The Ultimate Lifeforms

Awakening

For the second time, Sonic awoke in the medical bay.
His vision was much clearer now, but his headache was replaced with a fire-like burning feeling running down his chest to his stomach. He was not restrained this time around, and found his hands free to move about.
Sonic moved his arms to test his strength, but quickly stopped as the pain in his chest intensified, reaching an unbearable level.
"Aargh!" he shouted, closing his eyes to stop the tears while dropping his arm back to his side. When he opened his eyes again, Shadow was standing over him, a look of concern over his face.
"Are you in pain?" he asked.
Forgetting about his current predicament, Sonic glared at him. "No, not at all! Everything's fine and dandy! Sunshine and roses! I've never been better!" Ignoring the fact it was making his pain worse, Sonic turned over so his back was all Shadow could see.
Choosing to ignore Sonic's sarcasm, Shadow continued. "Just tell me what's wrong."
Sonic remained silent.
Shadow was slightly put off by Sonic's reaction. The fact that the hedgehog before him was actually related to him was still having a tough time registering in his mind along with pretty much everything else he knew about him.
"Come on, Faker. Let me help!" Shadow said in frustration. The one being left in the world who was his family (that he actually liked) was angry with him, and rightfully so. Even though he had told him what would happen, what he did was still wrong.
"You can help by getting out of my sight!"
Now Shadow was beginning to get a little irritated at Sonic's childish behavior. The great hero of Mobius had resorted to using the silent treatment as if he were three years old.
"I'm just trying to help you. What's wrong with you?"
Sonic tuned himself over once more so he was facing Shadow again. "What's wrong with me?!" he shouted, which wasn't very loud, given his present state. "What's wrong with you?! You're working for Eggman! Again!" Sonic gripped the metal rails lining the hospital and pulled himself up so he was at eye level with Shadow. "What do you think you're going to accomplish? How many times have we gone through this?"
"You think I want to work for him? He's the only one who can help me right now! I told you, I'm only doing this to get the pages to Professor Gerald's journal!"
"Help you?! The only person Eggman helps is himself!" Supporting himself with one arm, Sonic grabbed his chest and closed his eyes, unable to ignore the pain any longer.
Shadow's eyes widened as he saw the stitches on Sonic's chest begin bleeding. "Sonic, you're bleeding!" He reached over and firmly grasped the cobalt hedgehog's shoulders. "You need to calm down. I promised you that I'd get you out of this, and I will." He tried to ease Sonic back into the bed, but the stubborn hedgehog refused.
Sonic brought his arm back to his chest. He felt his stomach churning and immediately leaned over the hospital bed. Within seconds, the floors were covered with vomit.
Knowing the vomiting probably took the last ounces of energy out of Sonic, Shadow grabbed his shoulders again and successfully eased him back into a laying position. He would have propped Sonic up on his back, to help ease the nausea he was feeling, but that would have only put stress on the stitches, which were still leaking blood, so he settled for laying him completely on his back.
Working quickly, Shadow pulled some clean towels out from one of the cabinets in the room and used it to wipe the vomit off of Sonic's face.
Sonic was dazed. He had never before felt so exhausted in his life. Breathing itself seemed to take too much energy.
Not knowing what else he could do, Shadow ran calling, "I'll be back!" to Sonic as he was out the door. He sped through the ARK, searching for the one who had caused his little brother all this pain.

He found Eggman in the ARK's workshop, tinkering away on some machinery.
"Doctor, Sonic is bleeding!" Shadow burst out as he almost broke the sliding doors down in his rush to get into the workshop.
"Eh?" Eggman looked up from his machine. "Oh, right. He'll be fine. Minor bleeding from stitches is normal after a surgery."
"He's in pain."
Eggman waved, indicating the matter wasn't important to him. "He'll be fine. He is an Ultimate Lifeform after all, as I'm sure you know by now. You know what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." As he was about to continue working, he felt a crushing grip on his shoulder.
"He needs care. Now." Shadow's voice may have been calm and collected, but the fierce look in his blood-red eyes left no room for argument.
"All right, all right, no need to be like that." Eggman casually brushed Shadow's hand off, not frightened by the implied threat at all. "Follow me."
The two walked together towards the medical bay, though Shadow wished Eggman would pick up the pace.
"Why so nice to Sonic all of a sudden?" Eggman asked tauntingly. "Taking your role as 'big brother' seriously? Or, perhaps, you found out that he's the Crown Prince of Mobotropolis?"
It was no surprise to Shadow that Eggman had read through the journal. It did belong to his grandfather after all, making him the rightful successor to it. Had that not been the case, Shadow would have simply taken the journal and not had to go through any of this trouble. Then again, there was the issue of him not knowing where it was. What did surprise him, however, was that Eggman figured out that he knew Sonic's darkest secret.
"Giving me the cold shoulder, eh? Fine, be that way."
Once they arrived, Eggman began pulling more supplies out while Shadow stood by Sonic.
Sonic must have either fallen asleep or fallen unconscious as he was unresponsive with his eyes shut when Shadow called his name.
As Eggman seated himself on a stool next to Sonic's bed he took the hedgehog's arm and held it out, preparing to give him an injection.
Shadow quickly put his hands on top of the syringe, stopping it before it could be injected into Sonic.
"What is this?" he asked, wanting to know exactly what Eggman was doing.
"This is just a pain reliever." Eggman continued his work, finding the proper vein in Sonic's arm and emptied the contents of the syringe into it. Next, he cut the bandages off of Sonic's torso and gently wiped the blood off of them. "This," He showed Shadow a white tube of cream. "is antibiotic ointment. It will stop the stitches from getting infected. It's going to need to be applied every time his bandages are changed." After applying the ointment and putting a fresh set of gauze around the stitches, Eggman handed a bottle of pills to Shadow. "If he wakes up and still feels nauseous have him take one of these every four to six hours."
Shadow took the bottle from Eggman, reading the label to be sure it wasn't some kind of poison.
"Now," Eggman stood up, removing the sterile gloves from his hands and tossing them into the garbage can. "If you don't mind, I need to get back to my work. The Eggman Empire isn't going to build itself." Just as he was halfway out the door, he stopped, hearing Shadow call his name.
"Doctor!"
"Yes?"
"If you value your life, I recommend you don't do anything like this again."
Eggman couldn't help but be amused, seeing Shadow be protective of Sonic. Just two weeks ago, the ebony hedgehog couldn't have cared less about him. "Don't worry; I got the information I needed. Besides, it was a good thing I did. Give it a week or two, and he would have been in a lot more pain than he is now."
Shadow wanted to question him further, but the doors had already shut behind him. He turned back to Sonic and sat beside him on the bed.

