Mirror Image

XII - No Strings Attached

From the corner of his eye he saw Knuckles cautiously enter the cafe. Leaning over the trashcan he listened intently, expecting to hear Knuckles shouting and cursing at any moment. Nothing reached his ears but a few footsteps, and some other sounds of movement he couldn't identify. He awoke from his haze when something crashed against the pavement next to him.

Looking up he saw Knuckles standing by the cafe door, scowling. He pointed down towards Sonic's feet.

"You killed who, exactly?"

Nervously Sonic turned his head to look, fearing to see that dreadful corpse again.

Next to him a figure lay sprawled out across the pavement. Its skin was shining silver metal, tarnished with scratches. Its head and body were entirely featureless cylinders, save for the large dent in its facial area, and its arms and legs consisted of spindly articulated poles. As Sonic gazed upon the ruined droid, a feeling of elation surged through him, and he began to laugh hysterically, earning him a confused look from Knuckles.

"It's changed back to its default form. It's just a robot!" Sonic said with a giddy affectation, "I knew that! I knew that the whole time!" He looked at his hands; even though his gloves were filthy, the blood that had caked them had vanished. "I'm such an idiot!"

"No argument there," said Knuckles.

"It felt so real, Knux. It felt just like flesh, looked like it, even smelled like it. I really thought I'd... But I didn't kill anyone, just smashed another of Eggman's robots! I didn't kill anyone!" Sonic bounced up and down on the spot, giggling manically, while Knuckles stared at him with his mouth hanging open. Sonic had never felt so happy in his entire life, the dark clouds had gone, and the sun shone in his heart for the first time in days.

His elation abruptly halted when Knuckles fist collided with his face. It wasn't a hard punch, just enough to knock him onto his backside. But a pulled punch from Knuckles would still leave him sore in the morning.

"Ow," said Sonic, rubbing his cheek, "what gives, Knucklehead?"

"I've been waiting to do that for quite some time," said Knuckles, smirking, "I'm not sure if you'd noticed, but there's still a crisis going on here. Shadow's not done fighting his doppelganger in the plaza. GUN are getting impatient; Rouge is doing what she can but if we don't hurry, they'll kill both Shadows."

Sonic leapt to his feet, panic rising.

"Wait a sec," he said, "if you're here, then where's -"

"Tails is okay, Sonic," Knuckles said, putting his hands out to calm Sonic down, "We ran into the Chaotix Crew, they agreed to take him and Amy out of the city."

"Good job, Knux," he said, "I owe you a drink when this is all over."

The distant low rumble of an explosion in the distance made their ears prick up.

"Shadow!" said Sonic, "we need to get down there before..."

"Let's go, Sonic!" said Knuckles with determination.

"Wait a second, Knux. Grab that robot. I think Tails would be keen to take a look at it."

Knuckles hoisted the silver mannequin onto his shoulder, grumbling the whole time.

"Why's it always me who has to carry stuff all the time?"

"Your punishment for being a meat-head, I guess," quipped Sonic, earning him a glare from the red echidna. Before Knuckles could answer back, another low rumble shook the ground beneath their feet.