Well... this was quite a piece. I believe this is the next instalment of our little "Capgras" series, and it's set in the future by 200 years. Yup. Silver and Blaze's time.
Enjoy!
Oh, and the next chapter of "Memories" is being worked on, and there is a new forum for "Teaching Darkness". We have 9 members now, and I should let you in a new deal here: Join now, get 100 posts and you get a free, no strings attached 15 page preview of the ending of "Memories". How's that sound, guys? Good enough deal? ^^
The hedgehog grasped the bars of his cell tightly, resting his head against them as he tried to organize his thoughts. As the time passed here, it seemed to him, they slowly became more and more disorderly and scattered, making less and less sense.
His gloves on his hands were tattered and dirty, the fingers of them were ripped. He could see his dull black fur and pale blue marking quite clearly because they offered no cover to his hands.
He couldn't remember when, but he knew that he had long lost his shoes quite some time ago, and all he had left to cover his feet were his equally destroyed black cuff, white socks, which were most torn at the toes.
He gasped and shuddered, letting go of the bars as his muscles tensed up painfully. He stumbled back into the wall, sliding to the ground as he clutched at his head, groaning in pain.
Oh, no… not again…
Within minutes, the reason for his tattered gloves and socks became quite clear.
His fur began to change color and texture, become a dark blue and rough to the touch as lighter blue crystals spread across his quills, wrists, ankles, ears and fingers, the latter of all of them glinting dangerously as they began to take form.
The hedgehog took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, knowing that they were changing as well. Grunting, he focused his mind and energy in reversing it, panting as he fell forward on his hands and knees, squinting to see the blue color fade and the crystals disappear as he curled his fingers, scraping his claws across the metal floor, closing his eyes in relief when his hands, as well as the rest of him returned to normal.
It's getting harder to control this… He told himself as he held himself up from the ground, his thin and now weak arms shaking as they tried to support his weight. Ever since he did what he did to me… my transformations are becoming more and more uncontrollable… it's even become painful…
The sound of footsteps made his ears twitch, and with a quick spurt of energy, he shot to the corner, curling up to make it look like he had fallen asleep, not wanting to have to answer to anyone if they thought he was awake.
That quick hope was easily dashed away when there was a knock on the bars. The hedgehog curled up tighter, groaning a bit to make it seem like he was napping, and he was being awakened too early than what he wanted to have been.
Another knock.
"Are you awake?"
It was his captor. Mephiles stayed silent, though he could feel his anger at the Human rise up slowly, bringing his blood to a boil. His back turned to him, the Human could not see the scowl on Mephiles' facial features, but the Human could see clearly that Mephiles' body was shaking with what he mistook for a chill.
Mephiles ear twitched at the sound of the cell being opened. He remained perfectly still, perfectly silent so he could be sure to hear what was to be said and done.
"Metal Sonic 3.0… retrieve him…"
As he heard the sound of the robot, he then felt a pair of cold, claw like hands wrap around his forearms and lift him to his feet roughly, Mephiles hanging limply to continue playing possum. He had an idea, half certain that this would work.
"He's still asleep, I see…" His captor said. "No matter… he'll just be easier to restrain…"
Mephiles was glad that his features lacked a mouth, so that his captor couldn't see the smirk he would have had on his face. He was sure his plan was going to work now.
He waited until the robot had carried him over to the examining table that also doubled as a restraint. Once the robot's hands left him to begin restraining him, Mephiles made his move.
Only able to rely on his physical abilities because his mental ones had been blocked when he was last restrained for a reason unknown to him, he rolled off the table and dashed as fast as he could when his feet and hands touched the metal flooring.
"GET HIM!" Eggman Nega ordered Metal Sonic 3.0, who nodded and took off after Mephiles.
Mephiles glanced behind himself quickly to estimate the distance between them and used his sharp mind to devise his next step of action.
I hope this works… I've never done this before… He told himself, taking a quick jump and curled up into a ball. He hit the floor and bounced, then spun before taking off much faster with a streak of grey blue behind him.
Mephiles had done a spindash!
Thank goodness I've seen Shadow do that before…
Mephiles stopped himself before he got further in that thought. There was no Shadow anymore… that was too long ago… No point in dwelling in the past…
Mephiles realized that he had to stop spinning as well. His mind was getting jumbled and woozy from all that turning and blending of colors his vision saw.
Having hardly any experience in this, when he unrolled, he fell flat on his face. Getting up and shaking his head to clear it, he took a moment too long and the black and yellow hedgehog robot slammed into him, both of them skidding a few feet before Mephiles realized what had happened.
"No! You're not going to stop me!" He barked, thrashing against the robot's hold, both outmatched in strength and having been weakened in his time here. He snarled and growled, angered by his failure. "Let go of me! I demand you!"
His ears folded back at the grating sound of Eggman Nega's irritating attempt at maniacal laughter, and Mephiles lifted his eyes up to stare at him, narrowing them to show that he was not pleased.
"I really don't think you have a say in this matter…" Nega told him.
Mephiles shifted his eyes to the ground, growling deeply under his breath. It seemed that he had made a snide remark, to which Nega frowned and caught him under the chin to lift his face up so that they were making eye contact.
"What was that?"
"Nothing." Mephiles said lowly, narrowing his eyes more. "Y'know… you can't keep me here forever… I'm just going to outlive you… By that time… I'll already be out of here…"
"Is that so? Well then…" Nega lowered his blue lensed glasses a bit to reveal grayish-blue eyes to stare at Mephiles with before snickering. "Get comfortable then… you're going to be here for a long time…"
"Why are you doing this me?" Mephiles said loudly, straining against the grip of Metal Sonic 3.0, who had its arms around Mephiles' chest, keeping his arms pinned against his side. "What are you benefiting from this? What do you want from me?!"
For a moment, Eggman Nega didn't answer him, and simply returned to his computer console he had been at a few seconds prior to Mephiles' attempt to escape.
