Chapter Text
“You have to tell meeee!! I’m begging you!” Robotnik cries, both hands curled around the rusty bars of his current holding cell. And frankly, the dilapidated state of the cells in contrast with the modern updated facility that surrounds them is a little gross. Robotnik is standing in a prison cell fit for a barn animal on the chopping block. Mudded, disgusting hard stone.
The agent side-eyes her superior, unsurprised to see Commander Tower grimacing and shaking his head again.
“That’s more than enough, Robotnik. Nobody is here to listen to your whining. We need answers,” Tower says, his hands behind his back.
“YOU need answers?! I need answers! ME!” Robotnik says, hysterically. “You NEED to tell me if it worked!”
The agent considers the sight. The man is just grovelling completely unapologetically. On his knees in the cell, with his hands up as if all of his weight pulling the bars from the floor will somehow make a difference. His moustache is hideously ruffled and his bright red jacket is stained with the dust of fallen buildings.
“We’re not telling you anything,” Tower says.
“Then I’m not telling YOU anything!” Robotnik spits back, pulling himself up from the hard cold floor of his cell, the dirty remains of this act staining the knees of his pants. And he whips around to face the back wall. He has his arms crossed now, dignified and straight-backed. As if he wasn’t just crying and begging at Tower’s feet.
“I’m not the one behind bars here, Doctor. You’re going to need to tell us what we want to know if you want to get out of here,” Tower warns him, calmly. Robotnik, though his fingers are tapping erratically where they rest on his biceps, makes no move to turn or respond.
“We will get your plans out of you. Whether it’s through blood and tears or your compliance is your decision,” Tower continues. The agent watches with a little bit of intrigue as Robotnik twitches at that.
“It should be obvious for you. You have the recipe! You have all of the data,” Robotnik tells them. “More than me, even!”
The agent quirks an eyebrow. That’s curious. What on earth could that mean? What data? What recipe?
“Yes yes— we understand WHAT you have been spraying on the city. The question is WHY,” Tower says, with a little less patience this time.
The agent’s eyes bounce back and forth between them.
“That should be obvious too! You’re childhood friends aren’t you? You’ve seen the stuff in use for god’s sake!” Robotnik snarls, still refusing to face them. “This should be a nostalgia trip.”
To the agent’s surprise, with that response Commander Tower appears to relax. His shoulders drop smoothly and his voice comes out almost smug.
“That’s that, then. No other wild dreams? Shadow was your only goal?” Tower questions. The agent is lost now. How did he get that ..out of ..that? It sounded entirely vague to the agent.
It occurs to the agent that perhaps this is just a little over her head. There are way too many secure firewalls in GUN’s systems for the agent to know what the hell is going on here. Plus, the agent doesn’t really care about any secret information unless it directly affects her.
“You have to TELL ME,” The doctor turns suddenly, grabbing the bars again with a slam as he throws his body up to them.
Tower just shakes his head.
“PLEASE! I need to know if I’ve got him!” Robotnik cries.
“You have not ‘got’ anything. Much less a living being,” Commander Tower scolds. It’s a little more preachy than the agent is used to hearing out of him, but when the situation calls for it: the agent supposed it’s alright. She wouldn’t want Tower speaking to her that way, though.
By the looks of it, Robotnik doesn’t like it either.
“So you’re saying he’s fine then?” Robotnik’s expression drops, his moustache falling limp. The agent could almost swear she sees his lip trembling. “It didn’t work?”
“It did not work. And if it had, we would have stopped you,” Tower tells the doctor. Robotnik whacks a fist against the bars. The agent flinches, Tower does not.
“Don’t pretend you care what I do with him! GUN is just as guilty as I am,” Robotnik mocks.
“We wouldn’t just let you attempt to control him. His status under us aside. We wouldn’t let you do that to anybody,” Tower growls. And the agent is a little disturbed by how miffed he seems to be.
“Keep telling yourself that,” Robotnik says, gripping the bars hard. If he weren’t wearing gloves, the agent is sure his knuckles would be white. “You’re only keeping him away from what he was made to do.”
And that’s. Concerning. To say the least.
If the agent cared a little more she might look into this.
“Serve you? I don’t think that’s what Gerald had in mind,” Tower says. And with that, the commander turns and exits with a few beeps and the futuristic slide of an automatic door. The agent is left to guard the cell.
It’s silent for a few minutes as Robotnik has unlatched himself from the bars and settled into a far corner of the cell.
