Okay... con-tin-you-ing!
Been a while... ^^;
I figured to start of the chapter with Rae and the Chaos. Hope you like it :D
Oh, and please! Go to the TD forums! I need posts! The link is on my profile!
Rae closed the third closet door, and shook her head.
"Jak? Have you seen Sharpe at all?" She called to her graying dog.
Jak snorted and shook his head.
"That's weird…" The purple fox muttered. "He's not with Kai or Krystal, so where could he-?"
She stopped.
"Aw crud…" Rae muttered and ran up the stairs on all fours quickly, turning sharply on the landing in the hidden hallway and stood up to push her door open.
Though the purple themed room was always a mess most of the time, Rae screamed at the sight of all her art papers littering the floor and shreds of some floating to the ground.
"NOT THE PAPER!" Rae quickly picked up every piece and shoved it in the semi walk-in closet and slid both doors shut.
Then she noticed the dog and cat food dishes were flipped over, and litter mingled with the puddle of water from the overturned metal dish.
A kitten was yowling somewhere in the room. Rae realized that she had locked the kitten in the closet by accident.
"Scooch!" The fox rescued the kitten, who looked like Jak, and held him in one arm as she tried to locate the Chao.
Sharpe was found in the cabinet of the computer desk, much to Rae's dislike.
"That's where I keep my Harry Potter books! All seven!" She pulled him out, trying to pry his claws off of the fourth one. "Aw, c'mon, that one was put through enough when that kid threw it in the tree in the seventh grade! It took me all of my lunch time to shake it down! That's one of my favorites!"
Indeed, the book was well worn. Its book jacket had been torn across the front, and near the base of the spine. Masking tape repaired the bent corners clumsily, and the edges were so worn, the book could almost fall apart at anytime.
"Figures… the stuff I pay for with my own money are the ones that get messed up by someone else…" She growled, and frowned when Sharpe had pulled down a large, plastic, robotic looking blue and red scorpion, which hit the old computer monitor, the claw breaking off. "Hey! My bother gave me that Zoid!"
The fox carried the Chao downstairs and set him on the couch, taking a deep breath to compose herself.
"Okay, Sharpe… there are a few things you should bear in mind…" She tried explaining. "The biggest is not to mess with any of my things that you haven't been given permission to touch. A lot of that stuff is irreplaceable, such as things that connect with a memory…" She trailed of and saw that he was holding a small brown bean bag dog that looked like it had been though the washer many times. She snatched it. "Like this… my grandma Norma gave me that a couple of years before she died of cancer… it was from a trip to McDonalds, and it was during the Beanie Baby Promotion. That one was hers… and I got the cat… those are my first Beanies…"
Sharpe threw her the puppy eyes look, which distracted Rae from what she was talking about at first. Then she had an idea.
"Y'know… I've got extras of a lot of different kinds of Beanies…" She said. "I can give you and the others one of your own…"
Hurrying upstairs, she disappeared into her room and retrieved three Beanies.
"How about 'Runner the Mustelidae' for you, 'Princess the Bear' for Krystal, and 'Rocket the Blue Jay' for Kai? I've got so many of those ones, I wouldn't mind sharing…"
Sharpe seemed to like Runner. Runner looked like a mongoose, or some other mischievous type animal. That kept him busy enough for Rae to find something else to entertain him.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because, you might get hurt."
"That's only the red Emerald!" Mephiles protested, reaching a hand out to try to grab the power gem in Shadow's hand. "I'm already bruised, so what else could happen? We'll never know until we try…"
Shadow stared at the crystal hedgehog before him, who took care as to widen his eyes innocently and add a bit of a tremble to his lower lip, totally taking advantage of his ability to look completely and utterly cute and innocent.
"Where did you learn to do that? Sharpe?"
"Well… Yes, actually…" Mephiles blushed a shade of pink. "But, I'm serious…"
"Serious? With that look? You look like a little kid wanting to play with a toy his daddy won't let him…"
"Please? Don't make me replace the 'ell' with a 'double-you'… I can do that…"
"I don't think you-"
"Pwease?"
Right then, Rouge busted up laughing, shouting: "I can't believe he did that!"
As Shadow was distracted, Mephiles swiped the Emerald out of his hand before Shadow could react.
"Hey!"