"Answer me!" Mephiles barked, not liking that he was being ignored. "For what reason do you have for keeping me here!?"
Nega typed a few keystrokes on the keyboard and images with data popped up on the screen in front of them.
Mephiles paused for a moment and looked at the images, feeling his heart jump when a few of them were familiar enough to make his eyes widen.
"Th-that's the-"
"The Day of Disaster." Nega finished for him, smirking. "The day when this entire world was plunged into flame and darkness exactly two hundred years ago."
"And what makes you think this has anything to do with me?" Mephiles narrowed his eyes again. He was sure that Eggman Nega had no data of his connection with it, as he was certain that the data had been lost.
Another few keystrokes and Mephiles' eyes went round again.
Nega's ancestor had recorded such data two hundred years previous.
"Care to explain, if you'd be so kind?" Nega had seen Mephiles' reaction.
Mephiles shook his head.
"I have no idea what that is!" He lied. "Besides, what makes you think that has anything to do with me?"
"Simple. I did the math." Nega typed a few more keys and several windows were brought up on the computer screen. "There are records of a Scepter that housed a creature of Darkness before it was shattered many years before the Day of Disaster occurred. My ancestor had tried to retrieve it before it had happened, and instead the creature was released, taking on the physical form and appearance of a hedgehog."
"There are countless hedgehogs around here!" Mephiles countered. "That proves nothing!"
"Don't interrupt." Nega reminded him politely, which contradicted his usual nature. "Now, it's quite unusual for anyone in this time to posses a control over shadows, as most of the gifted abilities here are either psychokinesis, pyrokinesis, or increased intelligence. Some are lucky to have a combination of any of them."
"I still don't-"
"HUSH!" Nega barked, growing tired of Mephiles' rudeness. "Now, in my research on the Scepter in question, I uncovered data on it from the GUN database. I'm sure you know what GUN is, correct?"
Mephiles growled, not giving a straight answer.
"Correct." Nega answered for him. "In my research, I came across two agents that had been assigned to retrieve the item before my dunce of an ancestor let it shatter and unleashed the creature inside it. One of the agents was a hedgehog. And he bears quite a resemblance to you… or should I say it's the other way around?"
"Sh-shadow?!" Mephiles was distracted for a moment when the mention of the two GUN agents. He quickly regained his composure and shook his head. "Appearances prove nothing!"
"This hedgehog lived two hundred years ago. He faced against the creature, and an accident happened where the creature was severely injured, and the hedgehog took it upon himself to help the creature recover. The creature was then released into the hedgehog's and the other GUN agent's care. And that creature would have been you… Mephiles the Dark."
Mephiles froze shock still, his eyes getting round.
"… I-I never told you my name…" He said dumbly, a bit shocked that his secret was uncovered. He blinked and growled again, thrashing against his restraint. "His name was Shadow and her name was Rouge! They saved me from dying in that accident! If you are going to talk about them, use their names! I see them recorded right there!"
Mephiles suddenly grunted in pain and felt his involuntary change take over again, his body slowly trying force itself back to his crystal form as he tried to change back. After a few long and painful minutes, Mephiles hung limply in Metal Sonic 3.0's grip, panting heavily as his furry black-gray hands twitched while the rest of him shook.
"What did you do to me?!" He demanded, lifting his tired eyes back up to Nega, holding as fierce a look as he could muster. "I have no control over my form changing! None!"
"It seems to be a side effect of the experimentation."
"How?!"
"I believe that the last injection's side effect is blocking some of the neurons in your brain. Most likely the ones you use to trigger your control on your transformations."
Mephiles glared at him lividly, his quills rising up in response to his anger.
"You sick freak! Fix it! Now!"
"Is that anyway to speak to someone far more intelligent than you?"
"Intelli- I'll show you intelligent!" Mephiles barked, shifting his weight from side to side to throw off the robot's balance enough to get his own feet to touch the ground. Mephiles threw himself backwards in hopes of giving Metal Sonic 3.0 a good shock to the system on impact to get it to let go.
It worked.
"Wha-?"
"I have had over two hundred years of experience to gain intelligence!" Mephiles laughed before turning heel and running. "Later!"
"Metal Sonic 3.0! Get him!" Nega ordered before he looked at the robot. It was motionless and was sparking. "Gah! I knew I should have made him more shock absorbent!"
Mephiles was long gone by the time Nega decided to go after him on foot.
Gasping deeply, trying to catch his breath, Mephiles leaned against one of the pieces of ruins, waiting for his heartbeat to return to normal.
When it had, he looked up at what he was leaning against and felt a sudden sick feeling in his stomach when it reminded him of the ruins that had collapsed on him two centuries ago.
Drawing away from it quickly, he took care as to not tread too close to the edge of the platform where a pool of lava waited below.
"I'm so glad to be out of there… but now what?" He asked himself softly, feeling a bit vulnerable out here with the rags that were what was left of his gloves and socks. He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment to think, still a bit edgy from being reminded of his accident. "… I miss them so much…" He said almost too quietly to hear himself. "… Why was I cursed with this long lifespan..?" He kicked a rock out of anger when a surge of rage at himself hit him, the rock clattering to the ground a few feet away. "And my powers don't work anymore! I can't even be allowed to go back to visit them in another time! Why do you torture me?!"
He didn't know who he was yelling at, but he felt like he had to say it. He had held onto this thought for so long, and was half glad to have let it out. It made him feel better… even if it was only just.
Now he had to establish where he was at.
There was fire… but that was normal around here.
Ruins… again… normal.
He sighed again. He was lost.
"No point in just standing here…" He told himself, shaking his head and starting to walk. He paused at a fallen road sign, which was covered in years and years of dust and debris. Wiping the name clear just for curiosity, he found what it said.
Empire City.