“Was he telling the truth?” Robotnik speaks up, suddenly. His voice echoey from the back of the cell. “Is Shadow fine? It didn’t work?”
“I understood maybe a quarter of that conversation,” The agent tells him, truthfully.
“Right,” Robotnik grunts frustratedly, before flopping down on his little prison cot.
—
Sonic is barely on planet earth when he feels it. A weak squeeze around his hand. He instantly jumps awake and looks at where Shadow’s hand is holding his. Emphasis on Shadow’s hand holding Sonic’s and not the other way around. Shadow is awake? Or. Aware enough to squeeze Sonic’s hand? Sonic’s eyes dart up to Shadow’s face, where his eyes are sort of fluttering like they’re trying to open.
The room is dim, it must be nearly six o’clock. The blinds are down on both the windows to the hallways and the windows facing the hospital courtyard. Sonic can still hear the sort-of disturbing constant buzz of the hemodialysis machine, and he doesn’t have the sensibility and wakefulness to figure out if Shadow is indeed making noises too. Sonic can see his lips moving but he can’t make out anything. It feels like the machine is just taking over. After a while, the whirring of the machine starts to sound more like when you press your ear to your pillow and you can hear your own blood rushing. Sonic finally feels in control of his own body, and he urges himself to speak.
“Shadow?” Sonic asks, hushed as Amy continues to snooze a few feet away from them. Shadow lets out a small moan, and his head jostles to the right. He’s awake! And Sonic can hear him.
But it’s only been a few hours, and Tails thought this machine wouldn’t make any difference without a special goo-fighting upgrade. Did the regular earthly hospital equipment surprise them? Has it been filtering the goo out like Tails intends to force it to do? Is Tails’ hard work in the lab right now completely unnecessary? Sonic’s brain is too scrambled to even process all of that. He can only focus on Shadow’s wound up expression. He looks like he’s in pain.
“Mm,” Shadow moans again, and softly kicks a foot. The weighty hospital blanket barely allows any movement, so the kick translates in the form of a small lump at the end of the bed.
“Shadow, hey, what can I do? Are you in pain?” Sonic asks him, tries to ground him by both letting Shadow continue squeezing his hand and letting his other hand come to cover Shadow’s.
“Mmufh,” Shadow says, muffled, likely just another groan of discomfort. Sonic doesn’t know what to do. He leans over, not letting Shadow’s hand go, and uses his elbow to bash the nurse call button down.
This wakes Amy, who scans the room completely disoriented for a moment— before getting up from her chair and shuffling over.
“Is he okay?” Amy asks, a little panicked.
“I don’t know,” Sonic says, trying to keep his cool, feeling Shadow give his hand another small squeeze. Shadow tilts his head towards Sonic, his face smushed, cheek to pillow.
“He.. hellowh whhere?” Shadow asks, slurred and breathy. Sonic feels a little shaky. Shadow’s eyes are still not open, just sort of blinking rapidly and then falling shut again every so often.
“Hey, hi Shadow,” Sonic says. “You’re in the hospital.”
“Do you think he’s just really lightheaded? From the blood loss?” Amy suggests. She could be onto something there.
“That’s likely the case, yes,” The nurse says as she hurries over to the other side of Shadow’s bed to check various monitors. “It’s a very common side effect of this treatment. We’re coming towards the end of this session as well.”
“He’s- but he’s completely disoriented, he’s barely aware,” Sonic tells the nurse. The nurse frowns and nods.
“I’ve been told this case is a little unique. Normally this would be worrisome, but I’m to believe he’s under the influence of that gel right? From the attacks?” The nurse questions. Sonic can only nod, looking down as Shadow continues to wince and squirm. Gel makes the stuff sound a lot less gross. Like Shadow was being poisoned by aloe vera or something. “Whatever is happening right now does not appear to be caused by the dialysis.”
“Can we help him?” Sonic asks, rushed. He feels an extra tight squeeze on his hand.
“We could sedate him,” The nurse offers, well-meaning but clearly just as unconvinced by this idea as Sonic and Amy are.
“Sonic,” Shadow mutters, it’s the most clear word he’s managed to put out today. Sonic doesn’t allow himself to be happy to hear it right now.
“Yes- I’m right here, Shadow,” Sonic tries to reassure, and he takes his loose hand away from Shadow’s to pet his head. He sees Amy bite her lip in his peripherals.
“This is.. strange. He looks to be fighting to stay conscious,” The nurse says, watching a screen. “But according to his readings he should be asleep. It makes no sense!”
