Sonic Surfing

by Taranea

„Come on, Sonic."

„No."

„But you've also been racing Jet on Extreme Gear. And grinding down streets on plates torn from planes. And snowboarding, which is practically the same."

"No, it's not. When I snowboard, the ground doesn't move underneath me."

"…you've been snowboarding on avalanches."

"Yeah, but snow is still solid."

"But snow is also water!"

"Amy! I just don't want to go surfing!"

"But everybody is doing it!" the pink hedgehog wailed, "And it's fun!"

Which Sonic had to admit was partly true. Since Cream had gotten a bodyboard for her seventh birthday, she had spontaneously decided to move her little party to the beach, where most of the other Mobians had rented boards as well. Tails was currently riding a wave and seemed to be quite good, actually – until he keeled over backwards and splashed into the water like a very furry, six-appendaged octopus, but still emerged laughing ten seconds later. Cream was merely splashing about with her board, enjoying herself…but the best show gave Knuckles, and Sonic grudgingly had to admit the echidna was good. And made it look like fun, too.

"It's just for people who want to show off, anyway." Sonic abruptly turned his nose up when the echidna raced through another wave tunnel collapsing behind him.

It was no wonder, really – everybody knew that a Guardian had a lot of free time (when he wasn't spending it on a rabbit's birthday party) and since Knuckles sometimes lowered his home into the sea for a few days when he had to weather out a storm or wanted to hide it in a chain of other islands for the time being, Angel Island had a multitude of beaches.

But still, it stung.

Sonic would have liked to show Knuckles up…yeah, and even if I wasn't freaked out by water, I could probably really humiliate him by wobbling past on my beginner's board, Sonic thought sarcastically. The hero of Mobius learned fast, but even he knew this was ridiculous.

"And not everybody is surfing." Sonic shrugged, nodding into another direction. "He isn't."

Amy also turned her head, her gaze falling onto the third hedgehog still on the beach instead of in the water, a black and red-striped, stretched-out form that somehow managed to scowl even when he was lying underneath a sunshade with eyes closed.

Of course, Shadow wasn't here entirely out of his own free will. Currently he was living at Club Rouge, and even if he didn't really require sleep or nutrition, they were nice commodities he was unwilling to give up. Unfortunately, it also meant that it gave the albino bat license to drag him to any number of events she felt he should be attending - such as Cream's birthday, and it was apparent that the bright red, with-a-yellow-stripe-down-the-side swimming shorts he was wearing did not improve his mood.

Amy only put her hands on her hips, ignoring the black spot of sulk only five metres from them. "Yes, Sonic, and if everybody but Shadow was jumping from a bridge, then you…wait. Bad phrasing."

"Why don't you go and have fun without me?" Sonic asked, albeit without much hope.

"But I want to sit on your board while you stand behind me and we surf a big wave – that would be so romantic!" the pink hedgehog sighed again, starry-eyed.

Sonic gave her a dry look. "Amy, with my current surfing skills it would probably be me sitting in a girly pose on the nose of the board and you standing up."

"Sonic…"

"Or wait, new idea: I stand on the board, you sit, we take the picture on the beach and Tails will photoshop this huge wave-!"

"Sonic!"

"Amy. I. Won't. Surf. Now why don't you go bother Stripey?" Sonic asked with slight exasperation, gesturing over to a still impassive Shadow (although one ear twitched at the nickname and the frown deepened somewhat further). "I'll bet he's as bad at surfing as me!"

Finally, an ungloved hand with a gold ring around the wrist moved. Shades were tilted downwards and both hedgehogs were treated to a cool, crimson glare as the third of them propped himself up on the elbows. "I'll have you know that the Ultimate Lifeform has the capability to perform every activity you care to name."

"Get the toothpaste back into the tube," Sonic shot back automatically, before tilting his head, now also sitting up in the deep emerald-green, wavy-patterned swimming trunks he was wearing. "No, seriously, you can surf?"

"Better than you at any rate," Shadow replied, indifferent again and wanted to lie back down, but then a new voice interrupted their conversation.

"That's a joke, right? You two and surfing?"

Three heads tilted themselves up to squint into the sunshine. Before them stood a dripping Knuckles, board still underneath his arm and a hint of a smirk on his face. He hadn't bothered with trunks, which were more of a fashion statement (or a present, in Shadow's case) than any necessary cover where males were concerned, anyway. It was weird enough seeing the bone-white knucklaws on his hands uncovered, at that.

Now, however, the echidna was instantly met with two glares.

Sonic shook his head. "I'd gladly prove you wrong at any time, Knucklehead, but you know the problem – as soon as I'm in the water, I sink like Eggy's hopes to ever lose weight," he finished, hiding with a cocky grin his relief at finding a way out that didn't involve the phrase 'afraid as a kitten' or "large brick excretement".

Knuckles cocked his head. "If that's the only problem – you can walk out to the waves. No swimming involved."

Sonic now began looking slightly uncomfortable. It was one thing admitting to Amy or Tails that he was too scared to go into water, but with both Knuckles and Shadow listening it was a different matter altogether and his ego was insisting that he should let himself drown just to show them up.

