Dib07: Hoorah! Next chapter!


Chapter 4: And Hedgehog

There was crying. Everywhere. He walked casually into Knothole, surprised at the grief he saw. Tears leaked down every face. He could not quite gather why. Eggman was dead. They had won another victory. But no one was happy. Shadow looked amongst them, a fearful worry beginning to shimmer within him. Where was Sonic? Why was he not here?

Tails was by a little lake, stony and silent. He sat on the bank, ears pressed down. Crying. But Shadow could not get a word out of him. It was Princess Sally who took his hand and pointed him towards the clump of cottages. Curious, and faintly fearful, he looked in the direction she was pointing. Sonic's cottage stood prominently amongst the others. But the door was open, and the windows were smashed in. It was the door and entrance however, that was covered in blood.

SONIC!


"SONIC!" He tore awake, body covered in cold sweat. He pressed his gloved hands to his head and saw the bed sheets under him.

He was back in his own bed. He was in his room! He was back in the Ark!

The dark hedgehog hoped this wasn't another dream.

Shadow slipped off his bed, but a sudden weakness in his legs sent him spilling to the floor. He was low on energy, especially if his 'meeting' with Eggman had been real, which he was sure it was.

He stood back on his feet and checked his body for wounds of any kind. He couldn't remember much of what had transgressed, other than his jaw and head hurt. His arm seemed to be the only proof from the ambush of Eggman and the poison. It was layered with gauze, and when he removed the offending bandage, he found no wound here.

He did heal quickly. He was after all Gerald's finest creation to ever breathe. His molecules had evolved further than anything else, making his body very resilient to harm.

Shadow walked over to the nightstand and stared longingly at his little photo of Maria. Thoughts besieged him as he mentally begged the warm image of the girl he had lost for answers.

'You want me to k-kill, Sonic?'

'Yes. Anyway you can. He trusts you, and besides, you can overpower him any day. Drown him, poison his food. Choke him to death or break his ribs, I don't care!'

There was one way to prove if Eggman was telling the truth about the poison.

He quickly made his way to Gerald's private medical bay, the place where the old scientist took him when he was young for tests and so on. He didn't like coming here, but right now he didn't have time to be fussy. He wanted answers.

He confronted the cold manmade machines. He frowned disapprovingly at them. Some adopted the features of mechanical arms, much like the one he remembered the doctor having when he injected the poison into him.

There was a steel chair in the far corner of the large room that looked like a dentist's chair. And to his left against the wall was a bed stacked with equipment for cardiac treatment.

He closed his eyes briefly.

"This place is horrible."

The whole place gave off a heavy atmosphere that told of man. Man and their potential to do grave things.

Shadow stumbled forward, reluctant to begin. But he knew he had to.

He chose the first machine. Gerald called it the tablet of knowledge because it was an accurate gadget that could read anything from blood samples to single strands of DNA.

It came equipped with a stool and a tray of syringes. Plugged into a wall beside the tray was a small machine that could take blood samples and beside that was a computer that analyzed the results.

With disquieted unease, Shadow sat himself on the stool and got busy to distract himself from the gruesome tasks he had to perform.

Shadow grabbed a syringe, connected a tube to the blood machine and then connected that to the syringe. With a little precision, Shadow jabbed the needle into his wrist. Gerald had designed it so that when Shadow pulled the cap on the syringe, the blood went up the tube and went into the machine. It was simple and clean. At once the machine began to buzz and groan with activity. At least it still worked.

"This old thing should tell me… should tell me if there's any foreign substance in my bloodstream."

A flash of the Doctor punching him in the face made his lips curl in anger. With his free hand he touched his cheeks, finding them tender and sore.

"If that madman has done something to me…" He whispered to himself, "then I'll get through it."

He was immortal. A scientific miracle. No lethal injection was going to slow him down.

Or so he thought.

The machine started sending out a slow blip that it was done. Shadow removed the tubing and covered the hole where the needle had been with cotton. He stood from the stool and confronted the computer. It was still analyzing. A load icon had come up, and it was only half way done.

Shadow stood back and tried to calm himself. "I'm fine. I'm always fine." Yet he could not convince himself. The Doctor always managed to find ways of doing terrible things.

He sat down on the computer chair and blew the thick choking dust away on the brown keyboard.

On one icon it was labeled as blood type AB. Another said ninety percent complete and the last icon clearly read that all criterions were not valid. Shadow raised his eye ridge in perplexity. He was the Ultimate Life Form, but that did not make him a scientist.

"Gerald would have known just what to do." The ironic thing of it all, was that it was Gerald's own grandson that was putting his creation through this.

The uploading came through as complete and a scripture of information dominated the whole screen. It was lathered with human words. Shadow had to lean forward and squint just to read it.