“He looks like he’s in pain,” Amy says, sounding teary. Sonic nods.
“The hemodialysis must be doing something, right? If he has the strength to at least try to wake up?” Sonic asks, and he’s not really sure who he’s asking— because this nurse has no way of knowing. And of course neither does Amy.
“It must be,” Amy agrees, with a hand over her mouth. “Unless something else has changed?”
Sonic doesn’t understand what she’s getting at.
“Like..?”
“Like If something else is giving him strength,” Amy explains. Sonic is still lost. Amy turns to face the nurse.
“Did anybody or anything come in or out of the room while we were asleep?” Amy asks, suddenly standing up very straight. The nurse deflates a little. Sonic wants to tell the poor nurse that it’s okay but he can’t tear his eyes away from Shadow’s pained expression.
“Ah, well- staff members of course. Other nurses,” The nurse says. “And we moved the bat’s bag into the room. The one she left in the hall.”
“The bat’s—“ Amy quickly looks around the room and spots Rouge’s small bag sure enough, sitting on one of the chairs against the wall. Sonic glances back and forth between Shadow and Amy as she runs over to retrieve the bag.
Amy opens the small bag and shuffles through whatever is in it. A few moments pass, and the nurse watches from the other side of the bed with a confused expression on her face. And then, a gleam of light blinds Sonic temporarily as Amy lifts a shimmering purple chaos emerald from the sack. Sonic’s jaw drops open. He instantly holds his hand out, and Amy hands the emerald over.
The chaos emerald gleams brightly, sending polygonal lavender tinted shapes across the hospital room’s walls, like passing headlights through curtained windows. The shapes swerve and dance as Sonic moves the emerald towards Shadow. The room is dressed in this pretty purple.
In what world did they rush to the hospital before trying chaos energy? Sonic feels ridiculous. If giving him an emerald fixes everything, Sonic isn’t sure who will feel worse. Himself or Tails.
“We don’t know for sure if this is what’s doing it,” Amy tells him, like she can read his mind. They’ve been doing that to each other a lot recently. “It could be the machine.”
“Let’s see,” Sonic says, leaning down towards Shadow and prying his hand away from him gently. Shadow responds with an upset grunt and his hand weakly grabs at the air.
Sonic’s heart briefly shatters, and then he shakes his head and places the chaos emerald in Shadow’s open palm.
The resulting sigh of relief from Shadow is all Sonic needed to know. Shadow’s chest falls slowly as if he’s just been released from a great period of torment. He moves more than he has since last night, then, bringing the emerald close to his heart. Sonic watches as Shadow’s tortured face calms, and his eyelids settle. Shadow stills completely.
The three people in the room wait anxiously for a sign of lucidity.
Nothing happens.
Some seconds pass and still nothing happens.
And then.
Shadow gasps, and sits upright in the bed, clutching the chaos emerald up near his white chest fur, between both hands. He sort of curls around it and huffs for a second, appearing dizzy. Sonic can’t help letting his face fall into his palms, falling back into his chair like he’s just watched a miracle happen.
“Shadow,” Amy cries happily, a hand on her forehead like she’d been close to being sick.
“Huhhh,” Shadow sort of half-whispers half-moans. As if finally aware, he places the chaos emerald in his lap and takes a couple deep breaths. “What..”
“Goodness,” The nurse says.
Shadow’s head jerks up to face her, and he looks beyond confused. He turns back to face Sonic and Amy, and they’re greeted with even more confusion. The nurse is furiously typing at a stand-up keyboard, probably taking notes on Shadow’s unique state.
“I was.. I’m..” Shadow tries, weakly. “At home.”
Sonic nods and leans forward, placing an encouraging hand on Shadow’s shoulder.
“You went to sleep at home,” Sonic confirms. “But then you wouldn’t wake up.”
“You’re in the hospital,” Amy helps.
“Sso,” Shadow says, unintelligible. Sonic tilts his head to the side, trying to look like he’s listening very closely. He is. But he wants Shadow to know he is.
“So I’m okay?” Shadow finally gets out, and Sonic feels his heart drop a little, taken aback by the vulnerability. Sonic is shocked into silence, and suddenly he can’t form any words.
“Of course!” Amy saves, coming closer to speak to Shadow. Shadow’s eyelids droop with the effort of shifting his gaze from Sonic to Amy. “You’re gonna be okay, Shadow. Just hang in there. Are you tired?”
