Authors note: I do not own Sonic the hedgehog this franchise belongs to SEGA. Also please keep in mind this is my first story so be easy on me and please call me out if I mess up enjoy.

Chapter 1 a strange illness

"Nice shot Eggbutt, to bad ya mist" Laughed sonic as he dogged a laser that Dr. Eggman had shot at him.

"WHY YOU MEDDLING HEDGEHOG!" Screamed Eggman his anger growing with every attack his arch nemesis managed to dodge.

"Hey Faker could ya stop toying with Eggman and help Silver and me with these DAMN robots." Shadow spat in his usual Annoyed tone.

"Alright, Alright Shads I'm coming" Said Sonic as he rushed over to were Shadow and Silver were trying to stop the robots from grabbing the Chaos Emerald they had managed to track down.

Without wasting any more time sonic quickly attacked the robots near him with his spin dash attack knocking out a good portion of the them. With that Shadow Charged up his own attack and Aimed it at another group of robots. "CHAOS SPEAR" shouted Shadow as he threw a Long spear of chaos energy at the group of robots destroying them all.

"WHY YOU IMBECILE" shouted Eggman seeing how close he was to being defeated once again by his arch nemesis and his stupid friends.

"Ok my turn" shouted Silver as he charged up a psychic attack aiming it at the last group of robots. "PSYCHIC BLAST" with that a powerful Psychic wave took out the last group of robots.

"N NO WHY YOU, YOU STUPID LITTLE GRRR I I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME YA HEAR" with that Eggman flew off mumbling to himself.

"Ya that's what you say every time egghead" laughed Sonic as he turned back to his friends.

Shadow stared blankly at the emerald before finally speaking up. "Hmm there's something strange about this chaos emerald" he said as he picked up the emerald inspecting it.

"Really looks fine to me" said Sonic taking a close look at the emerald himself. "I'm serious Faker something's not right." Said Shadow his tone of voice more serious than usual and for Shadow that's saying something.

"Nah you worry to much Shadow it looks fine to me" said Sonic snatching the emerald from shadow's grasp earning a death glare from the dark hedgehog.

"I don't know Sonic I agree with Shadow something's not right about that emerald it seems to be some kind of strange energy" said Silver a hint of anxiety crossing his voice.

Sonic took a minute to think about what Silver just said. "Don't chaos emerald always give off energy?" thought Sonic before suddenly giving a sly smile to his friends. He had an idea on how to calm there nerves. "OK OK if you two are going to be so paranoid about nothing how about we bring it back to Tails and have him look at it would that settle your nerves" he asked in his voice as cheerful as always.

"Well ok I guess that works" said Silver anxiety still plaguing his voice "Sha...Shadow?"

"FINE but I have a bad feeling about this" Shadow hissed his voice unsure.

"Sure Shadow you always have a bad feeling about everything" laughed Sonic as the group began heading to Tails workshop.

Sonic, Shadow, and Silver immediately began their trip to Tails workshop. It had began taking them a longer to get there mainly because Shadow had started to lag behind not long after they had set out. Being that Shadow was the one who brought up the emerald being suspicious in the first place Both Sonic and Silver thought he would want to get to the workshop as fast as possible. Yet Shadow kept falling further and further behind and, it didn't take long for both Sonic and Silver to Notice.

"Hey shads you ok your kinda lagging behind" asked Sonic attempting to sound mischievous but, there was a small hint of worry in his voice.

"I'm fine why do you ask Faker" Shadow hissed back his voice oddly a bit more tone down than usual.

"well its just you never usually fall behind you tired or something?" Silver chided in worry also beginning to plague his voice.

"I'm fine I just prefer to keep my distance" snapped Shadow glaring at the two hedgehogs. Silver flinched slightly while Sonic merely shook his head in annoyance.

"whatever you say Shads" the blue blur stated sarcastically

Silver simply gave a small nod. With that out of the way the three hedgehogs continued as normal although Sonic and Silver couldn't help exchange looks of concern.

A Little while later Sonic's face turned from worried to excited as he faced his friends. "Hey guys up for little race the rest of the way" said the blue blur his voice going back to his usual cheerful state.

Silver inwardly groaned at this, Both Shadow and Sonic were super competitive when it came to racing. This meant they would most likely go at there full speed trying to one up each other usually leaving him in the dust since he wasn't as fast as they were. But there was no turning back now once Sonic said the word race he knew that Shadow would automatically except. But to Silvers surprise Shadow just shook his head crossing his arms.

"Not right now" he replied calmly, Silver almost fell over out of pure shock.

"W...what but you I uh" Sonic stuttered to speak clearly a shocked expression on his face.