That's probably what the name of this place was before Iblis destroyed it… He mused to himself, standing up from it. After all, who in their right mind would have named a city "Crisis City" to begin with? I probably oughtta find a place to hide in so the Nega guy and anything else can't find me… I'm quite helpless now, and I don't want to deal with a ticked off fire demon if I do something wrong… no doubt Iblis has forgotten I even existed, it's been so long…
Mephiles climbed on top of one of the round water containers ("No doubt it's empty anyway…") to reach the top of one of the fallen buildings, hoping that he get a clear view and see where he should go. Not much luck… the air was obscured by either smoke or the heat the burned it.
Mephiles sighed again and took a step forward… only to jump back in fright.
Some kind of humanoid/feline cross breed shaped creature burst out of the window Mephiles was about to put his foot on.
After a good shriek, Mephiles was able better define what it looked like. He would saw that the head resembled that of a crocodile, and it had a horn on its head. Its tail was reptilian in shape and it had three fingered hands and two toed feet… overall, it was a bizarre creature all the same. What's more, it looked like it was it was made of molten lava, with armored bits made of what would have been the cooled magma.
And it didn't look friendly.
Mephiles took a few steps back as it breathed in, Mephiles worried about what it was going to do. Something told him to jump to the side, and he was thankful he did, because that thing was breathing fire out at him!
"Hey! Stop! What did I do to you!?" Mephiles cried out, backing away, keeping his eyes fixed on the creature.
An explosion of glass behind him (Mephiles half shocked that he wasn't injured by that at all.), and he turned his head behind him swiftly to find three more of them.
"Are you kidding me!?" Mephiles screamed as he realized that he was going to have a hard time getting out of this situation.
Hoping that they would work properly just for this one time, Mephiles held his hands out a short distance away from each other and focused on summoning an orb.
"You have no idea who you're messing with!"
Once he got a good sized orb, or rather, the best size he thought he could risk without hurting himself, he flung it at the nearest fire creature, expecting it to have been either vaporized or at least stunned.
Instead… it absorbed it and the creature changed colors! It was now a purple tone!
"Oh, great… just what I needed… more pro-" Mephiles cut himself off when the purple creature turned on its own kind and began attacking the fiery ones. And what's more… it was winning. "Great. Just what else I needed… something worse than these guys…"
Mephiles decided to start sneaking away slowly while the creatures were distracted; figuring now that this was his one chance.
No sooner had the purple one had put the others in their place, did a large worm of molten lava burst from the ground in front of him.
"I'm beginning to think leaving that Nega guy was a bad idea…" He muttered sarcastically to himself, shaking his head as he took a few steps back again and looked up at the new creature, which was holding a spiky ball in its mouth, no doubt in Mephiles' mind that it was going to launch it at him. "At least in that cell, it wasn't set up like a minefield of monsters… Oh… now would be a great time to transform…" He added hopefully… but got nothing. "Oh, curse that man!" He wailed and threw his hands up to protect himself in a feeble attempt, not wanting to make another orb because that had drained him a bit.
Looking up, he found to his surprise that the purple creature had got between them and was growling in some sort of tongue only it and quite possibly the worm could understand. After a few displays of anger on both parts, the worm gave one last display of strength and power by whipping its body around before it jumped and sank back into the ground.
Mephiles was dumbfounded. Did that purple creature just save him?
Sensing Mephiles' confusion, the creature tilted its head to the side in the manner of a dog, prompting Mephiles to snap out: "You're not my pet! Stop that!"
The creature still continued, so Mephiles sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day, and turned away to keep walking, still intending on finding a hiding place.
Mephiles paused several feet away to look behind him. The creature seemed closer than what he would have thought he should have been, making the hedgehog raise an eyebrow and continue walking slowly. He paused again and looked behind himself yet again, finding the same situation.
"Perhaps I should call you 'Stalker'… since you won't leave me alone…" The hedgehog folded his arms and glared. "Go away… I'm not interested…"
The creature… or rather, Stalker, now, neared Mephiles and nudged its head into his side, Mephiles a bit surprised that despite being made of lava… it felt quite cool to the touch. Mephiles narrowed his eyes and pushed Stalker away.
"Look… If you're trying to follow me because I'm the other half of Solaris… forget it! That was a long time ago. You're about two centuries too late." He said seriously, taking a glance at the very dangerous looking teeth the creature had. "Now get away from me, and go be with the rest of you. I can't help you."
Stalker lowered its head a bit in a display of being a bit hurt by that, perhaps not understanding Mephiles' reluctance to be around him. After all, it was made by Mephiles' brother… so why would Mephiles not like its company?
Mephiles ignored Stalker's display of hurt feelings and continued on his way, not looking back at it once.
He hadn't gotten far until he was attacked again by those fire creatures.
More of the orange creatures like Stalker crashed through the ground/windows, Mephiles only surprised because he had let his guard down.
"Iblis! It's me!" He shouted, forming another orb to defend himself. "I know it's been a long time, but seriously!"
He flung it, and to his horror… he missed.
Greatly outnumbered this time, Mephiles was unable to keep all of them at bay. He took a cautious step back to try to think is next move, which in a second turned out to be a mistake that costed him.
One of the creatures swept its fiery claws at him, and scored a direct hit on his stomach, Mephiles crying out in agony as searing pain spread across the wounds from the claws of magma.
Squinting as he clutched at his stomach with one hand, he formed another, weaker, orb and flung it the best he could, missing completely. Another creature attacked and tackled Mephiles to the ground, its fiery hands burning at the hedgehog's arms that it was leaning its weight into. Mephiles was beyond screaming now and was just struggling, burning the bottom of his feet a few times when he lifted them up to try to kick the creature off him.
This isn't how it should end! I don't want to be burned alive!
He could feel the fur on his body begin to singe from the heat now. Mephiles filled his lungs with air and screamed when the burning in his arm was too much to ignore.
Then, he wasn't sure if he was just imagining it, because he was in a great deal of pain now, but he could see through the squinting a sea foam glow around the fire beast before it was yanked off of him quickly.
Then he fainted from having been injured so badly.