“Mm,” Shadow shakily nods, squinting a little now. It’s clear that even the head movement took something out of him. It seems like the chaos emerald is not a long lasting solution. In fact it looks like their time with Shadow awake and somewhat aware is quickly depleting.
“Okay, you just hold on to that emerald,” Amy tells him.
“Don’t need to t..” Shadow starts, and his voice is softer now. He leans back in the hospital bed, still sitting up but seemingly unable to do it without support now. “To talk to me like.. tha..”
Shadow’s eyelids drift closed again, and then open, and then closed. Amy almost whimpers. Sonic looks at her with a little smile. Half asleep and most certainly 90% out of it, Shadow protests being baby-talked. Not even baby-talked, it’s just a gentle supportive tone he’s rejecting. If Sonic were in a better state right now, he’d make fun of Shadow profusely until the second he knocks out again.
With a little clearer of a brain and some more critical thinking, Sonic would probably think over the possible attitudes that the ARK scientists had when treating Shadow. Specifically, waking him up from testing or surgery, in this same sort of scenario. This same environment. Would they have baby-talked him? Or would they have not said a word? Would they have woken him with a needle or the removal of equipment? Silently putting things away and wrenching Shadow up from the bed? Bed? Was there a bed? Was it just a table? Sonic feels himself frown. Surely Gerald provided some sort of comfort and human treatment, right? From what Sonic understands, the relationship there was sort of fatherly. Sonic heard Rouge say the man referred to him as ‘son’ back when the time eater situation unfolded.
Sonic isn’t sure what’s worse. The silent treatment, like they’d been experimenting on nothing more than material, or a dead animal. Or baby-talk. Here Project Shadow, you just go ahead and lay right here, yes that’s right and we’re just going to run some tests. Yes it’ll be just fine. Sonic feels sick. The picture of those scientists rushing Shadow through all of their curious technology, forcing him to comply and trying to make it up to him by adding some sweet tone to their voices.
“I’m sorry, Shadow!” Amy cries. She clears her throat and gives him a little pat on the arm. “You’ve got this!”
“..bette .. r,” Shadow approves, clearly moments away from nodding off again.
Sonic watches as Shadow’s breaths slow down extra again, and Shadow appears to be trying to hold the Chaos emerald as closely as is possible. Almost like he wants to absorb it. Sonic still has his hand on Shadow’s shoulder, and he gives an absentminded squeeze.
At that, Shadow’s head sort of flops over Sonic’s way. He’s barely still awake.
“Sonic,” He says again, just as clear as the first time. “It’ss okay.”
And he’s out. Sonic trembles and lets his head fall.
“Well,” Amy starts, after a minute or two of silent processing. “It’s definitely giving him more strength.”
“Yes. It’s helping, for sure,” Sonic says, petting Shadow’s head again as the nurse adjusts him down into a laying position once more. And Sonic knows his voice sounds weird and garbled, mostly because he’s trying really extra hard not to cry right now. He knows Amy hears it, and he also knows she would never mock him for it. He tries to keep it contained anyway.
“Not enough to keep him awake,” Amy says.
Sonic pets Shadow’s head again as the nurse says a few things and dips out of the room. Sonic blinks down at Shadow, the chaos energy blaring from the emerald and buzzing in between them. Would it help if Sonic left? If the emerald only mingled with Shadow? Or is Sonic himself helping as well?
“He used his last second awake to comfort you,” Amy chokes out, staring past Sonic at Shadow. Sonic can barely see what face she’s making because his vision is blurry from the tears. Sonic can’t respond, because he knows if he opens his mouth right now he’ll just cry.
Sonic finds, it’s a lot easier to be strong when it’s just himself in danger. When it’s his own life on the line, he’s never ever felt even close to tears. The worst part about putting himself in harm's way is the thought of Tails being on his own. How the others would feel about him being hurt or gone. When Sonic isn’t in any danger and instead it’s one of his friends: the strength proves to be less of a given.
Sonic is trying to be big about it. But, as he goes over all of the different moments where he himself has been curled up at death’s door, he feels an immense guilt. Assuming his friends all care about him like Sonic cares about Shadow, this is what they were dealing with? This is what they go through when Sonic rushes into danger?
Sonic has had to save his friends many a time, but it’s rare that it is a threat so big Sonic truly fears for their lives. However, he himself had thrown himself into countless life threatening threats.
