Look, you guys! Bolded words!
Ok, anyway, this story is a result of too much time spent in school with very little recreational time. Pent-up author ideas…Check. A good storyline thingy…check. Characters who don't die …um…
…Yeah, anyway, so you know this is a story you'll all love AND FAVORITE AND REVIEW! (Hint, hint)
Ok, enough of my ramblings. Enjoy. I own no one, except John Zane and Young.
About a trillion miles away from normal civilization in a giant space station thing was a slightly lonely girl. Her name is Maria. Just Maria to you. She was at the moment staring out one of the giant windows on the side of the ARK and wondering what exacally cell phones were for on Earth.
She was also wondering how she got up on the ARK in the first place. Even though her very busy, very important grandfather had explained to her a few times, it just didn't seem right. Why had her parents just left her there? He never quite exacally said why, just that they were in some trouble and had to give her to him.
Anyway, she was happy, even if she didn't see much of him either. The only thing she had that had any memory of her parents was a small blurry photograph of them at some sort of party. Her grandfather had been able to name everyone in the picture, even recalling some past jokes about them.
Maria came to the conclusion that cell phones were used to talk to friends that had no intention of talking to you face to face. It saddened her; to think that some people had friends that they didn't even appreciate. She knew that she would have appreciated anyone.
Footsteps echoed down the hall and Maria looked up to see John Zane, who was usually found in the lab. He was very tall, very young and very skinny. Everything about him seemed to be able to be described as 'very' and then an adjective. Very dark brown hair. Very light green eyes. A very understanding personality.
"Hi, Maria," He said. "your grandfather wants to speak to you when he goes on break."
"Thanks." Maria said. "I have to ask you a question…what are cell phones for on Earth?"
John laughed a very understanding laugh. "Well, they have many uses." He said after a second. "Games, communication, texting…anything, sort of."
"Weird." Maria didn't think there was even much use for the communicators the people on board the ARK used, yet alone a phone thing. "One of these days…can we go down there?"
"That's up to your grandfather." John said.
"All right. Thanks, John."
John hurried along the hall and Maria turned to count every star. She got up somewhere in the hundreds before someone else began to come towards her. She looked up to see her grandfather; a successful smile on his face nearly hidden from his moustache.
"We're this close." He held his index finger and thumb an inch apart. "This close…and nothing major happened throughout this entire project!"
"Can I see it?" Maria asked, getting up from where she was sitting at the window. "What's it look like?"
Her grandfather continued smiling. "As soon as we're certain that we've done all we can."
Maria nodded enthusiastically. "All right!"
She suddenly remembered the last few times this project was started. Twice the experiment died before anything could be done to save them. Another time, near completion, it had attacked and nearly killed a scientist in the lab. But this time, her grandfather had told her that nothing could go wrong. They had worked out everything that could go wrong and had multiple responses to anything even slightly altered.
"Anyway, I came because John told me you had a question about cellular devices." Her grandfather jolted Maria out of her thoughts. "I could show you one, if you like. And as for the question about going to Earth…soon. Soon we'll be able to go back down there."
"Thank you, grandfather." Maria said, giving him an enormous hug.
XxXxXxXx
Maria soon found out the awesome power of the 4G iPhone. Well, for about ten minuets. Then she got bored of the tiny screen and took about a thousand pictures with the camera built into it. By the time she was done with the photos, she could have made a stop-motion movie of everyone walking in front of her.
"I think you're enjoying this a bit too much," John finally said, taking the phone away from her while her grandfather laughed.
"You are. Away with you! Go and get ready for dinner." Her grandfather wiped a tear away from his eye. "I know what to get you for Christmas now."
Maria nodded. "And I'm going to get you...uh… something you'll like a lot. Oh, hey, John! Before I go, can you take a picture of us?"
"Sure, if I can figure out how to work this thing." John tapped the touch screen and successfully took a picture of his shoes.
"Oh, that's how." He muttered. "Say cheese."
"Swiss!" Maria smiled, nudging her grandfather.
An electronic click.
"All right. Got it. Nice." John handed the camera back to his boss. "Now..away with you!"
"See you at dinner!" Maria left, happy that she had solved another Earth-mystery. More and more of those were popping up every day as she figured out something called 'Internet'. Her grandfather had restricted her from the computers for as long as she could remember, telling her over and over that the Internet wasn't very safe. Maria always thought that someone would pop out of its screen and pull her inside the cyberspace.