Area sanction B, gone into stasis. Possible contamination via X through to A.

Infected: Neutrophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes, basophils, erythrocytes, thrombocytes.

Processing….

Hemoglobin process jeopardized.

Erythropoiesis process jeopardized.

Processing…

Damage to hormone erythropoietin.

Processing….

Sudden decrease of erythrocyte production.

The list went on.

Shadow simply couldn't understand all these human terms. Both his hands locked into fists.

"Make fucking sense!" He hit the keyboard. The screen flashed, and numbers briefly littered the words until the whole screen went blank.

Cursing and screaming like a wild animal, he picked up the keyboard and threw it against the floor. The anger and frustration at not being able to understand tormented him.

It wasn't fair. This was his life! He didn't want a screen full of meaningless jargon!

With a clean upper kick, he sent the screen shattering down to join the keyboard. A tide of glass slithered across the floor like little crystals.

"FUCK!" He ran out of the medical unit, grunting and whimpering like a loose maniac.

The words on screen came up before him.

Infected: Neutrophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes…

What did it all mean? It couldn't be good.

If only he knew where Eggman was! How was he supposed to deliver him an emerald when the human could be anywhere on Mobius?

Killing Sonic was actually... an easy prospect. Get behind him (and since the blue blur trusted him, this would be as easy as pie), and grab his middle. In one second he could deliver a lethal shot of dark chaos energy directly into his heart. If the first shot failed, there was nothing stopping him from trying again. Because by then, the blue hedgehog would be in shock anyway...

He went into his personal bathroom. He turned on the facet before wetting his hands with ice cold water and splashed his face with it. The gelid touch soothed away his temper, leaving him startled and lost. He looked up into the mirror and saw a frightened hedgehog staring back. His cheeks were pale, if a little purple from bruising, and his eyes were heavily diluted.

He swallowed down a cry and said softly, "I'm okay. I'll just walk this one off. My body will purge out whatever he's done to me…"

He stood; trembling like an infant as he slowly gripped the concept that he would be all right, that he was panicking for nothing. His breathing slowed and with it, his pounding heart also began to relax. After a few minutes, he even managed to try and smile. The whole effort seemed to spiritually lift him.

"The Doctor can't win."

Yeah.

A sense of invasion startled him anew. It set him off into more shivers from his insecurity. Though they were miles below him, he could sense that someone or something had invaded his territory, again. This was the third time this summer.

Shadow snapped.

Not only had his home and body been invaded, but now his territory down below as well. It could well be another trap set up for him, but he was so incensed and distressed that he was far from caring. He would go down there and obliterate any idiot who thought they could leave footprints on his land. Oh, he'd show them.

He straightened up over the sink, this sharp teeth showing between his lips. "I'll pulverize 'em so hard, that even the Gods that made them won't be able to tell what they were."

Despite his low energy, he warped out of the Ark without hesitation.


Sonic just gaped.

The robot looked like Tails. It had the propellers resembling the two tails to enable it to fly. It had the same fox snout and ears, but it was all metal.

It felt like a dream gone horribly wrong.

The tails robot set its sights on the organic hedgehog and charged straight at Sonic like a bull. A stream of red hot bullets spewed from its enhanced guns like rain.

Sonic spun and dived into the foliage. Though the forest didn't help his super-fast abilities, at least it had the potential to hide him.

He was proven wrong. The robot flew a little higher so that the sun shone on its gossamer orange coat. Then it changed its machine gun to a flame thrower. The nozzle blasted to life and at once the robot poured hot flames down on the forest. Despite the recent rain, the foliage set alight in a heartbeat. And the fire spread like a virus. Soon the red embers of death began to climb up the trunks of trees; devouring everything living as it went.

Sonic burst from the greenery, positively mad. The whole forest was at stake. He had to lead it away before it continued.

However, the sight of it made him hesitate. Why… why the hell did it look Tails? It even moved like him.

"Eggman, when will you stop making abominations?"

Like a comet, he blasted out of the forest in seconds. Slower, but with equally sharp reflexes, the mechanical Tails went after him without pause.

Sonic headed straight to Black Rock. That old country was lifeless. There would be no one to get in the way.

The Tails robot was a good distance behind him. It was too far too attack, yet near enough to keep up the pursuit. Even with the distance though, Sonic could still hear its rotors spinning round and round as the blades continuously cut through the air.

He didn't like this one bit. What scared him the most, was how close to Knothole that thing got.

I should have brought my chaos emerald with me.

It would have helped. Maybe he didn't need it. Maybe with some good hard strikes, he could take it down?


Shadow almost blacked out when he successfully teleported himself down to Black Rock. His nose felt wet, so he rubbed it with his hand, only to see it come away all bloody. He swore softly, wondering if he would be able to make it back up to the Ark again after re-establishing his rights to this part of the land.