They sit there for a while. Longer than it was responsible to. Sonic should have called Tails the second Shadow fell back asleep, but instead he and Amy sit there watching- as if Shadow will jolt awake again at any moment. Which, really, he could. Sonic has a million thoughts running through his head. The problem isn’t inherently linked to Shadow’s chaos energy. Or— not linked at all. The goo is a completely foreign substance pulling him to sleep, and extra chaos energy is just giving him a bit more power to fight the pull.
Sonic doesn’t think any amount of extra chaos energy would completely get rid of the pull. But maybe it would keep him awake for longer while they figure out how to get the stuff out of him for good. Or while they go through with the plan they had before. Tails’ dialysis idea could work. Evidently the machine on its own hasn’t been able to do it, but with whatever special goo-oriented tech Tails adds on, anything is possible.
“Angel island,” Amy says, suddenly.
Sonic looks up at her.
“I was thinking; we gather the other emeralds,” Sonic admits. “I’m not sure we would be able to use this machine on Angel island.”
“Tails could bring a big generator?” Amy suggests, saying the word ‘generator’ slowly enough that Sonic knows she’s not too sure if she’s using the right word. Sonic isn’t sure either.
“I’ll ask him,” Sonic decides, pulling out his phone.
—
It took about three minutes with Rouge and Knuckles over either shoulder for Tails to send them off. Breaking into GUN systems was one thing, having to focus on recreating a potentially dangerous substance (proven dangerous for a specific individual) was another entirely. Tails needed to have absolute focus, and he found that— despite the heartfelt conversation with Rouge yesterday, it’s looking like she’s not the lab partner he is looking for.
Again, three minutes. Rouge by herself maybe would have lasted longer. Knuckles too. But the both of them together? In the space Tails is trying to make scientific breakthroughs in? Nope. Get out. To their credit, all it took was a sly reminder that the ARK archives still held dangerous copies of the goo files. Rouge was grabbing Knuckles by the hand and whipping out the door.
Tails could focus in the quiet, and he was additionally happy knowing the rest of the copies of the recipe were being tracked down and deleted. Now it’s been a solid couple of hours, and Tails has managed to cook up a couple honest attempts. He hasn’t done enough testing to know if they are comparable to Eggman’s creation, or if there is a very obvious defect in Eggman’s. But he’ll soon find out.
Tails is hunched over goo attempts #1 and #2 in their respective jars, with a sample of Eggman’s attempt on a sterile tray. The eye dropper Tails is holding falls to the table dramatically when Tails’ phone suddenly starts ringing.
Tails’ phone rings twice before he silences it, instead picking up the call through one of his big screens. Sonic’s face appears on the monitor, the window taking up nearly the entire screen. He looks frazzled. Tails can’t blame him at all.
“Hey bud,” Sonic greets. Tails always appreciates Sonic trying to be strong for him, but Tails can hear the worry in Sonic’s voice nonetheless.
“Hey Sonic, how are things?” Tails asks, looking back down at his work and picking up the eye dropper again.
“Something happened and we have a question,” Sonic says. “Well actually- firstly I guess- how’s it going over there?”
“Where are Rouge and Knuckles?” Amy asks, from beside Sonic, where she has shoved into the frame and is peering down at Tails. Tails takes a moment to wave to her.
“They went to go use one of GUN’s direct-links to the ARK. They’re trying to get rid of the last few files of goo info. So that Eggman can’t ever try to make this again,” Tails explains as he watches one, two, three droplets fall into attempt #1.
“How’s it coming?” Sonic asks.
“I’m not sure yet. I’m looking for differences between my version of the goo and Eggman’s. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve found something substantial,” Tails tells them.
“Okay,” Sonic nods. “Shadow woke up for a sec.”
Tails pauses, nearly dropping his eye dropper again. He looks up at the pink and blue mix on his screen.
“What?” Tails asks, prompting Sonic to continue. Instead, Amy does.
“Rouge left her bag here, and when they brought it into the room— Shadow started moving. She had a chaos emerald in her bag, and when we brought it closer to him he woke up for a minute or two,” Amy rattles off, and Tails stops then to think on that.
“It gave him a burst of energy to break through the influence of the goo… Do you think more energy would-“ Tails starts.
“Keep him awake for longer? Yes! We were thinking of Angel island,” Sonic says. Tails opens his mouth and then closes it. “Would that be possible?”
“Would we be able to run the dialysis machine up there, you mean?” Tails clarifies. Both Sonic and Amy nod in unison. Tails hums.
“Yes I could probably figure something out,” Tails decides. The only energy Angel Island has is chaos energy, so Tails would have to be sure to bring a massive dependable power bank. He’s not sure if he would trust a generator to run a potentially life-saving machine. “Did the regular hemodialysis machine do anything?”