She stopped to gaze out the window once again, finding the constellations of Orion and Cancer. The stars were very pretty out in space, not like the photos taken from Earth at all. Even though Maria always wondered what Earth was like, she was glad she was on the ARK; with its great view and people.
As she walked down the halls, she found herself wondering what the project would be this time. Many of the failed attempts had been on cold-blooded lizards and iguanas, but lately her grandfather had been beginning to work with warm-blooded mammals. The last attempt had been on a three legged cat, but complications to its nerves and cells had caused the scientists to put it down. Maria had cried for hours.
But then again, this was the furthest her grandfather had ever gone with Project S.H.A.D.O.W.. He said that they were nearly done? Incredible. Maria remembered earlier in the year he had began updating her on the experiment; 'You're not going to believe this, Maria! It's all going according to plan! We're not failing this time!' or 'Just a little more…and it'll finally be finished! Can you believe this?'
Maria began to wonder how exacally the project would turn out. Would it obey orders, like her grandfather wanted? Would it rebel, like a few others and have to be destroyed? She sure hoped not. What would it look like? Would it be like a cat? Would it be smart? She sort of hoped not. She always wanted to teach someone something, even if it was a bit of useless knowledge. She had built up a store of that over the years.
She skipped to the dining hall, happier than she had been in a long time.
XxXxXxXx
During dinner that night her grandfather seemed about ready to explode with happiness. Finally, he couldn't keep it to himself anymore and said, "We're nearly done! Just another day…and he'll be ready!"
"Really?" Maria was taken by surprise. "When can I see him?"
"Tonight, if you really wanted to." Her grandfather smiled.
"This is so awesome! You've finally finished the project!" Maria cheered. "What will the Earth government say about this? Will you get a promotion…or lots more money?"
"It depends on what they think."
"Gerald, you know that they might not be as impressed." John muttered. "they could shut us down for good."
"They wouldn't!" Maria protested. "Would they?"
"It's up to the government." The assistant said softly. "They have control over this experimentation and facility."
"That doesn't seem very fair." Maria said.
"Nothing's very fair." John said. "But we make the most of what we have."
"All right. Maria, why don't you go and find something to do until about eight o'clock tonight. At that time I'll find you and you can see the finished project for the first time." her grandfather said, changing the subject slightly. "We've just got a few more things to improve on."
"Sure!" Maria said. She pushed her chair back and left the table. "See you soon!"
Both Gerald and John waited a few seconds before speaking again.
"Do you think that the government will shut us down?" the professor asked.
"I doubt it. But they've been known to act like that." His assistant answered.
"What would they do to Project S.H.A.D.O.W.?"
"Probably kill it."
In the silence that followed you could have heard a pin drop.
"Well, on the bright side, there's hardly any chance of that happening." John muttered. "And even if they did shut us down, Maria would be able to talk them into sparing the experiment."
"That girl has potential." Her grandfather sighed. "I can't wait to see what she'll be when she grows up."
"Maybe she'll conduct further experiments off your research." John suggested.
"That would be more than I could ever hope for."
XxXxXxXxXx
Maria was busy reading what supposedly was suppost to be a scary book. But even though she read it in the dark with only a flashlight, it failed to faze her. Even when a mutant monster appeared out of a dark alley and dragged two of the characters to their deaths.
She skipped a chapter that seemed boring and came to the final pages.
Just as she was getting to a part about dragons and treasure a knock came at her door.
"Come in!" She called, switching on the normal light in her room and turning off the flashlight. John opened the door and motioned for her to follow him.
"Come on, your grandfather wants you in the lab now."
Maria could barely contain her excitement as she and John walked down the hall. She felt like she could fly to the lab. She found herself wondering what Project S.H.A.D.O.W. might look like again. Would it be a mammal, like a few of the other failed experiments? Would it be another cold-blooded lizard? The possibilities were endless.
"What color is it?" Maria asked.
"Well, I'll say that the name fits it." John said.
Now Maria had a ton more questions to ask. She was relieved when the doors appeared at the end of the hall and they entered into the lab. John lead her into another room near the back.
Her grandfather was sitting at a computer, monitoring the readouts carefully. But when Maria walked into the room, he stood up and smiled.
"We're just finishing up downloading everything he needs to know directly into his brain. When that's complete, he'll be finished." Maria could not mistake the excitement in his voice.
He pointed to a small rectangular table behind the computers, where something dark colored was nestled among brightly colored pillows. To Maria, it looked like a splotch of darkness curled into a ball.