"So, you said you found him trying to fight off the Biters, Silver?" The purple cat eyed the injured hedgehog in Silver's arms, the white trying to hold him in a way that didn't agitate the wounds. She could tell from his ragged gloves and socks that he must have been in bad shape for some time before that.
Silver nodded.
"Yeah. There seemed to be more than usual, and there was a purple one, wierldy enough. That's even stranger because it was attacking the other Biters, as if it was trying to protect him. I tried to kill it when it tried to attack me… but then it turned tail and left! I've never seen that before, Blaze."
"That's certainly unusual…" Blaze said, beginning to inspect Mephiles' injuries. "Well, he's definitely been burned. On both of his upper arms, and on his chest and stomach. Looks worse on the stomach, in fact. It looks like he was gouged. Hands are okay… but his feet could do with a bit of wrapping." She added, being carefully to not touch the injuries unnecessarily.
"Wow… I can't imagine what might have happened if I wasn't in that area. I wonder who he is, though. I've never seen him before… and I don't think you know him either…"
"Not a clue… but that's not a big problem right now…" The cat said, looking around their living area. "I know we salvaged a first aid kit the other day… we could use the gauze to wrap his burns and try to clean that stomach wound before he gets an infection."
"Good idea." Silver nodded. "Where should I put him for right now?"
"On one of the bedding piles would be nice. We should try to make him comfortable."
Silver agreed and set Mephiles down, then helped Blaze look for the kit. It turned out to be under one of the piles of bedding.
Once they finished patching up the wounded hedgehog, they left him to rest and recover, the cat and the white hedgehog keeping on their toes in case another Biter found it's way to them, which wouldn't be the first time.
"Hey, Blaze?"
"Yeah, Silver?"
The hedgehog paused before speaking up again.
"I wonder why he doesn't have a mouth."
While Mephiles rested, his head was filled with the pleasant memories he tried so hard not to lose over the years.
…
…
Mephiles had his nose pressed to the glass of the window. It was dark out and he was peering outside at the sky, eyebrows knitted in confusion.
"What are you staring at?"
Mephiles jumped a bit and stepped away from the window quickly, face a little pick as if he was embarrassed for being silly or something. He looked up at Rouge, who was getting ready to leave with Shadow for the night so that they could visit him the next day.
"Those lights out there…" He said, staring at his feet. "Call me crazy, but I think I can see the shapes of a few things up there…"
"Like what kinda things?"
"Well… I can kinda see two spoons…" His face turned a little darker. "And another one looks like a snake or something like that…"
"Really? Cuz I can't see anything up there…" Shadow said, looking out the window. "All I see are just a lot of little dots that are different sizes."
Mephiles' muzzle was now a deep shade of red and he looked away.
"Never mind… I probably just though that I saw something there…"
The next day however, Rouge and Shadow brought a book with them that showed different star formations, Shadow still not seeing how those pictures looked the same as the ones in the sky you were supposed to see and Mephiles saying: "That's supposed to be a bear? I still think it looks like a spoon… What about that really bright star?"
"North Star. It's also called Polaris. It's supposed to be the star that lies directly over the North Pole. Another star that's even brighter is named Sirius."
"That one right here?" Mephiles pointed it out on the chart in the book. "This is supposed to look like a dog? I can kinda see the body shape… but I wouldn't think this was a dog if I were to see it for the first time…"
"I still can't see it…" Shadow said, rolling his eyes.
"Shadow… the dots are connected. It's pretty straight forward…"
"I still don't see it…"
…
…
Mephiles slammed the door shut after he had opened it when he saw what was outside.
"Shadow! Rouge! There's something wrong with the outside!"
"Like what?" Shadow leaned out of the doorway of the kitchen, not nearly surprised as Mephiles was, which kind of annoyed the pale blue marked hedgehog.
"It's all white out there, and there's just layers of it in trees, on those car things… the sidewalk just disappeared!"
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here… and say: 'Is it very cold, too?'"
Mephiles opened the door slightly and stuck his hand outside before drawing it back in quickly, nodding fast enough that Shadow was a bit worried that his brain was rattling in his head.
"That's probably snow…"
"Snow?" Mephiles stopped nodding so quickly, and made an expression that indicated he was frowning. "What in the world is that?"
"It's frozen water the falls from the sky…"
"Wouldn't that hurt if it hit someone?"
"Let me try that again… It's something that happens when it's very cold. The rain that's trying to fall freezes into little flakes that land and cover the ground. It's quite safe, and there are kids that play in it even."
"How?"
"Well, anyway they can think of, I guess…" Shadow scratched his head. "Some pack it together to make things, and others slide on it. Some even throw it at each other."
"Wouldn't that hurt, too?" Mephiles eased the blinds open with one hand carefully to peer outside again. Sure enough… there were kids playing out there in the ways Shadow described.
"The snow just collapses on contact."
"… Interesting…"
Rouge was overhearing this and spoke up.
"Wanna see for yourself?"
Mephiles face blushed a bit.
"What? Like, go out there?"
"Why not?"
"I dunno what to do if I did. What if I do something wrong?"
"You worry too much…" The bat added with a bit of a smirk. "There's nothing that can be done wrong out there. It's just a 'do as you think it' sort of thing…"
"What if my ears get cold? Or my tail? I hate when that happens…"
"The ears can be covered with a hat, and you can just keep your tail out of the snow…" Shadow offered.
After a while, they got Mephiles to finally agree to give it a try. Needless to say, after going out in the snow for the first time, his initial impression of it changed quite quickly.
…
…
Mephiles focused all his thoughts as hard as he could at completing this one task he wanted to do. He tried channeling his thoughts into forming an orb in his hand.
He had been told that he had been able to make large ones and could even make a lot at once…
He opened his eyes and saw nothing in his hands.
He let out a long frustrated growl.
"I'll never figure this out! I don't even remember how this works! Is it controlled by thoughts, emotions or is it both or is it an entirely different matter all together?!"
"I dunno… it's your power…" Shadow shrugged.
"What's the point of having it if I can't remember how to use it?" Mephiles snapped.
