IMPORTANT: All credits go to the Sonic Team who originally blessed us with a courageous, kind hearted, friendly, blue hedgehog. Only the main plot of the story is mine.
NOTE: No sexual scenes. Romantic relationship between Amy Rose and Sonic the Hedgehog. Rouge and Knuckles may never admit their true feelings for each other. No other relationships are mentioned in this story, but one of the main characters will have unrequited feelings for Amy...
SECOND NOTE: Any edits, comments email me or private message me (Email mentioned in profile).
Thanks for showing interest! Enjoy!
IN PROGRESS...
Sonic the Hedgehog
Rising Darkness
- Hidden Darkness -
Chapter One: A False Accusation
The hazy sun, smothered by the dense fog, weakly cast down a few rays of light upon the icy wasteland. The trees had long surrendered to an eternal blizzard, rows and rows of the tall wooden figures were now barren, except for a few. Those few trees that had managed to keep their leafy exteriors were smothered with layer upon layer of fresh, powdery, white snow.
The winter birds enlightened upon their branches and chirped a cheerful harmony. As if in offense, because of its current state, one of the trees swayed violently in the wind, scaring away a flock of carefree cardinals, whose breasts gleamed, in the pale sunlight, like balls of flames. They took wing into the snow whipped air, soon lost in the chaos of frozen rain.
Snowflakes were only visible on his jet black boots as he madly dashed through rows and rows of barren gnarled trees, that imploringly reached out to him with their bony branches. As he exhaled, his breath condensed in the air and departed in small puffs. He leapt effortlessly over the rocks that were bejeweled with a crystalline frost, that stubbornly clung to the stony jagged obstacles.
Anyone with slower reflexes would have tripped head over heels and succumbed to the thick layer of ice cold snow that covered the ground, most likely being instantly buried. Although the icy wasteland was acres long, the speedy visitor managed to reach the large body of frozen water in only a matter of minutes. After all this was an easy feat being that he was Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing alive.
That morning he and his rival friend planned to meet up at this barren and forsaken wasteland in the hopes of retrieving a precious item that would even the odds with any of their numerous enemies. So after time spent on this plan, having perceived there would be slick, easy to slip on, ice, the blue hedgehog had transformed his boots into ice skates.
He effortlessly glided across the frozen lake; a perfect mirrored image of the stormy skies over the blue hedgehog, reflected back from the smooth icy structure, that had once been deep blue and teemed with life. He stopped at a chain of massive mountains, that barricaded him from reaching his final destination. The ice capped mountains loomed over the blue hedgehog, as if gloating over their immense height.
A strong gust of bitter wind soared down from the mountain range, pushing him closer to the towering mountains, challenging him to venture onward. He merely smiled and with a smirk, accepted the challenge, scaling one of the giant natural barriers as he would a small mound of hills. Sonic was soon perched on top of the peak of one of nature's greatest structures.
He gazed down at the forsaken wasteland and waited. He occasionally glanced at a silver wrist watch, the golden numbers read 5:30. The rays of the sunset broke through the thick clouds and cast a glow around him. Another merciless breeze blew his blue quills in his face. He carelessly brushed the spines from his electric green eyes and continued his patient vigil, the clock now read 6:45.
Five more minutes. Sonic thought. Then I have to assume he is a no show and I have to do what I came here for.
Sure enough as he expected, five minutes passed, and his teammate did not make a lofty appearance. Just as he was about to call his rival friend, with his silver wrist watch that multi-purposed as a communication device, it emerged from the dark abyss, that spliced between the twin of the mountains that the blue hedgehog had once continued a patient vigil.
A gargantuan snake like monster, with miles and miles of slick, wet from the water that flowed under the icy landform, pale blue, spiny coils, complete with a spike covered tail. Its brilliant, blood red eyes glittered hatefully as it noticed the courageous blue hedgehog. It swished its tail at the mountain from which Sonic had been standing on. The force from the slash, and the spikes catching in the recesses of the ice capped giant, caused the mountain to rumble in protestation as it began to crack and crumble to pieces.
