Chapter 4 of w/Sonic: Being Useless

## **Summary:**

The chapter begins with Honest and Shadow being locked in an intense game of chess. Honest makes a move after a long period of time of just staring at the board. Despite all of her preparation for that move, Shadow moves one piece and wins on the next turn. Honest sighs loudly and collapses on top of the chessboard, causing their pieces to fly everywhere. She then says she's tired, so the two of them go to bed. When Shadow awakes the next morning, Honest is lying beside him. When he goes to pet her, Honest snaps awake and pulls away. Shadow tries to say he's sorry, but Honest says it was her fault and that she got beside him because he looked very soft. Shadow says it's okay because he knows that's what cats do, fall asleep everywhere. Honest says it won't happen again, but Shadow says that's because she'll be in a different, even stranger place. Shadow then goes to make French toast. Honest pleads for Shadow not to wear an apron this time unless he wanted to give Eggman another idea of how to put them to work. Shadow smiles and assures her that it won't happen ever again.

Time skips to when they're eating their toast. Honest puts powdered sugar on hers and sits beside Dr Eggman. She calls him "Mista E" and he isn't very grateful for that, telling her never to call him that. Shadow takes the last two slices of toast and goes to sit beside Honest. He asks Dr Eggman if he's found anymore of the Emeralds, and he has. He says that he saw Big hide the Emerald away somewhere, and that him and Honest will need to retrieve it. Shadow and Honest blink at each other, knowing quite well that dealing with Big was going to be big trouble (pun intended). After breakfast, Eggman steers his ship towards the Mystic Ruins and Big's home. Honest and Shadow take Orbot and Cubot's seats and they are forced to sit behind them on the floor. Orbot tells Cubot that they've been replaced, and Cubot points out that their imposters don't look anything like them. Honest watches the land below them get swampier and swampier until they've touched down in a puddle of muck, as indicated by a large sploosh.

Honest wades across while Shadow holds her shoes and homing attacks to the other side. Honest asks if he's afraid of mud, and he says that it would make a mess in his fur. Instantly, they see Big asleep beneath a large boulder. He opens his eyes when they approach and asks who they are. Honest starts trying to convince him to tell them where the Chaos Emerald is while Shadow just stands there, looking around. Big tells her that Froggy has it, but he has no idea where he is. He then starts to call for him. Honest tells Big that she and Shadow will go find him and be back soon. They walk into the forest and Shadow asks Honest how they'll track him down. Honest says they will listen to him. Shadow points out that there are a million frogs croaking right now, but Honest says that Froggy sounds one-of-a-kind and that they'll recognize him instantly. Soon, they begin to hear what sounds like a person saying "ribbit, ribbit, ribbit" and know that it's him. Shadow says "How convenient" and they make their way towards the sound. Honest sees a long, green tail disappear under a bush and pounces on it. However, she notes that if she had eaten Froggy, Big would call World War III on her. Froggy wiggles and tries to threaten Honest, but she ignores him and thinks about what to do next to get the Emerald out of him. Shadow comes up with the brilliant idea to give Froggy to Chaos so that he can absorb the Emerald out of him. gain power, and destroy them all. They decide to go ask Knuckles what to do, and Shadow teleports them there with a Chaos Control.

