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Day of Trial
Sonic gulps, nerves unusually high for the situation. He fidgets with the helmet in his hands and taps his foot on the floor, staring, but unwilling to go through the doors to the courtroom.
His attention is caught by his partner's hand on his shoulder. His eyes catch on the other hedgehog, clad in a biker suit, complete with the helmet and everything.
The biker takes the helmet from Sonic’s hands and places it on the back of his motorcycle. Bending down, he picks up a heavy box with one hand.
“I will win this case,” the other confirms, nodding meaningfully at Sonic.
Sonic sighs and blinks—hard.
He moves to the side, allowing his lawyer to get to the courtroom. The courtroom doors slam open as the hedgehog stomps into the room. Metal shoes slam onto the ground. Everyone turns to look.
He turns his head to the bandaged Eggman, who gasps and starts sweating bullets. The pathetic man looks at Barker, his lawyer, and shakes his head.
The hedgehog stomps to the other bench in front of the judge and slams a heavy box with papers and electronics in danger of falling out.
The hedgehog reaches up to take off his motorcycle helmet and shakes his quills and gasps echo in the courtroom. He slams his hand onto the table, causing the citizens in the room to flinch.
Sonic strides into the room, overlooked by the citizens, who are too busy looking at Shadow. Eggman glares at the blue hedgehog anyways, Sonic glares back.
“I, Shadow the Hedgehog, will be Sonic the Hedgehog’s lawyer for this case.”
He moves his hand from the table to in front of Sonic in a protective gesture. “Additionally, Doctor Ivo Robotnik, also known as Doctor Eggman.”
The doctor flinches in wide eyed shock.
“I am suing you on behalf of Sonic the Hedgehog!”
One day before
After Eggman’s attack last night, there’s finally some time to sit back and relax for Team Sonic.
Sonic smiles, chewing on the comically large sandwich he and Tails were sharing.
It’s a peaceful day. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and—
“Excuse me, sir. Are you Sonic the Hedgehog?” A brown mobian worriedly asks.
Sonic laughs.
“Ha! Guilty as charged. So what’ll it be, kid?” He grins. “Autograph? You want your picture taken with me?”
He gestures to the sandwich. “Maybe a bite of this comically large sandwich?”
The mobian has a stern face, frowning before handing him a paper. “You’ve been served. Doctor Eggman is suing you.”
Sonic stares at the paper, mind blank for a second.
…
“Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer a bite of the sandwich?”
The mobian walks away.
He blinks.
“…most of it’s gonna go to waste.”
Sonic groans, turning to Tails. “Eggman is suing me?? Nobody’s going to take this seriously!”
Conveniently enough, a camera crew sets up in front of him in a split second. Soar the Eagle stands in front of the bench, clearing his throat to get his entertainer voice.
“It’s the trial of the century that everyone is taking very very seriously. This will ruin the life of whomever loses.”
He grins, turning the camera to Sonic. “Let’s get a statement from the defendant.”
He can’t be serious. Sonic groans in his head but plasters on a grin. “The only thing I’m guilty of is being awesome.”
The eagle switches the camera focus back to him. “You heard it, Sonic says he’s guilty!”
“—Of being awesome!”
“Hey, who’s the news reporter here!”
Sonic groans out loud.
Sonic sighs, looking at the night sky from where he lay on his hammock in his windowless and doorless home. It’s nice. Dark blue filled with bright white stars, lighting up the dark.
He shuffles in his hammock, hugging himself a little. His brown scarf lays on a small desk pushed up against a distant wall. He’s cold.
…He also has to admit… He’s worried about the trial. It’s all so dumb that it feels like a big prank, but… you really just don’t know with the people in their town.
“Faker.”
Sonic flinches up, sitting in his hammock. He turns to the other side and sees a black hedgehog that blends in with the dark shadows of his house.
Rolling his eyes, he lays back down and turns around. “What do you want, Shadow?” It’s more of a statement than a question, with the bland defeated tone the hero uses. It’s unlike him.
The other only stares at Sonic’s back for a few moments. He sighs and shakes his head. “Pathetic.”
Sonic sits up again and glares. “Did you come here in the middle of the night just to insult me?”