"See, Shadow?" Mephiles shook the gem in his hand and grinned. "Oh, help… It's so dangerous…" He said sarcastically, waving his hands in mock fright before scoffing.
"That's nice, now give it back…"
"Why? It's not doing anything to me… it's a dud, I guess…" Mephiles tossed it up in the air and caught it one handedly. Then he paused and stared blankly for a moment, mouth half open.
Once Shadow and Rouge realized what this meant, Shadow snatched the Emerald from Mephiles, who regained his composure rather quickly.
He blinked before asking something a bit surprising.
"What kinda white stuff falls from the sky?"
"What..?" Shadow and Rouge were confused.
"I dunno. I just saw a bunch of fluffy white stuff falling from the sky to the ground. It was falling slower than rain, but the entire ground was covered in it. Trees even…"
"Did… did you just See something?" Shadow handed the Emerald to Rouge.
"See?"
"Y'know… like your visions… did you See something?"
"I dunno… I just wanna know what that white stuff was."
"I think you just saw snow."
"Snow?"
"Frozen raindrops that form into crystals. It happens when the weather is cold."
"I've never seen that before…"
"We didn't have snowfall in Westopolis last year…" Rouge explained. "Due to a slight change in the climate from the Black Arms invasion last year, shortly before we left for Soleanna."
"How did that affect the weather?"
"Because of the presence of the Black Comet, it caused the weather to heat up for a short time, even after it was blown up by Shadow."
"You blew up a comet?!" Mephiles stared at Shadow in surprise. "How did you do that?"
"I was Super Shadow at the time…"
"Super… Shadow?" Mephiles looked confused as he said this slowly.
"A 'Super' form is obtained through the use of all seven Chaos Emeralds." Shadow explained. "In fact, there are several Emerald induced forms when all of that type of Emerald are collected at once. Most change to a gold-ish color, their eyes change red like mine, and they have enhanced abilities for as long as they keep collecting Rings."
"Rings help?"
"They are more than just currency, Mephiles…" Rouge explained. "Every Emerald produces numerous Rings that have residual Chaos Energy, but all of that is not usable until the Emerald are within range of the Rings."
"Some Rings…" Shadow continued. "Can be used for other purposes. Such as these…" Shadow gestured to his wrists, and shook one foot and then the other. "These Rings are modified to keep my Chaos Energy at bay."
"If you happen to be in an area where there are a lot of Rings with all of the Emeralds…" Rouge continued on. "Then the Super Form can be activated. I've only seen it happen with Sonic and Shadow."
"And Sonic claims up and down that Tails and Knuckles can as well…"
"Tails?" Mephiles flicked an ear. "Who's 'Tails'?"
"He's a twin tail fox like Rae, but he's like Sonic's little brother…" Shadow told him. "He can fly using his tails and was pretty helpful during the Black Arms invasion. Helped me find an Emerald, and save the President."
"Fascinating… but, anyway… so, snow is frozen rain?"
"Kinda… you'd really have to see it for yourself."
Mephiles gave him a look that clearly said "Are you making a joke about what just happened?"
"Huh?"
"Are you making a joke about what just happened?" Mephiles said.
"What? Oh, no! Of course not!" Shadow scoffed.
"Just checking… Lemmie see that Emerald again."
"Why?"
"I have an idea…" Mephiles said, holding his hand out. "Lemmie see it…"
"What would that idea be?"
"I dunno, I just wanna see something…"
"How about no?" Shadow shook his head and put the Emerald in his suitcase. "I don't think you need to be near this right now…"
"You're babying me!" Mephiles shouted. "I'm almost eleven years old, and you won't let me see an Emerald that's not hurting me? That's not cool!"
"And it's with that attitude…" Rouge added. "That it further enforces us not to let you see it right away…"
Mephiles folded his arms and frowned.
"Okay then… can we do something? I'm not liking being stuck in this room at all…" He said. "Like maybe look around?"
"But you don't like being around here…"
"It's better than being stuck in a room…" Mephiles said with his eyes closed. "At least I won't feel trapped…"
One could understand why he hated the feeling of being trapped. It's been such a repeating factor in his life that he disliked it much more than the average person or Mobian.
Needless to say, after enough prying, Mephiles was able to get what he wanted.
