#; shadow

“I told you, Maria, I am fine,” he said flatly, the words carrying that familiar edge of impatience he never quite hid from her. She didn’t stop. Of course she didn’t. Her brow stayed furrowed in concentration, the worry plain in every careful stitch. He exhaled slowly through his nose, ears twitching faintly at the faint hum of the facility’s systems around them. “Maria… ever the worrywart,” he added, quieter this time, almost under his breath. Even as he spoke, she kept tending to him, refusing to listen, the same way she always did when she thought he was pushing himself too far.

The hedgehog stood motionless amid the crumbling ruins of the old outpost, black quills casting long, jagged shadows across the cracked floor littered with debris and faded resistance posters. His crimson eyes flicked toward the sheep with cold precision, arms remaining crossed firmly over his chest while the faint hum of distant machinery echoed somewhere beyond the broken walls. A single white tuft of fur on his forehead caught the weak shafts of sunlight piercing through the ceiling cracks, and his red-striped quills shifted only slightly as he adjusted his stance on the uneven ground.

"You're with that Restoration group, aren't you?"

Sonic or Amy had mentioned they'd scraped together a bunch of civilians as some half-baked defense against Robotnik. He hadn't expected much from a pack of ordinary folk playing hero, but maybe it wasn't the worst idea relying on the blue blur to bail everyone out every single time got old fast.