Shadow scoffs. “Of course not, but this is such a sorry sight, it brings shame to all hedgehog-kind.”
“So what did you come for?” Sonic yawns and brings his legs up to his chest, leaning his head against them. He raises a brow at the way Shadow’s mouth opens and closes. His rival almost speaks, but shakes his head and takes a deep breath.
“Tell me who your lawyer for tomorrow is,” he orders, sending a look that would’ve caused shivers to go down any other person’s spine. Sonic shivers, but because of the cold. He’s grown used to that stare after the first five times.
“Why.”
Shadow growls and–
Sonic’s eyes widen, trailing to Shadow’s muzzle. It’s… green. He thinks it’s odd for a second, until he realizes that whenever he’s seen Shadow bleed, the blood is green.
He squints his eyes, looking even closer.
…Is Shadow blushing…?!
“Just tell me!” Shadow snaps.
“Hey, chill!” Sonic holds his hands up, the universal sign of surrendering, “I’ll tell you, i’ll tell you.”
The next words seem to come out in slow motion as he says, “My lawyer is Knuckles.”
…
It’s silent, for a total of three seconds.
“You’re trusting that dolt with this trial?!” Shadow yells, raising his hands in fists.
Sonic jumps out of bed, bringing his own fists up, “What’s the problem?! I told you what you wanted to know!”
He pauses and furrows his brows. “Why are you mad about who my lawyer is?? What, are you going to abandon all your plans tomorrow and get me a better lawyer?? What’s the issue, man?”
Shadow’s face contorts into a mix of many emotions (mostly negative), until it finally settles on an expression that makes him look constipated. He cringes and backs down, bringing his fists to his sides again.
Shadow sighs, a deep, heavy, depressed, sigh.
“I’m… going to be your lawyer instead.”
Sonic freezes.
…In his few episodes of fighting Eggman, fighting criminals, and overall saving the day on this island… He’s never had a situation like this before.
Shadow’s standing in front of him, a look of disgust plastered on, but his eyes show resolve. Resolve to help him win the case against Eggman.
Sonic blinks, putting his hands down too. He stands awkwardly, staring at Shadow who does the same.
“Um… Yeah, sure.” Sonic sighs. His life is literally like a reality show. “What could go wrong?”
“Nothing.” Shadow says immediately. His face is set to a neutral look as he stares Sonic in the eyes and raises a hand to his heart. “I will win this case, and bring glory to all hedgehog’s. I will show everyone why I am the Ultimate Lifeform.”
Sonic blinks. He rubs his eyes. He blinks again, tired.
“Yeah, sure, go ahead.”
He could care less.
The hero turns around to his hammock again, he gets ready to hop in and sleep again–
When he feels a hand keeping him in place. He looks up at Shadow. The two hedgehog’s share the same annoyed glare.
“Just where are you going,” Shadow demands, a growl on the edge of coming out.
“To bed. You woke me up in the middle of the night!”
Shadow rolls his eyes. “You weren’t even asleep, you were staring at the sky for hours.”
Sonic twitches. “...creepy. Anyways, what do you want now?”
Shadow blankly says, “We’re going to collect evidence. You’re coming with me to help.”
“What are we doing here?? What evidence are we gonna get from Eggface’s lab in the middle of the night…?” Sonic rubs his eyes. Shadow snaps his fingers in front of his face, jolting the blue blur awake.
“There’s sounds coming from the other side, a creaking.”
“How are you even hearing that?”
Shadow turns to him, unimpressed. “I am the Ultimate Lifeform. I am able to hear things lower beings like you can’t.” The hedgehog then runs to the backside of Eggman’s island layer, keeping his steps quiet.
Sonic rolls his eyes, but follows along. Once the two get to a corner, Shadow stops, raising his hand. He carefully leans forward to peek at what’s happening beyond the wall. Sonic does the same, eyes widening at–
…Eggman pushing Orbot and Cubot on the swings in what seems to be a movie set. There’s a light casting the area in a glow that just almost looks like the sun.
Sonic watches as Shadow pulls a camera out of his quills and starts recording the odd scene.
“How is this evidence, Shads?”
