Chapter Text
Right as Sonic was about a bite of his much deserved chilli dog, he heard a loud boom, which was accompanied by a jolt. The intensity causing him to drop his chilli dog, which landed on the sand with a sad splat. He looked down at the chilli dog, now slowly spreading into the sand granules.
“Dude! Are you kidding me?!” He let out a pout and crossed his arms.
Right before Sonic could further mourn the loss of his chili dog, a gigantic Eggbot roared to life. It took long, drawn out steps which sent a bounce through Green Hill every time they met the ground. It cast dark shadows over the luscious palm trees and the sand, and its eyes seemingly scanned the surrounding areas.
Sonic quickly snapped out of his mourning and sped over to meet his friends. They all stood frozen as they watched the Eggbot creep closer and closer, its eyes glowing an unsettling red as they landed on Sonic.
Amy stepped a bit closer to Sonic, her voice uncertain and full of hesitation.
“What is that…”
Tails chimed in as his gadget got a proper reading of the Eggbot, his voice laced with nervousness.
“W-well according to the reading, it is an Eggbot..” he hesitated, before swallowing hard “..but it’s energy levels are all off…it seems overpowered..”
Sonic was entranced by the glowing red eyes, tuning out his friends as he watched, they were filled with a swirling energy that Sonic himself couldn’t pinpoint. It doesn’t look like Chaos Energy…it’s definitely not Prism energy…what could it-
Right before Sonic could finish his thought, the Eggbot lifted up its heavily weaponed up arm and began preparing for a blast. A small fiery ball appeared in the Eggobot’s palm, and rapidly began doubling in size.
“Are you serious?” he quietly whispered to himself as he dropped to the ground in preparation to spin-dash.
His friends, who were all trying to figure out what this thing was powered by, snapped out of it and followed Sonic as they got into their own fighting stances. Amy summoned her Piko-Piko hammer, Knuckles bumped his fists together, Tails scrambled to jump into the cockpit of the Tornado, and Rouge launched herself off the ground and flew stationary above.
Sonic glanced over at his friends and smiled.
Oh how he missed his friends.
Even after the whole destroying-the-Paradox-Prism-then-fixing-the-Paradox-Prism-and-returning-home ordeal, he was just elated to be back.
He was home.
This was his home.
These were his friends.
…right?
Sonic shook his head. What was he thinking? He took a deep breath and looked back at the Eggbot.
It was still a reasonable distance away, the orb still rapidly growing in size as it shifted its arm so it was outstretched. Facing Sonic and his friends. It wouldn’t be long till the Eggbot fired.
Before anyone could say or do anything, Sonic had sped away. He ran a distance before launching off the ground and shifting into a spin-dash. He slammed into the hard metal torso of the Eggbot, causing a loud boom to sound around Green Hill.
Sonic landed on the ground with a thump. His head was pounding with an intense pain, which was accompanied by a loud ringing in his ears. He quickly placed a hand on his head in a poor attempt to ease the pain.
Sonic let out a pained groan as he stood up, supporting his weight by leaning on a nearby palm tree. Why was he in so much pain? He’s handled physical conflict like this before..
His concern for his…whatever was going on, was quickly squashed as he remembered what exactly he and his friends were doing. His head snapped up to the Eggbot, who was swatting at a small flying figure.
Rouge
Sonic’s gaze drifted from Rouge as he saw movement in his peripheral vision. Amy was creeping up the hill behind the Eggbot, her hammer glowing a vibrate pink as she lifted it over her head and let out a battle cry.
“TAKE THAT YOU NO GOOD BOT!” She smashed the hammer atop the bot’s head.
There was a spine-chilling CRACK as the Eggbot’s head submerged into its neck, its eyes flickered before dying out. With a series of slow creaks, the bot fell to the ground with a thump.
Rouge landed atop the fallen robot, tapping her foot once, the bot didn’t respond.
“Hmm~ Seems this bot didn’t know what it had coming” She let out a laugh before hopping down.
Around her, Knuckles landed with a thump, Tail ran over after landing the Tornado, and Amy returned from the hill. Sonic, however, was still trying to compose himself after the hit. He slowly walked over.
Everyone was watching him.
As Sonic reached his friends, the look of concern was very present on all their faces. Sonic felt their stares burn into his very soul. It was a rather unsettling feeling.
Tails stepped forward a bit before clearing his throat.
“Hey Sonic, you don’t look too good..” Tails said, his eyes fixated on Sonic’s physical state.
Sonic placed a hand on Tail’s shoulder and gave him a very weak smile, trying to play off the excruciating pain in his skull.
“All good Bud, just a bit tired.”
Tails hesitated a moment, studying Sonic’s features before letting out a small sigh.
“Well, alright. If something was wrong, you would tell me right?”
Sonic paused for a moment before nodding, he slowly patted Tail’s shoulder.
“Of course dude, you’re my brother. I wouldn’t keep anything from you.” Sonic gave Tails a reassuring smile.
Tails let out a satisfied huff before running off to collect samples from the Bot. And just as Sonic thought he was home free, Rouge floated over.
“You know Blue, your fox friend is right. You don’t look good.” She landed beside him with a gentle thump.
Sonic was too tired for this. His head was pounding, so hard that he believed it was on the verge of exploding. Yet before Sonic could respond to Rouge, he heard a familiar swish.
Sonic quickly turned around, and his breath felt as if it had been squeezed out of his lungs as his eyes landed upon an ebony and crimson figure. His twin-flame, his other half, his soulmate.
Shadow the Hedgehog
But then, everything went dark.
Sonic gripped his head, stumbling as gravity threatened to pull him down, his eyes squeezed shut as the pounding in his head became unbearable. His vision went dark, and there was a rather loud ringing circulating throughout his ears.
The shouts around him were muffled and panicked as his began to fall to the ground, and as he weakly braced for impact, it never came.
As his consciousness began to slip, his last feeling was of something soft yet firm.
Shadow?
Then, despite the chaos around him, Sonic relaxed into the feeling…and allowed his consciousness to depart.