4:30pm
Dawn came, everything seemed to quiet and still, and the sun was only half way raised while the moon disappeared somewhere in the atmosphere. Everything did seem quiet, except for well Shadow who was snoring lightly and was deep in his sleep.
The silence subsided when Shadow's phone stared to ring. This awoke the midnight animal and he groaned with his eyes half way opened, and he grabbed the phone.
"What"? Shadow said in a drowsy, hoarse voice.
"Shadow, this is Rouge, sorry if I woke you so early" Rouge said on the other line.
Shadow quickly opened his eyes whole and smiled.
"Oh Rouge? Hey don't worry about it, you know I'll do anything for you beautiful", he said in a sly voice.
He heard her giggle, it made his heart pour to hear her beautiful laugh. But it soon faded into a worried sigh.
"Thanks for understanding Shadow, you always know what to say…but I called you for a specific reason".
The ebony's face suddenly turned concerned. He knew something was up; there was no fooling the Ultimate Life Form and his super strong senses.
"Rouge what's wrong? I'm sensing something's troubling you, is there"?
His ears perked up when he heard her sigh, it sounded apprehensive.
"…It's the orphanage Shadow, it caught on fire somehow" she said.
His eyes widened in horror and fear.
"What"?!
"Yeah, they managed to evacuate all the people, but there's still a child inside somewhere".
"Can't they control the flames"?
"No they can't, let's put it this way it's like dealing with Iblis again".
"I'll be right there Rouge" Shadow said.
"Please hurry".
"I will" he said before he hung up the phone back quickly. He jumped out of bed and slipped into his air shoes, then he zapped out of his bedroom faster then you can say hotdog.
"Omega I'm going out, I'll be back in a while" Shadow said as he blurred through the kitchen, seeing Omega making breakfast.
Omega flashed some lights, dumbfounded when he saw the blur and then the burst open door.
"…".
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Shadow skated swiftly and professionally as he dashed around downtown Westopolis. It was dark as dusk there, despite the dim light of the sun and the sparkled smoke of the Orphanage's fire hazard. He had that determine look in his eyes. Of coarse Shadow's always determine, but he was more focused on saving the child's life and stopping the fire, this time he had to save a life of a child who might not grow if he doesn't do something.
'Hmm… an out of control fire…' Shadow voiced over as he remembered what Rouge and Princess Elise said.
' Elise said on the news that…the only way people can figure out who the Iblis Trigger is when there's a out of control fire, and Rouge said the fire at the Orphanage was wild and couldn't be controlled. Could it be? Could the Iblis Trigger be someone at the Orphanage? ...No impossible, this could be any wild fire'.
By the time Shadow arrived to the burning children's home, he saw a couple fire trucks, and many firemen trying to hose down the fire but couldn't. It just blazed like the monster Iblis, water seemed ineffective to the flames.
"The flames are too powerful"! shouted a firefighter.
Shadow increased his pace in speed and skated near the firefighters.
"I'll take it from here guys" Shadow said as he passed the firemen and raced to the burning building.
One of the firemen smiled with relief.
"Shadow the Hedgehog, thank god he's here".
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The black striped hedgehog explored the blazing flames that surrounded every door and escape route. He rushed around the building, searching for the missing child.
"Hello anyone in here? I'm here to help" Shadow called out.
There was no answer so far, just the crackling and whistling of the fire.
He then shielded himself with his hands, protecting his face from stray flames. He paced slowly while doing this. Shadow approached a doorway that was completely blocked by the fire. He started kicked and punched the door with all his mighty power, and he felt it grew weaker and weaker. He finally busted the thing opened, and then advanced inside the combusting flame like room. The room he entered was the dining room, but it was hard to tell because it looked as if Black Doom or the Devil came and eliminated almost the whole room. On his right was a staircase that he guessed lead to the rooms, it wasn't really on fire but it still looked ominous. The fire was much thicker and threatening here, it was almost impossible to get through.
'Help someone! Help"! cried an adolescent voice.
Shadow perked his ears up the moment he heard that young voice. That sounded like it was coming from upstairs. It's the missing child. He was about to run upstairs but a piece of support burned off the ceiling in front of Shadow. It was flaming like the devil.
Shadow leaped over it and raced upstairs.
"Hang on I'm coming"!
He processed to the second floor and saw a couple doors. Which one though?
"Hurry"! the child cried out.
The ebony animal spun around quickly towards the door on his left. He decided to trust his senses, so he used a homing attack against it until it slammed opened.
Shadow was right about trusting his senses, there was the child. Then he rushed to the child's aid. It was a little girl with golden blond hair with a yellow costume with black pants and white cartoon boots. (Her outfit is similar to Deets' from Get Ed, except the girl's costume was pure yellow instead of pink). She seemed no older then 7.