"Maybe you haven't gotten all of your memory back yet…"
The next moment, Mephiles looked a little frightened.
"You're not taking me back there, are you?" He said a bit more softly.
"What? No, of course not! What gave you that idea?"
"Cuz I still haven't figured out how to use my powers again, and because I still haven't gotten all of my memory back…"
"That's no reason to take you back there!" Shadow said, surprised at Mephiles statement. "C'mon… you've made a lot of progress since you let us help you."
"Progress at what, really? What am I really doing here? Trying to find someone that's going to cease to exist anyway because I've taken his place? These are his powers… and I don't see why I need to know how to use them…"
"Okay… worst case scenario here is that they start working again, and you have no idea how to control them…" Shadow said. "That can not only be a danger to other people… but it could hurt you as well because you're the one channeling them."
"Or we can go for the best case scenario here and they never come back at all…" Mephiles added hopefully.
"You can't really guarantee that that will happen…"
"Neither can you…"
"Ouch…" Shadow half grinned. "But you still have to try…"
"Okay, okay…" Mephiles rolled his eyes and tried again.
Hands cupped in front of him, eyes closed, he took slow breaths to focus on just this one task.
Shadow's ears perked forward as he saw a spark of something purple and blue flicker above Mephiles' palms. It was very faint… but it was something.
Mephiles opened his eyes after it disappeared.
"See? Nothing…"
…
…
"So… this is your friend you've told us about, guys?" Sonic grinned, holding his hand out for Mephiles to shake. "Hello there… Rouge and Shadow told us all about you…"
"Th-they did..?" His face darkened a shade of red as his face flushed a bit. "H-how much..?" He shifted his eyes back at Shadow and Rouge. He was worried how much Sonic knew about him.
"That you got hurt because Shadow wasn't able to let you know to get out of the way fast enough. And that you had to take some time to recover, and him and Rouge decided to let you stay with them." He said. Mephiles made a mental sigh as his muzzle color returned to normal. "Wow… so you were buried alive? By the sounds of it, it seems like you got lucky though… some people don't live through that…"
"Well… I lost my memory for a while… and I'm still trying to remember some of my abilities…"
"What can you do? I'm the fastest thing alive, and faster than Shadow here…"
Shadow frowned at him.
"Now just a minute here…" Shadow said, standing up from the table from under the tree. "Sonic, I'm just as fast as you, if not faster!"
"Only because of those shoes you have! Can you run that fast without them?"
"That's beside the point!"
"Anyway… are you related to Shadow?" Sonic turned his attention back to Mephiles. "You look almost exactly like him… and you don't have a mouth…"
"I'm actually a shadow… and I used his shadow to give me a form…" Mephiles said truthfully.
"Hey!" Said Shadow, not liking that he was being ignored. "I'm still talking to you, Faker!"
Nearby, Tails was laughing at Shadow for getting annoyed. Then Shadow shot him a glare, which made Tails shut up really quick.
"So… You're Shadow's… shadow?" Sonic scratched his head. Mephiles nodded slowly, and Sonic burst out laughing, making Mephiles blush from embarrassment again. "Heh! And he calls me the faker! You look just like him because you took his look! Hah ha ha ha ha! That's great!" Then he realized that he was making Mephiles uncomfortable. "Aw, I'm just messing with you! At least you don't steal Chaos Emeralds and make other people think your lookalike did it."
"I said I was sorry…" Shadow shrugged and sat down.
"I. Went. To. Prison. Island. For. You." Sonic pronounced each syllable slowly to make his point. "Me. I was arrested because of you!"
"That was years ago…"
"Two years, to be exact. I have a criminal record now, because of that." Sonic puffed his quills before letting them go flat. "But, since you're my friend… I'll let it slide…" The tone in his voice indicated that he was going to bring it up again anyway.
"I'm so touched…" Shadow said sarcastically, as if this always happened.
"Let it go, Shadow…" Rouge told him.
"I will if he will…"
"Anyway… you still need to meet the rest of the group…" Sonic threw his arm around Mephiles' should and led him to each and every one of his friends that were at the get together that day.
"Okay, we got Tails, that's my bud and little brother. Him and I go way back. We've been fighting Eggman since the early days…"
"Nice to meet you." Tails smiled and caught Mephiles' hand and shook it, which caught Mephiles off guard.
He stared at the fox for a moment before saying: "Uh, Sonic… was it? Sonic… you're a hedgehog…"
"Yeah… I know…"
"And he's a fox…"
"Again… I know…"
"Then how is he your brother?" Mephiles shook his head. "It doesn't make sense."
"He's not my real brother!" Tails laughed. "But he's as good as one. He's been looking out for me ever since I met him when I was really young."
"Yup… I found him living by himself in the forest a long time ago…" He told Mephiles the story of their meeting, and continued a bit about their greatest adventures yet, and some interesting stories.
Throughout the rest of the day, Mephiles got to meet each and everyone that was there, and it seemed that almost instantly he was accepted by all of them. Mephiles felt quite pleased and happy about this.
…
…
…
…
Mephiles eased his eyes open slowly, steadily becoming aware of the burning pain in his arms, on his feet and across his stomach. He shifted uncomfortably on his back, trying to roll on his side, only to have his right arm flair up in pain.
He cried out and curled up the best he could, now starting to agitate the wounds on his belly.
By this point, Silver and Blaze noticed him waking up in pain, and were trying to ease the whimpering hedgehog back into a more comfortable position that wouldn't cause his burns to hurt so much.
"… Wh-who are you..?" He moaned, squinting against the pain.
"Introductions later…" The cat told him. "Right now, you need to need to just lie still."
"W-well, it h-hurts!" He snapped.
"I don't doubt it…" She said. "But you shouldn't be moving like that… with these kinds of burns, they'll be blistering in a few day and it's going to hurt more if you try to curl up again."
"Can I at least sit up?" Mephiles forced his voiced to not stutter. "I'm sure it's not so bad that I can't at least get up…"
"Let me help!" The other hedgehog said, his hands alighting with a sea foam green glow as he used that to avoid touching the burns.