Shadow turns and glares, but quickly sets his gaze on Eggman again. “...The doctor sued you. He claimed that you brutally attacked him and made him unable to walk or move his head. However, as we can see, he is walking and moving his head just fine.”
Sonic brightens. “Of course! Shadow, you’re a genius!” He leaned in for a side hug, like what he does to Tails after the fox makes a new invention.
Shadow pushes him aside, careful to keep the camera filming the scene ahead of them. “Shut it you moronic idiot…! We’re not trying to get caught.” He whisper-yelled.
Sonic nods his head, and mimes zipping his lips shut.
Shadow shakes his head and rolls his eyes, looking back to Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot. They seem to finish, starting to pack everything up. He stops recording, putting the camera into his quills.
Sonic tilts his head in question. Were they done? Or was there still more to investigate? Shadow shook his head. Sonic frowned. There was still more to investigate.
They stay there for a few minutes until Eggman comes out of his lair, riding his eggmobile into the village.
Shadow grabs onto Sonic’s wrist and they disappear in a flash of bright blue light, that thankfully Eggman didn’t see.
Sonic’s vision blurs, he loses his footing, being held up only by Shadow's hands that hold onto his shoulders. His stomach twists as he wraps his arms around it. “Warn a guy next time, will you…”
Shadow huffs and turns his head to the side. “Fine.”
The dark hedgehog starts walking off, in the direction of the stores in the village. Sonic follows along, ignoring the nausea that clings onto him.
“So what’re we looking for here?”
Shadow doesn’t reply and stops in front of a warehouse. Sonic recognizes it from where Eggman sometimes gets his supplies from. If he remembers correctly, one time Eggman stole helium from it.
He follows Shadow to the door, frowning when Shadow twists the knob and pulls, but the door doesn’t budge.
“Hnngggh!!!” Shadow grunts as he starts grinding his heels down into the ground, pulling with all his might. The door doesn’t budge a bit.
Sonic blinks, looking at the door Shadow tries to open, and the electronic lock that is stationed right beside the doorknob.
Shadow starts to glow golden and his quills rise up, before Sonic knocks his fist on his head.
“There’s an electronic lock.” He points out, blankly. Shadow pauses and stares at Sonic like he’s grown a second head. He turns his head to the glowing keypad beside the doorknob and swiftly punches it, exposing its delicate wiring.
Sonic snickers, “A shame to all hedgehog-kind.”
Shadow hisses and whips his head to face the hero. He walks right up into his personal space and growls, “I am going to win your case and get you a shit ton of money, so unless you want me to rip your head off and leave, shut up. ”
He pivots and walks into the warehouse. Sonic shrugs, that was honestly one of the tamest ‘threats’ Shadow’s ever given him. Regardless, he follows Shadow, even as he blends in with the darkness shrouding the room. Shadow really lives up to his namesake.
He reaches the spot where Shadow settles down in a flash, watching as his rival sets up the camera that he used earlier. He sits down beside, doing nothing but watching Shadow work on the camera.
Sonic huffs a sigh. Why is he even needed here? Shadow clearly had everything under control himself.
He catches Shadow eyes locked onto him, and the black hedgehog looks away as soon as he realizes he’s caught. He opens his mouth and quietly speaks, “We’re here because the doctor stole some of the props he used from here, I want to catch evidence of him walking with a better viewpoint, and it’s too risky to break into his lair to record it.”
Sonic furrows his brows and frowns. He looks away, not replying.
There really was no need for him here! Why would Shadow just… stop him from sleeping, appoint himself as his lawyer, and drag him around all night?! He tried to think of any explanation but… there was nothing.
Sonic feels a light tap on his shoulder. Shadow pulls away once he realizes Sonic’s attention is on him.
“What,” Sonic snaps, the bags under his eyes more prominent than ever.
He sees Shadow’s hand hesitate, the other reaching up again before shaking his head and resting his arm at his side.
‘I… You seem.. “ The hedgehog sucked a breath in, “You seem angry.”
Sonic crossed his arm. “Me? Angry at being dragged around at ass-o-clock? Never woulda guessed.”
He raises a hand to massage in between his brows, head starting to hurt from how long he furrowed his brows, and from the lack of sleep. His sigh comes out irritated and he doesn’t miss that way Shadow shrinks back a little at the sound.
