lightremains | SEASONS

[Shadow flops back down with a huff. They didn't even bother to tell him that he was dealing with an alien of the same species? He shouldn't be surprised, and yet here he is.]

Probably the former. GUN has a bad habit of thinking they've thought three steps ahead, only to trip before they can even begin.

[You know -- like storing highly reactive chaos energy in glass containers with no shielding.

Montana. It was even farther north than Colorado, wasn't it? But the climate was similar. He was vaguely aware of the rest of the areas in the United States -- Maria had to study geography, and he helped with that.]

... They can't know I survived. I'm... I'm not like you that way. I will not make any concessions for GUN, even if it means hiding for the rest of my life. [he'll kill them first. No mercy. Any agent who dares to come after him should consider their life forfeit.]

They really do. They tried to set a trap at my aunt's wedding, the one who hates Tom and thinks I'm a menace and is not shy about it, and the only reason it worked is because I needed Tom to use his return home ring to save me from an avalanche in Siberia because that was the weekend Robotnik wanted to terrorize me. I would have just been chilling at home otherwise. Months of work down the drain except they got lucky.

And even then, Maddie broke me out like not even two hours later. In a bridesmaid dress.

[He does snicker at that. It's still rather funny. His family is so chaotic that they really don't know what to expect from them.]

[He looks to Shadow. Reaches out, hesitates, then touches his hand. Squeezes it briefly before letting go.]

I'm not going to tell them about you. The less they know, the better. Come get some rings, I can show you some places that are good to lie low, figure out where you want to stay, but I hope you'll still visit.

I can deal with GUN. They just take a while because that is a whole lot of people to try and change their minds, but I'll get there. As much as I hate the math, I'm not bad at it.

But they've taken enough from you.

They don't get anymore.

[He scrunches up his face as he listens to the increasingly absurd story. There is no way that should have ever worked...]

That sounds like an episode of a sitcom. A bad one.

[he squeezes back,then folds his fingers together again.

Places to lie low. Other planets. He could go wherever he wanted, he was free. Leaving Earth and never looking back would be the safest, smartest thing for him. For everyone.

But it wasn't the right thing. It was like the other Shadow had told him. He had to do his penance. He had to protect the Earth from anyone ever making the same mistakes he had.

"This is your home, Shadow. Earth."]

... I won't let them take away the only home I've ever known, Sonic. I have to stay. On Earth. [he looks over at him, face serious as always] Show me places I can escape to in a pinch. But Earth is my home, and I have to make up for what I've done. I won't leave it completely. Never. [he can't. He owes his protection to the people of the planet. From GUN, from themselves, from any other threats that may come their way]

It does sound like a kind of B plot the feels a bit too disconnected to the main story of a movie, yeah.

[Sonic looks to Shadow and he can't say he's surprised. He saw how badly Shadow felt when he let himself feel things beyond rage.]

[And, well, home is important. Even if his cave hadn't been ideal, it hadn't been the happiest place, it had still been hard to leave that first time.]

Escape plans are always good. And hey, vacations somewhere else never hurt, you know?

But is hard to leave home. [He looks up to the sky again.] Even when there's painful memories. It'll be different though. Even if you're keeping a low profile.

You'll have people you can turn to for help. Green Hills has lied to the government before en masse and that was when they just kind of vaguely knew I existed and Tom wanted to protect me. They'll definitely do it now for their favorite alien children.

And I will absolutely play the species card if they start asking about hedgehogs in strange places and ask them if they think we all look the same, just try to not be committing any major crimes at the time.

Edited 2025-02-17 02:41 (UTC)

[He makes a small humming affirmative noise] It sounds like a good town. [yet he still sounds unsure. Shadow doesn't exactly have a good track record with humans not fucking him over. He's not sure he can trust them so easily. Even if Sonic does... all it would take is one selfish person to turn him in.

At that, he makes a snorting noise that might be a laugh, if you squint] I will do my best not to tarnish your sparkling reputation.

It is. I'll introduce you to them one day. When you're ready. We can start slow. We can start with Wade! I get my parents might be kind of, you know, intense. [What with the almost killing thing.] But Wade is super chill and rolls real well with the whole alien thing. He even taught Knuckles how to relax sometimes!

Also on record for wrecking evil human agent shop. He totally conned these AWOL GUN agents who tried to capture and sell Knuckles and then helped beat the guy who was trying to buy him.

[Sonic does get not wanting to trust humans. Some can be really bad. Its just Green Hills HAS helped him and for a lot less reason then they would for Shadow. Before it had just been for Tom and Maddie. Now it'd be for the whole Wachowski family.]

[Sonic looked at Shadow and grinned.] Getting closer and closer to a laugh everyday~

[It may be a goal of his.]

[Shadow and Wade. Can you even imagine??? Maybe he would try to teach Shadow how to bowl. In theory, he at least knows what bowling is, unlike poor Knuckles.

But he managed to take down GUN agents? Then he must be something]

Trying to buy him? [a low rumbling growl. Knuckles is a person. Do these humans truly have no shame?

He knows the answer to that question.

A huff] You have your work cut out for you. Maria only made me laugh twice.

[It would be a whole thing. Sonic would buy tickets to it.]

Yeah. We've reached the point of public awareness that the government knows about us, and people who make it a point to do criminal things in regards to the government. I'm pretty sure the guy was a weapons dealer, makes the most sense.