"Too slow!" Sonic laughed as he launched himself off the crumbling mountain and into the air, sliding down the creature's icy back.
"Haaa!" The hedgehog slammed his fist into his foe's soft underbelly as the creature's snakelike body rose into the air, in an attempt to wrap its coils around its opposition. The beast roared in anger and surprised pain. Then opening its large mouth, revealing rows and rows of razor sharp, blindingly, white teeth, a huge, forked, slimy, purple tongue flicked out, wrapping around the hapless hedgehog.
"Hey!" Sonic cried out as he struggled to break free from the behemoth's grasp. The monster began to pull its tongue back into its mouth, taking the hedgehog along with it. Sonic gagged as he smelled the creature's putrid fish breath; a slimy glob of its saliva covered the blue hedgehog. Sonic was having a hard time breathing as the monster's salivation was smothering him. Then the worst happened, the beast swallowed him whole.
He sped through the wasteland, following the path that Sonic had previously taken, with the aid of his Chaos charged skates.
Darn it. He inwardly cursed. If something happens to that spineball... Then he launched himself off a rock, soaring through the air. He landed perfectly on his feet with a small smile as he heard a loud roar.
"Perfect." he said as he brushed snow off of his ebony, scarlet striped spines. "I made it just in time." Then he took out a dazzling, forest green chaos emerald. Closed his eyes, whispered two words and vanished.
Sonic threw out both of his hands as he slid seemingly endlessly through the slick, dark passageway that was the behemoth's throat.
It will not end this way. he thought as he desperately tried to stop his decent. Then from within the monster, he heard:
"You are going down!" It was Shadow the Hedgehog, who had just arrived on time and was preparing a fight with the ice beast. A glowing flash of energy charged light brightened up Sonic's prison, which was the stomach of the monster. After the flare of light, a loud and terrible cry issued from within the raging beast. The sound echoed within the belly of the beast, causing Sonic to cover his ears as the octaves seemed to shatter his ear drums. Another flash and with a sickeningly, wet, rip, a gap was made in the creature's, susceptible to damage, under belly.
Now that Sonic was free the massive, howling serpentine behemoth had two enemies to worry about. As it thrust its claws into the icy ground, better that its two opponents died than get a hold of the powerful object its whole life's purpose was to guard, cracks began to form. The frozen earth opened its mouth to receive the dying ice creature and the two hedgehogs. Shadow made a quick dash into the cave the dying beast had been guarding, grabbed a sparkling, snow, white emerald and smiled with triumph.
"Look out!" Sonic exclaimed as he threw himself at Shadow, knocking both himself and his ebony rival away from a newly formed gap in the ground. Having regained his balance, with a growl and flashing hazel golden eyes, vainly searching the ground and finally giving up on finding the fallen emerald, Shadow put full force into his Chaos powered skates, speeding away from his dismayed azure rival.
"Hey, Shadow!" Sonic called out and snatching a shimmering object from the collapsing ice, he quickly caught up and matched pace with his ebony rival. The ground was falling behind both the racers as they dashed faster and faster to the safety of the green hilltops that seemed to be drawing nearer and nearer with every few feet they put from themselves and the collapsing ice land. Eventually Sonic was no longer ice skating on frozen ground as his skates soon caught into the pebbly earth. As he struggled to free himself from the craggy earth, he flew into the air and crash landed on top of Shadow.
"Oof!" the pair called out as they rolled down a grassy, green hill and finally landed into a nearby creek, the dazzling, snow, white crystalline emerald landed on the bank of the creek that the two rivals had fallen into with a tiny splash. Sonic began to cough and cry out for help being that water was his kryptonite as he never had nor seemed to feel the need to learn how to swim.
"Oh for goodness sakes!" Shadow rolled his eyes. "It's just a small creek, its not the damn ocean!"