“Well, we’re not exactly sure,” Amy says.
“Yeah. Maybe Shadow woke up both because of the emerald AND the treatment. We have no way of knowing,” Sonic explains. Tails nods, of course.
“It could be doing exactly what it’s supposed to do and we just don’t know it. Maybe the goo is nearly out of his system,” Amy adds on. Tails nods again.
“Is the treatment done?” Tails asks.
“They’re taking him off in ten minutes or so,” Sonic responds.
“Okay. They won’t be able to do another session until tomorrow, so now is your chance to decide,” Tails says. “If you believe in the chaos energy, take him up to Angel Island. If you believe in the hospital equipment, stay there.”
….
“And if we believe in both?” Sonic asks, nervously.
“Stay there so that I can come up with a power source to bring with us to Angel Island,” Tails tells him. Sonic nods.
Tails sighs heavily when the window with Sonic and Amy’s faces in it disappears from his screen. He peers down to focus back on the task at hand, the lab once again silent. It’s a strange feeling he has right now. An anxious buzz in his head that hasn’t gone away since the battle. Normally, when they are going on a big adventure to stop Robotnik, they’re on the move. Chasing him. Or trying to check on whatever community they are attempting to save.
It is, rare, to say the least— that Tails stays home and works from the comfort of his lab in a high-stakes event. He is almost always struggling to make it work elsewhere, with minimal tools and usually a basic understanding of the specific problem. Out in the world, making do with what he has on his person. Here, with everything he could ever need, it should be much easier. But, somehow, it isn’t.
If it’s possible, Tails thinks he feels significantly worse. His current working theory is that it’s the normalcy of it. His brain knows that Shadow is in trouble and that he needs to work fast, but working at home is tricking him into feeling mellow. It’s this little battle in his mind. It doesn’t help that Eggman has already been captured. The angel on Tails’ shoulder is begging him to focus hard, and the devil is telling him that Shadow will be fine and they have all of the time in the world to shut down Eggman’s operation.
He thinks, maybe, that both are correct. Still, Tails is trying very hard not to get sidetracked. The intricacy of this recipe, the absurdity of it, the scientific creativity, it’s all so fascinating. And Tails has never before wished to be less curious.
Eventually, things start to become clearer. As they usually do when Tails is handling new substances, new technologies, unfamiliar innovations. What was once a blurry mess of shape and text, becomes links and molecules and bonds in a pattern that Tails can recognize, analyze, and appreciate. It must be 9 in the evening when he is finally able to properly comprehend his recreation and Eggman’s shoddy attempt in relation to the original.
Tails has no doubt in his mind now, several hours into his in-depth analysis, that his copy is correct. It is the absolutely perfect recreation of Gerald Robotnik’s original breakthrough. The goo is an exact replica of what was used when Shadow was being developed. It is with this knowledge, that Tails is then able to understand the difference. And: boy does it exist.
Not only did Eggman’s inconsistency in the formula make the goo harmful, it actually completely destroyed all intents and purposes of Gerald’s original.
Tails is leaning against his table as he goes over his notes one more time.
Gerald’s version of the goo was made to: maintain and if needed induce a state akin to cryogenic sleep, heal, and strengthen. All of what is necessary for a growing and changing living being. Baby shadow needed to be nurtured by this stuff, essentially.
Eggman’s version of the goo does the opposite. The sleep that it induces is not sleep at all, it is a mockery of sleep. When unconscious under the influence of Eggman’s goo, Shadow’s body couldn’t go through the usual necessary processes of sleep. It hurts, causes big burns and wounds on Shadow. And it very obviously weakens. Weakens his physical strength and his ability to harness chaos energy. It is effectively counterproductive and destructive.
All of this because of one measly mistake in the formula.
But Tails has come to the unfortunate conclusion that this mistake could not have been by accident. It is so precise it just HAS to be intentional. His heart sinks when he realizes it, and he gets working as quickly as possible on an addition to the hospital’s machinery. The sooner Shadow is better, the sooner they can make sure this never happens again. Eggman has done a lot of vile things, but this really has Tails’ head spinning.
As it’s almost 10pm, Tails decides against calling and updating Sonic. He’s probably already asleep. And it’s not as if letting him know that Tails has only just figured out the problem is going to make any difference. Tails bites the inside of his cheek and gazes longingly at his empty pot of coffee.
