Parenthood for villains

Chapter 6: learning their past

That night Mephiles transformed a spare room into a nursery with a big bed and the crib from downstairs, a toy box with a few stuffed animals, and a rocking chair where he sat down with the younger kids piled on top of him. Slowly with the rocking motion and his quiet humming Sonic and Miles fell asleep immediately and Silver followed suit a little slower. Shadow who stood near the doorway watched the scene confused.

"Are you really a villain?" He asked quietly after a bit, Mephiles didn't answer right away as he got up and gently laid the babies in the crib and Silver in the bed before walking over to the hoglet in the doorway. Shadow backed up a bit but didn't fight the hands that lifted him into the strong arms and carried him to the rocking chair.

"We need to talk, Shadow." Mephiles whispered gruffly as he sat on the chair with the hoglet on his lap. Shadow immediately froze and started to shake a little as he looked down, he had obviously learned the meaning behind those words and feared what happened next. "First of all you and your brothers are safe here with me, I never break a promise, no pleasure in it. Secondly I want to know your past; every detail so I know how to proceed."

"Well, our parents used to care for us until our dad made a deal with a mad scientist, their deal was if the scientist could use us kids in their experiments then our parents would be paid millions. Our father was a greedy man and didn't seem to care about us as much as he had let on. The scientist then started to inject us kids with harmful radioactive substances that were supposed to alter our genetic design and give us powers." Shadow answered slowly as he lifted his hand. "I got the powers to teleport, hide in shadows and fire lightning spears at things. My brother gained powers too but he kept them hidden and closed himself off refusing to talk to even me. But Sonic had never gained any powers we could see and became mom's favorite. But he did start having nightmares and rarely slept because of them."

"Hmm" Mephiles hummed in deep thought as he slowly began to stroke the black quills of the hoglet who seemed to cringe a bit at the touch. "A challenge I accept with anticipation."

"What?" Shadow looked up at him questioningly but felt his body slowly relax as he laid himself against the villain's chest.

"You say Sonic rarely sleeps and has nightmares, though the majority of his being here was him sleeping. But your brother Silver never talks or shows his powers, which means I have the challenge to get him to open up to me. And you, you need to lighten up and become the kid you're meant to be." Mephiles replied quietly as he continued to stroke the tired hoglet who soon after fell fast asleep.