Instead, Sonic glares at Shadow, raising his voice. “Why did you bring me with you?! All I wanted was some sleep after a stressful day, and then– then you come
barging in!
You demand to be my lawyer! You drag me around ‘investigating’, why?! You can do this yourself! You always talk about wanting to be by yourself, but you force me to follow you around??”
His breathing quickens, he’s now standing over Shadow, who stays frozen in his spot where he sat with the camera. Heat builds in his face as the other doesn’t make a sound.
“So now you have nothing to say?”
Sonic groans, “Whatever, fine. Do what you want, but keep me out of it. I’m going back to sleep.”
He turns and stretches his legs, getting ready to run back home–
When a hand holds onto his wrist.
Sonic watches as Shadow stands beside him. The black hedgehog gulps before whispering. “Don’t leave.”
Sonic almost runs off to his house faster, but— Shadow’s ears droop. And those crimson eyes stare so deeply into his own.
He… He can’t just leave Shadow like this. No matter how annoyed he is.
Sonic sighs and relaxes against Shadow’s hold. Shadow doesn’t let go.
“So? Will you explain yourself?”
Shadow nods. He’s quiet. Eyes darting around the room, until his mouth opens and he starts speaking softly, “I brought you with me because I wanted company.”
His eyes burn holes into the ground, teeth clenching. “I wanted your company.”
“...My company.”
Shadow nods. Crickets chirp around them, and the occasional whirring of the fans in the warehouse is heard as none of them dare to break the fragile silence. Shadow shakes his head.
“As much as I hate to admit it… Your company is… tolerable. Tolerable enough that I don’t want you in debt, or in jail, and…” He takes a breath, “I wanted to do something with you. Investigating for your trial seemed logical and interesting. Like… Those detective duos in the books Ma–I used to read.”
Shadow’s eyes wander until they catch onto Sonic’s. They scour the hero's face, latching onto the dark bags under his dull emerald eyes. Coughing into his other hand, a blush rises onto Shadow’s face.
“I failed to remember that organic beings need to rest for a certain amount of time.”
Sonic blinks. Ignoring the weird word choice– organic beings –Shadow looked earnest. His rival looked open. Baring his true self to him.
“Shadow…”
“I’m sorry. I apologize. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. Go get your rest.”
Sonic smiled lightly. “Apology accepted.”
He smiles wider as he looks at Shadow fondly, who’s blushing now and looking away. Probably uncomfortable at expressing how he really feels. Sonic places a hand on Shadow’s shoulder, feeling the repressed flinch from his rival.
“We can continue investigating. But I need to sleep after we get this piece of evidence.”
Shadow meets Sonic’s gaze, mouth agape for a second. “Ahem! Of course.”
Shadow crouches down, turning to where he set the video camera up.
“Ah… It seems I left it on recording this whole time…”
“Whatever. Oh, there’s Egghead right now.”
As said, Eggman creaks open the garage-like door to the warehouse with the help of his robots. He sneaks in and throws all the material he used, the background piece, and the costumes.
Sonic snickers lightly as Eggman pats his clothes free of dust and looks at his smart watch. The man smiles, “All done, Mr. Barker. I’ve thrown away the materials used to fake my goodness. We’re sure to win this case now.”
“Don’t forget to pay up, Doctor Eggman.” Barker warns. Eggman laughs loudly.
“I wouldn’t dream of it!”
Sonic turns to Shadow, who presses a button and stops recording on the camera. He puts it away into his quills and sends Sonic a thumbs up with a smirk. Sonic returns it and starts silently laughing.
Eggman has no idea what he’s in for…
The sun shines bright, peeking just over the horizon. It turns the water into a multicoloured painting of red oranges, and yellows.
Shadow can’t get over how beautiful it looks. Sonic got lucky with where he got his house. Granted, there aren’t any doors or windows, and it looks like it’s just barely passing any safety inspections.
It’s still beautiful. He could stare at it all day.
…If he had the time. Unfortunately, the trial is that very day, and Shadow still needs to get Sonic and his friends caught up on exactly what’s going to happen.
He stomps into Sonic’s house, right up to his pathetic little hammock. Sonic lays on it, pillow on his face.
