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-'7'-

Sonic looked at the three with pure joy that he struggled to contain. Each member of the trio looked slightly scuffed, however they were fine.

Rouge wore a magenta corset, white gloves and boots with magenta rims to match and seemingly out-of-place cargo pants. She had clearly been at an event during the beginning. Shadow hadn't changed much, merely a few scars to match his bat companion and the addition of a slightly tattered leather jacket - Sonic wasn't lying when he said it suited him. Cream looked much more polished than the others, wearing her usual attire: a short orange dress, a blue shawl and blue dollie shoes to match. The only injury Sonic could see was a scrape on her knee, probably from falling. Shadow and Rouge had evidently taken care of her.

Rouge awkwardly patted the echidna on the back, clearly holding herself back. Amy luckily swooped in and engulfed Rouge in a hug, sparing everyone watching from the awkwardness. Sonic smiled at the scene, turning his attention to Shadow. Shadow was wearily eyeing the door in an untrustworthy manner.

Sonic approached carefully, standing beside Shadow. "It'll hold." The lapiz hedgehog reassured and kicked the mountain of furniture to prove it. Shadow looked at Sonic hesitantly before quickly looking away however Sonic got a very clear glimpse of the bags beneath Shadow's eyes. "We have beds in the back." He offered. Shadow shook his head in response. "I'm fine." He murmured. The adrenaline from the chase had clearly worn off.

The two stood in silence for awhile allowing Sonic to study the smaller male for a few moments. His ruby eyes flicked between Rouge and Cream and the door at a rapid pace. It was suddenly very clear; Shadow was trying to protect them. It wasn't an excuse not to rest however.

"Shadow get some rest." Sonic insisted after a while. "They're safe with us." He smiled at the frowning ebony hedgehog. "If anything does happen I'll wake you up." Without Shadow obliging, Sonic roughly grabbed Shadow's forearm and pulled him into the back room, ignoring Shadow's protests.

"I dont need sleep! I'm the ultimate lifeform!" Shadow yelled. Sonic couldn't even count how many times the other had used that excuse. It was always tiresome to repeat the same argument. "Ultimate Lifeform or not, you're going to sleep." The blue blur folded his arms sternly and blocked the doorway. Shadow glared at the hedgehog and stood on the spot. Neither of the two were going to move, it was very clear at that point. Why was Shadow so stubborn? After years of knowing eachother, it was still something Sonic found annoying and agitating. Perhaps a different approach would work better.

"Shads." Sonic said sternly, straightening his posture as he did so. "You need sleep. Go to sleep, rest up and let me take care of everything." He was trying his hardest to mimick Shadow's attitude - Perhaps it would persuade the ebony hedgehog a little more. Shadow stared back with confusion evident on his face, his expression soon softened as he gave up, seemingly allowing himself to feel tired as he shrank into himself. "You better make sure nothing happens to them." He told Sonic in a threatening manner. Sonic nodded back in response. "I'll wake you up if anything happens." He reassured.

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The beasts were still banging at the door, to no avail, luckily. Sonic had opted to keep watch for the night given the circumstances, they normally never kept watch given how light of a sleeper Amy was - however with a child now collectively under everyone's care, no chances could be taken.

Sonic watched the collective mass of furniture that covered the door and part of the front window, listening to the bangs and growls that sounded from outside, perfectly in time with the now expected jolts pushing the furniture forwards before it toppled over back onto the door.

The loud bangs and groans almost masked the sound of footsteps in the back room. Everyone aside from Sonic was asleep. Anxiety crept up the blue blur's spine as he silently got up and crept towards the back room, listening out for more movement. It was now silent.

Sonic reluctantly poked his head into the room. It was quite dark, almost too dark to see, leaving Sonic to examine silhouettes to see who was asleep. He could see the rough outline of Rouge's wings on the ceiling - a rather weird way to sleep in Sonic's opinion - and Tails' ears. He supposed Cream was on the bunk overhead of the fox, he could see a small, almost featureless, silhouette beneath a blanket. Knuckles was quite large and imposing with the addition of his bright red coat, he was almost impossible to miss.

Before Sonic could examine further, he found himself tumbling to the ground with some sort of weight on him. He yelped in suprise and pain as his back hit the floor. He opened his eyes, finding red eyes staring back. Had one of the beasts somehow gotten in? Sonic felt his breath quicken despite the weight making it difficult to breathe. His heart pounded and eyes darted around the figure, trying to figure out who or what had gotten in. Sonic opened his mouth in attempt to yell out to his friends, however a gloved hand silenced his almost immediatley.

The figure turned their head to look at the sleeping möbians, revealing the familiar quills of Shadow The Hedghog. Sonic felt his breath regain a steady pace, his chest raising and falling in a very slow rhythm as his heart steadied in pace. Sonic flicked his ears and listened out, Amy was stirring - presumably from the noise - however soon fell silent.

After a moment, Shadow swiftly released his grip on Sonic and stood up, helping said blue blur up afterwards. "What the heck Shadow!" Sonic hissed, only being able to identify Shadow's red eyes in the darkness. Shadow shook his head "I thought you were one of those things." He muttered, ushering Sonic out of the room and following behind him. "I thought you were." The blue blur replied, now being able to talk at a somewhat regular volume.

The lapiz hedgehog turned his attention to the gaslamp beside where the hedgehog had previously sat. He turned the knob-like mechanism Tails had installed and allowed the almost blinding light to light up the room. The bakery was no longer a safe place, so why try act as though it was? The beasts on the other side of the door clearly hadn't forgotten Shadow, Rouge and Cream's mad dash into the bakery a few hours ago.

"You never realise how fast things can go bad, huh?" Sonic laughed in a melancholy manner, looking over to where the front door once was. Shadow hummed, wearily looking the door over. "I don't even remember things getting this bad." Sonic nodded in agreement. "I saw you leave town a few days after this was reported, why're you back?" Shadow asked. Sonic turned to Shadow, the other's ruby red eyes were focusing on him in confusion.

"Well I suspected Eggman had something to do with it, so I went to his base." Sonic explained. "Your findings were useless then?" Shadow asked. Sonic shrugged solemnly "We found nothing, the lab was ransacked and Eggman was nowhere to be found." He groaned. Shadow nodded along and looked at the floor as he thought. "He must be involved then." Shadow deducted. The blue blur nodded "We figured as much." He responded. He knew Eggman had to be involved. It wasn't likely that the rotunned man had been kidnapped and all of his inventions were taken, he may have been cartoonishly dumb however he knew how to evade capture.

"Actually, everything makes sense now." Shadow muttered. "Rouge and I had previously devised a plan to escape Green Hills with Cream and Vanilla a few days ago. I managed to take out a few beasts that emerged from the surrounding forest area, one wasn't a möbian however." He explained. Sonic nodded along. "Some are robots that carry this virus." Sonic's eyed widened. This wasn't a natural cause, this was a man-made virus to wipe out the möbian population within Green Hills, meaning only Eggman was immune. He had to have a new lab within the surrounding forest." "So we have to get to this lab." Sonic concluded. The ebony hedgehog nodded back in response.

"We can start planning things to-" The blue blur was cut off by the loud sound of glass smashing. Suddenly, the growls and groans were louder.

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1439 Words

Published: 1st March, 2024

((Edited))