"I can't help but notice…" Shadow said, looking at Mephiles as the trio was entering through the gates of the New City part of Soleanna. "That even though you aren't the same Mephiles that I met… you can still get your way…"
"Really, I wasn't asking too much…" Mephiles shrugged, keeping close to Rouge and Shadow as they passed the Mayor, Mephiles twitching slightly as if afraid something was going to happen. "I mean, if we just hide… what is that saying? That we're letting Iblis know that we're afraid of him… and he can use that against us. If we go out in the open… his opinion might change. He'll think that we're bold enough to do something about this… it's a simple reasoning…" He explained. "That… and I'm tired of hiding from everything…"
He heard the clearing of a throat and screamed, dropping to the ground and rolling into a spiky ball in the blink of an eye. Shadow and Rouge rolled their eyes.
"You were saying?" Shadow said as Mephiles uncurled and sat up, laughing nervously.
"Sorry, that was a reflex…"
"A reflex to what?"
Mephiles never answered that. Instead he just ignored it.
Everything seemed to be going fine from then on, until they ventured to the docks.
Mephiles tensed up and looked like he was about to be sick. He panted as he looked up and one could see that he was slowly growing paler.
"Mephiles?"
The crystal hedgehog blinked and spun around, plowing past Shadow and out of sight as series of yelps sounded off from him.
Going after him, he was found hiding behind a stack of crates near the warehouses, curled up defensively, arms shielding his head and shaking.
Rouge touched a hand to his shoulder and he jumped, shrinking away for her, shouting: "I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG!!"
"Mephiles, it's us…"
The hedgehog uncurled and shot up, staring for a long moment before his eyes cleared up and his face darkened a shade of burgundy as he looked away quickly, visibly embarrassed with himself.
"S-sorry…" He muttered, shaking his head. "I-I just… uh, n-never mind…"
"Meph… did something happen to you over there?" Shadow asked slowly.
"What gave you that idea?" Mephiles faked an attempt to smile, which seemed more like he wasn't even trying at all.
"The fact that you freaked out and ran off…"
"It doesn't matter now… it happened a long time ago… before I found Westopolis…"
"It matters if it makes you upset…"
"I'M NOT UPSET!" The crystal hedgehog bellowed, kicking one of the crates before slamming his back against the wall of the building and sliding to the ground, yanking at his quills. "It's in the past! Nobody cared then, so they're sure as heck not gonna care now!"
"I'm sure that by 'they'… you don't mean us, right?" Shadow said. "Because we care… that's why we're doing this for you…"
"I mean, all that happened was that I slipped!" Mephiles continued, perhaps too worked up to have not heard Shadow at all. "I slipped and almost fell in if I hadn't grabbed onto the planks of wood! And they just watched and laughed! I had garbage thrown at me! They took rotted food out of the trashcans and threw it at me while I was begging for help! I'm half in the water, scared out of my mind, and all they care about is kicking a so called 'demon' when he's down!"
That would have explained how his fur was so messy when he found us… Rouge noted sadly. And that probably made him not only more afraid of water, but of the people here too…
"This is all Dark's fault! Because of him, an entire city hates me! The city I was born in, nonetheless!" He looked up and saw that he must have been making quite a scene. There were several people staring, prompting Mephiles to duck behind the crate out of sight. He really didn't like them…
Shadow looked up at the people and clenched his teeth.
"You see what you've done to him?" Shadow shook his head, as he announced that. "You've given him a reason to dislike Humans, and you've made him even more afraid of water. What has he done to any of you?"
"He's that demon from-" A teenaged boy started.
"Okay, before you continue, let me reiterate that he is not a demon…" Shadow glared. "He is a hedgehog like me and Sonic, and any other hedgehog."
"But he was created in the lab-"
"That must make me a demon as well…" Shadow narrowed his eyes. "I'm a hedgehog and I'm scientifically altered. I even share the genes of the Black Arms aliens. Y'know… the ones that invaded last year…" He added. "If I remember right, the Humans were under the impression that I was a 'monster' as well… My friends and I were shot at, even Sonic… do you people have something against Mobians?"
The last part was more of a sudden "Come to think of it…" moment. It had just occurred to Shadow (and Rouge) that not only the aliens were being shot at by GUN… at the time, Shadow hadn't been made an agent yet, and that was during the time when the Human race believed Shadow to be on the Black Arms side… mostly because the Gun Commander had issued orders to kill Shadow on sight.