“Wake up. We have a trial to get ready for.”
There isn’t any response. Shadow resists the urge to bang his head on the wall.
“Chaos…”
He creates a spear of energy in his hands and aims it at the ground, right under Sonic’s hammock.
He misses the way Sonic startles awake at that word alone, though…
“Spear!”
Wood explodes and breaks as splints fly everywhere. Shadow raises his eyes to see Sonic staring in dismay.
“Why did you do that?” Sonic whines, “It’s gonna cost me to fix that.”
Shadow scoffs. “You’ll have all the money you need after I win this trial.”
Sonic rolls his eyes and hops out of his hammock, making sure to avoid the threat of getting splinters by hopping to his door on one foot. He slips his shoes on and gets going, Shadow following closely behind.
“I already told everyone to meet up at Meh Burger. They should be there already.”
Just as said, they all sit there, with a big meal sitting on the table, waiting for the duo to arrive.
Sticks squints her eyes in suspicion, eyes widening just a second later. She places a tinfoil hat on her head and forces one on the Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Tails nervously chuckles and smiles, tears close to falling out. Knuckles sits there, smiling. Either he’s unbothered by the tense atmosphere, or he just doesn’t notice.
Shadow blinks. Sonic’s group of friends is… interesting.
He clears his throat and starts talking.
“I’m taking over as Sonic’s lawyer,” he has to force himself to ignore the pout Knuckles has after those words. “Let’s go over the details for the trial…”
Trial begin
“I am suing you on behalf of Sonic the Hedgehog!”
Gasps fill the courtroom. Eggman frowns and Barker growls.
Shadow holds his ground, and slams his hands on the table.
“Furthermore, I request another judge. This one reeks of favouritism.”
Eggman starts growling at that, but quiets a second later. He watches as Judgebot gets evicted and replaced by Lady Walrus. Barker narrows his eyes at Eggman and shakes his head.
The doctor starts laughing nervously. “Shadow…! I didn’t think I’d ever see you willingly helping out Team Sonic! What’s up with that?”
Shadow opts not to reply. He focuses on the new judge, Lady Walrus.
Lady Walrus looks down at the papers and reads over the cases.
“So, to summarize what this trial is about, Doctor Eggman is suing Sonic the Hedgehog for the injuries that he has gained,” Lady Walrus shortens the paragraphs of words into one sentence.
Eggman almost starts nodding his head, before he freezes. He sets a sad face on and cries, “Exactly! I can’t walk or move my head anymore! I’m nothing but kind and yet Sonic did this to me!”
Barker nods and doubles down on what Eggman said. “My client, Doctor Eggman, has been nothing but kind and does good deeds. He was just enjoying himself on a walk in the village when Sonic viciously attacked him.”
Lady Walrus nods, “Can we see some proof of this?”
Barker pulls out a VHS tape and inserts it into a TV that was rolled into the room just seconds ago. “Now, Lady Walrus, I must admit that there is no footage of the attack happening, however I do have footage that proves the goodness of Doctor Eggman.”
He plays the video.
It shows Orbot and Cubot on a swing set, Eggman standing behind them and pushing the swings. He smiles at the camera and continues pushing the two. There’s an unmistakable brown filter on the video playing.
Lady Walrus watches the video and nods. “That is all the proof needed for Eggman’s good deeds, thank you Mister Barker.”
Shadow glares at Barker and raises a hand, “Objection!”
Gasps fill the courtroom and Lady Walrus brings a hand to her chest in shock.
“What could you possibly have to say about this?” Barker asks, coldly looking at Shadow.
Shadow pulls out a CD, “I have proof that the video was staged.”
He walks up to the TV and places the CD in the CD player, right next to the VHS player.
The video opens with shaky footage that slowly stabilizes. Sonic and Shadow’s voices are heard, bickering for a second before it focuses on Eggman who is pushing Orbot and Cubot on the swing. He does it a few times before stopping suddenly. He lets Cubot fall onto the ground and scowls. Eggman steps over Cubot and heads to the camera. He cackles at what he sees on it. Cubot makes a sad noise as Orbot helps him off the ground.
Gasps echo in the courtroom as everyone turns to stare at Eggman.
