of me, 'cause I dunt think you or that Omega guy'd cry your eyes out if I got hurt."
"Perhaps not," Shadow said, relenting slightly. "Alright. Maybe I will get some rest."
Bait nodded eagerly, hardly daring to breathe as the black hedgehog settled down in front of the fire. That had been easier than he'd expected.
Now for the tricky bit.
I wish, Sonic thought grimly as he tried to pull off a length of sellotape, keep it from twisting, hold the wrapping paper in place and cut the tape at the same time, that damn hardware store had a gift-wrapping policy!
It took several more strands of tape and a fair amount of fur before Sonic had the gift more or less wrapped, and he'd taken so long that when he emerged Tails was nowhere to be seen.
Darting up to the counter, he squirmed past people with a "Sorry!" and cut in front of an elderly hippo to address the parakeet who was currently serving.
"There was a kid here, a two-tailed fox. Where'd he go?"
Clearly torn between his shock at seeing a living legend in front of him – never mind having one address him – and his customer service training, the parakeet just gawked at him. Sonic snapped his fingers.
"Hey! The two-tailed fox? Did you see him leave?"
A slow, almost mechanical nod. The parakeet seemed oblivious to the fact that the cup he was pouring coffee into was now overflowing down the sides and flooding the saucer.
"Great! Which way did he go?"
A pointing finger was raised, indicating a narrow alleyway, and Sonic grinned.
"Thanks. I owe you one."
Turning, he zipped away and down the alley, zigzagging in between pedestrians and finally emerging, overtaking and skidding to a stop five yards in front of Tails. The fox froze suddenly, staring at the hedgehog as though he'd seen a ghost.
"Hey lil bro," Sonic said lightly. "How's things?"
"Sonic?" Tails stared at the hedgehog wordlessly for so long that Sonic shifted his weight awkwardly, then the fox promptly raced forward and buried him in a hug that carried them both into the far wall. "You're okay!"
"Yeah, you bet I am!" Sonic reached down, ruffling the fur on Tails' head, grinning as Tails increased the hug, even going so far as to run on the ground for extra leverage. "And I got something for you."
Tails looked up eagerly. "What?"
Sonic raised his voice. "I said, I got something for you!"
The fox gave him a ha-ha, funny look. "I meant, what've you got for me?"
Sonic laughed. "Okay buddy. Here." Reaching behind him, he pulled out the hastily (and badly) wrapped parcel and handed it to Tails. "Happy birthday." He paused. "Kinda late, I know," he added, "but I was on another planet until very recently." He winked at Tails, who was occupied in tearing off the paper, eventually revealing a brand new welding torch.
Something cracked inside the fox, who swallowed convulsively and looked away, ears drooping.
"Hey, what's this?" Sonic tilted Tails' jaw up towards him. "If you don't like it, we can take it back and get you something else, lil bro. I won't be offended."
Tails shook his head vigorously. "No! It's great!"
Sonic laughed. "Then why're you looking like someone just kicked your puppy?"
The fox looked down at the welding torch, then back up at Sonic.
"Knux missed my birthday," he said quietly.
"Oh kiddo." Although the fox was fairly mature for his age, he was still young enough for birthdays to matter, and Sonic shook his head. "Okay. What say we go hit the local fast food joint?"
The look on Tails' face made Sonic feel ten feet tall, and he grinned, reaching down to ruffle the fox's fur.
"C'mon then, lil bro. I've had nothing to eat bar the odd chili dog and some weird alien stew ever since I got sucked into that Void."
The fox's ears perked. "Sonic, did you really go to another planet?"
"You better believe it." Sonic shivered. "And man, you can keep it! That place was a nightmare! Nothing but humans as far as the eye could see, though some of their movies are pretty cool."
"They are?" Tails' eyes lit up. "What kinda movies?"
Sonic pretended to consider as they walked along towards a fast food restaurant that he knew Tails loved. "Well..."
"Yeah?"
"You ever hear of a guy named Hannibal Lecter?"
Bait crept forward, every muscle in his body tense. He'd stolen from people before, but the stakes were far higher now than they'd ever been. The jackal literally couldn't imagine what Shadow would do if he caught Bait trying to steal the Chaos Emerald.
So far so good, however; Shadow hadn't even stirred.
A little closer now. Closer. It was taking three times as long for Bait to sneak up as it usually would, but that was fine by him; if it enabled him to steal the Emerald without being detected, then it was time well spent.
