Chapter Text
The speeding passenger train whipped across the city landscape, zooming through patches of townships and the countryside. The snow kept falling, piling higher and higher.
Silver’s face was practically glued to the window, watching every moment.
Tails’ voice broke Silver out of his thoughts. “Team Dark Headquarters! I’m so excited to visit!”
Silver pulled his face off the glass and wiped his muzzle, “They’ll be pretty surprised, that’s for sure!”
In a matter of minutes, the train pulled into its station at Westopolis. Silver pulled Tails along, weaving around the long legs of humans passing by.
The two zipped up the stairs to the roof.
“We’ll be there in no time. Watch this!” Silver spread his arms apart, the cuffs on his wrists humming as the brilliant cyan light of his psychokinesis enveloped them both. Tails felt himself lift off the ground without propelling his tails. He stared down at Silver’s boots, glowing with energy.
Silver got a running start off the roof, Tails floating by his side. The hedgehog sliced through the thick wintry air, unaffected by the wind. In a second, they had cleared their way across three more roofs.
“Woah!” Tails’ exclamation stopped Silver, “How are you doing this?”
Silver took a second to readjust the cuffs on his boots. “Teleport dash.” He replied, offering no other explanation.
Tails’ forehead wrinkled slightly, “Oka-” Silver teleport dashed again before he could finish, dragging him along.
At last, Silver came to a halt, standing on the covered porch of a luxurious top floor apartment. As Tails shook his head and gathered his wits, Silver scooped snowballs from along the banisters.
The hedgehog sucked in his lower lip, softly tapping on the door. Tails watched in anticipation.
The door creaked open, the chain still keeping it secure. Shadow peeked out.
Silver swung the snowball, ducking out of view as it smacked Shadow in the face.
Shadow closed the door.
Tails shrugged as his ears drooped. “He just doesn’t want to play, I guess.”
Just then, the door burst open and a huge robot clanked out.
“WHAT MANNER OF COMBAT ARE YOU PARTICIPATING IN?!” Omega boomed. His mechanical voice showed little emotion, but Silver could still sense some form of excitement.
Silver hollered back to match Omega’s volume, “WE’RE HAVING A SNOWBALL FIGHT!” With that, he hopped onto the stair rail, grinding down to the small, clear field beside the massive penthouse.
Tails followed suit, propelling himself down. Omega lumbered forward, losing his footing on the steps and rolling all the way down.
“HAVE NO CONCERN FOR ME.” Omega called out between bumps and thuds. “I AM DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND IMMENSE PHYSICAL FORCES.”
Silver laughed as he hurried to pack snow into balls. Tails joined in, but he ran up to Omega once the robot had finished tumbling down.
Tails began to explain. “So, in a snowball fight you-”
“UNDERSTOOD.” Omega didn’t let him finish. “I HAVE ACCESS TO DATABASES CONTAINING INFORMATION ON LOCAL CULTURE. PREPARE TO BE DEFEATED.”
Tails bared his teeth playfully, “I’m already prepared… To defeat you!” He giggled as he hurried off to the little mound of snowballs Silver had made.
The two threw ball after ball while Omega stood, calibrating himself to acclimate to the snow.
“YOU ARE CHEATING.” Omega stated, but otherwise he did not move. A few more snowballs splattered against his shiny red frame.
Suddenly, Omega bowed forward, his engine whirring as he packed snow into his arm cannons.
“CHEATERS SHALL BE PUNISHED!” Omega blared, firing his cannons in rapid succession. Silver and Tails hit the ground, rolling out of the way as snowballs pelted the ground hard enough to send the fresh snow flying back up into the air.
Omega’s top half swiveled around, snowballs spattering against every surface as they whipped through the air.
Silver and Tails scrambled to their feet, mouths full of snow, barely able to stand as another round of snowballs battered them. They spit out the snow, laughing.
“PUNISHMENT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FUN. CEASE LAUGHTER.” Omega demanded, stopping to reload his ammunition.