Shadow simply shrugged a stern expression on his face "I'm not in the mood plus I'm tired from that stupid battle" he said in a monotone voice.

"Ok let me stop you right there Shad since when does the quote on quote ultimate life form get tired from one battle." Sonic said sternly a Worried and confused expression beginning to form on his face, after all, this was Shadow they were talking about he would usually rather die then pass off a challenge from Sonic. Ok maybe that's an exaggeration but this was still very unlike shadow. especially since they had battled Eggman before and raced almost immediately afterwards without issue.

"You know Shadow you can talk to us were your friends" said Silver falling back to where Shadow was walking.

"I'm fine get it threw you thick skulls got it?!" Snarled Shadow giving his friends an angry glare. Sonic and Silver backed off but they were still heavily suspicious and worried about this whole ordeal.

After there little conversation the three hedgehogs continued there walk with both Sonic and Silver slowing there pace to both stay close to Shadow And, to not tire him out considering he looked to be warn out. They didn't even need to speak to tell one another that something was up with him. For the rest of the walk they both kept an eye on Shadow to make sure he really was ok. Which proved to be effective since it was obvious something was wrong. For one thing he was moving a lot slower and was less aware of his surrounding he almost ran into a tree about three times. additionally on occasion Shadow would grab his head in one or both of his hands, a pained expression on his face. Do to all of this Both Sonic and Silver were growing more and more concerned for Shadow. At one point Silver linked him and Sonic up to a telepathic conversation so that Shadow wouldn't hear them and get mad at them again. During their conversation they at one point discussed the possible theory that Shadow was coming down with something.

"There are a lot of bugs that include headaches and loss of energy maybe he just caught something." Stated Silver

"ya perhaps plus there are a lot of stuff going around." answered Sonic

at the time it seemed like a possible theory until Sonic remembered that Shadow was immune to diseases and viruses meaning he couldn't get sick. In the end they gave up and decided to just continue what they were doing keeping there pace slow, and keeping an eye on him. There was nothing else they could do if they tried to talk to Shadow again it would most likely have the same result as the last two conversations.

At last the group reached Tails workshop Sonic ran up to the door and knocked hoping his little brother was home. As they waited for the door to open Sonic took out the so called Chaos Emerald taking a good look at it, he was starting to also begining question the gem personally, wondering if it was the Chaos Emerald they'd found that was making Shadow act so well sick. It seemed that Silver could tell what Sonic was thinking and sent him a quick message saying he had the same thought. Finally the door opened and Tails came out the expression on his face turning into a huge smile when he saw his older brother.

"Hi Sonic" he said happily "what can I do for you?"

"Well, we found this Chaos Emerald and Shadow and Silver are getting some dayshavoo from it, think you could take a look at it?"

"shore" exclaimed Tails happy to help his friends "but it will take a while so you guys can sit in the living room wall I analyse it"

"okie dokie" responded Sonic in a high spirited tone.

With that tails took the chaos emerald down to his lab while Sonic, Shadow, and Silver went into the living room and sat down. While they were waiting for Tails to come back with the results Silver took a good look at Shadow who was standing next to the couch and noticed that he had gotten a lot worse. The Black and red hedgehog looked was slightly swaying as if he was dizzy and he looked like he was about to pass out.

"Hay uh Shadow wanna come and sit with us?" asked Silver hoping to at least get him to rest a bit.

"No" he said sternly at that point Silver couldn't take staying quiet any longer.

"SHADOW FOR THE LOVE OF IT WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!? YOU HAVE BEEN ACT STRANGE SINCE THE BATTLE WITH EGGMAN AND DON'T YOU DARE SAY NOTHING IS WRONG ME AND SONIC HAVE BEEN NOTICING EVERYTHING YOUR UNAWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDING YOU HAVE LITTLE TO NO ENERGY YOUR DIZZY AND LOOK LIKE YOUR GONNA FAINT AT ANY SECOND WHAT'S GOING ON ARE YOU SICK OR SOMETHING JUST TELL US ALREADY!"

Both Shadow and Sonic just stared at Silver with wide eyes unable to speak out of shock. Silver usually never yelled at least not that loud. Silver quickly noticed what he had said and immediately felt sorry for yelling so loud.

"I i'm sorry I didn't mean to yell I don't know what came over me I-" before Silver could get another word out Tails walked in a worried expression on his face.

"Is everything ok I heard screaming?"

"everything's fine" answered Shadow before Sonic or Silver could speak "just an issue with people not minding their own business" he said glaring at the other two hedgehogs in the room. "Anyway are you done scanning the emerald?" he asked changing the subject.

"Yes come on in" said Tails heading down to his lab with the three hedgehogs following soon behind.

