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It was now Monday and, having not been given any directions whatsoever, Honest and Shadow decided their wisest plan of action was to just head to school and go straight to the theater once there. However, there was one implication for which they hadn't planned.
Honest nodded in complete understanding. "So that's our plan," she said finally, a nail-in-the-coffin of sorts for their conversation.
And, just like that, the one implication walked into the room sporting an algebra textbook under one of his arms. "What're you guys discussing over here?"
Sonic "Implication" the Hedgehog had said "discussing" as if it had been something else entirely, and he was only calling it a discussion.
"Just that. Discussing. But it's done now," Honest told him. She then turned to the edgy hedgy beside her with a confused look on her face. "You did tell him, right? About the detention?"
"The what?" Why did Sonic look excited after hearing that?
"Why do you look so excited about detention of all things?" Shadow asked in a very condescending way. Not how Honest would've said it, but whatever. However, Sonic didn't look too offended.
That should've been a question not needing an answer, a rhetorical question, but there was too much attention being drawn to Sonic, so he was forced to say something. "I just like knowing things I shouldn't necessarily know."
"That's stupid."
Honest had to agree with Shadow. "Yeah, that's pretty dumb."
Sonic was about to go into a "my spirit is eternally broken" mode, but was brought back when he realized what was happening. "Oh, you're just calling what I said dumb because you don't like what that implies," Sonic told them, smiling as if he had just solved some age-old question. "I see."
Honest and Shadow looked at each other incredulously before Shadow scoffed loudly and looked away. "And you're slow, too."
"I am? Wow. I learn new things about myself every day."
Honest tilted her head in a confused manner towards Shadow then. He was just egging him on now, wasn't he? It wasn't possible to write a Sonic character off as a stereotype. Especially Shadow. But what was his reasoning? The Honest thing to do was to ask him right then, but the polite thing to do was to ask him in private. How come the Honest thing and the polite thing couldn't be the same thing? Honest wanted to be polite. She sighed solemnly.
"Are you egging him on?" Shadow acted as if he hadn't registered her question at all, his face unchanged. "Or are you just being unreasonably cross as per usual?"
"Why do you feel the need to spoil the fun? Some things just shouldn't be remarked upon," he said finally. Now Honest was even more confused. Her eyes were slightly widened in bewilderment when Sonic pulled her close while laughing, a complete contrast to Shadow's demeanor right then. Shadow felt so distant. It was as if he was just a one-dimensional image hanging in midair.
"Personally, I wish he was just being cross, but I think you may have been right with that first one."
More thoughts flew through Honest's head, but she prioritized them quickly. "Wait, you would rather Shadow be shallow?"
Shadow became all prickly. "What are you idiots even talking about? How come you guys know more than I do about what I'm doing?"
Honest laughed. "Oh! Not shallow, innocent! But seriously, why are you encouraging behavior you despise?"
"We're going to be late for detention. Come on." Shadow began to stomp towards the door, dodging the question. He was awfully good at that. Anyways, they were going to be late if they didn't go right then. So they did.
Once at school, Honest immediately led him to the school theater. She really wasn't too scared, was she? On the other hand, Shadow was using up every little bit of time he had before they arrived just to convince himself that what Rouge had said yesterday was right. He was just being unnecessarily paranoid. He was fretting for absolutely no reason.
However, once the hedgehog and cat had entered the theater and began walking down through the center of the aisles, the sight of some sort of play being set up onstage brought all of his fear and anxiety rushing back.
Mephiles was appearing and disappearing behind the curtains, probably working to set this all up. Strangely enough, he could also see Sonic onstage. He was standing to one side of the set and looking pretty lost. However, once he caught sight of them approaching, he suddenly looked to have found his way, his entire countenance brightening as he rushed to the edge of the stage to meet them.
Honest recognized the others who had been caught skipping class sitting in the front row of seats-- Fiona, Amy, and Scourge. Amy was looking pretty grave, obviously still upset that Honest had gotten her into this mess. Scourge seemed either extremely relaxed or just very bored. Fiona seemed to be waiting patiently, no, eagerly. She was just interested in what was going on.
Sonic plopped down on the edge of the stage, his feet dangling. When the two approached him, he rested on his hands and glanced down at them.
"When Infinite told me Mephiles would give me extra credit if I showed up to help out in detention, I knew it had to be your guys'. I just wonder what I'm doing."
"Speaking of Infinite, where is he?" Shadow asked.