Silver looked at Tails.
Tails looked at Silver.
They squealed at the top of their lungs, heaving laughter, holding onto their knees.
Omega stomped up to them, his shadow looming overhead.
He dropped a giant snowball on them, their legs sticking out of the snow pile.
Their muffled giggles came from underneath the pile.
As Silver sat up, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He stood up quickly, brushing himself off to see what it was.
“Shadow!” Silver exclaimed, his ears perking up.
“Shadow?” Tails wiggled his way out of the snow mound.
Standing before them was the one and only ultimate lifeform, tightly bundled in a bright green Christmas sweater embroidered with red nutcrackers and white snowflakes, a flannel scarf, and to Silver’s surprise, fuzzy red sweatpants.
He never wears pants. Silver mused. Must be something serious.
Shadow tossed a wadded ball of clothes at Silver. His voice came commanding. “Put this on before you freeze and die along with your brain cells. You look pathetic, shivering like that.”
Silver wasn’t even aware of his shivering. But he did recall feeling so numb that snowballs hurled at terminal velocity didn’t bother him.
He looked over Shadow again. At the nutcrackers woven on his shirt. One of them seemed to have crossed eyes.
Silver looked down and thought to himself. Do I really look pathetic w-
“Silver.” Shadow’s voice snapped him back into reality. “Stop staring at me and put the damn sweater on!”
Silver hurriedly obliged, adding, “I guess it is a condemned sweater.” He couldn’t make out what the pattern was supposed to be, but colorful threads were sticking out everywhere.
Shadow rubbed his temples, “That’s because you put it on inside out.”
Silver paused for a moment. “Oh.” He slid it down his legs and adjusted it. “I meant to do that.” He said awkwardly. “It’s supposed to be funny.”
“AND THE PERFECT DISTRACTION!” Tails and Omega shouted simultaneously, jumping up into the air and hurling more snowballs at the two hedgehogs.
Shadow and Silver ducked out of the way, shielding their faces. A smattering of snow covered their backs as they crawled away.
“Never thought I’d see those two team up against us.” Shadow remarked as he leaned against a light post. Tails and Omega were still pelting them, but with his back turned, they only managed to land a few hits on his quills.
Silver’s eyes glinted with determination and psychokinetic power. “I have a plan.”
Shadow smirked. “So you do. Let’s see if it’ll work.”
Tails snorted a chuckle as he and Omega ran up to the light post to nail Shadow again. The fox’s mischievous grin went slackjaw when he saw that Shadow was gone.
“He was just here!” Tails whined, looking up at Omega.
In response, Omega just rotated his head, checking his surroundings. Before he could finish, a snowball splat against the top of his head.
They fixed their gazes up, and they heard a soft, low laugh, but saw no one.
Tails fell back against Omega as four more snowballs smacked his shoulder, each one closer to his face than the last.
The fox squinted, noticing a thin, translucent line of cyan glow zipping around them.
“Fall back!” Tails barked the command like a sergeant, thrusting his fist into the air. “They have us surrounded!”
“I SEE NO NEED FOR DRAMATIC ROLEPLAY.” Omega replied, but he followed Tails anyway.
The snow on the ground flew up again, spinning wildly and clouding Tails’ vision as he searched for a spot to plan.
Silver and Shadow laughed as they flew in a spiral around the two, releasing a barrage of snowballs.
Omega shoved more snow into his cannons, firing back. Tails’ world swirled into pure white as the wet splatter of snow grew louder and louder.
Shadow psychokinetically hovered out of Omega’s line of fire. His eyebrows lowered deviously.
“I’m over here, Omega.” He flashed his teeth at his sparring mate.
The robot enabled his boosters, melting the snow beneath him as he rose to meet Shadow. Silver flicked his wrist and Shadow whirled over Omega’s head, unleashing more snowballs.
The robot turned sharply, firing more snowballs from his cannon. Shadow slipped around them until he landed in front of Silver.