Suddenly, Honest and Shadow appear on the steps of the Master Emerald Shrine and Knuckles runs up to them, asking them if they are there to steal the Master Emerald. Shadow tells him "no" and Honest runs up to him and shows him Froggy. Shadow tells Knuckles that they need to get the Emerald out of Froggy. Knuckles takes the frog and says he'll see what he can do. Knuckles magically separates the Emerald from Froggy. It's the silver Emerald. Knuckles starts to tell them thank you for returning the Emerald but is cut off when Shadow takes it and Froggy from him and says that it belongs to Dr. Eggman. Knuckles says "oh, right" and smiles. However, once Honest and Shadow teleport away, he realizes what he's done. He shakes his fist in the air and yells "Cat girl!" When Shadow and Honest are where they've teleported, they are face-to-face with Big the Cat. He asks if they found Froggy, to which Shadow responds by dropping Froggy in the dirt. He instantly bounds towards the trees and disappears, Big following afterwards. Honest asks what he did that for, and Shadow prepares to explain it to her. However, he stops and says he won't because she, quote, "knows why". Honest and Shadow make their way back to the ship, and Shadow tosses the Emerald to Eggman where he is waiting outside. Eggman fumbles to catch it and Shadow goes to return to his chair. However, Orbot is now sitting in it, so he bowls him across the ship like a bowling ball and jumps into the chair. Honest quickly gets in her own seat before Eggman can get onto them for harming his robots.

On returning to Eggman's base, Honest takes a deep breath of the toxic waste-like stench of the base, mixed with a little Ben's Robotics-Safe Polish, and sighs. Shadow, on the other hand, doesn't even pretend to like the stench and wrinkles up his nose. After Eggman and his two robot partners pass them, Shadow and Honest go into their room. Shadow says that there are three Emeralds left to collect, but if Eggman ever asks, it's actually four. Honest says that he doesn't have to tell her twice. Shadow says that they shouldn't worry about lying to someone like Eggman, but Honest seems to feel loyal to him since they've been working together for a while now. However, she then asks if Eggman would allow them to play his video games. Shadow says that she can go ahead and he'll just watch. They play assorted games, whichever ones Eggman possesses, until about 9 PM. They then fall asleep on the couch before they can make it to their beds. Honest wakes up to Dr Eggman announcing that he's found another Emerald. However, she can't move because Shadow's on her. She pokes his head and he wakes up, immediately standing up and probably also giving himself a headache. He appologizes to Honest and she says that his fur was nice and warm. Eggman impatiently taps his foot and tells them that Sticks the Badger has the next Emerald. Shadow proposes that they sneak in and steal it so that they don't have to deal with her.

In the next scene, Honest and Shadow are standing just outside Sticks's burrow. Shadow asks why she would want to live underground, and Honest says she has to or else-- conspiracy. They walk up to her door and immediately become suspended in a net 20 feet off the ground. Shadow thrashes about to try to escape, but Honest gives him a stern look and he stops. Sticks came running out of the burrow with her trusty boomerang. She says that she made the trap specifically for government agents, and lo and behold that's who she caught. Shadow tells her that he was a government agent in the past, but in this specific instance, the government isn't involved. Sticks lowers the net and lets them out. Shadow offers her a shiny ring which Honest is confused how he got in exchange for the Chaos Emerald. Sticks exclaims "Shiny~!" and leaps for it, but he lifts it above his head and tells her that she'll get it when she gives him the Emerald. Sticks says that she doesn't trust government agents, but disappears into her burrow to retrieve it anyway. When she comes back, Shadow gives her the shiny ring and Sticks hands Honest the Chaos Emerald, telling her not to try anything stupid. Honest just narrows her eyes at the badger and walks back to Shadow. However, before they can teleport away, Amy Rose runs up to them and asks Shadow if he's there for "the tea party." He tells Honest that he promised Amy they would have a tea party and that he'll bring her to the Doctor and be back later.

After that, there's a note from Honest asking for people to give her ideas of what characters to include next. After all, other people get ideas from the comments and it works out great. However, this is where Honest finds out for the first time how no one comments on her stories, and she's forced to change the entire plot of the story.

## **Trivia:**

* In the scene where Shadow is about to explain to Honest why he let go of Froggy, in an earlier version of the chapter, he goes on a tangent and talks about a bunch of different things. However, Honest cut that part out because she realized it was ridiculous for Honest and Shadow to just start having a huge discussion in the middle of the swamp (Though that doesn't seem to stop her nowadays)
* Amy and Shadow having tea parties was something far more present in Honest's old drawings than in the stories. This is one of the only mentions of it.