There was the sudden sound of something crashing through the undergrowth, away
from Bait. The jackal froze rigid, hardly daring to breathe.
Did he hear that? It seemed a fairly moot point; as far as Bait's keyed up mind was concerned, Shadow would have to be deaf not to have heard it. Mind working frantically, trying out and rejecting one excuse after another, Bait looked down, fully expecting to see Shadow staring up at him.
Nothing. The hedgehog hadn't opened his eyes, hadn't so much as twitched.
Guess he must be real zonked out, Bait thought, and that made him feel bolder. If Shadow hadn't woken up when that animal had gone racing away, he wasn't likely to do it when Bait crept up on him.
The jackal hesitated, unsure. That was all very well, except he couldn't shake the belief that he could wander around the black hedgehog all he liked, but the instant he made physical contact, Shadow would be on him.
As though in agreement, the black hedgehog stirred suddenly, rolling over onto his back and stretching. Bait flattened his ears, body so tense he was now quivering slightly, and then, to his astonishment - not to mention relief - Shadow settled again. One hand slid off his chest and out to the side, landing on Bait's sneaker.
A tiny whimper escaped the jackal's throat. There was no way he could reach into Shadow's quills and take the Emerald now; he'd be lucky if he could extricate himself without waking the hedgehog. Carefully, greatly daring, Bait stretched out his other foot until it rested on a twig, then he snapped it. The crack was deafening to his keyed-up senses, but it had the desired effect; Shadow mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over again, exposing his back.
Gently, not even aware he was holding his breath, Bait reached down. How much feeling did a hedgehog have in his quills? They couldn't be too sensitive, or they'd be no good for defence, but still...would Shadow feel his touch and wake up?
Bait's questing fingers found something hard. There! The Chaos Emerald! It had to be! As delicately as he could, the jackal pulled the gem out and backed away, clutching it tightly.
He'd done it! He'd really done it! Bait kept quiet, moving silently until he was at least ten feet away from Shadow and Omega, then he held up the Emerald just like he'd seen Shadow do and shouted "Chaos Control!"
Nothing happened. There was no bright flash of light, no magical teleportation. Bait was still standing there, holding the Chaos Emerald aloft, now feeling more than a little foolish.
Through the darkness, he heard Shadow chuckle dryly.
"Not as easy as it looks, is it?"
Bait yelped in alarm, ears now flat against his head as he realised the truth. The hedgehog had been awake all the time, had simply been toying with him, allowing him to take the Chaos Emerald because he knew full well there was no way Bait could escape with it.
Shadow snapped onto his feet with a lithe action that caused Bait to take a step or two back. Either not noticing or – more likely – blatantly ignoring this, Shadow walked towards him at a pace that would have been considered slow even by a normal Mobian's standards.
Bait hunched his shoulders, making himself look as small as possible. There was something in Shadow's deliberate approach that was more terrifying than if he'd rushed the jackal. Worse yet, all Bait could do was stand there and wait; his muscles seemed to have turned to wood.
The footsteps stopped in front of him, too far away for Bait to see their owner. After a few minutes had gone by, the jackal couldn't stand the suspense any more and raised his eyes to Shadow's. There was nothing written in the hedgehog's expression; Bait couldn't tell if Shadow was angry, amused or if he even felt anything at all, and he looked away again quickly.
In fact, now that he thought about it, he didn't think he'd ever seen a real emotion on the hedgehog's face.
Shadow waited until the pressure became too much and the jackal looked back at him, then simply held out his hand.
Hesitantly, not sure if Shadow was planning to use it on him or not, Bait dropped the Chaos Emerald into it.
There was a long, long silence.
"You got a lot of guts, jackal," Shadow remarked at the end of it, idly tossing the Emerald in one hand. Catching it neatly, he held it up in front of the jackal's eyes. "But this Emerald is mine. Understand?"
Unable to speak, Bait nodded vehemently. There was another, even longer silence, then Shadow turned and walked away without another word.
Tails was in a dream world. After his guilt over Knuckles, the renewed bond between him and Sonic was a relief. When the echidna had rejected him – however temporarily – he'd felt very alone.
"Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
Tails swallowed. "I gotta ask you something."
"Sounds ominous," Sonic said lightly, then grinned. "Sure, shoot."
"If someone – not me, but someone...uh...about, say, eight or nine years old – overheard someone saying he thought someone couldn't handle tough situations anymore and that someone wanted to prove them wrong, only someone else died and someone didn't want to talk to someone anymore...is it that someone's fault?"
