I Am...All of Me

Magnetic (Part 3)

Rolling around around at the speed of sound.

Got places to go.

Gotta follow my rainbow!

     Shadow repeatedly beat his head on the kitchen table as Amy laughed. In the short time they had been literally "joined at the hip," she had learned the perfect way to torture the most dangerous hedgehog on the planet. 

    "Make it stop!" he growled somewhere between threatening and begging. She only grinned and continued singing the same song in her head over and over. Sonic and Tails just watched helplessly. The blue hero was laughing his spines off, while his little brother tried to make sense of the situation. 

                  "What's going on?"

    "That. Blasted. Female. Won't. Stop. Singing!" he said, bashing his head with each word. He then released a low groan from the oncoming headache. Amy rubbed her head too, the migraine much stronger to her. 

                               "Ow..."

      Serves you right, he shot back. She stuck her tongue out at him before rubbing her head. But when she turned her back to him, he stuck his back out at her. The other two boys snickered. They had never seen either of them act so childish around each other. 

   "So, what's the plan, fox? Do you have any other gadget that can fix this?" 

    "Sorry, Shadow but I'll have to build one."

   "So we're stuck like this?! For how long?" Amy panicked. 

    "I don't know. But maybe the effects are temporary? Or..."

    "Or what?" the two jinxed before Shadow facepalmed and Sonic laughed. Amy shot her crush a menacing glare that suddenly silenced him. 

     "I wonder if a chaos emerald would do the trick. They've done some crazy stuff before." 

     The dark hedgehog rubbed his chin with his free hand. With the amount of chaos energy one creates combined with my existing power, it's possible. But I don't like the negative outcome it could also generate. Using an emerald will either fix us or make everything much worse. I don't like the odds. They've only seen the good effects of the emeralds. They have no idea what we could be getting into if they try to utilize them this way.

    You mean there are bad effects too? Amy interrupted his thoughts. She shrunk back from his darkened gaze. The two brothers looked at each other worriedly when they saw Amy's terrified face. 

             You have no idea...

   "Ames, you okay?" Sonic asked, and she nodded. 

  "Yeah..yeah I'm fine. Shadow, what did you mean about the chaos emeralds?"

         "Mean by what?" Sonic asked. Everyone knew that Shadow had the closest connection to the emeralds, so he would know the most about them besides perhaps only Knuckles. The striped hedgehog sighed. 

    "The three of you have only seen the good effects the emeralds can have. You know that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore the chaos emeralds would have to have both positive and negative energies. I've seen both sides, and I'm warning you that you shouldn't play with them, even if it means freeing us. I know you don't care much about me, but don't try it for Amy's sake." 

   The pinkette looked up at the serious male beside her. She knew that he valued freedom perhaps as much as Sonic, and he was willing to sacrifice that for her safety. Her mind drifted back to the vision she had of his past friend. It was because of her that he was so hesitant to take the risk. 

     "Shadow, it's okay. If you can do it, then I can do it," she reassured him with a slightly forced smile. His jaw was set in a firm line. He wouldn't allow her to persuade him. 

    "No, Rose. If it involves a chaos emerald, I'm not going to let either of us do it."

    "But you use them all the time!" she countered, startling the three boys, "I think I can handle it!"

    "No, Rose, you can't!" Shadow snapped back. The room instantly grew quiet, and the air became thick and still. "You want to know why? Because you're not me! I was created to use the emeralds, not born. I was built with that purpose in mind. I was made to be immortal, to persevere through any type of injury and live with little to no pain. You want to know about the dark side of the chaos emeralds, but you really don't! I've felt the power they possess, and it hurts. I'm not going to lose someone else just to free my own hide!" I will never lose someone the same way ever again. Never. 

    Everyone just stood still, unclear about how to react to the normally silent agent's outburst. Amy sighed and nodded. 

    "Okay. We'll find something else to separate us then," she smiled. He blinked. He blinked twice. 

    "Okay? Just like that?" Shadow asked, not believing what he had just heard. 

    "You understand the emeralds better than anyone else I know. If you're not comfortable with it, then we won't do it." 

    Maybe it was their new mental link or she was just close enough to see it, but Amy saw the tiniest hint of a grateful smile before it disappeared. For the first time ever, she thought her ebony companion was just a little bit attractive, but she brushed the thought away. Afterall, she was supposed to love Sonic, not his carbon twin. 

   While she talked with the two brothers, Shadow took the chance to observe her, and he briefly thought that she was just a little cute. She wasn't flirty or showy like Rouge. She was sincere and pretty in a different way than he had ever seen. He blinked a few times to clear his mind before she could hear what he was thinking. 

    "Where should we stay until this is settled?" he asked. In all honesty, he didn't want to stay at her house alone, and he didn't want her finding out where he lived, not even Rouge knew that information. 

   "You guys can stay here," Tails offered, and Sonic agreed, "That way we won't have to hunt you down if I make any progress with my machine." 

             "It's fine with me. Shadow?"

        "I guess it's settled then. We'll stay here until this is fixed." 

    "All right! Party in the house!" Sonic cheered. 

     "Shadow, I need to get some stuff from my house," Amy said, and he nodded. And before she could get another word out, he hoisted her into his arms bridal and skated out of the house. 

    "EEK! SHADOW!" she screamed, making him wince and fold his ears. In the distance, they could hear Sonic and Tails laughing. 

    "Something tells me this is gonna be a long couple of days," the older brother smirked. 

                   "Totally," Tails agreed.