x
Ms. Vanilla and the new librarian were standing at the doors to the library chatting about who knows what with smiles on their faces. Meanwhile, Sonic was gradually giving up the desire to live.
Okay, maybe he was just being dramatic, but why did they need to have three book sources? He had already gathered enough material from his three online sources to compose five essays.
Just in case you thought maybe you missed a chapter, no, this is where I'm starting. It's called "in medias res", beginning a story or chapter of a story in the midst of the plot and therefore bypassing exposition. I use it a ton myself, so if you've been reading my stories for a while now you've witnessed it in my writing before, you just might not even know about it.
Sonic, instead of accepting his defeat and getting to work, set out to find someone to do his work for him like the worthless slug he was. Okay, so that was a little uncalled for. Anyway, that's when he found Amy in the nonfiction section.
There the pink hedgehog was, crouched in front of a bookshelf, half the height of the shelves on either side of it, in the middle of the room. She was thumbing through the books on the top shelf, most likely searching for her three sources, as well.
"Hey, Amy," Sonic said, attempting to sound friendly.
It looked like Amy jumped in surprise, but it was actually in excitement at the fact that her hero, Sonic, had spoken to her, especially in such an amicable manner. She spun around quickly with a "yeah?".
"This essay thing is kinda tough, huh?" Sonic remarked.
"Maybe, but I actually really enjoy the research part," she responded, looking thoughtful.
"Oh," Sonic said next, assuming a surprised expression. "Then maybe you'd want to assist me in finding my three sources?"
"Of course!" Sonic pumped his fist in triumph. "But after I find mine." His mood plunged back down into despair.
Amy turned back to the shelf and resumed her search. There was no way the Sonic the Hedgehog was going to stick around that long. His eyes once more traveled the room in search of someone to find his book source- sorry, look for his book sources with him.
Then, to his right, Sonic spotted his salvation.
The freestanding bookshelves in the center of the room made up the nonfiction section of the library. They were all about a foot and a half taller than Sonic, minus the row of shorter shelves between the rows where Amy was. There were two rows of the taller shelves on either side of these.
The olive-colored hardcover showed multiple signs of wear from its rounded and mashed corners to its yellowed and crumpled pages. The cover didn't have any art or even the title etched into it. Turning to one of the first pages revealed the title and- well, it wasn't what he was looking for, so he reached out to put it back. However, he didn't get that chance.
"Heya, Shadster!"
Shadow jumped when a rush of blue wind came at him out of nowhere and instead of putting the book back on the shelf, dropped it on the floor. It hit the ground on a corner of its spine and flew open, bounced, then closed and lay flat. Sonic stopped on a dime before he could accidentally step on the book and waved his arms.
"Whoa, uh, sorry, so... Do you want to look for our three book sources together?"
The answer was practically built into his vocabulary at this point. The vocabulary specifically used whenever he spoke with the blue annoyance.
"N-"
"The reason I'm asking you over everyone else is that you're really smart and great at these sorts of things and I'm not." Shadow stopped and blinked, looking confused, probably due to how fast Sonic had spoken just now. "Plus, don't you think that if I failed this, it might affect the class average? In that case, by helping me, you'll be helping yourself and the rest of our class."
Shadow quickly wiped the confused look off his face and snatched the book up off the floor before shoving it back onto the shelf with a grunt. Without looking at the blue buffoon, he said, "I don't care about keeping up the average, but I guess I might as well. I don't like this part of the assignment either, you know. Teaming up with you might make this process go by a lot smoother, not to mention quicker."
He not only didn't care about the class average, but he also didn't even care if he did well. It wasn't like Shadow tried to perform well doing this sort of thing. He wouldn't take pride in something as pointless as schoolwork.
"So is that a yes?" Sonic asked, looking genuinely confused. Was he spacing out already or was he just that dense?
"Y-"
Oh no, that word, the word that wasn't in his vocabulary. He couldn't say that.
"Wh-What about Honest? Where is she? Can't she help you, er, us, in this endeavor?"
