Sonic Series ❯ Sonic Matrix 3 ❯ One month later ( Chapter 5 )

Shadow sat on the small porch of his newly renovated home in Lake Valley.

 Maria sat beside Shadow, drinking strawberry milk out of her mom’s coffee mug, while Aleena sat on the ground beside Manic.

 Manic shut his phone off. “Okay, how’d you like that tutorial video?”

 “It’s fine.” Aleena said. “I wish Mama had gotten the chance to teach me.”

 “So do I.” Manic replied.

 Shadow stood up. “Aleena, it’s time for lunch.”

 Maria got up and headed inside.

 Aleena got up. “Are you gonna stay for lunch, Uncle Manic?”

 “If your dad’s okay with it.” Manic replied.

 “It’s fine.” Shadow said. 

 Aleena ran inside.

 Manic got up and walked over to Shadow. “Thanks. I really didn’t want to eat alone today.” He replied. “Jade's birthday was today.”

 Shadow’s communicator beeped. 

 Shadow sighed. “What now, Sonic?” He muttered. He checked the message. “Oh. Manic, can you watch the girls after lunch? Tails found some files he thought I’d be interested in.”

 “Sure, they’ve been dying to see the old videos of their mom I downloaded anyway.” Manic replied.

 Shadow sat dome in one of Tails’ computer chairs. “So what happened to Gerald?”

 “Died in prison.” Sonic replied. He shrugged. “Something about health problems. I dunno, you’ll have to ask Sally or Tails. My mind wandered as soon as they mentioned medical terms.”

 Shadow shook his head.

 “It really doesn’t matter.” Knuckles said. “I was with the prison guard when they found him.”

 Sonic slumped in his seat. “Poor Sticks.” He said. “She put up one heck of a fight.” 

 “She took out a few, I heard.” Shadow replied.

 Tails walked in with a large folder and sat down. “Let’s start with the question everyone has been asking.” He said. “Gerald had been in stasis since Ivo took over. When Sonic destroyed Ivo’s lab, it shut off the stasis chamber.”

 “But why was he in stasis?” Knuckles asked.

 “Testing it; he was bored and wanted to see the technology changes in a future he wouldn’t normally live to see.” Tails replied. “Anyway, Gerald had an ulterior motive for taking you in, Shadow.”

 “It doesn’t surprise me.” Shadow replied. “What was it?”

 “He and Ivo wanted a living super weapon to take over the world and you happened to be available to them.” Tails said. “The reason you slept so soundly when you lived with Gerald and Maria is that Gerald slipped you anesthesia medication every night in your tea and somehow, I’m not quite sure how he did it yet, altered your genetic code to make you stronger and faster.”

 Sonic scoffed. “He’s definitely stronger than me, but no way will he ever be faster than me.” He replied. He got up and headed to the kitchen to get some water.

 Tails looked over his shoulder, then back to Shadow. “You are faster, Shadow.” He whispered.

 Shadow nodded while Knuckles tried to stifle his laughter.

 “Anyway, they realized it was a bad idea after they saw how stubborn you are.” Tails said. “So they stopped the experiment about a month before Maria died. Ivo had just perfected his Matrix world and Gerald handed you over as the first living battery for his robots, then he headed for his stasis chamber.”

 Sonic came back into the room with a bottle of water. “Say, I was just thinking.”

 “Don’t hurt yourself.” Shadow muttered.

 Sonic rolled his eyes. “Very funny.” He replied. “I realized something. If Shadow’s DNA was altered, wouldn’t that affect Maria and Aleena?”

 Shadow’s eyes widened.

 “Yes, but I’m not sure how much (if any) of those particular genes they have gotten from him.” Tails said. “I’d have to take blood samples and run some tests, but I wouldn’t worry too much. All they did was make Shadow stronger and faster and he doesn’t seem to have any dangerous mutations. They would’ve made him smarter, but he already has a high iq, so they didn’t want to make him smarter than they were.”

 “That’s a relief.” Shadow replied. 

 “That’s everything.” Tails said. “You all are welcome to stay for dinner, if you’d like.”

  Shadow got up. “I promised the girls I’d take them out for ice cream.”

 Shadow tucked Maria and Aleena in. “Did toy girls enjoy the videos?”

 “Kinda.” Maria said. “It just made me really miss Mom.”

 “Me too.” Aleena replied.

 “I miss her too.” Shadow said. He kissed the girls on their foreheads. 

 Maria and Aleena fell asleep before they could say good night.

 “Just like your mom.” Shadow whispered. “Good night, girls. Love you.”

 Shadow crept out of the room and gently shut the door. He headed to the living room and sat down on the couch.

 He saw a note on the coffee table and picked it up. 

 Manic had written the letter earlier. “I made a copy of the videos for you.” It read. “It’s in the flash drive I plugged into your tv.”

 Shadow set the note down and turned on the tv. He settled onto the couch as the first video started playing.