The hero hedgehog zapped to the little girl's side and saw how scared she was, she was even shivering and had her face covered with her hands.
"You okay kid"? Shadow asked.
The girl lifted her head and gasped in excitement when she saw the hedgehog.
"Shadow the Hedgehog? Please you got to help me"!
"What's wrong"? he said in a concerned tone.
"There's this fire monster that wants to kill me, you can stop it…can you"?
Shadow smiled at the girl and nodded.
"Don't worry, leave it to me". There was something about this little girl that made him feel familiar. She seemed to act a lot like…Maria, but something about her that made his senses go off. Sure he could trust her but something seemed…different.
He then heard the girl gasp.
"Look out"!
Shadow spun about quickly, seeing a Biter, a lizard like being created by Iblis' flames. It was about to do a flamethrower an attack, but Shadow grabbed the girl and dodged it. He placed the child on the ground gingerly and then summoned a force field that surrounded the girl.
"I can't watch you and fight that thing at the same time, so this force field will keep you safe from the flames" he said.
"Thanks, go get 'em Shadow" the girl said.
Shadow nodded and jumped into action. The girl put her hands against the shield and watched as the black hedgehog and blazing creature battle and she had a face of hope on her face. "You can do it, I know you can".
Shadow weaseled another attack, lurched up, and raised his arm up and a powerful collection of spheres in his palm were formed.
"Chaos Sphere"!
The spheres slashed into the reptile of fire, it damaged it but didn't kill it. The Biter, after being attacked snarled and breathed out fire like it was a fire blast towards Shadow. This attack was too quick for Shadow this time, even though he tried to short- circuited it, it hit him directly, thus slamming him hard on the ground.
"Shadow"! the girl cried.
The ebony hedgehog moaned in pain when he tried to get up, but all he could do was to get in a panting pose one knee. He forced himself up but struggled. He breathed heavily. He wondered why this thing wouldn't die. It was defiantly more powerful then the other Biters he came across.
The girl looked at Shadow apprehensive, but then something shiny caught her eye. She saw something that looked like a…chaos drive! With that Shadow could beat that thing in no time flat.
"Shadow"! There's a chaos drive over to your right"! the girl shouted.
Shadow's face roused up in realization, also ears perked.
"A chaos drive"? He quickly spun over to his right like the girl said and saw a little hand sized capsule with blue liquid energy inside. He nodded, sneered, and slid himself over to it and grabbed it.
"Great! Thank you kid".
The child nodded and smiled.
"Now show that bully who's boss".
"Will do" he said. Shadow then squeezed the tiny vile with his strong grip and finally it shattered, allowing the blue energy to be absorbed to him. Shadow felt the power flowing through his veins, and a couple seconds later he began to glow scarlet beat red, his eyes were even glowing and they were already red!
He jumped back to his feet fully revived, and then turned to the little girl and nodded to her. The girl nodded back, also giving a face full of belief.
Then Shadow dashed towards the Biter with rage and with his power, he jumped, turning into a red glowing fur ball with spikes, and he did a direct homing attack on the creature.
The Biter crashed down to the ground and dropped down incautious, and just to make sure it was dead Shadow focused all his strength and power on his target, and then he glowed a even brighter red; bright enough to blind the whole battle field. It even made the little girl shield her eyes so she couldn't see what's going on.
"Chaos Sun"! Shadow roared at the top of his lungs.
The fire beast screeched for mercy and then it was destroyed into the flames and its form was ceased to exist in the Chaos Sun's bright light.
After a few minutes, the bright light of Shadow's ultimate attack seceded. Also when this happened Shadow's red chaos boost form faded away and he returned back to normal. The flames also seemed to be lighting up too so maybe now water could be effective on it now.
Shadow got up on his feet and looked around his background. Nothing out of the ordinary, the monster's gone and the flames are turning normal.
"Way to go Shadow"! shouted out the little girl. Shadow turned and saw her jumping up and down uncontrollably hyper. She seemed really excited that she helped him out and watched him fight in person.
He chuckled. Looks like she was a huge fan and he was thankful that she helped him find the chaos drive, if he didn't he could've been toast. Shadow advanced over to her and with a snap of his fingers, she was released from the safety of the force field. When released, the girl rushed over to Shadow and looked up at him, intrigued. She was so small she could hug his waist.
She smiled.
"You're so awesome Shadow"!
Shadow smirked. The child had good taste.
"Thank you, and thanks for telling me where the chaos drive is. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably be French toast".
The girl blushed embarrassed and rubbed the back of her head.