"Uh... I guess she could. Wait, did you just say 'us'?" Sonic asked. Shadow ignored him and stomped off in a random direction, evidently feigning deafness. Seeing what Shadow was doing, and also seeing a clear point of attack, Sonic used his incredible speed to his advantage, catching up to his shadowy duplicate and blocking his path.
"However, why spoil the occasion? Who knows when a chance like this will present itself again, or what amazing thing might come out of it? We seldom have any time alone together without you trying to rip my most vital organs out."215Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkL3FKAZ1lq
"What gives you the impression that this encounter will be any different?" Shadow inquired, his eyes wide and enraged, fists clenched at his sides.215Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMIRTQISr8o
Sonic irritably protruded his lips. "Are you threatening me with disembowelment? That isn't exactly PG. Talk about cringe."215Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO896YJGeHQ
"Hey, you were the one who initially mentioned it." Shadow, realizing he couldn't walk any further with his path obstructed like it was, resorted to crossing his arms and turning away.
"E-episode fifty-one," Sonic answered, hesitant. "-of season two." He resumed a more relaxed pose, no longer trying to block someone who wasn't trying to go anywhere anyway. He dropped the fearful look when he realised how pathetic that made him look. "But don't get the wrong idea. I'm not complaining. I like our ill-fated encounters." He laughed and said, "I like the danger."
For some reason Shadow's whole head turned red. "Honest!" he whisper-yelled. Immediately the little, yellow-haired cat ran out from between the rows of shelves next to them and teetered to a stop like some cartoon character imitating one of those door stops that were springs with white rubber caps.
"I totally haven't been watching you both from across the room in order to record this beautiful moment for posterity," she said, saluting. "And that was a Sonic Boom Cubot quote."
Shadow shoved Sonic out of the way and held his hands out as if to beg her. "Please, Honest. Tell me you'll help us find our three book sources."
The author retracted her saluting hand from her forehead, and that's when Shadow realised what she held in her other hand was her ShadowAndroid smartphone. It shone with a pale blue light.
Honest pursed her lips in thought and tapped her chin with a finger. "Hm... I guess I can. I found all my sources at the beginning of the week so I could use the time in the library we would be given to work on other things." She sighed and held her phone up to her face, mashing the lock button. "If I were to read that fanfiction again I would just be torturing myself anyway." She thought back to the desert of fanfictions in the Confrontation and cringed, reliving some past trauma.
Shadow looked at her with concern. "Look, if you need to use this time for planning or something, I totally get it."
"I really don't," Honest told him. "I need a break, so let's get this show on the road." She eagerly sped off towards the back of the library.
Sonic huffed and put his hands on his hips in an attempt to appear cross. "Alright, you have your excuse to escape us being alone together, are you happy?"
Shadow turned towards him with his eyes narrowed in annoyance. "I don't need to be able to put up with you, at least not alone. You act like we're a couple that needs to spend more time together."
"But we do!" Sonic pointed out as if Shadow could possibly see his side of the argument.
"But we're not."
Sonic laughed and swiped his finger beneath his nose. "You wanna be?"
He jumped as Shadow emitted a sudden flash of blue light and disappeared without a trace.
---
It was this sudden event in his dream that jarred Sonic from his sleep. Opening his eyes, he was faced with the lens of a camera.
"Wha?" Sonic stumbled back. Apparently he had fallen asleep accidentally and now a camera was being pointed at his face.
"Sorry, Blue. We're gonna get you out of here," the person holding the camera said.
"Ahem? Did you hear that?" The person moved up above Sonic's cage and disappeared as Mephiles entered the azure hedgy's range of sight.
Sonic quickly wiped the befuddled look off of his face and faked a yawn. "No, I was sleeping," he lied.
"Strange," Mephiles commented, looking around. "It sounded like a camera flash." He thought and then, when the realization came to him, he pretended like he knew it all along. "This building probably has security cameras or something. If they keep waking you up... You know what? I'm not going to do anything to make you more comfortable. You deserve worse than just temporary discomfort, but oh well." Mephiles then threw his hands up and disappeared behind the curtains opposite Sonic's cage once more.
Once the demon left, Sonic chuckled softly, hiding his smile with a hand. "Rouge?"
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