(Seven Days Later)
"Tails!" Amy banged on the door to the fox's workshop in Mystic Ruins. "Tails, open this door up right now!"
Inside the workshop, Tails groaned. He was way too comfortable in his bed at the moment.
"I know you're in there, Tails!" Amy continued calling from outside. "Wake up!"
Throwing off the covers, Tails rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and headed downstairs. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" he yelled back to Amy. "Don't break my door down!" He scurried down the stairs in hopes of not having to replace yet another door destroyed by Amy's Piko Piko Hammer.
"Tails!" Amy almost shouted as soon as the door opened. "Where is Sonic?"
Tails glanced at the clock on the wall. "Amy, it's five in the morning. Couldn't this wait?"
"Tails, I'm serious! Have you seen Sonic these past few days? At all?"
Now that he thought about it, Shadow had told him that he and Sonic would be gone for a while, though he didn't say where they were going or how long they'd be gone. He knew that Amy didn't really trust Shadow, so he decided to try stalling. "Amy, you know Sonic sometimes leaves for a few days at a time. He's probably off running on the other side of the planet right now."
Amy knew this was true, after all Sonic enjoyed his freedom. "I know, but... I just feel like something is wrong. I mean, neither Eggman nor any other baddy has attacked in a while either, and it's just raising some alarm bells in my head."
Tails thought it over for a moment. "Well, it is weird that no one has used Sonic's absence as an excuse to attack like they usually do." To be hones, he still didn't fully trust Shadow, especially if he had something to do with Sonic's disappearance. "And, well... Shadow did tell me that he and Sonic would be gone for a while, although he didn't say where they were going or how long they'd be gone."
"What?!" Amy practically screamed it. "Shadow took him?!"
"Amy, Shadow moved in with us two weeks ago. Didn't you hear about that?" Tails asked.
"No!" Amy said, shocked. "What if Shadow kidnapped him and is torturing him?!"
"Amy, I think you're overreacting. Shadow has been really nice lately," Tails assured her. "Although, I admit that I still don't fully trust him. We can check with Knuckles; he might know where they went."
"Yes, thank you Tails!" Amy wrapped her arms around him, giving him a bone-crushing hug.
"Amy... please... can't... breathe..."

After convincing Amy to wait until sunrise, and managing to get a few more hour of sleep, Tails was up and ready to journey through the jungle.
"I still can't believe you wanted to wait until morning," Amy said as they flew, in the Tornado, to the ancient echidna city.
"Come on, Amy. Do you really think it would be a good idea to wake up Knuckles? Have you ever seen him when he doesn't get enough sleep?"
Amy knew Tails was right. There was no way any progress would be made if Knuckles got into one of his tempers again. "Fair enough."
After clearing the jungle, the two walked towards the rickety wooden bridge, connecting the Ancient Shrine to the rest of Angel Island.
"Hey, Knuckles!" Amy called out as they got closer.
Knuckles cracked an eye open from his spot in front of the Master Emerald. He had been awake for an hour at this point, only resting because he had finished training for the morning. "Amy, Tails." He stood up and climbed down the steps of the shrine to greet them.
"Hi, Knuckles," Tails began. "Sorry to show up so early, but we-"
"Sonic's been missing for a whole week, Shadow took him, and we have no idea where he is, so we were wondering you had seen him around!" Amy said quickly in one breath, cutting Tails off.
"DID YOU SAY SHADOW TOOK HIM?!" Knuckles spat.
"Yeah. Shadow told me that he and Sonic would be gone for a while," Tails informed the red echidna.
Knuckles calmed down a bit. "He didn't tell you where they were going?!"
"No," Tails responded. "He said that he didn't know how long they'd be gone and that I'd have to take care of myself until they got back, but he'd check on me every once in a while."
"Do you really think that Shadow is trustworthy?" Knuckles growled. "I mean, he's not the friendliest guy in the world and he doesn't really make the best decisions."
"Well, he has been awfully nice in the week that he's been living with us, especially to Sonic, and Sonic seems to trust him, but..." Tails trailed off. "I still don't exactly trust him myself."
"Well, Shadow is our best bet of finding Sonic, so..." Amy started.
"If we find Shadow, we'll find Sonic," Knuckles finished. Tails nodded in agreement. In a flash, the three Mobians were off, sprinting through the jungle.