"Maria, this is Shadow." Her grandfather gently stroked the side of his creation and it uncurled slightly onto its side. Altogether, it was barely longer than her arm and not half as impressive as she had imagined. It wore small white gloves and red socks, more for warmth than anything else. Behind its two triangular ears were thick wires about as wide as her thumb going straight into its head. Shadow twitched slightly and clenched his right fist in his sleep.
"He's small." Was all Maria managed to say. He seemed a bit too small in fact. It was a miracle that he had survived this far. Usually her grandfather's projects were about the size of large housecats, sometimes bigger. Shadow seemed tiny compared to them.
"After a lot of research we were able to complete him." Her grandfather said happily. "Although there's a still a couple of things we need to fix."
"Like what?"
Her grandfather gently lifted Shadow's chin. "See his throat? We've performed about seven or eight operations on his voice box, but we've never been able to get a single sound out of him."
Maria made out tiny scars on the experiment's throat, but they were so small that she would have overlooked them if her grandfather hadn't pointed them out.
"And another thing is he can't seem to move his left leg." Her grandfather motioned to the experiment's leg, which was at an odd angle. "We've been monitoring his muscle movement, but so far, nothing's shown up."
Shadow shuddered and with his left hand reached up and grasped one of the wires that was streaming into his head. The professor quickly moved the wire out of his reach and turned him over on his back. "This is one of the most important stages in this entire project." He explained. "if he interrupts the stream of information to his brain he'd be beyond repair."
Maria gently reached out and stroked Shadow's side, causing him to twitch again. "What's with that white patch on his chest?" She asked.
"A slight alteration of the pigment in his fur. Wasn't meant to happen in the first place, but it seems to fit him, doesn't it?" her grandfather said. "He's far from perfect, but it's what we were able to do in so short a time."
"What exacally is he?" Maria asked.
"A rather mute hedgehog with a paralyzed leg." The professor answered. "Hopefully we'll get that figured out soon, though."
"Does he have any special power? Like what you tried to do with the others?" Maria asked.
"When he wakes up we'll be able to tell. We infused his blood with Chaos energy, making him able to control Chaos based attacks." Her grandfather said, watching a heart monitor next to the table. "But he should be able to defend himself if it doesn't work."
"What if he dies?" Maria asked. "Then what?"
"Then we have to start all over again." Her grandfather sighed. "And I've grown quite attached to him."
Maria did think that he was sort of cute in his own way. But she thought he's be cuter once he wasn't connected to all the machines in the lab. It made him look helpless.
"Come here, I want to show you what we're uploading into his brain." The professor moved away from the table back to the computer he was sitting at when Maria entered the lab. "He should be able to solve any math probablem we throw at him…he should know a lot of science…he should be able to read…and just basic knowledge about the world and things in it. But I've left the best part up to you."
"What's that?" Maria asked, curious.
"He has no idea whatsoever about the ARK and what we do on it. I'm going to leave it up to you to tell him and show him around. Get to be his friend. I figured you would need one sooner or later."
Maria nodded slowly. "So just show him around and get to know him?"
"That's the plan. Just report to me if he doesn't feel well or something…drastic… happens."
"What do you mean by that?" Maria asked, sounding worried.
"Well…er…it shouldn't happen, but just in case." Her grandfather muttered. "You just need to make sure nothing happens to him."
Maria nodded and glanced back over at the table, where Shadow was squirming around trying to get comfortable. Her grandfather walked over to him and held his head still so he wouldn't pull the wires out. "Come on, Shadow. Just a little more." He whispered.
Maria yawned. "Well, goodnight, grandfather. I'm really tired."
"I bet you are." The professor said. "See you in the morning. I might be in here when you get up, so you know where to find me."
"I'll bring you breakfast, then." Maria left the lab, passing by John who was typing something at lightning speed. "Goodnight, John."
"See ya, Maria." He yawned.
Maria headed back to her room and tired to sleep. She was awake for hours, trying to get her mind to realize that her grandfather had finally done it. Project S.H.A.D.O.W. was finally near completion. And she would have a friend. Sometimes things just couldn't get any better.
XxXxXxXxXx
Maria walked into the lab holding a tray that held an omelet, three strawberries and a glass of milk. She set the tray down and knocked at the door that she knew her grandfather would be behind.
He opened it a few seconds later. "Good morning, Maria. Did you sleep well?"