Mephiles stared at him for a moment, the look on his face saying that he was putting two and two of something together.
"You're the one that pulled that thing off of me." He stated quite plainly. He didn't need it to be a question… he was quite sure of it. "I saw that same kind of glow. What is that?"
"My psychokinesis?" Silver scratched his head. "A lot of people around here had it… it's nothing special…"
"Forgive me… I've been cut off from the world for a while…" Mephiles lowered his head and folded his ears back.
"For how long? Where?" Silver raised an eyebrow. "I mean the world's on fire… it's kinda hard not to notice what's going on here…"
"… I was trapped and held captive for so long, I lost track of the days… About what ever time you pulled that thing off of me was no more than an hour after I had just escaped."
Mephiles looked up just in time to see the cat smack the other hedgehog in the back of the head for being a bit tactless. Somehow, he was reminded of Shadow and Rouge and widened his eyes just a fraction.
"Blaze!" Silver growled, holding the back of his head. "What was that for?!"
She ignored him.
"You can tell us about it if you want to." She told Mephiles. "But no one is really making you."
It was as if she knew that he felt a bit awkward, if not uncomfortable around these two strangers that had decided to help him. After all, he was being asked questions and he didn't even know their names.
"Would it help if we introduced ourselves first?" She offered.
Mephiles nodded quickly.
"I'm Silver the Hedgehog!" The white hedgehog grinned. "You pretty much know about my powers now, so I don't need to explain about them. Y'know, you're the first new person we've seen around here in years. They've either all died, left or are still hiding."
"And how come you're the only ones here?"
"Someone needs to hold Iblis back…" Silver shrugged.
"But just you two? No offense… but you both look like you're just kids…"
"Well… I'm fourteen… but I can hold my own quite well."
"I'm Blaze the Cat. The reason I know how to take care of those burns of yours so well is because I have great understanding of how fire works. That's because I'm pyrokinesis."
"She's also a princess…"
"Hardly…" Blaze folded her arms. "There's not much to be a princess of around here…"
"You're still a princess…" Silver grinned.
"Anyway… Who are you?"
"Mephiles the Dark." Mephiles said softly. "I'm some kind of shadow being that's been around for two centuries. I used to be bad until I was caught in an accident that nearly killed me, and I suffered some mental damage from that for a while."
"What kind of accident?"
"I don't want to talk about it that much…" He shook his head. "After that accident… I met my two closest friends, who helped me recover from it and helped me find the better me…"
"Well, that's nice." Silver said. "Where are they now?"
Mephiles was silent. He lifted his head up to stare at Silver, eyes shimmering a little.
"… Gone…" He said after a pause.
"Oh… I'm sorry…" Silver was smacked in the back of the head again. "Geeze, Blaze! I told him I was sorry!"
"I'm sorry…" Blaze told Mephiles. "I hope you don't mind me asking what happened."
"I do mind right now…"
"Oh… okay then… I'm sorry…"
For the next few days, Mephiles was silent. A contributing factor to this was quite possibly that his burns were beginning to flair up in pain even more, and the blistering of the burns was not in the least bit helpful his relief. He merely stared at Blaze and Silver all day when he wasn't resting. When they had left to their daily fight against Iblis, he was trying to sleep, but often had a hard time not agitating his wounds.
Finally, at the end of the third day he spoke up again: "You remind me a lot of them…"
"Really? How?" Blaze was pleased that he decided to talk again. Mephiles had seemed depressed over the past few days, so she was hoping that if he knew someone was willing and eager to listen to him, he'd feel a little better.
"… I can't place it exactly…" He said with a bit of a laugh to his voice, showing the first bit of real emotion that the cat had heard from him since he introduced himself. "… But about this situation feels familiar… Maybe because this reminds me of when I was injured that one time…"
"Does it now?" Blaze wasn't sure how to really answer to that. She didn't want to sound like she was making him talk… but she also didn't want to sound like she was just saying that either.
Mephiles closed his eyes and laughed softly, as if something was just going to repeat on him, and he'll end up where he started once again.
"You remind me a little of Rouge. She was very close to me, and she was someone I could talk to…" He explained, sitting up a bit and leaning his weight into his least injured arm. He opened his eyes again. "She was kind… but also very assertive. There were plenty of times when she smacked Shadow in the back of the head. She also showed me a lot of things that I came to enjoy greatly…"
"She hit this Shadow guy in the back of the head?" Silver said. "Well, that sounds like Blaze alright… Then I must remind you of this Shadow?"
Mephiles shook his head.
"No… not really that much…" He said, sounding a bit amused. "He could be blunt sometimes, but not as much as I've seen you been. But I know you don't mean to…"
Blaze lifted her hand to smack Silver, who was ready this time. He lifted his hand and stopped hers with his psychokinesis. Then he grinned and laughed.
"Ha! Stopped ya!"
"And he wasn't so immature…" Mephiles shifted his eyes to the side and to their surprise, he blushed a bit and he chuckled a bit.
"So…" Blaze continued. "What happened to them?"
"Time…" Mephiles sighed. "Rouge wasn't ageless… so it caught up with her after some time. Shadow took it hard… he was close to her, more so than me, and he was ageless…"
"And Shadow? What happened to him?"
"I don't know really. It was probably a few months or so ago when I last saw or heard of him. We were overwhelmed by those fire lizard things, and as if to add the icing to the cake, that crazy scientist had sent his robot after us. I don't know what happened to Shadow, because I was knocked out and the next thing I knew… I was staring at metal bars and I was having needles prodded and poked at me. I detest needles with the utmost hatred…" He added at the end. His ears folded back. "I was hoping after I had hid after I escaped that maybe I could find any sign of what happened to Shadow… I have no doubt that he's still alive, after all… he's supposed to be the Ultimate Lifeform…"
"I don't think I've heard of him…"
"Perhaps most of the records have been lost or torched…" Mephiles sighed.
