The Challenges of a Father

[sterlingmod]

The boy simply looked confused as the black hog tried to explain something that he didn't know about, the chaos drives, with something he knows even less about, chaos emeralds. Nevertheless, the little one walked over to pick the thing up again as the adult spoke, very carefully reaching for it, flinching when his hand got near it out of caution.

Whenever he touched it though, it did nothing this time. Bewildered, he picked it up and looked into it for a moment, a shiver going up his quills. He looked at his father as the old hog finished speaking, the boy simply tucking the drive in his quills for safe keeping. He did not want to hear about any training already; this was his chance to play and all he's gotten done so far is get soaked.

Oh right that... what was that? The water is still and glassy, not possible of stirring itself. Does Angel Island have that big of fish on it? Whatever, it wasn't a problem anymore. The hoglet shook his head from the thought and gazed into the distance, scanning the landscape for any stirring of people.

"You must've scared them all off, huh?" he mused out loud, looking around the surroundings.

[Arthur]

Shadow remained silent for a bit at Silver's comment, sighing softly before he made his way back to the bridge
"Play Silver while you still can..." he said leaning once more on the railing of the bridge, staring over the still water he had just walked through and narrowed his eyes once more at the statue, his mind going through thoughts of why a something from the past would be here, especially if that something belonged to G.U.N, if Shadow remembered right, there hadn't been fighting on Angel Island in over one hundred and fifty years.

[sterlingmod]

Silver nodded quickly at his dad, not hesitating to run off to the highest hill he could find. After climbing the slope, he scanned the vista for something more fun than water. There he saw it... a tire swing! There was no way the young hedgehog could resist getting himself stuck in a tubular object.

The boy ran up to it and ran his hands around the rims. This was a pretty old-school toy, but sometimes it's the simple ones that were the most fun. The little hog poked his head through the opening. squirming his torso through and positioning himself so that he sat within the groove of the interior.

He was getting going like this though, so he twisted himself around, planting his feet on the rim he had just been perched on and grabbing the rope that held the tire to the branch. He started swaying himself, gaining momentum into a full swing.

This kid had no problem with going high. In fact, the higher the better. He giggled a bit as the tire swung erratically, sending him in a circular swing and he could swear he could practically touch the canopy.

[Arthur]

Shadow saw his son swinging in the distance and kept a neutral expression on his face but he was smiling on the inside, his son was the only thing that kept him going back into the same state he was when he first awoke fifty two years after Maria's death, he would be in the same ditch again with his wife's passing had it not been for Silver's birth he continued to watch the child as his thoughts went back to the object he found in the water, thinking of different scenarios as to why it was there.

[Sterling]

"Well, I'll be damned." The crunch of grass under heavy footsteps came to halt not too far from the ebony hedgehog, where an indigenous echidna stood at his full height. Like many other echidnas, his fur was that blazing red, a hue as vivid and thick as the blood running through his veins. But it was those eyes that were unmistakable - those piercing shards of purple against a white backdrop. "If anyone had told me it was you up here scaring people into their homes on my island," there was an obvious and justified amount of emphasis on that word, "I wouldn't have believed them for a second."

Knuckles. Surprisingly, the echidna hadn't changed much in the last two centuries. The fact that he was even still alive was nothing short of ludicrous. The mobian looked to have been only in his late thirties, and aside from a few scars and wrinkles didn't look much different than he did in his youth. The fur about his muzzle and dreads had grown out a bit and were somewhat ruffled carelessly, giving him a bit more rugged appearance. His odd sense in attire hadn't changed much either. The echidna still wore those ridiculous boxing gloves, though he had at least now traded in for a pair that were leather. He also now sported a slouch hat (Australian styled, I'll have you know) atop his head.

"The first time I see you in Chaos-knows-how-long and you're standing around in front of Blue's memorial. Don't tell me you miss him?" The echidna's lips twisted into a slight grin at his own comment, revealing his sharp, jagged teeth. He hadn't yet noticed Silver, and continued toward the brooding hedgehog where he stood a few inches taller than him -- as he always did.

(( This is the first time I've ever rped as Knuckles. XD Hopefully he's not too ooc. I'll get better ~~ ;n; ))

[Arthur]

Shadows ears perked at the sound of the familiar annoyance, he had already sensed the chaos energy of the echidna before he even spoke let alone approached him.
He didn't turn around to acknowledge Knuckles presence but he did speak up.

"I'm not here for him...I'm here for other reasons Guardian..." he replied as he continued to brood, his red eyes looking past the sonic memorial at the small white hedgehog playing on he tire swing, watching him intently play.

[sterlingmod]

The little white bushel of spines glimpsed his dad, difficult for him to see from the swinging, but just enough to notice that his old man was looking. The boy got an idea into his head to try to impress the old hog, climbing to the top of the tire, even at full swing, and increased momentum. The new person that had invited himself into the broody hedgehog's vicinity wasn't even noticed my the youngster, as he had no time to look back down.

After feeling confident enough that he had gained sufficient momentum and altitude, the tiny daredevil sprung himself up to grab onto the branch of the neighboring tree. This kid was surprisingly, and I mean surprisingly good at jumping for his age, as the tree he was going for was at least ten meters from the one the swing hung from. This acrobatic took a hold of one of the lower hanging branches, not to say that any of the branches on that tree were low at all.