"Aw it was nothing. You tried to save me so I returned the favor".
"Well let's get out of here. The flames may have lightened up but it's still dangerous" Shadow stated.
The girl nodded.
"I so agree with you".
The ink heart colored hedgehog got out his red chaos emerald and raised it up in the air, it started to glow.
"Chaos Control"!
In a sudden flash of light, the girl and Shadow teleported out of the burning building unharmed.
In moments of time Shadow and the little girl arrived outside, where the fire fighters were still trying to hose down the building, and the people who were evacuated earlier from the building.
The girl beamed at the black hedgehog and she hugged him by his waist.
"I'm so glad I'm out of the building, thank you Shadow".
Shadow folded his ears back astonished, but then shrugged defeated with a smile and he then started to stroke her hair, literally petting her.
"You're welcome, I'm just glad you're unharmed". He then arched an eyebrow at her suspicious. "By the way, why was that Biter trying to kill you"?
The girl released Shadow from her bear hug and then shrugged, a little dumbfounded at the question.
"I don't know…, I didn't do anything".
"Hmmm…I wonder…could you be? No impossible".
"Could I be what"? the girl asked curios.
Shadow shook his head at her.
"Nothing, just a thought".
"Oh…I thought I was in trouble for a minute".
"No you're not in trouble, I was just wondering about something".
"Oh okay".
He then got down on one knee, enough to make eye contact with her.
"What's your name"?
"Lauren" she said shy.
Shadow forced a grin on his face; that was a pretty name.
"Wow, that's a nice name. It's very nice to meet you Lauren".
"It's nice to meet you too Shadow" Lauren said as polite as she could.
The dark hedgehog smiled serene, she was certainly a sweetheart and seemed very trustworthy, but Shadow still had that feeling which made his senses go off, more like a suspicious twist, but he ignored it to make Lauren happy.
He then saw her hand drawing near his head. Shadow didn't know what she was doing and he gave her a suspicious look.
Lauren sweated anime style and weirdly looked at Shadow; she also froze her hand, rattled.
"Uh um sorry Shadow. I really like animals, so can I…pet you on the head? I'm really gentle just so you know".
Shadow spaced out for a moment shocked, but sighed in calm defeat and leaned his head over to her and allowed him to be pampered. Lauren then gladly reached her hand out towards Shadow's head and began to stroke his soft fur. His fur was really soft, silky smooth to be exact. He must've groomed himself well.
"Now if you're going to pet me you might as well scratch my ears" Shadow said.
Lauren smiled and moved her hand up to his ears and gently scratched his ears.
Shadow loved the feeling of being treated like this, and Lauren wasn't kidding when she told him she was gentle. He sighed in relaxed, making out with Rouge and getting petted by his biggest fan couldn't possibly be beaten by any option.
After moments of friendship, Lauren broke away her hand, still beaming at Shadow.
"You're fur is so…soft. I bet you pamper yourself good".
"You don't know how right you are. I take a shower everyday, brush my teeth, and comb my quills, things like that. And if I didn't I would smell and be one weird hedgehog".
Lauren giggled. She could never guess Shadow the Hedgehog; a serious hedgehog could be so funny.
"Yeah".
Shadow then lifted himself off his knees and onto his feet.
"Well it was nice to meet you, Lauren". He was about to go on home until he heard Lauren say
"Shadow"?
He turned around and faced her.
"Hm"?
"You're my friend right? I mean we both saved and helped each other, so wouldn't that make us friends"?
Shadow perked his ears back a little speechless. He hadn't had a human friend ever since…well you know. Lauren did seem nice but he didn't want to see her die like what happened to Maria. But he took the same chance with Rouge, so why not Lauren?
"Well…sure we are. You helped me and I helped you, so why wouldn't we be friends"? he said in a serene tone.
Lauren smiled, but this time it was more like a smile of a angel.
"I knew it Shadow, I mean you even let me pet you and to most people you wouldn't allow them, right"?
"I don't allow my enemies toy with me if that's what you're saying. Oh and Lauren if you have any more trouble with those punks you know I'll always be around right"?
Lauren replied with a nod.
"Uh huh".
"Alright anyway I better get going, it's like 6:00 in the mourning and I still haven't had a good night sleep".
"Okay Shadow, I'm sorry this whole accident forced you up" Lauren apologized.
Don't sweat it it's my job, see you later" Shadow said starting to skate off.
The little girl waved farewell to her new friend and shouted out
"Bye Shadow thank you".
While he was advancing on, he turned his head around and gave her a friendly nod and then raced into the dusk horizon of the city.
AN: That chapter took me forever to update because of school, stay tune because the next chapter is going to very romantic.