FOR YOUR HEART-BOOM

☆Ch25

The next morning Sonic woke up just at the right moment to see Shadow leaving the cave, so he quickly got up and followed him, trying to be as quiet as possible. However, the boy did not get too far, because Shadow just quickly looked around before vanishing to thin air again, luckily not noticing Sonic hidden behind the near palm tree trunk.
"What the... ugh, this is weird already," Sonic spoke to himself and came out of his hiding spot to move over to the spot Shadow stood on, seeing the foot prints in the sand he thoughtfully cupped his chin with his thumb and index finger while frowning at the prints. He tried to think about any reason, why Shadow was acting still so strange and mysterious.
"Soniiiic! Sonic!" Sticks' sudden calls snapped him out of the thoughts, as he turned to face the crazy badger and braced himself for the possible collision, which did not come, as Sticks skidded to a halt right in front of him, now panting heavily due to running all the way over here.
"What's up?" Sonic raised a brow, resting his arms loosely by his sides.
"Eggman's up! Come on!" Sticks exclaimed and Sonic did not waste even a second as he immediately speeded off towards the village with Sticks trying to catch up on him, but she was too slow, plus still panting from the run before, so all she could do was just trotting back towards the village.

"Hihiahhaha- oh! About time you showed up! Aren't you supposed to be fast?" Eggman laughed menacingly at the way he scared many villagers by sending the badniks all around the place and trying to hold them hostage here, but then mocked the blue hedgehog, who landed right on the front part of his eggmobile.
"What the heck are you doing here, Egghead! Leave the people be!" Sonic growled at him while grabbing the villain by his collar, but got harshly knocked off of the vehicle, doing a backflip he landed on his feet skillfully while gritting his teeth.
"And why should I do that, when they're so easily manipulated? Besides, didn't they try to cast you out?" Eggman shrugged, not caring about anyone but himself.
"Urghh, how do YOU even know about that!" Sonic hissed angrily this time, when he got reminded of the way the villagers treated him after his little chaos blast.
"I have my ways," Eggman smirked at the blue hero and ordered the badniks to rather focus on the only target now. Sonic soon got surrounded by robots of various sizes and shapes, but luckily also accompanied by Knuckles, Amy and Tails. He just wished Shadow to be here as well and help them fight the robots off, but well, they have been doing this for years without the hybrid around, so they won't give up even this time. One of the bee-bots started the battle by attacking first, Sonic dodged the lasers it shot at him and using his super-speed he spindashed the flying bot before fighting the other badniks as well, along with his friends, who also got targetted by the badniks. Eggman watched this show for a while before slowly backing off to find some hideout, where he activated his wrist device and talked to someone through it.

Sonic and his friends were doing their best to keep the badniks away from the villagers and eventually Knuckles punched the very last one, a bee-bot, which he smashed against the ground and stomped on it to make sure, that it's properly defeated.
"Yay! Another great job done!" Tails exclaimed happily and the villagers celebrated yet another day saved by Sonic and the gang.
"We're still sorry for how we treated you," one of the mobians said to Sonic genuinely and he just waved it off with his hand.
"Nah, don't worry about it, I won't hold any grudges against any of you. It was my fault, after all," he sounded just as genuine and then faced his friends.
"Wait.. where's Eggman?" he frowned afterwards and looked all around, not seeing the villain anywhere.
"Did he just flee?" Amy raised a brow.
"That's not like him at all," Tails piped up while rubbing his head in confusion.
"Maybe... this is... oof, an ambush!" Sticks exclaimed, as she finally caught up on the others, leaning her hands against her knees she stood there in bent forward position and panted heavily, trying to catch her breath.

"Now that makes sense," Amy agreed, as it really looked like an ambush. Eggman trying to distract them, so none of them would notice, what he is doing in the background. As everyone debated, what in the world was this supposed to mean, Shadow suddenly showed up using his teleportation, which brought a happy smile to Sonic's face, the hero having a strong urge to hug him, but rather restrained from it, when he saw Shadow's usual scowl on his face.
"Shadow? Is.. everything alright?" he asked him carefully and slowly approached him. Shadow looked first at Sonic's friends before focusing on the hero himself with unreadable expression in his eyes. It wasn't certain, what the hedgehog was thinking.
"If you're done here, I'd like to... show you something," Shadow spoke calmly to him and even smiled in soft manner, which perfectly played on Sonic's heartstrings, the blue hedgie smiling too and instantly nodding in agreement. He looked at his friends, as if asking them for permission to leave.
"It's fine, Sonic, go have some fun," Amy smiled at him.
"Enjoy the time together," Tails patted Sonic's shoulder in supportive manner, having a date with Zooey planned for this evening.
"See ya, pal," Knuckles waved him goodbye.
"Don't you dare hurt him, Shadow!" Sticks warned the ebony hedgehog before hugging Sonic shortly.
"Have a great time," she supported him as well and Sonic thanked them and smiled at them before facing Shadow.
"Alright, lead the way," he encouraged him and got surprisingly grabbed by his hand as Shadow started walking away, leading him somewhere random. Or, for him it seemed random.