Mephiles had his ears perked up during Shadow's question, and muttered to himself: "Yeah… I think they do…"
The teenager looked nervous when he received the glare from the white bat and the black hedgehog.
Mephiles was growing bored, and with that, he easily zoned out and before he knew it… he had fallen asleep quickly.
Instead of ending up in his familiar abyss of a mind, as he had expected, but instead he was in what seemed to be the cage room of the laboratory facility.
"Dark? What's going on?" Mephiles spun around trying to locate his double, thoroughly surprised to see that the cages had living animals in them and the scorches were gone. The room was warmly lit, and aside from the cages… it was quite a welcoming place. "DARK!"
"Yes..?"
Mephiles turned his full attention to a corner where Dark, still in his bathrobe, was sitting, half open eyes fixed on a certain cage.
"What's going on here? Where are we?"
"Where do you think?" Dark sighed.
"I don't know… I was hoping my mind…"
"Half correct… this is a memory, I believe…" Dark shifted his attention from the cage briefly to lock gazes with Mephiles before looking back at the cage. "It seems like those memories I locked away are starting to bring themselves forward…"
Mephiles gave him a confused look before looking at the cage Dark was looking at. Mephiles' eyes widened when he realized that the cage was eye level with him.
Hurrying over to it, he peered in and felt his heart jump when he was a family of four hedgehogs in it.
Each of them were different shades of earthly colors, with white underbellies, at least three different shades of brown for their quills and all but one had dark muzzles.
That one was the lightest colored one of the little hoglets, the other two nearly identical if it wasn't for one of them having lighter brown color on their quills.
The light one was busy scratching away at the aspen bedding shavings, as if he was hoping to find a way out.
"Mom! Mephy's trying to escape again!" Mephiles heard a girl voice sound from the lighter brown colored hoglet.
"Tattler!" The light hoglet barked. "Chinus is lying! I was just… moving the shavings around!"
"OHMIGOD! CHINUS AND CEUS!?" Mephiles shouted as the mention of the sister's name brought back the memory of a brother's name. Mephiles then clapped his hands over his mouth, looking a bit frightened about something.
"They can't hear you…" Dark said quietly, not at all having any emotion at all to this. "This is your memory, so you're merely seeing it again…"
"They can't hear me..?" Mephiles was half disappointed, but he shook his head. "So, I'm guessing that little light colored one is me? I thought you said that you came up with 'Mephiles' by yourself…"
"You remember me saying that..?" Dark raised an eyebrow. "I thought I blocked that memory..."
"What part of 'Me getting memories back' don't you get?" The good double frowned. "So, my name was 'Mephiles' this whole time?"
"Yes… but you couldn't remember that…"
"I would have expected you to have made up a new name…"
"I lack that kind of creativity…" Dark said, surprising Mephiles greatly. "That's why I asked you to name me… I can never find a good word for something new…"
Mephiles returned his attention to the cage and stared at the larger hedgehog.
She had a dark muzzle, dark feet, dark ears and her quills were colored like something Mephiles would describe as "Peppered".
Mephiles felt his heart skip a beat or two when he laid eyes on his mother for the first time he could truly remember.
The hedgehog sighed and slapped a dark paw to her head, as if she had to deal with this everyday.
"Mephiles. Stop trying to get out. Chinus. Stop watching your brother."
"I hate being in this cage!"
"I'm not watching him!"
The other hoglet, however, was busy running in a wheel, his brown feet a near blur.
"Hey, guys! Betcha can't run this fast!" He laughed.
"Ceus, hedgehogs aren't supposed to be fast…" Mephiles' younger self growled.
Ceus stopped in mid stride and realized that far too late, having to grab onto the bars of the wheel while it spun him upside down several times.
"Ah! Help!"
Little Mephiles rolled his eyes and waddled over there, bobbing his head for a few moments to count the pattern, and then shot his little paws out to grab a bar. The wheel pulled him up on his toes before he got it to stop, his brother upside down. He let got and Ceus rolled down to the bottom.
"I was a bit of a mean little guy then, wasn't I?" Mephiles frowned in disapproval as he wiped his eyes clear.