Sonic frowned. "I think I followed you all the way up to someone, lil bro."
It took ten minutes for Tails to catch the hedgehog up on everything that had happened, and when he'd finished Sonic was unusually silent.
"Sonic?" Tails wriggled closer to his adopted brother, fixing the hedgehog with a huge-eyed appealing look. "Was it my fault?"
The hedgehog shook his head. "No. How could it have been? You were getting Espio to safety; you were nowhere near Knuckles' sister."
Tails picked up his soda and hoovered the dregs up noisily with a straw.
"Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
The fox fixed him with huge eyes. "I wanna stay with you, Sonic, like before. 'Cause...we're still brothers, right? Right?"
Sonic reached out and ruffled the fur on Tails' head. "You better believe it, lil bro."
The fox grinned happily, then the grin froze as he remembered something.
"What 'bout that jackal?"
"If you're talking about Bait—"
"Yeah!"
"—then first of all he has a name and secondly, I won't have the two of you fighting. What's done is done." Sonic grinned. "You never know. The two of you could be pretty good friends."
"After what he did?" Tails looked away. "Nuh uh. Forget it."
The hedgehog laughed. "You always were stubborn, kiddo. I guess Knuckles managed to bring out that side of you even more." He shook his head. "Look at it this way, lil bro; if I'd refused to have anything to do with Knux because he spent most of his time trying to kill us in the beginning, what would have happened to you when I went off that rail?" When Tails didn't answer, Sonic added casually, "Actually, Bait's terrified of you."
Tails pushed himself away to stare at the hedgehog in astonishment. "Me?"
"You. Oh, he'd never admit it – and I don't want you mentioning this to anyone, not even Knuckles – but the poor kid's scared stiff that I'm gonna dump him in favour of you, not to mention he keeps raking himself over the coals for what happened to you."
"An' he should!" Tails flattened his ears. "He can't jus' expect me to forget everything that happened, Sonic. That'd be like...like...if it was my fault Robotnik tortured you and I just expected you to forget that. Could you get along with Robotnik?"
"I did all the time we were on his ship," Sonic retorted.
"No you didn't, you just didn't kill each other." The fox gulped down the rest of his chilli dog in a single bite, then fixed Sonic with huge eyes and an even huger smile. "Sonic..."
Sonic rolled his eyes, feigning exasperation before winking. "Yeah, buddy, we can get desserts."
"Yeah!" Tails punched the air triumphantly, then wilted again.
"Now what?"
The fox doodled on the table with his finger, tracing patterns in one or another of the various sticky substances that coated it.
"'S jus'...I feel kinda bad about having a good time while Knux is moping back with the CDA."
"Then don't," Sonic said simply. Seeing Tails still looked morose, he grinned. "Kiddo, Knuckles is stubborn, hot-headed and thicker than a breeze block bap, but he's also one of the toughest people I know. He'll come around sooner or later." Sonic winked. "Promise."
The sound of movement made Bait yelp in alarm and spin round, coming face to face with nothing more deadly than a squirrel, which chattered at him briefly and then raced away through the branches.
The jackal drew in a long breath, held it until spots started to flash in front of his eyes and then let it out again as slowly and silently as he could. His nerves were worn to shreds after the encounter with Shadow; he didn't know if the hedgehog was planning some kind of punishment in return for Bait's audacity in trying to steal the Chaos Emerald, and until he knew, he didn't dare let his guard down. He'd slept lightly the past couple of nights, waking at every little sound and during the day he hadn't dared to stop moving.
His stomach rumbled noisily, drawing attention to another problem; namely that he hadn't eaten properly in two days. He'd gone through something like this before with Sonic, after a certain incident involving Bait, the hedgehog and a rope bridge in Aquatic Ruin Zone, but at least that fear had been tempered by the knowledge that Sonic had needed him to find Tails.
Well, he couldn't go on like this. He'd either have to ask Shadow directly or leave for good, and the thought of being on his own was far more terrifying than any punishment Shadow could deal out.
Taking a deep breath, Bait summoned his last remnants of courage and walked up to the fire. Shadow glanced at him – the jackal had been hiding in the forest at night ever since the Chaos Emerald episode – but other than that didn't acknowledge his arrival.
Bait shifted his weight, cold in spite of the flames.
"Shadow?"
"Hm?"