"Up there." Sonic pointed above and behind them. There, in a small room with a cutout for a window, stood said jackal, messing with a large spotlight. Shadow was still turned around watching Infinite when Sonic smiled at the back of his head and asked, "So, what did you guys do to deserve detention?"
"We were caught skipping class by Infinite," Honest told him, turning around quickly.
"Oh, really?" Sonic exclaimed. "I knew that bad-kid side of you would come out eventually."
Shadow "pft"ed and spun to face him. "Oh, please. Don't you remember when I tried to destroy the world in Boom?"
"Oh, yeah, Eggman the Video Game Part Two," Honest said, laughing. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around those last few episodes."
"'Still?!' You know how long ago that was?" Sonic asked, laughing obnoxiously.
Shadow rolled his eyes at their mutual ability to draw a smile from each other at the most unfitting of times. He pointed at something across the stage. "Hey. I think Mephiles is going to say something."
Turning around, both Sonic and Honest noticed said demonic hedgy making his way towards the front of the stage. Sonic rushed to get back where he was. Over his shoulder, he called to them, "Mephiles told me to stand over here! See you when the play starts."
The play. Shadow knew Mephiles was going to have them watch a morbid play he performed for them. But what was Sonic's role in it?
Shadow and Honest went to sit where the others were sitting. Mephiles came to the edge of the stage in front of them. After regarding them all with what Shadow assumed was a serious expression (he kind of always had the same expression what with his lack of a mouth), he explained what was going on.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to detention," the demonic hedgy announced as if he were addressing the audience of a real play. Honest rolled her eyes as obnoxiously as possible. Despite this, Mephiles still didn't seem to understand how little they really cared as he continued. "It is my plan that we are going to perform one of my most favorite pieces, a classic tragedy-" He seemed to laugh rather softly as he said this. "The Death of Sonic the Hedgehog."
The breath hitched in many of their throats. Sonic was the only person who spoke. He was sweating profusely. "The death of 'me'?"
It is a morbid play, Shadow thought.
Mephiles, with a quick movement of his fingers, fished a stapled together, thin paper booklet out of his spines, as well as a small remote. "And this is the definitive version," he added. "None of that 'true love' jazz included." He then pressed a button on the remote and a metal and cylindrical cage was lowered down around Sonic.
Shadow just blew a puff of air and shifted his attention away from the stage and back to Honest. "At what point can I call this unlawful and put an end to this?" he asked.
"Well..." Honest said. Mephiles flipped through his booklet and began pointing to people, instructing them on where to go and what to do. Honest tapped her chin. "As soon as you're sure Sonic is in danger. Death is usually one of the last things to happen in a tragedy. So until then, let's just play along. Perhaps that is all it is."
Although he would very much rather spindash the demon back into oblivion right then and there, the response Shadow had gotten from Rouge last week forced him to have to agree with Honest.
Soundlessly, a figure floated up beside them. "Are you both ready to receive your lines?"
Shadow and Honest both jumped in unison. Mephiles just looked at them with half-lidded eyes. He was used to people jumping in fright when he spoke to them.
"We all need to do our parts if this play is to be a success," Mephiles was saying as he dropped stapled pages of paper into their hands. "Wednesday we will be performing in front of the whole school. I will not have you making a fool out of me at the height of my playwriting career."
Career? Since when did he have one of those? Honest formed a face full of confusion. He was the principal, but what he had established in this school was more of a military occupation than a management position...
Shadow was quickly flipping through the script in no time. When Mephiles saw this, his eyes opened wide. The demon's hand then shot out, grabbing Shadow's wrist and holding it in place so that he could no longer use his hand to flip through the pages of printer paper. Shadow gritted his teeth. "H-Hey! That hurts!"
It really did look like Mephiles was hurting him, seeing as though he was gripping him so strongly with only two fingers. "Uh, stop that!" was all Honest felt she could say.
Mephiles didn't act as if he had heard her. Instead, he kept a steady stare on Shadow as he explained. "Please do not flip through until the end. I want the ending to be a surprise." He kept his grip until the doors to the theater flew open and a small, silver shape began to make its way towards them through the center aisle.
"Mephiles! I- I'm so sorry, I-" It was Silver. He was carrying what looked like a large, brown bag under one arm. Despite the bag's size, its contents seemed to be very light due to Silver not seeming to be encumbered at all by his cargo. Suddenly it was as if the demon's commanding attitude just now had melted away.
"Sil- uh, Silver! You're just in time, actually..."