'Hey, what's this?" Rouge suddenly asked, also having left the water, white fur and purple bikini wet and clinging. "Are you trying to get these two into the water? I hope so, because Shadow told me he was a crack at wave riding," she said, glancing over with a wink at Knuckles, clearly hoping to get a rise out of him.

Sonic snorted. "Yeah, right. If you ask me, a total beginner could probably beat him. I bet he hasn't surfed once before in his life."

Crimson eyes narrowed. "Dangerous territory here, faker."

"Hey, I have a great idea!" Amy piped up, "Why don't you make this a competition? Whoever can show us the best tricks wins!" she suggested, her enthusiasm apparently already recovered.

Now both males suddenly looked rather cornered. "Errm…"

"Yeah, let's have a competition," Knuckles also fell in, violet eyes suddenly way too happy for Sonic's liking, "or are you trying to back out of a challenge…?"

"It's no challenge Knux if I've never surfed before. You can't have a competition when both competitors couldn't tell the nose from the tail of the board!" Sonic defended himself, glancing at Shadow to gauge his reaction. The black hedgehog looked uncomfortable but obviously reluctant to say anything that could end this.

Xxx

"Clever, blue hedgehog. Real clever."

"Hey, I didn't hear you come out with any great ideas."

"At least I didn't let my ego run rampant."

"No, of course not. I think I clearly heard you say 'Let's not do this, we all know that you're the best surfer, Knux.""

Shadow scoffed. "Well, then I'm pretty certain that it couldn't possibly have been you who was all 'We'll show you how well hedgehogs can surf and now let's both drown by sunset!'"

Sonic retaliated by throwing a sea shell at the black hedgehog sitting next to him in the sand, which Shadow dodged with equally fast reflexes. To tell the truth, even the hero of Mobius couldn't quite reconstruct what had let them both agree to train on this remote beach for the rest of the day and then have a surfing competition in the evening in front of their friends. He was pretty sure it had had something to do with that annoying grin of Knuckles, the suddenly admiring gazes of Amy and Rouge, and then very possibly a case of sunstroke as well.

"What the hell. Let's get this over with." So saying, Shadow rose from his position and grabbed the surfboard lying next to him, sand sliding off his form. Sonic looked at him, his face now worried.

"You're seriously gonna do this? I mean, can you even swim? I sink like a stone…"

"They had a swimming pool aboard the ARK," Shadow merely replied, even though that wasn't really an answer to any of the questions. Sonic noticed how without the hoverskates the black hedgehog's steps were just a little bit more insecure, though, as he slowly walked into the water until he was submerged to waist-height. The Ultimate Lifeform turned around.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get your tail end in here so that I know you're at least as miserable as me!"

"That's not even possible if they amputated my legs…" Sonic muttered under his breath but nevertheless stood up and grabbed his surfboard.

And then was frozen to the spot when he tried to take only a single step toward the ocean.

It wasn't his fault, really. His brain kept trying to convince his feet to move, and it would have worked if another part of his mind hadn't permanently been showing a Rocky Horror Slide Show, consisting of a row of gravestones with his name on it, himself as a bloated carcass with an apple in his mouth on the plate of a humanoid shark, funnels, tsunamis, and rips, all accompanied by 'My heart will go on' on repeat.

Meanwhile, a rather small wave managed to fetch Shadow's board up in front of him and whack the Ultimate Lifeform in the face.

"What the-?!" Shadow sputtered at this, wrenching the board aside, only in time for another wave to crash on top of him.

Mental Memo: Find out how to take revenge on inanimate bodies of water.

"To hell with this! Faker, how are you – faker?" Shadow called, surfacing again and looking around for Sonic and his board.

It was about at that time that he saw the hero of Mobius still on the beach, mostly curled up and rocking.

Then, of course, the next wave hit.

xxx

"Okay, so no going back in there."

"No," Sonic agreed. They were both sitting on the beach again, Shadow's black fur clinging this time, even if his eyes were still blazing. Chaos, dammit, he knew why he preferred to be an indoor-hedgehog!

"Then what do we do? Turning up without doing anything is kinda lame…" the blue hedgehog groaned, his face on his arms where he sat with his knees drawn up. "Geez, even fighting Biolizard was easier than this."

At that, Shadow suddenly blinked. "I think I have an idea…"

Xxx

"You sure about that? Won't be easy to collect them in time," Sonic said after the his black look-a-like had finished, but his gaze was already calculating.

Shadow nodded. "Yes, I know. It's only one hour until sunset and we only have two, so we'll have to be fast to get the rest."

Sonic merely grinned. "Have you forgotten who we are?"

Xxx

"Well, technically they're surfing," Tails finally said.

"And it's a nice light show, too," Rouge agreed, ignoring a scowling Knuckles in the background.

Amy only hmmphed. She should have known Sonic wouldn't play fair.

But then again, watching a gleaming Super Shadow and Super Sonic skimming over huge waves they'd whipped up themselves with snowboards strapped to their hovering feet, all golden in the light of the sunset, was worth something.

Fin

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Heh, uploaded almost a year after my date of writing this, when I was in surf camp...substitute 'Taranea' for 'Shadow' and you can basically deduce how my first attempts went...:P Hope you still enjoyed the story, tho, and anybody curious about Shadow's mad swimming skillz is cordially invited to my story "Sea Urchin", of course. If you read, please review? :D