"Oh..." Sonic said as he soon came to his senses and noticed the little grayish brown tadpoles that swiftly swam through the one or two inch deep, small body of water.
"Good thing I fell into the kiddie pool." he laughed as he dipped his finger into the water, capturing one of the tiny pollywogs in a mini whirlpool. Shadow shook his head in disdain and turned away.
"Hey Shads," Sonic's grin grew wider as he taunted the ebony hedgehog, stepping out of the creek and squeezing the water out of one of his azure spines. "Too bad you came too late to defeat Snakey." Shadow did not move, not even so much as glanced at the blue hedgehog. Sonic could just imagine his rival's eyes flashing with anger, annoyance or broken pride.
"Shadow?"
"I do not have time for these silly games."
And sure enough as the ebony hedgehog turned around to face Sonic, his eyes were two dancing golden, hazel flames. Except it had nothing to do with a busted ego, low tolerance for his rival's childish mockery, or being upset by the idea that Sonic could even say he missed the fight when Shadow had been the one to save the spineball.
"CHAOS SPEAR!" roared Shadow and Sonic, who had previously been stooping down to pick up the white chaos emerald, had just enough time to dodge the chaos charged light spear.
"Just great, Shadow. What did you do that for, my spines are singed." Sonic whined as he pulled out a few quills that had been charred.
"Just forget it. You know nothing. You are blinded by your love for speed and yourself." the ebony hedgehog snarled as he advanced towards Sonic, who began to back slowly away.
"Now get out of here!" And Shadow's body started to glow as he was readying himself for another assault on the azure hedgehog.
"Alright! Alright!" Sonic nodded fervently. "I get the message!" And then he dashed away from his crazed rival, but he was not going to let it go. He would surely get to the bottom of this, even if it was the last thing he did.
Sonic reclined on the olive green chair that rested upon the woolly carpet. He started twiddling his thumbs as he continued replaying his strange encounter with Shadow over and over in his mind. The house he was at was a humble abode. The only places that seemed like separate entities from the house were the plane hangar and the laboratory.
The plane hangar boasted of housing over a thousand aircraft, all hand made by Sonic's best friend Miles Prower, better known as Tails. Tails was a fox kid that had far more intelligence than any of his older and more mature friends. He was handy with all kinds of tools, that he used to repair and create the most up to date machinery.
"Maybe he was having a bad day." Tails, suggested as he repaired the damage his X Tornado had taken during Sonic and Tails' latest battle against Dr. Eggman, a deranged yet genius mad scientist who was bent on ruling the world and bringing forth his 'Eggman Empire.' The plane was repolished a silvery golden hue so as to compliment its newly created abilities.
The plane was designed to withstand any attack Eggman would throw at them and even to return his own attacks upon his own head. The plane had two modes that would automatically initiate in the heat of war: Battle Mode and Speed Mode. Battle Mode would prep the plane to become an offensive weapon and the best form of defense against any of the pilot's enemies.
This mode was readied with a shield that can reach any size and strength and would even teleport the plane to a stealthy area for sneak attacks. Speed Mode, on the other hand, was designed for flight, enhanced with shields that could reach any strength level. In this mode, the plane could camouflage into any natural and man made background.
"Yeah. That could be it..." Sonic trailed.
"I think he was just being his usual stubborn, grouchy, poor sported self!" complained Knuckles as he fiddled with a ruby red chaos emerald. The emerald was instantly taken by a delicate, gloved hand.
"Reminds me of a certain Echidna I know." said Rouge the Bat as she examined the red chaos emerald, her sea green eyes glowing with curiosity and longing. Rouge, being a treasure huntress, had often searched for rare and powerful talismen such as the Chaos Emeralds. Now, for the first time in her life, she had succeeded in taking one from another treasure hunter and the protector of the Chaos Emeralds.
