Back at the Burger Shop, as usual, Vector is blasting music to himself via his signature cd-player and head phones, dancing a little where he sits. Meanwhile, the rest of the group is talking about their day in school, teachers they don`t like or thought were "cool" and upcoming events. Rouge enters the burger shop and quickly locates where the Sonic Gang are. Blaze is the first to notice Rouge. She gives Rouge a simple wave,"Hey, Rouge. What brings you back so soon? I thought GUN called you."

Rouge pulls up a chair to the table where everyone is sitting. She sits in the chair and crosses her legs once more,"They did. They wanted to check on Shadow like I was his babysitter."

Sonic looks to Rouge, munching into his burger. He is laid back rather casually in the chair, where the gang is situated,"So what`d you tell them?"

"I mean, how does that even work out? How`s that working out for ya, Rouge?" Fang asks, looking over to her as he crosses his arms. He already finished his meal.

"Well..."

Rouge adjusts herself in the chair before she begins the explanation,"I actually found Shadow to check in with him and later on I called GUN back on the way back here."

Before Rouge can say anything more, Amy pipes in,"You found Shadow?? Where is he? What`s going on?"

Rouge looks around at everyone,"That`s the strange part. He`s over by the hospital."

Amy looks at Rouge dumfoundedly. Her voice expresses clearly her disbelief,"Hospital?!"

"He started talking about getting a different job and an apartment...He even made out a list of goals it looked like. He also said that something happened that made life 'very precious' to him."

Amy looks at Sonic a moment, then turns back to Rouge,"This is -our- Shadow we`re talking about, right?"

Rouge nods her head,"The one and only."

Knuckles breaks in as he stretches one of his arms,"Woah. What would he be doing at the hospital?"

Sonic puts down the rest of his hamburger. Wiping his mouth with a napkin, he starts to sit up straight, leaning forwards,"Yeah, that`s seriously out of sync with Shadow. How`d it go? If he even talked, that is..."

Fang gives his negative two cents, cracking a smile. Much of the comments he`ll state in response to things aren`t meant to be any truth or firm belief. Sometimes, it is even humorous,"Shadow`s gone and become a section eight, I bet."

Silver points over to Fang with his index finger,"I see your section eight and raise you the fact that he`s gone and lost it. So did he look deranged or anything? Or how about this: 'eccentric.'"

Silver isn`t exactly good friends with Shadow and is ready to say anything negative about him whenever possible. Mighty waves his right hand forwards slightly, dismissing the negative comments,"Come on, lay off. There`s probably something just going on. No biggie."

Rouge shrugs,"He looked normal..."

Cream looks among all the teens, not fully understanding the situation still,"Mr Shadow is at the hospital? Is he sick?"

Amy doesn`t look at Cream, her gaze is still fixed on Rouge but she responds to Cream,"I don`t know. He might be."

Mighty and Espio are pretty close with Cream, not that Sonic and the others aren`t. So, Espio starts to explain to Cream,"Shadow`s not one to get sick, Cream. He`s ah, very strong against that sort of thing."

Shadow is the Ultimate Life Form. Sickness doesn`t affect him. Sonic chimes in,"Yeah, just think of it that he`s a very special person."

Blaze leans in her chair and finishes sipping her soda. Like Silver, she doesn`t hold any positive views towards Shadow. To the two of them, Shadow was no better than the delinquents who spray paint graffiti on the walls of public buildings, like the Babylon Rogues. She feels suspicious about Shadow`s actions and statements,"There is something going on."

Silver coughs under his breath, snickering slightly as he cast Blaze a look,"Yeah, section-eight demented special."

Blaze sniggers a little when Silver looks in her direction with his comment. Sonic doesn`t like seeing friends dissing others in the group, waving it off as he looks away,"Alright, seriously, cut it out, Silver."

Blaze quickly stops her sniggering while Sonic scolds Silver.

"Look, with all due respect, Cap'n..."

Fang has taken to calling Sonic 'Captain', not in the respectful way, but the slightly sarcastic way, as Sonic usually took control of the gang,"...but ah, I have to agree with Silver here. I mean, the guy`s just a walkin` ghost."

