CHAPTER 1

THE NEW TAINTED SOULS

It was a dark and calm night with a full moon shining down upon the cursed Tech City. The Chaotix were on another mission. This time an even more dangerous one.

Shadow was riding on a red and black motorcycle that he had gotten when he found it parked near the sidewalk beside a nightclub. He was chasing a weird and deformed looking brown creature with plenty of speed. 'I never thought this day would come. The day when all Hell just breaks loose all over Mobius and there's no one to stop it except us.' He had headphones over his ear so he could keep in contact with the rest of the Chaotix. "Vector, this is Shadow. The Almas is making its way towards the outskirts of the city."

"Good", Vector had replied. "Make sure its heading that way and away from the city."

He reached into his back pocket and took out his small pocket knife that transformed into a machete. "Roger that." He made the motorcycle go faster as he hit the gas more while he held the blade of the machete outward and towards the creature. He studied the creature while he was catching up to him.

The creature was thin and was running on all fours with its claws as sharp as the point of a butcher knife. Drool escaped its mouth because of its wild thirst for the one thing it was seeking. Its eyes were completely red and its fangs were huge.

Shadow kept asking himself the same question over and over again. 'Just what the hell are these things?'

The creature looked back at him and suddenly purple looking liquid came from its mouth and was shot towards Shadow.

He quickly dodged it by steering the motorcycle away from its range of fire. 'What the fuck is that?'

The creature had repeatedly tried to hit Shadow with the purple like liquid, but Shadow had kept dodging it.

'Okay this is getting pointless.' He made the motorcycle go faster again and quickly came up to the creature and sliced its head clear off, sending its blood flying all over the highway. "Gotcha!" He stopped the motorcycle and got off it. Then he walked over to the creature's headless corpse and stared at it, and saw a pool of blood dripping from its neck. He talked into the headphones again. "Vector, this is Shadow. The Almas has been silenced."

"Good work, Shad. Now report back to headquarters. We have a lot of shit to discuss."

"Yes, sir." He then spotted the head of the creature and decided to examine it a bit. He kneeled down at the head and stared at the purple liquid dripping from its mouth. As the liquid seeped onto the ground, he saw that it was making a hole into the pavement. He gasped, "Is that some sort of...acid?"

Later, Shadow had arrived back to the Chaotix reporting what had just happened between him and the creature he was chasing. "I'm telling you this shit doesn't make any sense. First there are monster attacks like this happening in Future City, then Metal City, now Tech City."

Tonya sighed, "Well, we all knew Tech City was gonna get hit next."

"Yeah", Charmy added. "This is a cursed city remember?"

"Yes well apparently Mobius will be cursed as well if we don't stop these creatures", Ker had said.

"Yeah and how are we going to stop them?" Shadow asked. "We're not a worldwide organization. We can't be at three or four places at the same time."

Rouge nodded, "Shadow's right. These things just keep popping up like fucking daises."

Vector placed his hand on his forehead and rubbed it in frustration. "Okay everyone just calm down. First of all we can't give up hope. That is not an option understand?"

Everyone made a nod.

The crocodile continued, "Second of all we're not Mobius' one and only hope you know. They're detectives everywhere. Even in Future and Metal City. Our main objective right now is to stop these creatures from destroying the city in any way we can." He looked over to Shadow and Ker. "Shadow, you're a half-demon. You can sense these things out pretty good can't you?"

He crossed his arms, "How the hell do you think I found that Almas in the first place?"

Charmy raised his hand in the air, "Oh! Oh! Question! Question!"

Vector turned to the bee in annoyance, "What is it, Charmy?"

Charmy began to ask his question. "Um yeah about The Almas...why do we call them The Almas anyway?"

Espio slapped his forehead, "Must we go over this again, Charms?"

Ker started to answer, "Allow me to explain. Because these creatures are nothing but tainted souls taking the bodies of corpses and using them to walk around to take what they need from these people...blood. These souls can take the form of any dead body so don't be surprised if you ever see a loved one rising back from the grave."

Midnight turned to Ker, "How do you know all this, Ker?"

"Because years ago when I was still with my brothers and sisters, we've encountered a couple. Those poor souls...after that I thought they were all extinct and would never return, but it seems that some kind of new being has decided to bring them back for some reason."

"How awful", Tonya thought of all the innocent citizens of Tech City would die because of the creatures.

Rouge watched Shadow yawn and smiled, "Looks like someone's sleepy."

The ebony hedgehog blushed a bit in embarrassment. "Well what do you expect? I've been chasing down those creatures all night."

Rouge then remembered that tomorrow would be Shadow's birthday. She leaned her head on his chest and laughed a bit. "You know what? In a couple of hours, it'll be your birthday, Shad."

"Huh?" Shadow had completely forgot about his birthday because he was so busy. "My...birthday?"

She placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "Shadow The Hedgehog, I can't believe you forgot about your own birthday. Heh and you call me stupid."

Espio smiled, "Hey that's right! It is your birthday tomorrow! How old will you be? 27? 28?"

The hedgehog sighed, "I don't see what the big deal is. I'm just getting older."

Rouge embraced her lover and stroked her fingers through his quills. "Aw, Shad's just getting cranky because he thinks he's getting too old. Well don't worry hun, you have a long way to go before that happens."

Espio and Charmy started to snicker because of the way Rouge kept talking to him.

Shadow sighed with annoyance and took Rouge's hand. "Can we please just go home? I have a headache and I'm tired."

She made a small smile, "Okay, Shad."

After they left, everyone else started to leave too.

Tonya looked over to Ker and noticed him holding his head. "Ker, is something wrong? You don't look very good yourself."

The demon winced as he turned to her, "Oh, I guess I got a little headache too, but don't worry. I'll be all right."

She smiled, "If you say so. Oh, do you want me to walk you to Kassidy's?"

He shook his head, "No really, I'm fine. Just try to get some rest."

"All right."

When Tonya left, Ker took his hand from his head and sighed because his headache was starting to go away. 'Why did I get that sudden headache? Was this because of a demon that was near? Or was...Darkness just affecting me?'

A/N: Sweet! I finally started! I wanted to start this so much and I know most of you have been dying to read it. So here it is and I hope you enjoyed the first chap. R&R please!