"What did you say?!" Knuckles shouted, savagely slamming his fists together and diving the jewel crazy bat, but only comically skidding on the hard concrete floor of the airplane hangar as she reflexively spread out her wings and flew away, landing a few feet from the stunned echidna.
"Oh please." drawled Rouge. "I have no time for these flirtatious fits of rage."
"What?!" Knuckles cheeks turned a pink hue. "You're batty! I would rather be stuck in solitary confinement than with you!"
"Whatever." Rouge said with a nonchalant flip of her wrist. Knuckles sat back down and began ranting about how incompetent of a spy Rouge was because of her greed and constant thieving nature. To which Rouge interrupted by calling Knuckles a simple minded hermit whose only friends were the emeralds he guarded.
"Excuse me." Tails called out, waving both hands in the air to get their attention, but Knuckles and Rouge were too absorbed in their argument to notice. Sonic exchanged looks with the exasperated fox, than shrugging his shoulders, apologetically, made a gesture as if he was eating out of a popcorn bucket.
"Here, Knuckies." Rouge smiled wryly and reluctantly dropped the emerald into a rather embarrassed Knuckles lap. After an awkward moment, in which both Rouge and Knuckles realized they had been arguing in front everyone, Tales took the chance to finish what he had been saying.
"Anyway," Tails shot Rouge and Knuckles an annoyed look, stroking his twin tails absentmindedly. "I am sure that Shadow will explain when he comes back. Meanwhile try to relax and please stop pacing or else you will wear a hole in the carpet."
"Okay..." and Sonic zoomed off without any explanation, leaving the snow white emerald nestled on the chair he had previously been sitting on.
Shadow felt as if the paint peeled walls of the alleyway were closing in on him. He had taken this shortcut to leave the city and get to wherever he was heading to. He had managed to reach the town square within minutes, knowing he would one day have to go back to the frozen wasteland.
Knowing that the ice beast was far from dead, unaware that Sonic had acquired the chaos emerald they had gone so far to get, and feeling resentment for Sonic's clumsy foolishness that made Shadow lose the prized gem in the first place, which for some reason unknown, he needed so badly.
He had not meant to hurt Sonic, he just wanted him gone so that Shadow would not have to deal with explaining his situation to the blue hedgehog. Had he seriously been offended that Sonic had dissed him by saying that he had missed the battle with the ice snake? What for?
Even if it was Shadow who had saved Sonic from being devoured by the ravenous beast, did he really care about one upping Sonic that badly? Was the violent outburst because of him? Shadow would have to worry about apologizing to Sonic later. Right now he needed to see someone, but who?
"Eggman." A voice answered. The ruggedness of the voice left Shadow with no denial, it was his own voice. Yet he had not intended to say that name. Or anything at all. He was losing control, badly. And this only made him angrier.
"What do you want with me?!" he shouted at seemingly no one. Then he heard the evil laughter, coming from himself.
In his frustration, he punched a hole in the wall of the alleyway and then he sliced it apart with a chaos spear. He dashed through it. Ready to go see Eggman.
A few days ago...
He had been in hiding. Slowly growing stronger. Waiting for the perfect time. He had been released from the parallel dimension he was trapped in after having been defeated in his attempt to gain as much power by destroying the world and every other dimension. But he had been stopped and his twin soul completely destroyed. All this would not have happened if it was not for him. The black , with scarlet stripes, hedgehog, the one with the alien blood and chaos powers.
"Shadow the Hedgehog." he snarled as he opened his hand to reveal an aqua blue chaos emerald. The emerald rested in the palm of his hand and as he closed his eyes it rose into the air and began to glow.
"It's time." he said with a mirthless smile and then he vanished via chaos control.
Sonic walked through the alleyway. The same alleyway, unknowingly, that Shadow had raced through to get to Eggman, a few minutes ago. The alleyway was a dark place, even in the daytime. A pile of molding garbage was stacked on an aluminum trash can labeled Recycling.
