Solutions Gain Absolutions

Shadow and Midnight

The giant steel abandoned Space Colony floated like a second moon above Mobius, the building was still and the aging creeks of the old workings filtered in the space vacuum as silence. Deep within the ARK two bodies shared the warmth of the heated water running from the shower head. The running water soaking their fur soothed the sore overworked muscles as they relaxed against each other with heavy eyes.

"Hey Shadow" Midnight purred softly tracing the red stripe up his arm with her fingers, "I'm hungry. Can we get something when we get back to Mobius?"

"Oh yeah, I'm starving. The last thing I had to eat was," he paused in thought for a moment before breaking out into a smirk and held her closer whispering in her ear, "you~"

His deep whisper teasing at her ear sent shivers down her spine making her tail twitch back and forth as a long purr escaped from her chest and she snuggled closer into his arms.

After five more minutes the handles squeaked as the water shut off and gurgled down the drain. The two stepped out each grabbing a towel and drying themselves separating only to find their belongings and get dressed. Shadow noticed his phone drained of battery which heh thought was odd being as how he didn't use it not even once during the past week. His ears jetted back quickly with the thought of how many calls and voicemails were left behind. For a moment he panicked as he thought to himself how angry Amy would be with him, how Silver would yell at him, and though they tried all the time to contact him they wouldn't want to speak with him once they knew he was well and okay, and what was he thinking leaving so many responsibilities behind so sudden and was so absorbed in something else to truly forget that they even existed!?

"Everything alright Shadow?" Midnight peeked over his shoulders and slowly slid her arms around him in a hug.

"Yeah!" He said quickly putting the phone away. That's right, he hadn't been thinking when he left Möbius he was drunk and even after a hangover that lasted till mid-day he still never came to his senses. Even now as they get ready to go back to land the scenario of meeting his family didn't put much stress on his shoulders. He panicked at first but realized what he did was no different than any of his friends he knows, living out their lives in freedom. For once he did something that wasn't pre planned, for someone else's best interest, no one ordered him to do this; he wanted to and so that's what he did, acted on pure wanting and free will to do so. Sure it was an affair, but it wasn't like he was the only man to ever have one. And quite honestly he had no regret of it, though he couldn't be 100% sure until he was face to face with his wife. He'd find out soon enough as he summoned his chaos emerald from its hiding place and chaos controlled them back to Mobius.

Their feet hit the solid ground just outside the city.

"Why so far out?" Midnight asked stretching in the slight heavier gravity of the planet and sucked in deep breaths of the smells around her, "is that barbecue I smell?!" Both their stomachs growled angrily at the mention of food. Shadow's nose lifted in the air twitching as he sniffed for the smell too, he didn't know if it was from hunger or experiencing such high emotions for the past few week causing his senses to be on such high alert.

"Yeah it is! About five miles away."

"With corn and pies!?" Midnight sniffed again starting to rule out the directions of where it was coming from. But Shadow already pinpointed the location and held her hand their fingers woven to fit in the spaces between as he pulled her along towards the food.

Within minutes the two found themselves at a cookout and a small fair with games and a hay ride.

"Howdy y'all!" A female grey rabbit with blue eyes greeted them at the entrance, "Word sure do travel far don't it? Y'alls not from 'round here, city dwellers? Aw shoot no matter any how come on in and enjoy yerselves!" She ushered them past the short wooden gates. "Homer is the horse on the hay ride he'll be happy to show ya round, Andy is the gator at the grill, and Padunk and Wendy are in charge of games, and my name is Blinky; yep like the ghost from that ol' pac-man game and if ya need any help I'll be right there at them front gates doin the greetin people thang. Y'all have fun now!"

As soon as she finished the two darted for Andy and his grill, the strong smell that lead them there in the first place.

"Hey fellers, what'll it be?" the gator tipped his straw hat and held up the menu written on a large cardboard square with the items and prices.

"Everything." Midnight started drooling at the sight of the food so close and within reaching distance.

"E-everythang?!" Andy gawked and looked at Shadow for confirmation of the order.

"Everything." Shadow nodded in serious agreement.

"Ohkie dokie then everything coming up!" He began making the plates as Shadow took out his wallet.

Midnight brought out her's as well, "It's a lot so I'll help pay too." She smiled kissing his cheek.

They took their plates to the picnic area, taking up the entire table and sat down to eat.

Once settled Shadow was found checking his phone by the small country house a little ways from the fair still going on. Blinky was nice enough to let him use the outside electrical port to charge his phone. Midnight was busy entertaining the simple country people with her 'adventures of the city'. After they had dished out the money to pay for their food it caught everyone's attention mainly asking where they could get the same job the provided so much money for the two. Shadow waited with irritable anticipation for his phone to charge enough to be turned on. Once the screen lit up he was bombarded with thousands of missed calls, text messages that ranged from concern growing into panic until finally exploding into angry all caps with misspelled words and then meaningless spam of strings of letters, then a thousand or so voicemails he was certain followed the same pattern as his text messages. His mailbox was completely full, he went in and deleted all of them, not bothering to listen to any, same with the text messages. Finally he went into his contacts and highlighted Amy's name but his thumb hovered above the green call button and he bit his lip thinking. It was Amy who called him the most, followed by Silver and Sonic. Yet still he didn't feel like he had to answer to her as if she was his boss like the Commander. And just as thought of the screen changed to an incoming call displaying Commander Towers name and he had no hesitation answering the call.

"Commander." Shadow answered.

"Shadow where the hell are you!? I need you at Headquarters right NOW. Your son and his friends decided to take matters into their own hands and are handing Mephiles over to the Zulfarians, which they had Dr. Eggman contact!"

"Sir!" there was a voice interrupting him on the other end.

"What!?"

"An unidentified flying object has entered our orbit and nearing the atmosphere!"

"Well identify it and contact it's pilot! Shadow, get to HQ!" Commander barked his orders.

"I'm on my way." Shadow replied before hanging up and disconnecting the phone from the charger and finding Midnight.