Bait swallowed. He was tired, wanted more than ever to sit down and rest his legs, but all the time there was a chance of Shadow attacking him, he didn't dare. Not that he had any crazy thoughts of outrunning the hedgehog, but at least this way he felt he retained some control of the situation.
The jackal shifted his weight from one side to the other in an attempt to ease his aching feet.
"Are you mad?" he said suddenly, then realised Shadow might take this the wrong way and hastily added, "I mean are you mad 'bout that Em'rald thing?"
"Emerald thing? What...oh. Oh, you mean the whole slinking around under cover of darkness and trying to rob me in my sleep thing?"
Bait swallowed again. There was no going back now.
"Yeah."
"No."
The jackal hesitated, hardly daring to believe what he'd just heard.
"What?"
"I said no. I was never angry about that. In fact, I found it rather amusing."
"Amusin'?" Bait's voice quivered slightly, both from tiredness and some kind of raw emotion. "You mean I bin hidin' in the forests an' hardly sleepin' for no reason?"
"If that's why you've been doing it, yes," Shadow answered calmly. "If I wanted to punish you, I would have done so already. Now what?" as he saw the jackal eyeing him warily.
"So...why dint you jus' say that?"
"Because I didn't think even you'd be insecure enough for me to have to even if I'd been inclined to, that's why."
Bait shook his head. "That don't even make sense."
Shadow rolled his eyes. "You want something that makes sense to you? Alright. You're weak, pathetic and couldn't even steal candy from a baby. I don't know why I waste my time with you since it would have been better for all concerned if you'd just died in Genocide City." He paused to observe the effect of his words on the jackal. "Have I left anything out?"
Bait shook his head mutely. Shadow wasn't a bad mimic when the fancy took him, and the voice that came out of the hedgehog's mouth had sounded almost exactly like Raker.
"Good. Then maybe you'll forget these crazy dreams of turning yourself – or worse, me – into a carbon copy of your brother."
Bait swallowed. "Shadow?"
"What?"
"That deal thing you mentioned back in Gen'cide City..." Bait began, then stopped.
"Oh yes? What about it?"
The jackal flattened his ears. "Is it...well...are you still gonna do it?"
Shadow raised an eye ridge. "That all depends. Are you willing to keep your side of the bargain?"
"You get me to a Zone with Chaos Control an' I stop blamin' you over what happened to Raker."
"No, I get you to a Zone with Chaos Control and you stop trying to pick a fight with me over what happened to Raker. I couldn't care less what you think or say about me in private."
Bait picked up a bone he'd left and crunched between his teeth, sucking out the marrow. "Okay. So you take me to Sonic an' I don't bother you again 'bout anythin'."
"I said I'd get you to a Zone. I can't take you to a person unless I know exactly where they are."
"Oh." Bait fell silent, ears drooping. They sat there in silence for several minutes, then he said, "What 'bout Scrap Brain?"
"Agreed. I think it only fair to warn you though; if you break your half of the deal and try picking a fight with me again, that will make me a little…upset. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
"If I come after you again you'll kick my arse all the way back to the humans' world?" Bait filled in obediently.
"And beyond." There was a long pause, then Shadow added reluctantly, "I…would be interested in knowing why you seem so intent on staying with me, however."
Bait glanced down, tracing patterns in the ground with his finger. "Yeah, well, 's jus'...it's tough out there an' I can't survive on my own."
There was a long, long silence.
"You can't survive on your own?" Shadow echoed. He shook his head slowly. "For someone with the wits and resources to track me out of Genocide City, you seem remarkably stupid. Can't survive on your own? What do you think you've been doing all this time?" Before Bait had a chance to answer, the black hedgehog was on his feet and had grabbed the jackal by the arm. "Chaos Control!"
Bait's vision filled with green light. When it cleared, they were standing on a road that wound between sparse tropical plants. Scrap Brain Zone was just visible in the distance.
"You can take yourself the rest of the way," Shadow added coolly. "I stay out of populated areas. Chaos Control!"
Another flash of green light, and then the jackal was alone on the road.
It took him an hour and a half of walking to reach the outskirts of the city – a process slowed somewhat by his injuries – and another forty minutes to track Sonic down, and when he did he wished he hadn't. Seeing Sonic through the window of a fast food joint, relaxed and laughing with that fox (and just where had he come from? Bait wondered) was too intimidating for the jackal to just walk on in and announce himself...especially when you took into consideration the little fact that he'd pretty much gone AWOL.