Sonic always scolds him for drinking too much coffee, but on nights like these when it’s necessary that Tails keeps working, sometimes the coffee is just as necessary. He knows all the stuff about it being bad for growth and whatever. Tails is pretty sure he’s not getting any taller anyway. He sighs as he gets up from his chair and strolls over to the machine. He’s got a long night ahead of him if he wants to have this upgrade ready by tomorrow. And hopefully some sort of generator system for Angel Island as well.
It’s eleven o’clock when his screen lights up again, this time surprisingly not with the familiar blue of Sonic’s quills. It’s instead a vibrant red that fills the screen, lighting Tails’ now dim lab with fire truck projections all across the walls and floor. Tails tears his face away from his work to look up at Knuckles.
“Hey Tails,” Knuckles greets, not looking down at the communicator’s camera. He appears to be on the move. He sounds out of breath.
“Knuckles? What’s going on?” Tails asks, tiredly. He fights off a yawn as Knuckles’ loose grip on the communicator turns the image into a blur of movement. Tails rubs his eyes and squints.
“We got rid of the rest of the files,” Knuckles tells him, and then ducks his head down as some indiscernible object flies overhead. Now that Tails is really taking it all in, he thinks he hears quite a bit of background noise. Is that yelling? A crowd?
“And we were on our way back,” Rouge chimes in, snatching Knuckles’ phone from his hand to speak directly to Tails. She’s talking louder, over whatever stampede they’re making their way through right now. What could possibly be going on at this hour?
“Yeah?” Tails prompts for her to continue. He hears Knuckles grunt in the background, and an especially loud shout from a voice Tails doesn’t recognize, words he can’t make out through the fuzziness of the communicator audio.
“But we ran into this- this protest!” Rouge tells him, looking upset.
“Protest for what?” Tails asks, standing up and leaning towards his screen. Looking to see if he can spot any clues behind Rouge. She’s holding the communicator so low he can only see the blackness of the sky, her eyes and ears.
“Watch out!” Knuckles says, and the image turns into a blur of red and white for a moment as the two of them presumably dodge something.
“Did you join the protest?” Tails asks, confused and exhausted. He glances down at his yet to be finished upgrade for the hemodialysis machine.
“No!” Rouge cries as she stabilizes the communicator again and stares right at Tails. “They’re protesting Shadow’s involvement with Team Sonic!”
“Huh?” Tails asks.
“They’ve got signs that say like-“ Knuckles buts in. “Down with the lab-baby! And uh- Get Shadow Gone!”
“There’s one that says: We want heros, not patient zeros!” Rouge laughs through this sentence in disbelief. “Like he’s diseased! It’s absolutely absurd! I don’t know where the sudden rage came from! Did they forget that he saved them a million different times?”
“Is it a big crowd?” Tails questions.
“No no, probably only fifteen to twenty people. But still! They’re a loud bunch! It’s super dramatic!” Rouge explains. “They’re at the square where the attack happened. Somebody is standing on a wooden box, they’ve got air horns and a megaphone and stuff to wake people up to see their movement.”
“Are they disturbing the cleanup crews?” Tails asks.
“No. They came at night because the cleanup crews are off duty,” Rouge answers. “Apparently there was some lazy article written about Shadow being dangerous.”
“And they won’t listen at all? No sign of them finishing up any time soon?” Tails asks, and he realizes he sounds quite dejected.
“Not a word. We tried to reason with them a couple times but they’re just throwing their signs at us,” Rouge says.
“The signs are lazier than the article,” Knuckles jokes. “We’re talking crayon.”
“I guess you just.. leave them be?” Tails suggests.
“Out of principle I don’t want to let this happen,” Knuckles admits. “I can’t proudly let these people vilify a friend. It’s against what I think.”
“You think?” Rouge jokes. Knuckles huffs. Tails hides a laugh.
“No, I’m kidding. I agree with him. I don’t want to just let it happen,” Rouge backpedals. Tails nods, but no clear route comes to mind. How do you deal with something like this?
“You know Shadow wouldn’t care, right?” Tails asks, a little weakly. Rouge just sighs.
“He probably wouldn’t. But I don’t want him waking up to the world turning against him,” Rouge says.
“Hey I want to shut this down too but fifteen people isn’t exactly the worl-“ Knuckles tries. Rouge gives him a look and he doesn’t conclude his thought.
“The way they’re talking about it- well-“ Rouge pauses. “It sounds like there’s a lot going on online. Have you looked at the internet at all today?”