Silver didn't bother navigating to the chairs where the others were sitting, or even the stairs to get up on stage. Instead, he jumped to a rather unrealistic height in order to land atop the stage and stand in front of Mephiles.
Honest tilted her head as the silver hedgy bowed his. "I'm so sorry I'm late! Please don't extend my sentence!!"
"Sentence"? What did he think this was, prison? Then, Shadow's eyes widened in fear. What if he knew something they didn't?!
"Oh-" Honest fought to turn around with Shadow grasping her shoulders while attempting to hide behind her. "Stop it, Shadow. You're going to embarrass yourself."
Mephiles heard her and turned away from Silver a moment to observe the cowering Ultimate Lifeform. A dark purple cloud began to hover around him as he bowed his head.
"Oh, my. The negative energy radiating from that one is just delightful, isn't it?"
Then, everyone looked at where he was looking. Honest rolled her eyes and puffed out her cheek.
"What did I tell you?" she asked, sounding ashamed.
Sonic's and Silver's expressions were very comparable right now.
"Shadow..." Sonic whispered. Sonic hated to have to rely on Shadow to rescue him, and seeing him right now only added to it. He was really going to... you know..., wasn't he? But... Watching Shadow a little longer... there was still so much he hadn't seen!!
What usually was it that caused Shadow to spring into action?
Of course Honest had to be right about him embarrassing himself. But wasn't the fear of having a less-than-ultimate image what usually caused him to act?
Maybe it didn't cause him to "spring into action", but it did usually earn some sort of reaction from him. His image was definitely very important to him. It was all he had, well, that's at least what he thought. It took someone on the outside to motivate him to do something despite what people think of him, ie., Rouge in '06. This detail about Shadow has existed for a while, actually...
Shadow looked behind him at Honest solemnly- until he realized she was staring right back. When she saw him turn and look at her, her eyes lit up. "Shadow-kun!" Honest exclaimed, her voice echoing in the crowded cafeteria.
Everyone looked at them, and some of them snickered. Shadow felt his ears light up bright red. He rose from his seat and stomped over to the table Honest and the Boom crew were sitting at.
Sticks stood up as soon as he drew near. "Hey! You're not allowed to sit here!"
"I don't want to sit here," Shadow replied through gritted teeth. "I want Honest back." He latched onto the back of Honest's collar and proceeded to drag her to the table.
"Help," Honest said, barely audible. It was a strange scene for a moment, until Shadow's super strength faded. Honest finally got Shadow to let go of her. Shadow then took one glance at her, then one glance at the crowd around them, then he gave up and walked to his seat.
The crowd around them began to dissipate. Honest scrambled to her feet before following Shadow to the table, her tail flying behind her like a ribbon.
"Honest, what did I say about calling me that in public?" Shadow said to her as they got settled at their normal table.
"I'm so, so sorry! I just- it was the first thing I thought of to say!" Honest apologized frantically, waving her hands about. Shadow looked over at her and sighed. (Chapter 15 of {w/Sonic})
Well, he could always make it worse.
"Some Ultimate Lifeform you are!" he suddenly exclaimed. Shadow's head snapped to face him and those glowing red eyes seemed to activate.
Sonic had both his arms and head stuck through the bars on his confinement as he tried to rile Shadow up even more. "How can you ever possibly expect to rescue me if you're cowering in terror like that?"
Shadow squinted hard at him. "What makes you think I was planning on saving you?"
Sonic returned his squint then turned his nose up at him. "Since you planned to 'put an end to this', but were halted by Honest."
Sonic wasn't sure if Shadow knew this, but a look of surprise began to form on his face. Then Honest stepped in front of him again.
"Don't worry, Sonic! We'll figure something out- Huh?"
Shadow pulled her back before Mephiles accidentally stepped on her fingers which were gripping the wooden stage in front of her. In her rush to get between him and Sonic, Honest had gotten too close to the stage. The demonic hedgy occupying it put his hands on his knees and crouched down to look at the person whom he had nearly injured. "Oh! I'm sorry. You were saying something about ruining my first attempt at a playwriting career, were you not?"
Honest turned white and seemed to be about to faint.
Shadow wasn't scared of Mephiles. Or maybe he was. Just a little bit. Anyhow, there was no way he was going to let that monster get away with anything just because he was scared. It wasn't what he was trying to do specifically, it was the principle.