An assortment of garbage dotted the floor. Old banana peels, broken shards of beer bottles and other glass, an old TV set, a lumpy, tattered, dirty sofa that had the springs exposed. Sonic wrinkled his nose in disgust, it stunk a lot in there. Then he noticed the huge hole in the wall, smoke rising from it.
Shadow. he thought and then he dove for cover as he saw something whizz past him by the corner of his eye. He realized it was the TV set he had noticed during his walk through the narrow alleyway. The TV exploded in mid air and then Sonic heard footsteps. He whirled around and saw Silver the Hedgehog a few feet from him.
Did you?" Sonic asked." Silver merely nodded and smiled grimly.
"I did not want to have to do this, but you are not Sonic. You are a monster." And then he advanced towards the blue hedgehog. Sonic ducked as a table flew over his head. He spun attacked a cardboard box that was hurling towards him.
"You gotta be quicker than that." Sonic teased. "I do not wanna fight you so can you explain-"
"I have been thinking a lot about what I was told. I was debating whether this was the right thing to do or not. I was wondering could it be possible I was being duped again." said Silver with a pause, he closed his hazel golden eyes, cocking his head to the side.
"But then he showed me the truth and this time I cannot find any reason not to believe it. I mean you did cause the emerald to be lost and the real Sonic would not have been so easily eaten by that ice snake." The silver hedgehog laughed at how ridiculous he had been, thinking that the creature standing in front of him could possibly be his friend.
"So it must be a ploy and you must be a spy for Eggman, one of his minions or some interdimensional monster." Silver rose into the air, head bowed and eyes closed once more, holding his arms to the sky, palms spread out towards the speechless and befuddled azure hedgehog.
"And now you will pay for what you did to Sonic and the price is your life!" and Sonic rolled away as a lamp went smashing into the wall he had been examining a while ago.
"A monster? I am not a monster!"
"The exact thing I would expect a monster to say, but you cannot trick me. I refuse to fall for the lies of monsters again." Silver fumed. "I have had enough of this. It's no use." and Silver captured Sonic with his psychokinetic powers."
"H-Hey." Sonic stammered. "Let's not be hasty here!"
"And the so-called hero stammers." taunted Silver. "Nooo!" he cried out as Sonic broke free from Silver's psychokinetic powers and sped attacked the bemused hedgehog.
"This should do it!" Silver exclaimed as he recaptured Sonic just as the blue hedgehog was preparing himself for another attack against Silver.
Sonic's whole body felt like his body had been set aflame. His heart rate increased and sweat began to spill from him. He was having a hard time breathing and it felt like he had swallowed the glass from the beer bottles he had crunched underfoot earlier. His vision started to spot and just as he was about to pass out:
"Wait." said a calm, rugged voice. "I said to detain him, not kill him." Both hedgehogs turned to see the source of the voice.
"Shadow!" they both exclaimed.
"What's going on?" Sonic said as his vision returned to normal.
"Do not deny it." Shadow said cooly. "We all know you are not Sonic."
"What?!" exclaimed Sonic in confusion.
"You are merely Eggman's artificial darkness that had the ability to capture even the fastest being. You took Sonic the Hedgehog and he may be long gone as of now."
"How can you say that!" shouted Sonic.
"Silver." Shadow said, ignoring the bewildered Sonic. "Never mind what I said. He is too strong. Take care of Artificial Darkie here while I go to Eggman to find our friend, the real Sonic." He took out an aqua blue chaos emerald, whispered and vanished.
"Alright." Silver said grimly and blocked Sonic's path as the blue hedgehog raced toward the dissipating Shadow. Sonic was slammed into a wall and looked at Silver.
"Please Silver." he began. "Something's wrong with Shadow. I am really Sonic."
"And I am really Eggman." Silver said laughing sarcastically. "Please I know you are not Sonic, Sonic would not be half as cowardly as you are being right now. That was a nice try. But I will show just how fake you are. Haaaaa!" And he flung Sonic once more.