"Not really. I was really excited for you." She pointed to the tray. "I brought you breakfast."
"Thank you, I could use a break." He carried the tray into the room and began slicing the omelet up with a fork. "We finished uploading the information into his brain. After that, John and Young assisted me in another operation to try to get Shadow's voice to work." He said in-between bites.
Maria could only nod silently. Young was another scientist who was often seen in the lab. She was more commonly known for her respect for everyone and her dedication to the professor. Maria had more often than once gone stargazing out the windows with her on her breaks.
"So did you succeed?" Maria asked.
"We don't know yet." The professor sighed. "He's been quiet all morning and hardly moving. Must still be fighting off the effects of the tranquilizer we used."
"Can I see him?"
"Go ahead."
Maria crossed over to the table and found Shadow sleeping among the pillows like last night. Two tiny, sealed cuts were hardly visible behind his ears, and the incision on his throat was already healing. The heart monitor next to the table showed that he was deeply asleep and wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. Was it her imagination…or was he a bit bigger? Maria found herself stroking his quills and wondering when he would finally be able to speak.
"Hi, Shadow." She whispered. "I'm Maria."
Shadow didn't react in the slightest, like she figured would happen. Maria was still very surprised that he had survived this long.
"I can't wait to show you around here." She continued. "It sort of gets lonely here when you're the only kid around."
"He can't hear you, you know." Her grandfather chuckled from the computer, having finished his breakfast. "He's still unconscious."
"I know." Maria sighed, embarrassed.
"If you come back in a few hours there's a good chance his leg won't be paralyzed anymore." The professor said. "John along with another group of scientists think they have the probablem sorted out."
"Really?" Maria brightened up.
"Yes. Away with you!"
XxXxXxXxXx
Maria met John in the hall. "You think you can fix his leg?"
"We have a theory." John said. "But not a definite solution."
"I think you can do it." Maria said confidently. "If he's survived this long, you can heal his leg."
John smiled. "You really think so, huh? Well then, we had better not fail."
Maria watched as he entered the lab, feeling her hopes soar.
XxXxXxXxXx
Maria had been waiting just outside the lab for about three hours. In that time she had watched many of the Earth's lights twinkle and go out, like tiny stars from up at this distance. She had thought about a passage she had read in a book once. Something about 'Northern Lights'. The author had described them as multicolored lights that can be seen at night from Earth. Maria wanted so very much to see the lights.
She was about to head back to her room to find the book when the doors opened and her grandfather exited, nearly tripping over her.
"Maria! Don't scare me like that!" he gasped. "I almost tripped over you! Oh, never mind…we believe we've cured Shadow's leg. He should be able to use it soon!"
"Really? That's great!" Maria smiled. "I knew you could do it!"
"Actually, it was John that solved the probablem." The professor said. "I don't know what I would do if he wasn't here."
"Can I see him again?" Maria asked. "Please?"
"Go ahead. I'm going to get a cup of coffee." Her grandfather walked down the hall, humming something to himself. Maria entered the lab and nearly ran into John as he was heading out.
"Well, we think we fixed his leg now." John said. "After all that…just because of a weak muscle. We should have seen that coming a long time ago! Ah, whatever. I'm going to get me some grub." He exited the lab, but not before turning around and warning:
"Do not break anything."
"Why would I do that?" Maria asked.
"You just seem really excited." John shrugged. "Look at me. I'm so paranoid..." He left, mumbling things to himself. It wasn't the first time he had done something like that. Sometimes when he got stressed to a certain level he would fret over every little thing and sometimes talk to himself.
Lately, it's been happening a lot.
Maria entered the back room of the lab and crossed over to where Shadow was lying on the rectangular table. He looked like he was having a bad dream by the expression on his face. Maria was happy to see that he wasn't hooked up to every machine in the lab like the day before. Soon he'd be able to leave the lab.
"Now the only thing they need to fix is your voice." Maria whispered, stroking the patch of white fur on his chest. "I can't wait to show you around here."
Shadow suddenly arched his back and dug his fingers into the side of the table. The worried expression on his face changed to one of pain and he opened his mouth in a silent scream. Maria jumped up, unsure of what to do.
"Shadow! Shadow, relax! What is it?" She nearly shouted.
Shadow turned his head towards the wall and began coughing weakly. Blood splattered the table and he tried to draw in a breath, but instead choked on his own blood. Maria turned and ran out of the room, screaming, "Grandfather! John! Anyone! Come quickly!"