“Any more ideas?” Shadow asked, noticing that Tails was rather quietly playing with a mound of snow.
Silver tapped his chin. “Honestly, I just wish I could throw snowballs with my psychokinesis. But water’s always been too hard for me to grab.”
Shadow’s eyes darted back and forth, scanning the area. “Hm. Does that mean you can’t grab something that has water on it?”
Silver shook his head. “I can grab things that are wet and- Oh! I see what you mean! We ca-” A volley of snowballs struck him in the face as he fell to the ground, unable to finish his sentence.
Shadow glanced back. Tails was launching snowballs with his propeller tails while Omega reloaded. The hedgehog grabbed his fallen comrade, running to the stairwell.
“Now Silver!” Shadow stood Silver up onto his feet.
Silver stood for a moment, taking in his surroundings. Tails and Omega turned, noticing their hiding place.
“NOW SILVER!” Shadow urged. He was really getting into it.
Tails and Omega charged, their snowballs flying in a fury towards the two hedgehogs. Silver held his hands out and flexed his fingers. More snowballs fell onto Shadow and Silver, but that didn’t bother them, no, they had something better.
Tails’ ears flicked when he noticed Silver was undeterred by the snowy onslaught.
“Is that…. A car alarm?” He and Omega looked up.
“NO. IT IS A CAR.” Omega answered as a car, glowing with psychokinetic energy and caked in a foot of snow, levitated above them.
Silver tilted the car downwards, all the snow sliding down and covering Omega and Tails. Underneath the pile, Omega’s machinery whirred and and clicked while Tails poked his nose out and wiggled it.
“Ha! No one can defeat me!” Silver cheered.
Shadow cleared his throat.
“And Shadow!” Silver added.
Just then, a clear, deep, but feminine voice cut through the icy air.
“Well, what do we have here?” Rouge the bat perched an elbow on the banister and leaned forward to look down. Her velvety red trench coat hugged her figure and made her stand out against the cold gray landscape.
“WE ARE ENGAGED IN COMBAT.” Omega buzzed, still under the snow pile.
Tails punched out a hole in the dense snow and raised a finger to clarify, “We’re having a snowball fight.”
“And that’s why you have my car in the air?” Rouge’s eyes settled onto Silver. She rested her chin on her hand. “You weren’t going to take me for a ride?” She chided playfully.
Silver’s face flushed, but he didn’t respond. He shook as he concentrated on settling Rouge’s car back down into a parking space before letting it go.
Shadow scowled and spoke before Silver could respond. “It was my idea. I know you wanted me to sweep off the windshield and warm it up so you can go to your meeting.”
“How sweet.” Rouge cooed. She lifted one leg over the banister and let herself fall, catching the wind with her wings and fluttering down like a sugar plum fairy. “Thanks, boys.”
Shadow scoffed. Boys? I was the one who told Silver to pick her car up. He thought, ignoring the fact that he didn’t tell Silver what to pick up at all.
Rouge smacked the dense snow pile with her gloved hand and then with her purse. “Don’t let a little snow block up your sensors.” She smiled warmly at Omega as the robot stared blankly ahead, re-calibrating.
She then grabbed Tails by the hand and pulled him out. “Foxes always look so cute and silly when they dive in the snow.” She commented quietly. Tails’ face scrunched in offense.
Rouge checked her purse before opening the car door. As she settled into the seat, she crossed her legs and looked up at the boys.
“Go back inside and warm up. I’d hate to treat just a bunch of icicles to dinner when I get back.” She directed it at everyone, but she looked into Shadow’s eyes and winked.
She tucked her legs back into the car, slamming the door shut and rolling out of the parking space.
“Goodbye, everyone!” She waved through the open window, blowing a kiss.
“Bye Rouge!” Silver waved back.
Shadow quietly elbowed Silver out of the way of Rouge’s invisible kiss. “Be safe, Rouge.”
“SNOW IS VERY COLD.” Omega boomed.