Lady Walrus glares, offended. “Well, I never! Faking evidence in court!”
Shadow collects the CD and stands beside Sonic again. Sonic smirks and raises his hand in the air, Shadow stares.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s a high five. You just clap your hand against mine.”
Shadow stares again. This must be something that normal people do.
He raises his hand and places it against Sonic’s for a second before bringing it back down again.
Sonic giggles and smiles and Shadow can’t stop himself from smiling alongside his partner.
Barker, who watches this whole scene scowls and slams a hand against a desk. “Your Honour! That isn’t proof. How do we know that’s Eggman faking the video? Maybe Doctor Eggman likes to film himself and his robots on the swings in the middle of the night.”
Civilians in the courtroom start murmuring.
Shadow keeps his smile and pulls out another CD. “I have more proof that it’s faked.” He looks to Lady Walrus for confirmation and puts the CD in the player after he gets a nod.
The video starts with the words. “Whatever. Oh, there Egghead right now.” It shows Eggman sneaking into a warehouse, depositing materials that showed up in his swinging video on the ground. “All done, Mr. Barker. I’ve thrown away the materials used to fake my goodness. We’re sure to win this case now.” A digital sounding voice comes, “Don’t forget to pay up, Doctor Eggman.” Eggman laughs, “I wouldn’t dream of it!”
Sonic crosses his arms as the video ends.
Lady Walrus nods her head, confident in her decision. “Well that proves it, Doctor Eggman is guilty of faking evidence. Sonic the Hedgehog is innocent.”
Eggman growls and stomps his foot into the ground. The audience gasps as he throws off the bandages that he wore. He brings his hand and points to Sonic and Shadow.
“Robots… attack!”
Eggman’s robots enter the room, thankfully none of the destructive ones show up, but they flood the room.
Sonic shifts his stance and glances over to Shadow. “Shadow! Let’s double team these guys!”
Shadow nods, “I’ll be making sure they turn into pieces.”
The hedgehogs spin dash towards two robots in front of them. They take them out immediately and spin dash towards each other, ricocheting off each other and hitting a row of badniks that were approaching them from both sides.
Shadow uncurls and roundhouse kicks a badnik approaching from behind. It slams into another one that was on its way to him. He punches another robot that appears from beside him and slams it onto one that was beside it.
Sonic spin dashes into a badnik, sending it flying. He starts running in circles, grabbing more of them and pulling them into a pile of robots. Finally, he takes one final badnik and tosses it into the air above the pile. He dashes into it, sending it hurtling towards the pile. They all break.
Turning to Shadow he smiles at the sight of most of the badniks on his side defeated.
…Except for one steadily approaching his oblivious rival. He dashes into it, throwing the remains into the pile.
Shadow glances over and nods. Sonic gives him one in return and watches as Shadow obliterates the last robot of the bunch.
Shadow turns and smiles, raising a hand. Sonic rushes over, clapping it as hard as he can.
“We were awesome!”
Shadow nods and closes his eyes, proud. “Did you see the kick I did?”
Sonic snickers, “Well did you see the way I destroyed all those badniks in one hit?!”
The hero starts laughing, closely followed by a raspier laughing. Sonic looks Shadow in the eyes, smiling harder at the way the black hedgehog’s smile reaches his crimson eyes.
Suddenly the courtroom door slams open. Sonic freezes, looking over to see Amy Rose standing with her hammer and multiple destroyed badniks behind her. Shadow’s laughing dies down.
“I leave for one day and this is what happens?!”
Sonic can’t help but laugh again. It really was a lot. A whole trial, bonding with his rival, and an Eggman attack in one day?
He looks over to Shadow and smiles.
“We make a pretty good team.”
HIs rival stands there, thinking before playfully smiling. “We do.” He frowns and looks around the room. “Eggman left,” he points out.
Sonic shakes his head, “He always does that.”
Shadow nods and awkwardly stares at the ground before looking back to Sonic.
“I’ll be off then.”
Sonic nods, a smile still stuck to his face. He watches as Shadow starts walking off before grabbing his arm.
Shadow stops and looks back to Sonic.
“Don’t be a stranger.” Sonic waves ‘bye’ with his other hand.
Shadow smiles.