Well, Sonic seemed happy enough without him, Bait thought, and since Shadow had taken out Raker (and the memory of that still brought a lump to the jackal's throat) he didn't need Sonic's protection anymore!
Yeah, we're quits, Bait thought, with a fierceness that didn't quite fool himself. I helped him get his brother an' he got me away from Raker. We don't owe each other nothin'. Prob'ly he'll be happy to have Tails back.
If Sonic's light-hearted demeanour and expression were anything to go by, then he was positively ecstatic at being back on his old footing with Tails.
"It's okay, you can go ask him for his autograph," a koala informed Bait helpfully, mistaking the longing in the jackal's expression. "I did and he was real nice about it."
Bait snorted. "Why'd I want somethin' like that? Sonic'n'me go way back; we got taken to another planet an' he saved me."
The koala giggled. "Yeah, right!" Racing back over to his friends, he added in a loud voice, "Have you heard this psycho?"
Bait didn't wait around to find out if they'd heard him or not; at that point he spun on his heel and took off through the streets, dodging around the pedestrians. His pace became progressively slower as the pain in his ribs increased, but he kept moving, only stopping when he'd left the city for the shallow forest he'd walked through not three hours before.
There was no sound, no indication, but somehow Bait knew he wasn't alone. Turning, he saw Shadow leaning against a tree and flattened his ears.
"You come to laugh at me, mister?"
"Lay off the self-pity," Shadow said in bored tones, "you're breaking nobody's heart but your own."
"How'd you find me?"
The black hedgehog shrugged. "I watched you go in. I didn't bring you all this way to have you mugged or kidnapped. What happened?"
The jackal folded his arms. "Sonic's with his buddy now...an'...an' I'm happy for him. I don't care if he wants Tails an' not me."
There was a short silence, then Shadow said, "Yes you do."
"No I don't!" Bait punched the hedgehog hard on the arm, an action that was only slightly less surprising than the fact that Shadow did nothing to stop him. "What'm I s'posed to do?"
The black hedgehog curled his lip. "I'm sorry; I think you've mistaken me for someone who gives a damn."
Bait fixed him with a look. Shadow's arrogance and contempt was familiar territory to him, but something didn't fit...the black hedgehog didn't strike him as the kind who would come back or hang around just to taunt someone.
"What d'you want from me, mister?"
"To be candid – which I usually am – I don't want anything from you. I was just interested to see if I wasted my time bringing you here." Shadow glanced down at the jackal and added, "Clearly I did. What did the blue hedgehog say?"
"Nothin'," Bait mumbled. Strange as it sounds, a part of him was oddly comforted by Shadow's presence; at least you always knew where you stood with him. You might not be standing there for very long, but there was no hypocrisy in the hedgehog's nature.
"Nothing. I see. So he just eyeballed you for half an hour, is that it?"
The jackal snorted. "Mister, if you think I was gonna give him the chance to dump me in fronta people, you're crazy."
"In other words, you were too frightened to talk to him and so frightened he was going to reject you in favour of that fox that you crawled away without bothering to ask him or even say goodbye."
Bait turned away. Shadow might not be his enemy, but the hedgehog had a nasty habit of firing home truths at him that he didn't much like.
"Jus' piss off, Shads! Piss off an' leave me alone! You're gonna do that anyway, so you might as well do it now."
"As you wish." There was the barest hint of amusement in Shadow's voice, only really noticeable if you were listening hard. "Chaos Control!"
There was a flash of light and Shadow was gone, leaving Bait alone.
"I dint mean it!"
There was no answer. Even if Shadow had been inclined to reply, there was no way he could have heard the jackal.
Taking a long, deep breath, every inch of his body language practically screaming his uncertainty, Bait turned his back on Scrap Brain Zone and started walking. Part of him was shouting not to be so stupid, that Sonic wouldn't turn him away, but the other parts overruled it. No, Sonic might not turn him away, but Bait was smart enough to know that his reappearance just when the hedgehog was back on an even keel with Tails would complicate things.
Besides, despite the amount of time that had elapsed, he didn't think he could face the fox after what had happened. Not now, and probably not ever.
With his mind firmly made up, and his heart feeling like it was about to tear itself out of his body, Bait walked onwards.
Heh. Well, people have been asking and clamouring for Sonic and Tails to get back on their old footing after Secrets of the Emeralds, so there ya go! Next in the series is Gemini Project; hopefully see you there :D