As they were heading down Sonic and Silver exchanged worried looks as they watched Shadow fumble down the steps. he looked seconds from collapsing. Literally the whole way down Silver ended up being on his guard ready to levitate his friend if he fell which he luckily didn't much to his relief. After they managed to get down the steps and into the lab Tails began to speak.

"Well i ran the scanner and well..."

"well what buddy? Asked sonic as Tails trailed off.

"Well surprisingly it look and acts like a chaos emerald heck it gives off the same signal but the thing is oddly enough it's not a chaos emerald." Sonic, Shadow, and Silver looked at each other in confusion.

"What do you mean Tails" asked Silver reasonably confused out of his mind.

"Well it's not a real chaos emerald but it gives of the same energy waves as one only…." he paused and began to trail off again.

"Only what Tails?" asked sonic begin to become concerned.

"Only" Tails continued "it seems to be giving off this weird energy and i don't know what kind of energy it is" he then laid two pieces of paper on a nearby table. "This is the energy patterns for a real chaos emerald." Said Tails pointing to the paper on right side of the table he then turned and pointed to the other paper to the left. "And this is the wave patterns for the fake emerald here." the paper Tails pointed at had odd wave patterns ones that were similar yet different to the chaos emeralds. "Have you have you guys ever seen anything like it?" the young kitsune asked scratching his head.

"Afraid not Silver?" asked Sonic extremely confused.

"Nope would about you Shadow? Shadow?"

It was just then that Silver noticed Shadow was holding his head a pained expression on his face. Sonic and Silver turned to him worry begin to bubble up in their stomachs.

"Shadow you ok you look awful" asked Sonic.

"I'm uhh..fi...Aa..nNnn...uh" Shadow couldn't answer he just Held his head and continued to groaned in agony.

Sonic obviously didn't even need an answer to see that something was very wrong. Silver was about to speak when Shadow suddenly collapsed.

"SHADOW" Sonic and Silver screamed in unison. Luckily before he hit the ground Silver was able to catch him with his telekinesis.

"Wait what's-" before Tails could ask anything Silver and Sonic rushed up the stairs and Laid Shadow down on the couch in the living room.

"Dammit Shadow why didn't you just say something?" Said Sonic putting his hand on Shadow's forehead only to immediately pull it away again. "HOT HOT HOT" he panicked waving his hand up and down until it finally stopped burning.

"Is he that hot?" Asked Silver shocked out of his mind that someone could be hot to the touch like that. shock and worry was begging to take over his mind.

"Afraid so" said Sonic sadly nodding also shocked. Sonic and Silver turned to each other expressions sharing the same deep worry for their friends well being.

"HAY WHAT IN THE NAME OF CHAOS IS GOING ON WHAT I MISS?" shouted Tails confused out of his mind about what was going on. One second ago they were in his lab pondering over the fake chaos emerald know there suddenly in the living room with Shadow being unconscious on the couch. Sonic and Silver turned to him.

"*Sigh* we better catch him up" said Sonic to which Silver nodded as they began to explain Tails what had happened.

One explanation later

"So Shadow has been this way since the Eggman fight" asked Tails to which Sonic and Silver simply nodded. "I see but Shadows immune to illness how did he-"

"we don't know" said the two hedgehogs cutting Tails off.

Tails began to scratch his head as he thought threw the possible ways someone who should be unable to get sick ended up seriously sick until it came to him.

"That's it" said tail snapping his fingers together.

"What's it lil bro what you cook up in that head of yours?" asked Sonic wonder filling his voice.

"Well there are Two possible ways this could of happened." "ether Eggman did something while Shadow wasn't looking or it could be something in the area you battled in."

"Well we can rule out old baldy mic noise hair Shadow wasn't even near him i got the closest and I feel fine" said Sonic his normal cocky tone.

"So that leaves us with the area maybe we could check it out" Silver suggested to which both Sonic and Tails nodded with agreement.

"Ok me and Sonic will go check it out right away."

"Right" answered the blue blur.

with that Sonic and Silver headed out the door Faster than anyone could say anything. However before sonic ran off he managed to tell tails

"Take care of Shads Tails"

afterword being the out the door in less than a nanosecond catching up with Silver who was ahead of him. As they ran/flew to the spot they had Fought Eggman a while ago sonic began to feel a slight pain in his head.

"I it's probably nothing" he thought following close behind silver noticing it was becoming harder and harder to keep up with him.

Has Sonic caught the illness? Will Shadow be ok? What's going on? How did he get sick? Is it something to do with that DAMN chaos emerald? What will happen? What will this come to? Why am i still talking? Well hope you enjoyed this story sorry if you don't like it but everyone has a right to their own opinion anyway thanks for reading see you in the next chapter bye Melody out.