Chapter 17: Getting Adjusted

Shadow's first night on The Ark was interesting to him to say the least. Moments after Knuckles had left one of the chefs brought down a meal for him and left. Since it was late in the morning, Shadow figured that he might as well take his plate up to the kitchen himself since none of the chefs came down to collect it.

It was a good excuse for him to figure his way around the giant ship.

About a few minutes or so of dead ends and wrong turns, Shadow managed to find the elevator that would take him to the kitchens. Once Shadow got to the kitchens he could hear the sizzle of cooking meat and the bubbling, boiling of liquid in the pots. As he stepped into the kitchens, he suddenly found himself in front of Vector.

"What the hell are you doing hedgehog?" He glared rudely.

"Well, no one came down to get my plate so I figured I'd bring it back up to you." He replied in the same tone.

"I was going to grab it after making breakfast." He growled as he grabbed the plate from Shadow. "You don't need to come up here, this is our part of The Ark so scram!" He shouted, only for Espio and Charmy to get in between them.

"Don't be rude Vector, you know he's new here." The ninja scolded. Vector huffed as he turned around and sulked back into the kitchen.

"Sorry about what he said to you, he can be quite cranky if he doesn't have his morning coffee." Charmy laughed. "Would you like some?"

"No! He can get out of our kitchen!" Vector boomed from the other room.

"Coffee sounds good actually" Shadow said just to spite the head chef a little bit more.

"Great! It's almost done so you can sit in that chair, I'll be right back." Charmy smiled as he flew away and Shadow took a seat.

"So, how are you finding things down there?" Espio asked.

"Not that bad." He admitted. "I haven't been given any tasked yet and no one down there has bothered me even though the bat and the echidna live in the quarters on either side of mine."

"Don't worry, The Dame and everyone else are just waiting for you to get adjusted, once she's sure your settled in, The Dame will give you your tasks." The chameleon explained.

"Why do you gotta be so grumpy?!" They both heard Charmy suddenly shout.

"Why do you gotta sleep on my bed?!" Vector argued.

"Why haven't you quit smoking?!"

"You know how I get stressed easily!"

"Who doesn't get stressed!?"

Getting annoyed with all the shouting, Shadow got up and was about to intervene. The bickering between the two chefs suddenly halted thanks to the sound of shattered glass that came from the back of the room. It was quiet for a second until Shadow heard small little footsteps hitting the floor.

"Get it!" Vector yelled as Shadow watched all three chefs running desperately to catch whatever it was.

Shadow rolled his eyes as he waited and listened. He suddenly used his power to teleport to the otherside of the kitchen and grabbed what they were looking for. He looked down and saw that it was a small child squirm his hands, desperately wanting to be free. He suddenly felt a strong hand slap his back and he looked up to see Vector grinning at him.

"Looks like you might be cut out for this job after all hedgehog."

"What is this!" The booming voice of Jules made all of them freeze for a moment. Shadow turned around and saw the blue hedgehog glaring at them. Shadow quickly realized The Dame's husband must have entered during that little episode.

"A child escaped sir, b-but the new guy got them." Charmy replied, a little nervously as Jules glared down at Shadow and the child still desperately squirming in his hands.

"Good work Shadow, I have placed some new furniture into your room, and when you return the child to downstairs, you should probably take a look where the child escaped from and make sure no more have run off, unless you want more work for the chefs?"

"No sir, I'll go and investigate now." He quickly replied, already heading to the elevator...

After putting the child back in it's room, Shadow checked up and down the prison over 20 times and he found no more escaped children. Afterwords the rest of his day was cleaning the lower levels of The Ark and this was the most tiring thing he'd have ever done. Especially since he still hadn't figured out the ins and outs of the ship and kept getting lost.

It infuriated him to no ends.

"This will definitely be something that will take time to navigate around." He mumbled to himself when he finally making it back to his room. He opened the door and saw Knuckles inside his quarters, waiting for him.

"About time." He huffed. "Sorry, should have giving ya a warning before coming down here". He shrugged as he sucked on a cigarette. "Care to talk for a bit?" He asked. Shadow rolled his eyes and sat up on his bed and reached for a cigarette from the red echidna.

"Thank you." He said as he took a puff of the cigarette. "Now what do you want echidna?"

"I want to tell ya that ya better not let anymore kids get up to the kitchens again." He said, taking another puff and began to cough.

"What's the problem?" The ebony hedgehog snapped.

"After you left, Mr Jules ripped into the chefs, scaring them shitless, ya see, he isn't like The Dame, he couldn't care less about us, to him, were nothing but lower beings that should be rarely seen and never heard." He sighed as he took a long puff of smoke and exhaled. "That's why I don't care what ya need to do, but don't let them leave this section of The Ark."

"I'll do my best echidna." He answered. "But I'm afraid until I know the in's and out's of this place I can't make a lot of promises."

"I used to be the one making the rounds down here, so if it helps then I'll show ya the ropes." He sighed.

"That would be much appreciated." He told him, taking another puff.

"Tomorrow bright and early Shadow, better be ready to go." Knuckles said as he walked out of the room and shut the door, leaving Shadow alone with only his thoughts for company...