He clambered up to perch on the branch in victory, peeking down under the canopy of leaves to see if his stunt was witnessed. Even though the person he was trying to impress was probably the one who would least likely to be impressed by anything, the jump was still pretty skillful seeing as how the youngling didn't even use a spring. Upon seeing his dad however, that is when he noticed the newcomer. The interest cut the child's bask in victory short, wondering who would have the moxie to walk up to someone who looked as disgruntled all the time as his dad.

[Sterling]

"And what would that be?" his tone took on a bit of irritation when the hedgehog didn't even spare him a glance. The echidna couldn't imagine what Shadow wanted to do on Angel Island, and he wasn't about to give him free range of his homeland so easily. After noticing the hedgehog's sights were fixated in the distance, Knuckles followed his gaze to an old tree that had a tire-swing attached.

Knuckles seemed puzzled at first, until something in the tree caught his eye. The little white hedgehog pup stuck out like a sore thumb against the deep greens of the tree's foliage, catching the old echidna's eyes with ease. "What the heck is that?"

[Arthur]

"That is my son."
Shadow simply said as he stopped leaning against the railing and began to make his way off the bridge and towards the tree, he didn't care if the echidna followed or not and he wasn't impressed by his son's stunt but he expected his son to be able to do it, he trained him himself after all and Shadow only expected high quality from his son but he will admit
only to himself however that he was surprised at Silver being brave enough to pull it off.

His thoughts of the echidna were usually sour and negative at the stubbornness and the knuckle head always seemed to get in his way, Shadow had tried to put him in his place and even kill him several times but had never been able to put the echidna down let alone match his crazy strength.

[sterlingmod]

Silver stared at the echidna with intent curiosity until he noticed his dad walking over toward him. The kit quietly watched the dark figure move across the grass in this direction. He seemed extra prickly after coming into contact with the crimson stranger.

"Who's that?" the pale pup spun himself upside-down so that he was hanging by his legs upon the dark hedgehog walking into hearing distance of the tree branch. Silver seemed to have forgotten all about asking how he did with his jump, more curious about who that person was than what his father thought of his trick.

[Sterling]

Knuckles stood dumb-founded in place for a moment as he processed what the hedgehog had said. A kid? The idea of Shadow having a child was laughable. That would have meant that Shadow would have had to have had affection for someone at some point. Suddenly, the echidna came to the realization that the ebony hedgehog had walked away quite some time ago while he was still in thought -- thinking wasn't the easiest thing for poor Knuckles at times.

"Hey!" the red mobian shouted, following Shadow over to his supposed son. "I wasn't done with you yet, hedgehog. I want to know what you're doing on my island."

[Arthur]

"Just taking a small break from running away from G.U.N, you know what they're like, and they haven't stopped chasing me ever since Sonic died, this break is more for Silver than it is for me."
Shadow explained as he refrained himself from becoming annoyed with the echidnas territorial issues and instead paid his attention to his son.
"This is Knuckles, that guardian I told you that I once knew now about that stunt you pulled. That was what I expected from you Silver nothing less but you can still improve and do better." he said as he crossed his arms and looked up at the young hedgehog
"Now come down here." he added closing his eyes as he delved into his thoughts, somewhat meditating while standing up to quell his emotions when speaking with the hard to deal with guardian.

[sterlingmod]

"Knuckles huh? What a silly name." He absent-mindedly commented, not meaning to be insulting. The child's inquisitive expression quickly transcended into that of exasperation... Of course the old geezer wouldn't care for his acrobatics. Man this guy is hard to please.

The hedgeling obeyed his father's order, scrunching his torso up and allowing the momentum to throw him off the branch, landing fairly gracefully into a kneel, well, as graceful as someone who was just exiting toddlercy could have done. He basically ignored his dad's criticism, standing up on both feet and brushing the grass off his shins without acknowledging the old man's nit-picking.

"So you're like, King right?" the child recalled the earlier talk about the echidna hierarchy he had when they had first arrived in the city. "Wow~, it must be decided from whoever has the biggest hands huh?" He stared at the old echidna's terrifyingly large gloves.

[Sterling]

Rage immediately lit up on the echidna's face as Shadow spoke of the military after him, "Oh no you don't! I don't want G.U.N. up here after your sorry hide! I want you off---" Knuckles cut himself off as he realized the smaller hedgehog was addressing him. Jeez, this was supposed to be Shadow's kid? Why wasn't he brooding and silent and strange like Mister Ultimate Life Form?

"M-My name's not silly, kid!" Knuckles sputtered in embarrassment, and his dreadlock-esque quills bristled a little in anger. He suddenly wished the pup was quieter like his father. "K-King? No! Chaos..!" The echidna brought one of his large, gloved hands to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation, giving the smaller hedgehog a glare. Already he was exasperated with this kid.

After a short moment of regaining his composure, Knuckles straightened up and eyed Silver over. "Look, kid. I'm not a king, I'm a guardian. I protect the Master Emerald, which keeps all the chaos emeralds in check. It's a very important job." he announced proudly, prodding the white crescent shape on his chest with a thumb. "And it's because I was born to do it. Not because I won it or something."

[Arthur]

Shadow kept his arms crossed to prevent himself from lashing out at the echidna, this stubborn fool was going to get in his way again and the echidna would regret it this time, there was no way he and his son were going to be thrown out and he'd fight the echidna here again if he had to.
He decided though that with his son berating the echidna that he would eventually forget about wanting to kick the two hedgehogs off the floating island and that the father and son could spend at least two nights in a warm bed.