Ch 9
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I got this one done pretty fast. I hurt my leg and missed two days of school along with a snow day, so I had plenty of spare time. Chapter 9: What I Can Do
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Shadow never slept heavily, and it was a good thing that he didn't. He heard a large cracking sound, and he sat up and quickly looked for the source of the noise. At first it was hard to see as it was nearly dark outside, but he soon saw a tree fall down. Unfortunately, Tails happened to be underneath it.
The yellow fox was cutting this tree down when it started to fall down on its own, and Tails wasn't quite ready for it. The tree wasn't massive, so it didn't injure Tails, but it was certainly keeping him pinned to the ground. The pressure on his chest was immense and he saw was knocked away, so he couldn't cut himself loose.
Tails briefly tried to push it off, but it was far too heavy. "Damn! Can't anything go right for a change?" he said quietly, but then refrained from speaking as to save air. It was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe.
Shadow stood up and raised a brow.
He's never going to get out of that by himself…
Shadow sighed briefly and jumped down, landing gracefully as always. He began to walk towards the tree and Tails soon could see him.
"Shadow?" Tails wasn't sure how or why Shadow was here, but it was great timing. He gasped for enough breath to mutter one word. "Help…"
Shadow ran his red eyes up and down the tree and then to Tails. "I think you can do this by yourself" he said calmly while crossing his arms.
Tails had a sudden feeling of helplessness and annoyance. Why Shadow wouldn't just lift the tree off of him was a confusing thought. His face told Shadow exactly what he was thinking.
"Do you remember what happened to you when I talked to you a few days ago?" Shadow didn't wait for a reply and answered for him. "You felt power. Power that was born from your hate of fate."
Tails now formed a painful grimace and showed his teeth. He began to struggle and thrash around. All he remembered was the light tingly sensation that had come over him. The same thing also happened when he was racing Sonic.
"You have to save yourself, Tails. All of your little toys are out of reach, Sonic is on the other side of the planet, and I have no problem watching you suffocate."
Tails was starting to feel enraged. His luck was extremely off lately and it was infuriating. And the fact that someone who was perfectly capable of helping was not going to do a thing. He started to feel light and strong against the log. The kitsune placed his hands below the tree and pushed as hard as he could. The blood rushed through his body and his head pounded.
"You're not pushing hard enough, Tails. If you don't get that off soon, you will surely be crushed." Shadow formed a small smirk as he spoke, trying to seem menacing, although he knew deep down that if Tails couldn't do it, then he would help.
Tails pushed harder than he thought was physically possible for him. The pressure started to feel less on his chest, but his arms burned. His face showed that he was exerting a lot of physical force.
"Not quite there yet." Shadow lost his smile when he noticed that Tails wasn't pushing the tree any further. "You're pathetic! Its one thing to not be able to save the ones around you, buts it's completely sad that you can't even save yourself. It's no wonder that that plant had to die."
If there was an emotional string inside of Tails, it had just snapped. Blood was plowing its way through his veins, and that small white aura began to circulate around him. The gentle breeze seemed to pick up and blew leaves and sand around. Tails felt the weight of the tree turn to nothing in his hands, and threw it to the side. He jumped up and glanced at the tree briefly before kicking it, cracking it into two separate pieces. The enraged fox glared at Shadow, his eyes now a darker shade of navy blue.
"Cosmo did not have to die!" Tails said while breathing heavily.
Shadow uncrossed his arms and regained his normal blank expression. "Then why did she?" he asked quietly.
The white glow that surrounded Tails dispersed slowly and his eyes turned back to the regular aqua color. He fell to his knees and gasped for breath. An immensely sad look on his face that Shadow could not see because Tails' head hung down. "Because I'm weak" he mumbled sadly.
"You are not weak, and you just proved it. Some things just happen that you cannot stop. Cosmo's sacrifice is one of those things."
"But I wasn't strong when I needed to be. Only if I was, I could have saved her."
"You were strong when you needed to be. It's one thing to watch someone you care about die, but I would imagine it is much harder to be the one who pulls the trigger." This got Tails attention and he turned his head to look at Shadow. "In a way, you are stronger than me."
Shadow turned around and started to walk away, but Tails quickly stopped him.
"Wait!"
Shadow stopped but did not turn around.
"I was thinking" Tails began. "When I came here, the main thing I wanted to do was start over and try to forget about everything that has happened in the past few weeks. But another thing I wanted to do was train and get stronger."
Shadow turned around and faced Tails, curious.
"I wanted to be more than just the whiz kid, more than just the brains. I want to fight and actually make a difference, and now that I think about it, I have no idea how to do that."
After a moment of silence, Tails finished. "Will you train me? Will you help me be stronger?"
Shadow crossed his arms and closed his eyes, thinking about it. After a brief moment, the dark hedgehog spoke. "Fine, but you must do everything I say, when I tell you to do it." He turned around and started to walk away. "Get some sleep. You will need it."
Tails watched the dark hedgehog fade into the shadows of the trees. It was getting dark outside and the yellow-orange sunset filled the sky. When you look close enough, you can see the entire rainbow in the sunset. It starts as the normal blue, and then fades to a light green, then to yellow, and red and so on and so forth. One thing that really completed the scene was the moon barely visible in the sky. Tails thought of it as weird that the moon would sometimes be out in the day. It was so out of place, yet so beautiful.