Fang then looks over to Blaze and Rouge,"You get what I`m saying?"

Blaze sets her soda on the table and nods her head,"Agreed."

Rouge leans back in her chair and folds her arms, she looks back to Fang,"True that Shadow isn`t what you call...social..."

Amy looks at Rouge,"If Shadow really is changing, what in the world could have happened to make him do that? If he starts doing homework, I`m going to freak..."

Fang is known for copying down homework; usually the group would oblige him and allow him to do so,"The day Shadow does homework is the day I do homework...instead of copying it off one of you."

Blaze puts her hand to her chin in thought,"I`m curious, too. This is very unlike Shadow."

Rouge snaps her fingers,"Oh yeah, in his list of goals, he had mentioned Maria in there."

Amy pauses a moment, looking at Rouge,"Maria?"

"The only Maria I know is Gerald Robotnik`s granddaughter."

"That`s...really weird..."

Ever the comedian, Silver speaks his mind of what he thinks would happen next,"In the medical community, I`d say the next step is bat-shit bonkers."

Sonic starts leaning back in his seat,"So how about we actually look into this? Obviously, Shadow`s going to clam up if we all went over right now in one big group."

Tails is still locked away with his studies, reading a big book,"Then how are we going to learn about all this?"

Shadow reacts better to individuals than he does to groups. Mighty speaks up with a suggestion,"I guess we could, you know, look into it one by one sometimes. See what he says. Then we could get some answers and talk it over here at the joint."

Espio looks over to the rest of the group to see about their approval,"Sounds like a plan."

Amy nods her head,"That`s a good idea, Mighty. And only the ones he responds best to. We don`t want any confrontations."

Rouge gestures with her left hand,"We should wait until tomorrow before anyone starts approaching him. We don`t want to overwhelm the guy."

Blaze narrows her eyes slightly at Rouge,"But Shadow doesn`t have any feelings or emotions. Never mind a personality."

Cream was always cautious of Shadow, more so because she`s scared of him. She, of course, would love to get to know Shadow more and be closer friends with him. But it seems as though there is some barrier between them and Cream keeps her distance from him. But her bond with everyone in the group makes her feel that no one should say anything mean about the others in the gang. She turns to Blaze,"That`s not a very nice thing to say about Mr Shadow, Ms Blaze. I`m sure that deep down, Mr Shadow is just like any of us!"

"Like I said..." Fang continues on again, looking over to them all, "The guys a freakin` walking ghost. He`s a spectre, a wraith, or whatever you call them. I gotta side with Silver and Blaze on this one. Creamy, you`re just gonna have to accept the fact that Shadow`s...a little hollow."

Knuckles points over to them both, slurping on his cola,"Least he`s a hero, like one of us. Okay. Tomorrow. I`d say Sonic and Amy take point."

Tails went on to say, trying to explain things to her,"You`re sweet, Cream, you really are...But Shadow`s a little different than us. He`s seen things...And he`s been through some rough stuff."

"Hey, Cream," Silver starts, leaning forwards a bit before he goes on,"If you really think that way, why don`t you go meet him for yourself? I`m sure he`ll welcome you with open arms."

Sonic barks to Silver,"Lay off, Silv. Okay, Amy and I`ll go meet up with him. Tomorrow. After school and all that."

Amy raises her hand in agreeance with Sonic,"Then it`s settled. We`ll see what he says tomorrow and go from there."

Rouge snatches one of Vector`s neglected french fries and quickly eats it. She isn`t the caring type and hardly shows it. But in situations like this where Shadow is not himself, her curiosity is peaked. She backs up Tails,"That`s right, Cream. Shadow has been through a lot of terrible things."

Cream exchanges her looks between Rouge, Tails, Fang and Silver. She looks a little worried but she says nothing more. She settles back in her seat, wondering what Shadow could have gone through that would turn him into the way he is. She remains quiet, listening in to everyone yammering about today`s plans.

Comments

To leave a comment, you must be logged in.