"I'm sorry about what has happened to you…" She said.
"So, you're ageless?" Silver said, having seemed to have been the only one to catch that.
"From what I can tell… but perhaps not as much as Shadow." Mephiles looked at him. "Shadow hardly looks any different than he was when we met… and I'm starting to show signs of aging… My markings used to be brighter… and my eyes were a bright green. And my fur was less gray… So I might eventually die of really old age somewhere in the future…"
"So, you probably got to see what made Iblis get control of everything…" Silver said.
"It's a bit of a dumb thing when you think about it…" Mephiles shook his head. "The girl that he was trapped in broke the seal when she finally cried. Just one tear… and then the whole world is thrust into an inferno…"
"Yikes…"
"I know…"
The conversation went on for a while more before Blaze said that they should probably check and change the bandages that covered his burns.
"Why?"
"We need to keep them from getting an infection from dirt… that, and to check how they're recovering. I'm sure the feet are better, since they were burned less."
"I tried to kick that lizard thing and the heat was too much… I couldn't bring them up that much…"
"Probably a good thing… you're probably tired of staying down so much, so it might do you good if you got to walk around a bit."
"I am getting a bit tired of that…" He admitted.
The checking was done, and the burns had a type of medicine put on them to help them heal faster. His feet didn't need to be wrapped again, and he let them know when he showed them by prodding the bottom of his feet, and stating it.
"I guess it was like a sun burn there…" He said.
"Sun burn?" Silver said, raising an eyebrow. "What's that?"
"A burn from being out in the sun too long…" Mephiles explained, a bit astonished that Silver didn't know that.
"And the sun is… what?"
"That ball of light in the sk-" Mephiles stopped. "Oh… right… the sun hasn't been seen in years…"
"There's a ball of light in the sky?" Silver said. "Is it behind all those red clouds?"
"Yes… It's what lights up the area for half the day…"
"All we have for light is fire…" Silver frowned and folded his arms. "Nothing but fire, and darkness for night…"
"There's also little lights in the sky at night that look really pretty…" Mephiles added. "Maybe someday, Iblis is going to be beaten, and we can have that again."
"That would be nice… I'm getting tired of all this fire…"
After Mephiles' burns had healed completely, save for a few scars on the places burned the most, he thanked them and bid them "Goodbye" and was almost on his way to leave before he was stopped.
"Where do you think you're going so fast?" Silver said.
"Well, I can't stay here…" He said. "You've been really nice and all… but I really want to find out what happened to Shadow…"
"I wish we could help you with that…" Silver said. "I mean, Crisis City is a pretty big place…"
Mephiles took a good long look towards the fire and ruins. He thought better of leaving just now. He had no real way of protecting himself, and if he was hurt again… help might not find him that time. He had been twice lucky already… it was best not to test a third time.
"On second thought… I might hang around a little longer…" He said. "I might even be able to help just a bit. I have a bit of a relation to Iblis… very obscure, really…"
There was a silence.
"What..?" Mephiles felt a bit uncomfortable again as the hedgehog and the cat stared at him. "D-did I say something wrong?"
"What kind of a relation?" Silver folded his arms and frowned.
Mephiles realized that he might have said the wrong thing to the people that actually fight Iblis on a near daily basis. Adopting a more defensive stance, which was more like holding his hands up to his face and bringing his shoulders up as if it was going to make a safety barrier for him, he whimpered softly, almost so low that he wasn't heard.
"I asked a question."
"… Him and I m-make up the same being…" Mephiles explained, now finding the hedgehog with the psychic abilities somewhat frightening. Mephiles wouldn't know how to counter that. "… We make up S-solaris, the sun god of Soleanna… or a-at least a fake one… we were created in a lab a-accident over two centuries ago…"
"And how come you're like this and he's like that?"
"I'm different! L-like I said, I was in an accident that changed me!" Mephiles was a bit on the frantic side now. He wondered if they could hear his heart pounding in his chest now.
Blaze was frowning not at him, but at Silver.
"He can't be bad, Silver…" She told him. "If he was, he would have already got to us…"
"He's still related to that monster we fight every day! Day after day!"
As the two of them argued, Mephiles shuddered. He was having a familiar dizzy feeling come over him and he was starting to feel pain again.
Oh, no… this is not a good time!
He spun around and bolted away, wanting to get away before they saw him change into his other form. The last thing he needed now was for them to see his crystalline appearance, with claws and jagged edges and eyes of some kind of monster before he had a chance to explain himself. They would only come to the conclusion that he was some kind of demon; he knew that it would go downhill from there.
Before he could leave the living quarters, a hand closed around his wrist and he howled in fear.
"Hey, wait a minute, where are you going?" Silver didn't sound so mad now.
He pulled at his arm, wanting to be let go. He cried out frantic requests to be left alone. He almost had a meltdown!
Then his legs gave out, and he fell to the ground, clutching his head with his free hand. Silver let go of him in shock when Mephiles' fur changed color and texture. The crystals began spreading across his quill markings as he a several sounds that told them that this was painful to him.
After a good while of fighting it back, this time more difficult, the colors returned to normal, the crystals disappeared, his claws receded and he was on his hands and knees, panting heavily and gasping, sweat having beaded up all over his body, making him feel strangely cool from the slight breeze on his damp skin.
He shifted his eyes up at them, ears folded back, trembling and whimpering. Waiting for what to come next.
"He's some kind of demon!" Silver yelped.
Mephiles cringed and brought his hands to his head as he curled up, letting his quills puff out in another defensive stance.
Blaze was about to make her way towards him, but Silver pulled her back.
"Blaze! Did you not just see what just happened?!"
"Yes, I did! And I also can see that he's frightened!"
Well, that's one person here that's not freaking out… Mephiles thought to himself grimly, curling up tighter.
"Did you see his eyes?! They didn't look natural! And those crystals! He said he was related to Iblis, and we let him know where we sleep!"