Detention wasn't a prison sentence. How immature would he be if he thought that? No, this was just an event organized by a madman. Though, Shadow wasn't exactly sure which theory was more frightening. A seemingly misplaced voice awakened him from his thoughts.
"Back in the No Zone prison, there was always some wacko thing like this done with the prisoners. The others would spend all week planning how they would take advantage of it to escape, though I never bothered. Didn't they ever think that maybe the warden had already planned for all that?"
The speaker was Scourge. Him, Fiona, and Amy were sitting in the first row of seats.
"Yeah, but they were all degenerates. How did you think they got in prison?" That was Fiona.
Shadow stole a glance at those two, wondering how they could be so calm. Oh, right. They were probably very familiar with this type of setup. However, Amy didn't look so sure of herself. She kept reaching for some unseen thing behind her back, probably her hammer, and watching their whole situation closely.
Oh, yeah. Amy always had her hammer on her. That meant that, even in the middle of a big scene in the play, she could whip out her hammer and smash Mephiles at any time to end this thing. Shadow would have to remember that.
But why couldn't they read the last page of their scripts? They needed to. "Uh, Mephiles, sir?"
The demon's eyes smiled to make up for his lack of a mouth. "Oh, Shadow. What's up?"
What's up is right. His ability to change tone was surprising. When exactly did he learn to do that?
"About our scripts... isn't it important that we read the last page? We need to memorize those lines as well, right?"
"Well, no, actually. Once you get to that point, it should become painfully obvious what you must do."
What did that mean?!
"But just so you're not all tempted... Silver?"
" Y-Yes, Mephy?" Silver asked. Mephiles didn't respond with words. He simply gestured to the "prisoners". "Oh," Silver said, his eyes greater-than and lesser-than signs.
Suddenly the last pages of all their scripts were ripped out by a cerulean glow. The pages gathered in Silver's outstretched hand. Mephiles turned to walk away.
"Put them in your bag." Silver nodded seriously and sat down, unzipping the brown bag he had been carrying and stuffing the pages inside.
"I have given you all the rest of today and tomorrow to memorize and practice your scripts. I expect you in here by the first bell prepared to act."
Suddenly they were all engulfed in an extremely bright light.
"Hey!! What gives?" Shadow heard Amy yell.
"Where's that light-" Shadow began.
"Sorry!" He was cut off. The light was cut as well, and they all turned in the direction of the voice. "I was just testing it." Infinite was still fumbling with the spotlight above the stage. He looked straight down. "Uh, Mephiles? Do you think we have filters in the room below the stage?"
Mephiles sighed loudly. "I'll go check..."
Mephiles floated to the back of the stage. "Look over the scripts while I'm gone."
And that's what they did. Even Silver got his copy of the script and started studying it. Eventually Mephiles and Infinite returned to give them permission to go to lunch, and to lunch they went.
---
A very long chapter to make up for my taking such a long break (is that grammar?). I've been uploading my stories to FanFiction starting with {w/Sonic} and working my way to modern times. However, my internet has recently taken an extended vacation, so I sincerely apologize on its behalf.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRGqe8yOVZk
RANT ALERT (If you have better things to do, you can skip everything past this point)
It's funny, but I've been realizing my own plot this whole story. I remember saying something in {w/Rosy} about how I wanted to bring all the stories together in {Comic Editon} so that I could continue to build off of one point instead of several, but... I haven't been really doing anything to accomplish that. At least, not myself. I just kind of, write, and things come together all by themselves. Sometimes even a little faster than just "when I write", like it's working in the background.
It's kind of weird, but very handy. Especially since the next plot I introduce (though it was kind of already introduced, again, by itself), needs to be chronological. I thought that time didn't really move in this story, but it sort of does. The characters don't graduate, for instance, but school life does end (well, temporarily). I won't spoil anything, though.
Scourge and Honest are kind of connected/related for some reason. It's like a tool used to measure time. This is something that I realized while figuring out the classes and schedules of the supporting characters in {w/Rosy} and {Forces Edition}. Scourge and Honest are very much equal in my story, which may seem strange seeing as though Honest is me, the author, and Scourge is just another Sonic character. However, writing IWGSR really helped explain this to me, and hopefully reading it will explain it to you.
We're working together, and though Shadow's going to argue that we can't completely trust him, remember that I can exert the force necessary to keep him in-check if needed.
But it won't be. He doesn't have to fear me, but he has to and does respect me.
I guess we can't trust him, but I can see it before it happens. And I forgive him.
Rant over. ^w^160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1wabvCauS
