#shadowbreak

♥️ 

  The city of Westopolis crumbles around Shadow as he arrives, the scent of smoke and ash aching his head. This Black Doom has certainly done considerable damage in a short amount of time. He takes a moment to scan his surroundings. There should be a Chaos Emerald around here somewhere. He Chaos Snaps to the nearest GUN soldier, the metal of his boot clanging against the plastic visor when he whips it at his head in a hard kick, shattering it. The soldier groans gutturally at the sudden impact and hits the asphalt with a heavy thud. Although it wasn’t his intention, he’s sure the soldier’s nose is broken after that. He doesn’t check if he’s alive, just adjusts a ring on his wrist as he grabs hold of the pistol the soldier was wielding, cocking it.

   He isn’t sure how far he’s drifted from the present as he traverses through the warzone until he hears a familiar voice call out to him, “Hey, Shadow!” Shadow quirks an ear in its direction and their eyes meet. It’s Sonic, greeting him with a thumbs up and a toothy smirk. “Long time no see! Looks like these black creatures really mean business.” He gestures to a small black alien with wings flying above them. “Let’s you and me show them a thing or two!” He smashes it with his quilled back in a homing attack and the creature shrieks, its body falling lifeless to the ground, covered in green blood. The tips of Sonic’s quills shimmer a bright, toxic green.

   “I don’t take orders. Especially not from you.” Shadow ejects the magazine clip from the pistol he’d procured and reloads it. He strides ahead, Sonic following at his ankles in a half-jog.

   “Oh come on, Shadow. It’ll be just like old times, huh? Remember? Smashin’ GUN beetles and Eggman’s robots. Only this time, it’s somethin’ else. I don’t know what their deal is, but I’m not gonna let ‘em get away with this. Let’s go!” And Sonic speeds ahead. He’s pushy, that’s for certain. Sonic skids to a stop on his heels and looks back at Shadow, beckoning him with a large sweep of his hand before cupping around his mouth and shouting, “Come on!” Shadow picks up his feet and skates on his jets to catch up with him, taking aim for any black aliens he spots, pumping them full of bullets. “Nice job, Shadow!” Sonic praises, making sure to keep up and use his lethal blue quills to take out anything that a bullet in the head wasn’t enough to take down. “You’re a natural!”

   “Shut up.” Shadow’s tail sways eager at his every word. “You’re distracting me.” The bang of his pistol reverberates through the Hellscaped streets as he picks off more aliens. He isn’t sure when he started targeting them specifically, but the sight of them burns his blood. Disgusts him. There can’t be many more left now.

   In the midst of their strife, Shadow manages to unearth two of the Chaos Emeralds, one bright green, one deep blue. Interesting, he thinks, how they mirror the man that approaches him. He stores them in his quills, taking out the last black alien in the city with a wet stomp on its collapsing head.

   “Now that was sweet, Shadow!” Sonic praises again, and Shadow remembers his true goal, despite the way his tail sways this way and that.

   “Yeah,” he scoffs, “Well, I’m not here to save you.”

   Sonic, with his trademarked familiarity, “Thought ya might say somethin’ like that.” What does he know? Sonic meets Shadow at his front and tempts him, “How ‘bout a little friendly competition?” What does he mean by that? Surely nothing he has time for.

   “Don’t waste my time,” he scolds on a turn of his heel, sneering.

The eye of Black Doom approaches and informs Shadow, “We’ve found the third Chaos Emerald in this city.” His voice echoes, dripping with black, a deep hellish rasp. “Now, get going!” His floating tendrilled body moves like a deep sea creature in his departure, swimming through the air.

   “Guess that means… Welcome to the next level! Let’s go!” Shadow’s had about enough of Sonic dragging him around. His legs move on their own as he chases after him.

   “Get back here!” he snarls, low. Sonic laughs in a teasing sort of way as he picks up the pace. “I said, get back here, Sonic!” he repeats, louder. It’s a warning.

   “What’sa matter? Can’t catch me?” Sonic turns to running backwards, arms behind his head and wearing a smug look. Shadow growls, Chaos Snapping just above Sonic to catch up with him, tumbling onto him on his way down. “Oof!” He’s pinned him to the ground. “Shadow, that creepy eyeball octopus is gonna get away if we don’t hurry up.”

   “What happened to that friendly competition you wanted?” Shadow asks, Sonic shrugging beneath him.

   “You said so yourself not to waste your time. Did ya change your mind?” He runs his fingers through the quills of Shadow’s back. “Y’know. Your back feels really muscular. Been workin’ out since ya been gone?”

   “Don’t flatter me,” Shadow groans, tail whipping back and forth and baring his teeth. He says that, but it feels familiar when Sonic says stuff like that. Makes his legs want to give out.

   Sonic laughs. “Are you gonna let me go or…?”

   “Or,” Shadow says.

   “What?”

   Shadow closes the distance between their muzzles and twitches his ears at the way Sonic’s breath hitches. He hasn’t kissed him, no, but he wants to. He interlocks his fingers with Sonic’s, listening to the way their breathing mixes. “Or… we could have some fun.”

   “You’re startin’ t’ sound like me, big guy,” Sonic nips at Shadow’s lips, teasing, “It’s kinda… heh. Cute.” Shadow growls low in his throat, or is it purring? Either way, he’s kissing Sonic, and it feels right. That familiar feeling he’s been chasing, is that all it is? He breaks contact with Sonic’s eager mouth.

   “Have we—?” and he stops for a moment to think about how to word this, “Did we ever—…?”

   “Don’t you remember?”

   “No… I don’t remember… anything. Except—” he takes a breath. “Just my name. That’s all.”

   “That’s probably for the best.”

   “But what’s… our history? Did I… love you?”

   “Pbft.” Sonic’s eyes roll back, wearing a clueless smile as he shrugs.

   “Did you love me?”

   He doesn’t answer so quickly this time, just refusing to meet Shadow’s steady gaze. Shadow releases Sonic’s hand to cup his face, running his thumb along his cheek in a tender way he’s not sure he knows too well. “You really don’t remember anything?” is all Sonic asks, his cheeks tinting pink with what looks like embarrassment.

   “No… I’m trying to.” He pushes himself off of Sonic and helps him up.