#this was just gonna be Eggman and Sage but things got out of hand lol

[spiritsonic]

A Holiday Eggman, Metal Sonic, Sage, Orbot and Cubot!

[midnightshard06]

The Meeting Part 1 (Lost and Found AU)

First(You're here) > Prev(n/a) > Next(coming soon)

Summary: Sonic encounters Shadow for the first time and extends an offer of help.

Warnings: None

Word Count: ~1500 words

AN: First little bit of work for au collision propaganda... I had this thing started for a while but never got around to actually finishing it. Now seems like a good time hm? Going over the origins of how Sonic and Shadow met and such. I figured something like this would be necessary at some point since it would technically be sort of the start point of the au and all lol.

@sonic-au-collision

Sonic took a deep breath as he felt the wind rush past him. It was a familiar feeling, a comforting one. He grinned in anticipation as he saw trees in the distance. That would provide a fun challenge. With a quick boost of speed he was in the trees, weaving to avoid them with a reckless sort of glee. It was nice to have down time like this. Time that he didn’t have to worry about whatever Eggman was planning. Now normally he’d be concerned about the doctor being quiet, but Sonic was pretty sure there weren’t any plans in the works just yet. Everything with the Starfall Islands had just happened and Sonic would be willing to bet Eggman was spending some quality time with Sage, and maybe some of his other bots.

As he continued to weave through the trees a glint of metal caught his eye. Some old piece of discarded Eggman tech maybe? Well couldn’t hurt to take a quick look. He slowed his pace before turning in the direction of the metal, finally coming to a stop beside the thing. Sonic ran a hand over its surface. Some sort of pod? It looked like it had been there for a while. How had he never noticed it before? It was pretty overgrown, which only supported that it had been here for a long time. There were some metal pieces that probably came from the thing scattered about the clearing too. Did it… crash here?

Well whatever it was it certainly didn't scream Eggman. As in he couldn’t spot a single logo anywhere on the thing. Maybe he should call Tails, his little bro would be able to figure out what this thing was way faster than Sonic could. Before he could make that call though the pod made a hissing noise before smoke started to pour out of it. Sonic coughed as some of it got into his lungs and he did his best to wave it away from his face. At some point he had to close his eyes to prevent the smoke from irritating them. He snapped them open when he heard a thump in front of him though.

Thankfully the smoke had mostly cleared, but now he was left feeling confused. What seemed to a black and red hedgehog was lying in a heap on the ground. They were slowly starting to move their limbs, like they were trying to wake them up. Sonic glanced between the pod and the hedgehog in concern. Had… had they been in there for however long the pod had been here? Were they ok? Eventually the hedgehog managed to peel their head off the ground and blink their eyes open. They seemed almost mesmerized for a moment as they gently carded a hand through the grass under them. Sonic gave them a moment before clearing his throat to grab their attention.

The other hedgehog’s eyes snapped up to him and their quills immediately rose. Sonic held up his hands in a placating motion. “Hey I’m not gonna hurt ya.” He smiled. “I was uh, pretty surprised you popped out of that thing if I’m being honest.” He gestured to the pod.

The hedgehog’s face scrunched up in confusion as they turned to look at the pod. As they examined it Sonic took a closer look at them. Well he was confident that they were a hedgehog but… there were certainly features there that weren’t. A longer tail, spikes on their body, and even a set of horns. Some sort of hybrid then? He wasn’t too sure honestly. It didn’t really matter all that much anyway.

After a while of carefully inspecting the pod, the hedgehog turned back to Sonic, still with that confused look on their face. “You ok?” Sonic tilted his head. They definitely seemed out of it at the very least but uh, that was maybe to be expected. The hedgehog kept staring at him and Sonic was beginning to wonder if they spoke at all. It was fine if they didn’t, he’d been the same when he was little, but it would make figuring out what was going on a bit harder.