Ah, but unlike Maria, you will likely see me get knocked around and you definitely got the 'enjoys physical comedy' kind of vibe.

[Shadow may or may not have this vibe. He will just explore all avenues to figure out what Shadow's humor is.]

[another growl and a spark of orange lightning -- just a touch]

Of course it's weapons. It's always about power.

[You're not doing a good job selling the human race, Sonic. Shadow would never tolerate something like that, not for himself, and not for any of the other aliens on Earth. Any human that tried that would be dead. Or teleported to a desolate mountaintop somewhere.

But, that earns another snort-like noise that could be a laugh in some universe] You're right. Seeing you eat dirt would be pretty funny. [still not sure he would laugh, though.]

It is.

For every nine good people, there's always that one person who has to ruin it. [He glances over to Shadow.]

Its not just humans. [He looks to the sky and holds out his hand. He lets the energy crackle over his fingers, on purpose this time.] Every race is mostly good people, or at least people who don't mean any harm. But then there's those who want more and will use force for it.

[He lowers his hand and let's out his own chuckle.]

See? At least if I'm getting knocked around, I can have a bright side. I might get to see you laugh. It'll be a great pick me up so I can pay back the guy double.

[One out of every nine is still too many. There's billions of humans. ]

.... I'll have to take your word for it. I've never met any others.

[he finds it hard to believe that all sapient life in the universe has a fairly high percentage of Assholes. And yet, at the same time...

He shakes his head and looks back up at the stars, in time to catch a meteor streaking across the sky]

... weirdo.

[Don't come to Sonic for accurate numbers. And to be fair, that one out of ten also includes people who are just assholes and not all megalomaniacs.]

I've met a few. Knuckles has met more. Reno wasn't the first time people have tried to sell him. He'll brag about his times in the warrior fighting pits, so good he's not like scarred by it, but worrying for the rest of us. [He huffs.]

...what we have is rare. I don't know how rare. But rare enough.

[He watches the meteor and shrugs.] Nothing wrong with being a weirdo. It seems to make people happier usually.

[It may also be that Fish can't fuckin read, but like. You know.]

[he squints at "warrior fighting pits". Wow. He sort of hates that. But he's also very curious as to what that entails. If the red one ever shows up here, he'll have to ask]

Mmm... You still know more than I do.

[he trails off, not finding anything else to say. Not that it matters. He's sure Sonic will fill the silence anyway]

Longclaw told me bits and pieces. She didn't want to burden me, but she needed me to understand the rules. That people couldn't see me. The blue isn't a normal color. If people knew what kind of power I had, they would want to use me. We always lived away from societies. Once someone found us, we moved somewhere else.

I didn't really understand for a while why it was dangerous, I just trusted her. No one chooses to be alone forever to hide something if that thing isn't real hard to come by.

Movies and comics helped make it really clear. Being an alien alone was dangerous, but what people would do for power...

That would be when the, what's the word, catastrophizing? Started. Had to talk myself into hiding pretty regularly.

But it did make me pay attention to what my power did and how it worked. I know all about that speed and momentum and how fast I can hit something without it hurting. How quick I heal, how much sleep I actually need. The sparking didn't really hit hard until a few years ago.

[He holds up his hands, letting the energy spark between them, marking arcs to connect stars to form pictures.]

It responds the most to emotions. I can just kind of tug on it if I want, but using emotions with it makes it SO much easier. It can make me faster, knock out power, apparently it can be detected galaxies away if I do a big boom because that's how Tails noticed me.

Emotions that have to do with connections does it the most.

Doesn't really matter if it's positive or negative. Positive might be more control? Or you know, just not blinded by them. I dunno. Like right now, I'm happy you're here, so it's easier to make the sparks arc from certain points in my hands. And if I focus, I can feel the quills in the freezer.

What is normal for "hedgehogs"? Do you even know?

[Maybe they were brown, like earth hedgehogs.

It got worse all of a sudden? Puberty, maybe. If space hedgehogs even had that. He knew humans did, and a lot of other Earth mammals.

He watches the sparks, then holds up his hand, mirroring Sonic's action. Golden orange instead of electric blue.

Energy so powerful, it could be felt galaxies away... traveling even faster than the speed of light. He knew he was powerful... but he never really thought how powerful]

"With great power comes great responsibility", right?

[Maria hadn't been a huge fan of comic books, but some of the younger researchers at the base were.]

[He shook his head.] No. Before you, I don't remember any other hedgehogs. I was too young when Longclaw found me and saw what I had. I don't even know if my birth parents are actually dead or if they had to give me up for my safety. One of those 'when you're older' conversations. So probably a sad story, however it was.

But there weren't hedgehogs in the worlds I remember. Maybe so she could pretend blue was normal if she had to buy time for us to pack up.

[Probably puberty. He has grown in height, thanks Tom for being a measuring stick.]

[He chuckles.] Ah, a Spiderman fan, huh?

Yeah. Just feels like, if I have all this power, I should do something with it. And it sucks feeling trapped and helpless, so helping people when they need it, that feels like the thing I should do.

[A pause.] But you don't have to feel that way. Sometimes responsiblity is just not abusing power to hurt others for no good reason.

You should still do what you wanna do.

Edited 2025-02-28 13:37 (UTC)

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