[Sonic Forces] Spark

The Currents

A/N: Shadad? Shadad.

Enjoy.

-.-

The first time she heard the same Sonic the Hedgehog, it had been some time after the Black Arms fiasco. Not that it had been Sonic's fight to bother with- but it was the excitement that came with the name that brought everyone she knew into a tizzy. She didn't even know what he looked like until she was tasked with rescuing him from the Death Egg.

For some reason, knowing Sonic the Hedgehog wore hideously outdated red sneakers had never once occurred to her, nor was it ever mentioned by anyone else. Weird.

Sonic had proven himself to be brave and smart in the face of danger, and she found that she enjoyed that about him. It seemed so different than the dynamic she had come to expect after working with Fay'lin. There was just something in Sonic's eyes that held more concern and worry than he dared to let show. Together, they had performed the first double boost. It was fantastic, exhilarating, and it almost made her pass out from exhaustion shortly after. After every double boost, Sonic would purposely turn to her and give congratulations of making it through. She now knew why Amy was so enamored with Sonic now, and sheepishly she realized that she too had fallen for the blue hedgehog.

"She was having an anxiety attack." a voice growled, waking her from her post adrenaline induced sleepiness. "And all of you just stood there."

"And how would you know that, Shadow?" another voice returned with a bit of dry humor laced in his tone. "You're a bit too old to be her dad, aren't you?"

That was when the second voice gave a light, well humored laugh and the first voice gave a noise of disgust. Curious now, the rookie worked to open her eyes to see who was in the room with her. Her heart stopped for a moment to see both Sonic and Shadow at the foot of her bed. They hadn't even noticed she was awake yet. Maybe if she could close her eyes again...

As if reading her thoughts, Shadow looked her dead in the eye. "She's awake again." To Sonic he said, "Don't make her regress, or everything will get worse before it gets better."

Sonic gave the other hedgehog a curious tilt of his head before inquiring, "If you don't mind me asking Shads- why do you care? Are you her dad? Now that would be pretty interesting, don't you think? You! A Dad! Hahahaha!!"

Shadow's look only darkened as Sonic went into another joyous belly laugh. Despite herself, even the rookie gave a small chuckle. It was seeing Shadow's cold, dark glare that made her stop. Shadow then pushed past Sonic to leave; before he did, he turned back to look at the rookie. It felt like he was checked her for something- as if he had expected something.

He then turned to Sonic to bitterly hiss, "You've never seen a dead child before." and with that, Shadow was gone.

"Hmm..." Sonic mused once he was sure Shadow was out of earshot, "It's not like Shadow to be the cryptic type; let alone get that dark. You know anything about that, buddy?"

She didn't, so she gave an indifferent shrug. Sonic gave a shrug of his own before heading to her beside. For the first time since she'd known him, Sonic sat down. He wasn't without fidgeting though- his feet rapidly tapping against the linoleum as if they were rigorously knocking on a door instead.

"Heard you almost didn't make it." Sonic mused before his eyes drifted to the bedside table. Sitting out in the open were doctor's notes, detailing the rookie's medical journey from when Shadow first found her to now. His expression changed for a moment as he read it before turning back to her, his smile returning no less brighter than before.

"Good thing you pushed through, otherwise I would have lost one of my favorite running partners!"

The rookie sank a bit in embarrassment. She had a distinct feeling that she was Sonic's only running partner. For now, any way. He had a knack of making friends with a whole motley crew of folks, Mobian and human alike.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" he then suggested, getting back up again to walk over to the other side of the bed, "Once you've got the all clear to get out of here, let's go on an adventure- just us two! We can go anywhere you want, how about that? Any where has got to be better than just sitting here!"

For a moment, the rookie recoiled in thought. Going on an adventure with just Sonic and no fear of being followed by a mad doctor and illusion master? It sounded tempting, but...

Fay'lin...

She looked back up at Sonic, realizing that he was offering his closed fist out for a fist bump; but she looked at it for a moment before limply holding up her preferred fist bumping hand- it was connected to two different IVs and the EKG machine. Seeing it, Sonic put down his hand and gave an amused smirk.

"Maybe a rain check on the fist bump front." he teased. "But I mean it; anywhere you want, just let me know, 'kay?"

If Fay'lin doesn't kill us first, she thought to herself. But to Sonic, she put on a forced smile and gave a small nod of agreement.

. . .

Sonic stayed around to tell the rookie about his adventures since they last met up, leaving only when prompted by the nurse.

"She needs to get her rest," she had reminded both Sonic and the rookie, "Now get out."

Giving the nurse some sass, Sonic left the room without having to be told twice. But he didn't go far. Instead, Sonic waited for the nurse to come back out of the rookie's room to ask some rather nagging questions.

The nurse seemed a bit surprised to see Sonic still standing there, but it didn't seem to effect her mood much.

"How can I help you Mr. Sonic?" the nurse sweetly asked.

"I want to know about my friend in there; you think you can help me get some answers?"

The nurse gave him a knowing smile, as if she had anticipated as much. "Shoot." she permitted.

"What's her name?"

For a moment, the nurse blinked. "You don't know?" she then questioned. "You two helped defeat Eggman and you don't know her name?"

"It kinda slipped my mind." the blue blur admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "I hear being in the middle of war tends to rush things."

"As if you don't already to that." the nurse snorted. Sonic gave a small smirk of agreement before returning to the matter at hand.

"So, even if we don't know her name, she could tell us... Right?"

"If she wasn't a mute? Of course."

Something about this didn't sit right with Sonic, so he asked, "Is there anything we can do about her voice? Or, I guess more accurately, the lack of."

"Her vocal cords are scarred and the larynx possibly damaged beyond repair." the nurse informed him. "But with a tablet and a good text-to-speech app, that can be solved easily. For good measure, everyone might want to take a few courses on basic sign language- it'll come in handy even if it wasn't already a necessity."

Sonic gave a nod of agreement; he'd have to remember that for later. But then that only left one more question.

"You said her vocal cords were scarred... Was it recent?"

"Oh, no!" the nurse refused, making a face as if Sonic had told her a bad joke. "They're old scars, several years maybe. From what we could gather, they were caused by something internal. Why?"

"Just a thought." Sonic shrugged. "Thanks." And with that, the blue blur was gone.