Bound by Music

Connected by Our Secrets

  A/N: Thank you guys so much for the 600 votes! I had no idea y'all would like this story so much, but I really appreciate it. Thank you!!
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"So, how exactly are we supposed to find whoever shot us down?" Manic asked after the others left. He scratched his head as he looked towards the expansive woods lying before them. It would take ages to search the entire forest, and by then, their enemies would be long gone.

Sonic rubbed his nose and looked away, nervously shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"I...might be able to help."

  Shadow resisted the itch to pry into his brother's mind for an answer. Instead, he settled for crossing his arms and leveling his gaze on the blue hero expectantly.

     "How?"

             "I, um, well..."

  "Sonic?" Sonia asked as she looped her arm around his, "What's wrong?"

    "I don't really know how to explain it," he admitted. Shadow and Manic shared a look.

    "Just try, bro. We're here for ya," the green hedgehog assured him.

The azure speedster sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He had never really talked about what he was able to do before. Running at the speed of sound was one thing, but this was something different.

    "Well, I didn't really know I could do it till after my first contact with the Master Emerald, but I guess you could say that I'm pretty sensitive to different types of energy."

    "Like Chaos energy?" Shadow asked.

"Chaos, wisp, Gaia, ring—you name it, I can probably use it in some way. My sensitivity has grown a lot since I left though, and well, I guess you could say I can see different energies if I really focus. I don't really know how else to explain it. It's kind of complicated."

"Do you think you can find whoever shot at us that way?"

"That blast was big," he answered certainly, "It would have left some sort of residual signature behind after firing. Just give me a minute, and I might be able to find it."

He would have to thank Tails for telling him what residual meant, because he was feeling really smart after using it in a sentence.

    Shadow nodded and stepped back, leading Sonia and Manic to do the same. The eldest triplet smiled shakily and closed his eyes, going completely still for the first time any of them had ever seen. He had never done this in front of someone before, at least, not with them knowing what he was doing.

   It was difficult to focus with them watching, and Shadow being a walking bastion of chaos energy definitely wasn't helping, but he pushed past them and forced his power to stretch out to the forest surrounding them.

   In his mind's eye, he could see his friends steadily making their way to an energy hotspot, which he assumed was the crashed Tornado. He hoped they would be careful because he could feel the familiar pulse of fire surrounding the plane, creating a signature of its own.

   Knowing that the shot came from the opposite direction, Sonic focused his senses towards where he guessed the cannon could be. He started sifting through the low level chaos signatures of the trees and woodland creatures. The further he stretched, the hazier his "vision" became. This forest was a lot bigger than he originally thought.

   There was a jolt, and he felt his attention being snagged by a massive flare of energy surrounded by several smaller, similar beacons. Blue eyelids opened to reveal literally glowing green eyes.