The yellow fox had to shake himself out of his colorful daydream, and reverted his eyes to the ground around him. There were many trees lying on the ground in the general area. He probably had enough to start putting together a house. But then he realized the tree that he had destroyed. It was completely shattered into two halves, like some large creature had come by and stomped on it. Tails felt a sense of satisfaction, but was also terrified. What was he truly capable of?
Tails held out his hands and examined them. He felt a slight tingle throughout his body, but his arms throbbed wildly and he was starting to get a small headache. If Shadow told him to get some sleep, then he should probably do it. He was slightly excited about tomorrow, yet he felt nervous. Tails had no clue what Shadow was going to do, but he was going to have to work hard. The young kit had never before been a part of any physical training, but looking at that tree, he realized that he must have some sort of potential. How he was able to crush that tree, he did not know, but he dismissed the thought and flew off towards his tent. He would work on his house tomorrow, after Shadow was done with him.
Meanwhile at the shrine of the master emerald…
"I'm sorry, I haven't seen him" replied a red echidna to Sonic. His name was Knuckles. Knuckles was a brilliant red color with a crescent shaped birthmark on his chest with white, spiky gloves. He was slightly taller and larger than Sonic, and was as strong as the blue hedgehog was fast.
Sonic crossed his arms and sulked his head. "Well have you seen Shadow?"
Knuckles gained a confused expression. "Shadow? He's alive?"
"Oh, never mind" Sonic snapped while holding his head in his hand. "Look, if you see Shadow or Tails, come find me. Okay?"
"Uh… sure. But what is this all about?" Knuckles asked as Sonic was turning around to leave.
The blue hedgehog didn't face him, but answered his question. "Tails ran away. I don't know where, and I know that Shadow has something to do with it."
Knuckles suddenly had a slight tone of sympathy, which was rare. "Oh. Cosmo, right?"
Sonic nodded his head, and then sped off. It really was pointless running all over the planet looking for Tails. There were a million different places he could be and Sonic could not possibly check them all. Tails was smart, and very capable of staying hidden if he wanted to.
Sonic screeched to a halt at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean and Tails' house. He figured the only thing he could do for now would be to wait for him to come back. And if he didn't, then he would try to look some more. This wasn't Chris' planet where every known speck of land was mapped and documented. This world was not as technical and quite a lot of the land on the planet was still undiscovered.
Sonic jumped down from the cliff, landing softly in the white sand below. He walked over into Tails' house and sat on the couch in the main room. For now, he would wait. He had told everyone and perhaps someone would see him or the X-Tornado, but for now, he waited.
Back on the island…
Shadow walked through the forest, pondering his recent behavior. Now that he had recalled everything, he was becoming confused of who he really was. There was the Shadow who was born on the Ark, and then there was the Shadow who was born in Doctor Eggman's spaceship. He remembered Maria as well as Molly. They were both good people, who wanted nothing more than for other people to be happy. And that was Maria's real request.
The ebony hedgehog jumped into a nearby tree near the beach. He could barely see the X-Tornado on the other end, and then a small moving dot that he guessed to be Tails. They young fox was very similar to himself. They both shared a saddening past, and are both are seeking to do something about it. At first, Shadow tried to kill everyone, and then he ended up saving them. He had a suspicion of why Tails wanted to be stronger: he wanted to try to prevent the same thing from happening to anyone else, and he wanted to be able to protect the rest of his friends. Shadow felt the same way, just not as intensely.
But now Shadow had to think of a plan. He had no idea how to train someone else. When on the Ark, he did receive some training, but he was already naturally powerful. He was born to be powerful. The black hedgehog supposed that he could train Tails the same way that the scientists aboard the Ark did, and maybe teach him about chaos control. Not many people were even capable of learning chaos control, but Tails was one of the smartest people Shadow knew. The fox was even on par with Doctor Eggman, and possibly Professor Gerald. He should be capable of learning it, and maybe even take might it a step farther.
Shadow sat down and leaned against the trunk of the tree. This was one way of realizing Maria's wish; helping one person at a time. It was slow, but it still counted. Besides, even though Maria wanted him to make people happy, that didn't mean that Shadow cared. And it was an impossible feat. Him, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and everyone else put together could not possibly save everyone. Shadow could see Tails walking around before deciding to close his eyes and falling asleep.
Tails had a small water bottle in his hand and drizzled a little water onto the small plant in his tent. The young fox had been working all day but wasn't tired yet, so he jumped up onto the wing of the X-Tornado and laid down. The sky was completely dark now, and small bright stars dotted across the area, along with the moon.
It didn't take long for the young fox to get drowsy. Shadow had told him to get some sleep, but he didn't know if he would have another nightmare or not. It made him scarred to go to sleep, but that is not something you can always control. He was exhausted from pushing that tree off of him and working all day before hand. Soon, Tails lay there, fast asleep under the night sky.
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The next one will not be out by the weekend. Maybe in the middle of the week or possible not even until the next weekend. Anyway, I'm not sure, but it will come.