“No. You know I’ve been busy working on this,” Tails tells them, careful not to let the exhaustion sleep through his voice. He then remmebers his call with Sonic and Amy. “Actually speaking of- I have another task for you guys.”
“I really don’t want to leave this peanut gallery on display,” Rouge says, again.
“Right, hm. Let me think,” Tails looks down from the communicator and focus on the blank spaces on his work table. The samples and machinery making way for the white countertop to take up his vision. He blinks at the blank slate and tries to brainstorm as quickly as possible. His little Thinking session interrupted by shouts from the protestors.
“Surely you could call and have them detained under noise control laws? It sounds rowdy even through the communicator,” Tails suggests , practically feeling the warmth of the lightbulb above his head. “And it’s definitely past the acceptable time for megaphones and air horns. Actually- isn’t there a station right in that square? Why haven’t they already been stopped?”
“The police station is actually right here. But it’s in ruins because it was so close to the attack. Got a wall missing and stuff. They moved the precinct temporarily earlier today,” Rouge tells Tails. And then she seems to be thinking for a moment or two before she speaks again. “You’re right. I hadn’t even thought of calling the police. Sometimes I forget they’re useful for something.”
“I’ll call them if you give me back my communicator,” Knuckles says from beside Rouge. Rouge nods.
“One sec, Tails what was the task you were going to give us?” Rouge asks. And Tails is so tired he had nearly forgot that he intended to do that.
“You left a chaos emerald at the hospital, and the energy is helping Shadow regain his strength. Sonic wants to collect the rest of the emeralds and bring them to Shadow,” Tails tell them.
“Ooooh my gosh! Collecting emeralds is actually our favourite pastime!” Rouge says. “This may be the only part of this whole situation that I enjoy!”
“Speak for yourself,” Knuckles rolls his eyes. “It’s probably the bottom of my list. I’ve done enough of the collecting. I prefer to just sit with them.”
“Can’t do that unless you find them first!” Rouge teases, poking Knuckles in the cheek.
“I already have one! Wait- yeah, actually come to think of it- why don’t we just bring him to the master emerald?” Knuckles asks.
“We plan to, but I have to figure out how to get the hospital equipment to work up there first,” Tails informs them.
Both Knuckles and Rouge let out a synchronized ‘oohhhh’ and they nod. Tails feels bad assigning more work to them in the middle of the night, but if they have any wits about them they’ll probably crash and get at it in the morning. If Tails had any wits about him he’d do the same.
As if reading Tails’ mind, Knuckles then says:
“I hope you know we’re sleeping first.” And Tails can’t really tell if he’s saying it to Tails himself or to Rouge, or maybe both. But Rouge laughs
“Of course. Speaking of sleeping, I’m a little surprised you’re not in bed,” Rouge says, and this is definitely directed towards Tails. He shrinks a little as he feels her intense eyes staring him down. Tails feels a little bit like she might be able to telekinesis him into his bed through the communicator.
“Too late to try to convince me to sleep tonight, I had a lot of coffee,” Tails warns them. Rouge frowns, as does Knuckles.
“Sonic doesn’t like you drinking all that,” Knuckles tells him. And Tails winces.
“I’d say this is a special occasion,” Tails tells him. Knuckles’ and Rouge’s frowns both deepen at that. And the twisted picture of Shadow unconscious in the hospital bites away at Tails’ eyesight. “It’s necessary that I get this done as soon as possible.”
It’s silent for a moment, and then.
“One would argue that you’d get it done faster if you slept first,” Rouge says.
“It’s hard to calculate what would be quicker without an intimate knowledge of my productivity. Who knows if I’d be quick enough with rest to make up for the hours lost doing the resting,” Tails explains.
Silence again, and then.
“.. Seems like something you would have already recorded, dude,” Knuckles shrugs.
…
“Yeah I have already recorded it. And the truth is that it’s so close it would hardly make a difference,” Tails says.
“What I’m hearing is that there is a difference,” Rouge squints at him. Tails sinks in his chair.
“I’m not getting off this call without being ordered to sleep am I?” Tails asks. Rouge and Knuckles both shake their heads.
“We do have to end the call, though. Because I have to call the cops on these weirdos,” Knuckles says, taking the communicator from Rouge. Earning a small ‘hey!’ from her.
“Sleep well, Tails! We’ll talk in the morning!” Rouge waves frantically over Knuckles’ shoulder as he moves to end the call.
“Night, fox,” Knuckles tells him. Tails nods, struggling to stifle a yawn.
“Night, guys.”
