Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 3

Love's Return

In the midst of the night, I roamed around the city of Hillsborough, repairing any damage that was done before. The bangs on my head were blowing in the wind, and kids were constantly coming up to me wanting either an autograph or a picture, but I sadly refused, not wanting to danger any of them over a picture. I looked back to see that the kids were looking down in sadness, but I couldn't help but stop and think for a second. Did I really want these kids to have a hero turn them down? Or maybe...if I was this so called hero, then shouldn't I be the hero that they want me to be like those years ago? It was quite a problem to deal with. The kids looked to each other and began to murmur to each other, speaking in words that were describing how I had changed. This only made me keep walking and hanging my head down in disgust, realizing that no one had actually cared about what I had done in the past. The only ones who really cared...were Knuckles and the others.

I looked up to the sky and blinked, seeing that the moon was beginning to set on the other side of the sky, and that made me wonder why the kids were out so late at night. I blinked and turned around, and noticed that the kids had suddenly vanished into thin air. This was natural. Usually kids would keep begging until the hero gives in to doing what they wanted, but these kids, were different. Somehow I began to think that these kids had contained some kind of weird energy in them. Something...dark. But it didn't concern me at the time.

The next day finally came around the corner and I was found laying down on the edge of a building that was about one hundred feet in the air. I blinked after feeling the sunlight shining in my eyes and put my hand over top of my eyes to block the light, but noticed that I was falling off the edge. My arms flailed and I caught the edge of the building and quickly pulled myself back up onto the roof with a huff.

"Phew...now I know not...to do that...again..." I panted and sat there on the edge, but then noticing another small disturbance near the fire station in the middle of Hillsborough. The Orange Rural Fire Department had alarms blaring all over the station, apparently going to some random yet dangerous fire that was happening somewhere. The thing was, one of the firemen down there that was a good friend of my father called out to me and shouted,

"Hey Lauren! We got a disturbance down in Cedar Grove! We need you down there!" I nodded and jumped from roof to roof back toward my own hometown. Usually it would take me fifteen minutes to drive there in my own car, but in this case it only took me almost less than five minutes to get back to Cedar Grove. But this wasn't any ordinary disaster,

"What the..." My feet skidded to a stop to where my dad's shop was standing, and it had been burnt to the ground, along with the house he was staying in that used to be my grandmother's home. Eyes widened, I walked around, seeing a few other fire departments such as Cedar Grove and Hurdle Mills Fire Department surounding the area, avoiding any traffic that happened to come that way. I ran up to one of the guys on the Cedar Grove Department, a tallish yet black colored man named Malcolm.

"Malcolm! What's going on here?!"

"Oh...Lauren. Good thing you're here. We just recently had these buildings burnt down by some fire like monster. We're not sure where it came from though." He replied. Fire monster? Wait...he couldn't have been referring to who I thought he was. I walked up to some of the ashes that were already put out from the fire and picked some of them up in my hand. This very handful of ashes made me glance back at where my home was burnt down two years ago.

"It couldn't be...I-Iblis...but wait, I thought we got rid of him when...ah shit..." I got up and ran up to the top of a nearby lightpole and whistled my signature whistle that could be heard at least a mile or two away, getting everyone's attention. "EVERYONE LISTEN! YOU ALL NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW! WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!" I shouted to them all with eyes narrowed.

They all looked up to me like I was crazy, but I quickly explained at what was coming our way, but it was already too late. I turned to my left and noticed a massive fireball was already heading my way and also a few down toward the firemen. Like any daughter of a fire Chief, I lept into the air and with my newly acquired ability of telekinesis, I took each and every hose from the fire trucks and sprayed as much of the water to put out the orbs of flaming disaster, but it still wasn't enough. Everyone else had taken cover behind the firetrucks, and I had stood still in my place waiting for the right time. But those orbs had gotten faster somehow and were hurdling only toward me now. As I looked up, knowing that this may have been my last stand in Cedar Grove, I spread my arms out and waited, not able to move my legs.

A split second had passed and I felt my body being moved so suddenly by a somewhat familiar figure. My eyes quickly closed from the sudden shock and I somehow passed out from it, then the other firemen were saved by many other figures of great speed that had come to the rescue as well. The orbs of fire hit the ground and singed everything around the shop and my dad's house, leaving nothing but smoldering piles of ash in the area. A few more minutes passed and everyone was now safe under a few trees deep in the woods of Cedar Grove, away from the scene.

(1) The soft wind blew through the leaves of the autumn trees and my hair blew into my face, until it was moved out of the way by a white glove covered in two spikes similar to mine. Even though I was unconscious at the time, I felt someone's lips meet with mine for about three seconds, before hearing a soft moan coming from my mouth. The figure pulled back and my mouth turned into a smile,

"..Mm..I know that taste anywhere..." My eyes fluttered open and I saw the one being that has been away from me for so long,

"Knuckles the Echidna...nice to see you again..." I sat up and was wide awake, as I wrapped my arms around him, huggin him like I did before he left. Knuckles hugged back and smiled, followed by a chuckle.

"Hehe...it's nice to see you too, Lauren."

We then shared one more tender kiss for a few more seconds before carrying on our conversation about how each of us had been over the past two years, and why I decided to become an echidna once again. This was indeed a very happy day for me, now being twenty years old, and Knuckles also twenty, we were a loss for words as to how I had gotten so strong, and how he had gotten even more handsome than before. As we pulled back, his purple eyes, now covered with only one scar, stared into my dark green eyes and we both smiled, my same blush coming back to its place after so long. The various colored leaves fell past us and we basked in the beauty of what was to become the falling of autumn and the beginning of winter...the day went on like a flash...and more thoughts were thought of as to when...or where...or even how...Iblis was to come back...