As Sonic was trying to figure out the best way to proceed a sort of clarity came into the other hedgehog’s eyes. They widened and for a moment the other hedgehog seemed to tremble before a closed off look came over their face. Without warning they jumped at Sonic and the two were sent tumbling to the ground from the impact. Sonic pushed the other off of him and quickly backed off. “Hey woah! I don’t wanna fight you dude! I wanna help!” Sonic tried.

The other hedgehog snarled and something sparked around their hands. Sonic’s eyes widened. Chaos energy. Well that was certainly unexpected, but it had him thinking more critically about just who this was. He was pulled from his thoughts as the other hedgehog released some sort of chaos energy attack at him. Thankfully he had no issues dodging. After spending so much time wielding the power of the emeralds he’d become pretty sensitive to chaos energy in general. Which helped a lot when it was being wielded against him. 

“Ok. We can do this the hard way then.” Sonic sighed as he crouched in preparation to run. If he played his cards right this whole thing would be over in a few seconds. He couldn’t afford to be reckless though. Who knew what else they could do with chaos energy. “Sorry in advance, this is gonna hurt.” He dashed forward expecting to crash into the other hedgehog’s chest. What happened instead was he only skimmed it as the black hedgehog moved out of the way.

Sonic came to a stop, having to dig his heels into the ground to slow himself down, and looked at the black hedgehog in surprise. The look was mirrored on their face. He’d never really met anyone who could keep up with him, well except maybe Metal Sonic but this was different. He put a hand on his chin. “You’re quick huh?” The other hedgehog seemed to school their expression into something more neutral as they flexed their hands. It was then that Sonic took note of the claws that were on full display. “Look we don’t have to do this. I just wanna help.” Sonic tried again. Something about fighting someone who's been stuck in some sort of pod for Chaos knows how long didn’t sit right with him. Even if he was curious as to just how fast the other hedgehog was.

The other hedgehog frowned, confusion returning to their face. Their hands twitched and it seemed like for a moment they were going to raise them. Sonic perked up. Maybe… He rose his own hands as non threateningly as possible. ‘Do you understand sign?’ He moved his hands slowly. Not many people could understand him at the speeds he typically signed.

‘Yes.’ The other hedgehog perked up after watching Sonic’s hands with concentration.

Sonic grinned. Progress. ‘Cool. Do you know why you were in that pod?’

The other hedgehog frowned, sloppily repeating Sonic’s hand movements as if they were trying to figure out what they meant. ‘Know… little.’

��Oh.” Sonic rubbed the back of his head. Ok he could keep his sign simple. He pointed to the pod. ‘Why there?’ The other hedgehog briefly glanced up towards the sky before their hands tightened into fists. Their tail thrashed in clear agitation. Alright, maybe Sonic should backpedal a little. He waved to get the black hedgehog’s attention. ‘Name?’ He tilted his head before pointing to himself. ‘I am Sonic.’

The other hedgehog seemed hesitant but eventually rose their hands again. ‘Shadow.’ Shadow seemed to search his face for something, Sonic had no idea what though.

Now there was some progress. ‘Need help Shadow?’ Sonic tilted his head.

Shadow hesitated. They frowned at Sonic’s hands, but Sonic was certain the other hedgehog understood. The hesitation must be coming from somewhere else then. Their eyes darted around for a moment. Looking for something maybe? ‘Yes.’ Shadow eventually signed, though their face was skeptical. 

Sonic nodded. “If you want… you can come back with me? My little bro can give you a quick check up and we can see about, well, figuring out how to best help you.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Once we figure out what you need.” He held out a hand. Shadow glanced back at the pod, and then briefly up to the sky again. Eventually the other hedgehog turned back to him, watching his face carefully. Tentatively they took a few steps forward and took the offered hand. Sonic grinned and gestured behind him with his free hand. “It’s back this way so just follow me.”

Shadow released his hand and simply nodded. Sonic frowned at the shut off behavior but he left it for now. Right now he needed to figure out how he was going to explain this to Tails.