He managed to stand firm, and willed his shivers to cease. When he thought that had done the trick, he walked slowly forwards, intent to punish whoever had breached his sanction of madness.

He was plotting how to attack first. Go for the head or the throat? Sometimes a nice hard, direct hit to the chest could smash the ribs, sometimes killing the victim instantly and less blood would be spilt on his rocks.

He lowered himself behind a crop of large stones; ready to lunge when he saw them. He didn't know how many there would be, but two was sometimes the case.

He hadn't killed in a long time, and right now, he really needed to.

The hapless victim he was so desperate to disembowel happened to be one of his old friends. And one who he wasn't exactly keen on seeing again.

Rouge the bat.

Her strong profile was unmistakable, and so was her smell of perfume as it moved up the breeze in Shadow's hidden location.

She was strutting along in her usual confident manner, one hand on her hip, the other swaying loosely by her side. She was far away still. She was completely unaware of the hedgehog cowering behind some stones.

Shadow rethought his plan of attack and wiped away the last droplets of blood on his nose.

What the hell does she want?

Shadow gently stood and started towards her. It didn't take long until it seemed that she picked up his scent. She looked up in his direction and put on a glamorous smile. Then, as Shadow got even closer, she even had the nerve to put her arm up and wave.

He could hear her screaming across the downs, "Hiya Shadow! Oh don't you look grumpy this morning!"

His whole frame hardened. His face became as taut and sharp as glass. Now Rouge started towards him too, but more at a trot then a set walk. She continued waving like a teenager.

"Wahoo! Smile! I want to talk to you, hon!"

Once he had perceived that he had walked near enough, he stopped still and waited like a statue. Rouge floundered up to him as if completely drugged. She looked healthy and she was wearing blue eyeshade. He also noticed the thick lipstick glittering on her lips.

"Oooh, still the serious, quiet type, huh?" The words that came out of her mouth only added to the spice in his boiling rage. "And you look a little tatty. Just fell out of bed, hmm?"

"What are you doing here, Rouge? You know I don't hand out invitations. Scram."

Her go-lucky stature quickly crumbled, but she managed to retain her swollen smile. "My, what a nice greeting. It's good to see that you've kept your humor."

Shadow remained stolid and cold. "You're violating my space. Now you must leave."

Rouge looked even more disgruntled. Her smile vanished. "I came all the way up here you know. And for what? To see you, that's what." She crossed her arms across her bosom. "You could at least pretend you're surprised and happy to see me." Before Shadow could interrupt, she continued hastily, "what is it with this whole territory business anyway? You were never like this before."

"I am now."

They stared at each other. It seemed like an eternity. Then Rouge dropped her defensive façade and lightened up. "So, how are things? Keeping well?"

"Yes." He replied in a one word answer which he had no intention of expanding.

"Oh." Her whole posture went a little limp, even her strong black wings. "Shadow, you need to work on your manners. I want to be greeted better next time. Can we… can we talk or are you going to be awkward?"

"Awkward." He mirrored her posture by crossing his own arms.

Rouge cast a bitter gaze at him. "That's it, huh? Well, I sure as hell wasted my time coming here."

"Sure did."

Rouge cursed, which sounded unusual, coming from her. But just before she turned to leave, she caught something, and faced him again. "Shadow, your eyes look funny. Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yes." He faced his back to her, and started walking away. Not that he had a place to go to, but he just wanted her gone. She always had a way of interfering. It was her nature.

"Shadow… wait! Come on! Hey, don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you! You, you big jerk!" She ran towards him for a few steps, then halted and watched him leave. It was no use pursuing him. It would only make him grumpier. But his eyes… they didn't look right.

She shook her head. Maybe she was seeing things.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay!" She called, "some of us care about you, you know!"

Shadow didn't look round. He kept on walking.

And walking.

Until he came to the soft downy world of the meadows, on the edge of Black Rock. There he sat down on the grass and thought things over.

Ever since his shock from looking at the computer screen, he hadn't felt sick. In fact, he felt normal. He felt fine, like he always had.

"Maybe it was all just a hoax." Eggman was possibly just trying to frighten him into working for him again. Perhaps the Doctor was desperate for another associate to carry out his plans, even if it had to be an unreliable one.

But if he was okay, and his body had perhaps cured him of the drugs Eggman had given him, what was all that crap on the computer screen?

Well, whatever was going on, he had to rest on the plains of Mobius for now. He was far too weak to make another attempt at entering his home, thanks to a certain bat. However, the suggestion of exploring a little more of this planet did lift his mood.

He stood and went forward. He was leaving his circle of territory for the first time since he had created it.

It was time for a little change.