"Spending all your life trapped in a cage? It's understandable…"
The door opened and a red haired little girl about seven years of age came in. Little Mephiles perked his ears up with his siblings and scurried to the cage door, wrapping their paws around the wire bars and sticking their noses through. Little Mephiles looked at her pitifully.
"I wonder who that is." Mephiles said to Dark.
"She's the other victim of the accident…"
"Elise?! God, she looks so young here…"
"This is a memory of about a decade ago…" Dark said, not once taking his eyes off the cage this whole time. "Everything and everyone is at least that much younger here…"
"Wait… a decade?" Mephiles now looked distressed as he watched the girl scratch the hedgehogs through the bars.
"Give or take a year…"
"Oh, no… oh, no…" Mephiles shook his head. "What's the date of this day?"
"Huh..?" Dark appeared to be bored or disinterested, or even emotionless at the moment.
Mephiles grabbed him by the shoulders of the bathrobe and pulled him to where they were face to face.
"The date, Dark! What day are we watching?!"
"… November fourteenth… nineteen ninety-seven…" Dark replied in a monotone voice. "… I've seen this day way too many times already…"
"Get me out of here now!" Mephiles was getting frantic. "I know how this one ends! Get me out of here! I don't want to see it!"
"But if you leave now… you'll leave me to watch this all by myself…" Dark muttered, his head down as he watched the floor. "… I've already seen this day way too many times to count today… too many… to count…"
Mephiles' eyes widened when he realized what that had meant. Dark had watched the death of the hedgehogs.
"Dark… have you moved at all from that corner..?"
"I meant to follow after you when you escaped… but my curiosity got the better of me…" Dark lifted his head and Mephiles saw that Dark's eyes had a dead look to them… they looked dull and listless again. "… Perhaps I should have followed… this was a bit too much… Not even I would wish that on you…"
"Just get me out of here before I have to see it!" Mephiles cried.
"Oh… that doesn't happened until a half an hour passes here..." Dark shifted his gaze to the cage again. Elise was giving a lot of attention to the lightest colored hedgehog.
"Then get me out before that happens! Hit me or something! I don't wanna see it!"
"… I wouldn't wish that on you…" Dark said softly, having not heard Mephiles at all.
Mephiles shook him, but he was better off trying to ask the ones that couldn't see or hear him.
Mephiles clenched his hands and took a deep breath before he hit himself on the pressure point.
Blinking his eyes open, he was hit in the face with bright sunlight.
He was still where he had fallen asleep.
Squinting and holding a hand up to shield his eyes, he saw Shadow and Rouge staring at him with more than half concerned looks. Several other people were standing over him, one young kid having a stick that he had been poking him with.
"I only fell asleep…" Mephiles half lied, yawning to prove his point as he swatted the stick away. He didn't want to explain his recent encounter with Dark with the people around, knowing full well that they would dismiss Dark as a figment since they hardly understood the story at all. "Please don't poke me…"
"Are you okay?" Rouge asked. "It's not like you to just fall asleep in the middle of the sidewalk…"
"Is that where I am?" Mephiles hadn't bothered to notice. "I just got bored, that's all… I'll explain later…" He swatted the stick again. He kept his patience… the kid was only six years of age it seemed. "Please, stop… that's really bugging me…"
Shadow offered him a hand to help him sit up, Mephiles not wanting to stand up just yet.
Mephiles then realized that he was being stared at by everyone… but the emotion he was feeling from them was different than what he was used to.
"W-why is everyone s-staring at me..?"
…
"Mephiles… I think you were having a nightmare just now…"
…
"Huh?" Mephiles perked his ears up. "I-I don't think I was…"
"Meph… you were just screaming…" Shadow said.
"Th-that could have been because I was scared just… uh… how long was I out..?"
"Twenty minutes…" Shadow stared at him. "Something was scaring you for at least the past few minutes…"
Mephiles swallowed back something when he knew exactly what Shadow was talking about.
What made it even worse was that the people knew about it as well…
Ooh... Poor Mephiles...
But, not to worry, he shouldn't have to be in Soleanna much longer, hopefully he can leave within a few more chapters...
Oh, and if you wanna know, Mephiles' mom's name is "Erin". I have a pic on DeviantArt. ^^