"I don't think Mephiles is even on good terms with Iblis. Did you forget that he was attacked by Iblis' creatures?"
"What if this was some kind of trap? What if he wanted us to take care of him?"
"So he let himself nearly get burned alive? Do you realize how stupid of an idea that sounds?"
Mephiles couldn't take it. With a scream, he uncurled and got to his feet and shot out of the living area. He didn't want to be around if Silver's argument won. He didn't care if his name was being called in a request for him to come back… he didn't care at all.
He knew it. He was alone after all. No more Rouge. No Shadow. No one.
Scrambling up another water storage unit, his foot slipped on the rung of the ladder and he fell off, hitting the ground on his back with a THUD after a few foot drop. His breath knocked out of him sharply, he gasped for air for short while, tilting his head back and closing his eyes.
Then something happened that hadn't happened in a very, very long time.
He inhaled sharply as tears stung his eyes and he broke down and cried.
It had been a long time since his last shed tears of sadness. As long as he didn't feel alone, there was no need for that. After Rouge had gone, there had still been Shadow. He had been upset about their loss, he knew Shadow wouldn't leave anytime soon.
But now he couldn't find Shadow, and his new friends, or at least the white hedgehog, was afraid of or angry with him, he couldn't tell.
To make it worse for him, he could not use his powers correctly now, and his transformations were triggered unexpectedly, and what's more… they hurt!
And now, he was, trying to run away… and he faltered in one step, and was now on his back, staring up at the red clouds above him. No sun, no stars, no sky. Just clouds.
He tried to run away… and it didn't work.
He couldn't even do that.
When did he become so helpless?
He felt a nudge in his side, and he opened his blurry eyes to find Stalker nudging him.
Stalker!? How had it found him after his time away?
Mephiles shrank back, glaring at it. If Mephiles had teeth, he would have been baring them.
"… Get away from me!" He hissed. "I don't want anything to do with you, or Iblis, or anyone else! Go away!"
"Not even me?"
Mephiles froze. His ears perked. His head shot up to let his eyes stare above him, on the ledge of where he was trying to get to.
Shadow was leaning over the edge, smirking at him. A few scratches here and there, but he looked otherwise perfectly fine.
"You weren't crying, were you? I could hear you clear on the other side of this building." He laughed.
Mephiles wiped his eyes dry quickly, and let his eyes widen.
"Sh-shadow?" He felt his eyes water again anyway. "I was looking for you…"
"I should say the same." Shadow hopped off the ledge, onto the water storage unit and in front of a relieved Mephiles, hands behind his back. "Strangely, it was this purple Biter that led me to you."
"Stalker?" Mephiles was both astonished, and felt bad about taking his anger out on the creature.
"Oh, you've named him, have you?" Shadow laughed, finding this amusing. "You always seem to give names to something… Speaking of which…" He pulled his hands out from behind his back and revealed a tattered looking stuffed bear with one ear and several mended places that was nearly the same color as Mephiles' markings.
"Emerald!" Mephiles' eyes lit up and he snatched the bear from Shadow.
"For instance, your bear…" Shadow grinned.
"I only named him 'Emerald' because Rouge liked how pretty those Chaos Emeralds were…" Mephiles rested his head on top on the bear's head, feeling a great deal better already. "I couldn't name him 'Rouge' for two reasons… that was her name, and he's a boy."
"Technically, he's a toy, and has no gender…"
"I said he's a boy!" Mephiles snapped, making Shadow laugh nervously.
Shadow glanced over Mephiles' healed injuries and frowned now.
"What happened there?"
"Where?" Mephiles wasn't paying attention.
"On your arms and stomach. Did you get hurt?"
"I was attacked by those… Biters, did you call them?" Mephiles explained. "And a few other creatures all at once. I got burned, but there was this cat and hedgehog that looked after me until I got better…"
"Oh, my… I'm sorry, I should have been there…"
"You couldn't help it, Shadow…" Mephiles looked up. "I was bound to get hurt anyway…"
"I suppose, but you were already hurt once because of me…" Shadow shook his head. "What happened to you after that robot attacked us?"
"That scientist was Robotnik's descendant, and he found out my connection to this inferno Iblis caused. He's kept me as his little lab project for however long I've been gone…"
"Don't tell me his did anything to you…"
"Quite a few things, Shadow…" Mephiles closed his eyes and squeezed the bear tighter. "He took blood samples and injected stuff into me. The most recent one was the worst… He said it's causing a block in the neurons of my brain that trigger my control on my transformations. I'm been having a hard time keeping myself from not changing very often, and it even hurts now when I change…"
Shadow cursed.
"I'm really sorry… I should have stopped him… but that robot was faster than the Metal Sonic I'm used to fighting…"
"Again, Shadow… it's not your fault…"
"But you still got hurt!" Shadow snapped. "You got hurt because I couldn't get to you fast enough!"
"… Please stop yelling…" Mephiles said quietly, closing his eyes and lowering his head. "I'm not in the mood for that… I've been lost for who knows how long, and I've finally found you… don't ruin it…"
"I'm sorry, I'm just a little upset about that…" Shadow frowned. "That's the second and third time I couldn't save you…"
"Well… at least I still have my memory." Mephiles added. "So I wasn't that hurt…"
"What happened to your gloves, socks and shoes?" Shadow pointed out their absence.
"Lost my shoes at Eggman Nega's place… and my socks and gloves just pretty much got ruined after both my changes and that Biter attack. And I forgot what happened to my Rings…"
"You're pretty much naked now…" Shadow added with a slight laugh.
"Not like it's a big deal. I have fur, and that's enough for me. We don't even wear clothes. How does gloves, shoes and socks really make that much difference?"
"I'll explain later…" Shadow offered his hand to help Mephiles to his feet. "Lets just get out of here…"
"Gladly…" Mephiles said gratefully, clutching Emerald as the two near identical hedgehogs made their way, a purple Biter staying a short distance behind them.
Alrighty. This one was a doozy to write.
I might make a follow up on this one. ^^