Before the Vision

Chapter 2: A Threat Beyond Belief
It had only been a few hours since Shadow woke up and already everyone was taking a liking to him. He learnt the names of many people he met and became very open to their friendly smiles. Although everyone treated Shadow nicely, the hedgehog still stayed by Maria's side for most of the day. The young girl showed Shadow around the compound and visited areas she frequently went. Shadow was left in awe by everything he saw and wanted to touch some of the things he saw as well. Gerald went along with the two for a while observing Shadow's learning capabilities. He had picked up on so many things and was already talking in small sentences to Maria.

He then left the two in the library to return to his office and record down everything that had happened that morning. As Gerald worked in his office, a young male scientist entered into the room. He had short red hair and deep blue eyes and was in his casual clothes. The man approached Gerald's desk and cleared his throat.

"Ah, Richard." Gerald greeted the man. "Is there something you'd like to talk about?"

"Why yes professor." Richard replied taking a seat in a chair at Gerald's desk. "It's about Shadow…"

"Amazing isn't he? He's already speaking full sentences and knows how to use many of the things in my living quarters."

"Uh yeah… I was just wondering if you were planning on taking Shadow above ground, you know to see the world."

"Hmm…I'm not sure if he's ready for that yet. I'm not even sure if anyone else above will be able to handle Shadow's appearance as well."

"I'm not talking about showing him around…"

Gerald raised an eyebrow at the young scientist.

"Go on." Gerald said cautiously.

"I'm saying that we should take him above ground and show him off to other institutes. Show them what we've accomplished and how good we are. Just think of the publicity!" Richard said with some excitement.

"Absolutely not! I will not parade Shadow around as if he's just some object for people to ogle at. He is a creature with feelings just like anyone else and I would not want to damage him emotionally."

"But think about all the money we could get from the showings! We'll be able to build a bigger institute instead of wallow around in this dinky underground place!"

"ENOUGH!" Gerald was on his feet with his fist clenched. "We did not toil two years on creating Shadow just to make profit! Now I suggest that you take your selfish ideas and leave the institute at once for I will not tolerate it!"

Richard stood up grumbling under his breath and stormed out of the office. Gerald quietly sat back down in his seat and sighed heavily before going back to work.

"I can't believe that old man shot me down like that!" Richard said angrily as he walked down the hallway. "If I was head of this place I would already be making plans for that lame hedgehog."

As Richard continued on down the hallway he bumped into Maria who was walking back to the library. Richard apologized quietly and walked on leaving Maria baffled. She shrugged it off and went into the library. In the children's section Shadow was sitting in a chair looking through a children's book. He couldn't read the words without Maria's help so he just looked at the pictures of things he was familiar with. When Maria joined him he pointed to a picture of a dog and showed it to Maria.

"That's a dog right?" he asked quietly.

"Yes it is." Maria replied with a smile. "What about that one?"

Maria pointed to a bird singing in a tree.

"A bird…that's singing." Shadow answered.

"Very good! You want to start reading it to me?"

Shadow looked up at Maria in dismay. He was a bit nervous about reading but his friend assured him that she would help him with the difficult words. So the hedgehog cleared his throat and turned back to the first page.

"S…Sally has a small…fam…fami…" Shadow frowned a bit.

"Family." Maria whispered.

"Right… 'Sally has a small family. There is Sally,… her gran…grandfa..ther, and her little bro…ther Sam.' That's just like us."

Maria smiled at the hedgehog nodding her head.

"They lived in a small…house that was in a small town. They had many…friends…and vis…visited them everyday."

Before Shadow could start reading on the next page, Maria's watch went off. It was lunchtime meaning that Maria had to go back to her living quarters to make lunch for her and Gerald.

"Can I stay here?" Shadow asked. "I want to finish reading this book."

"Ok then Shadow." Maria answered. "Just come straight home when you're done here."

Shadow understood and Maria left the library while Shadow continued to read. He glanced over at the pictures in the book quietly. He realized that Sally's family reminded him of his own family. He saw how Sally, her grandfather, and younger brother got along with each other and were always happy with each other. Shadow smiled knowing that his small family was just the same. Happy, small, and peaceful with many friends. It was something he wanted to hold onto forever and never wanted to let go of.

Hours later after dinner had been eaten, Shadow still had not returned back home. Maria had just finished cleaning up the kitchen and looked at the front door worried about Shadow.

"Grandfather, has Shadow come home yet?" Maria asked Gerald.

Gerald was in the living room in his armchair reading a book. He looked up at his granddaughter and then at the door.

"I'm afraid not Maria." Gerald replied. "But I did run into the librarian about an hour ago. She told me that Shadow was still in the library reading."

"Oh…" Maria said relieved.

She then joined her grandfather in the living room.

"I wonder how many books he's read by now…" Maria thought out loud.

"Probably hundreds. He's learning so quickly he may be an advance reader by now and reading books that are even beyond my level." Gerald said with a light laugh.

Maria smiled at her grandfather's light humor and stared at the coffee table still thinking about Shadow. She felt Gerald's warm hand touch her and looked up at his assuring smile.

"Don't worry Maria, I'm sure Shadow will come home as soon as the library closes." he said to her softly. "Now why don't you go to bed. I'll stay up and wait for Shadow to return."

Maria thanked Gerald quietly and went to her bedroom.

An hour later the library had closed and Shadow was heading home. As he walked down the hallway, he passed the hallway leading to the main lab where the capsule was. Shadow stopped and noticed that the lights were on in the room and he could hear voices coming from inside. As the hedgehog crept closer towards the double doors he looked in through the crack and saw Richard talking to a friend of his at one of the lab tables. They seemed to be finishing up a small project.

"Dammit. I hate that stupid hedgehog." Richard said frustrated as he took off his safety goggles. "I try to convince Gerald to make that stupid animal useful for us and he shoots me down!"

"Hey, hey calm down." Richard's friend said quickly. "Maybe if we approach Gerald with a different plan concerning Shadow he'll probably accept it."

"I doubt that Louis. Gerald treats Shadow like his own grandson so he won't take any risks with that animal."

Louis sighed as he cleaned up the lab table.

"I guess you're right. Besides Shadow's always around Maria so my guess is that Gerald doesn't want to separate the two too much."

"Yeah Maria." Richard said in disgust. "You know if that stupid kid wasn't so ill, Gerald wouldn't be holding all of us back from becoming better scientists. I don't know why he even bothers taking care of that lazy ass girl, she's gonna die anyways."

Enraged by those words, Shadow slammed open the door with anger in his eyes. Richard and Louis looked up shocked but Richard soon had a spiteful look on his face.

"Well, well if it isn't the special guy. What are you doing down here stupid?" Richard asked with an attitude.

"I am not stupid…" Shadow replied sternly.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. You know if Gerald hadn't wasted the last two years on you, we would all be somewhere by now!"

"Don't talk about the professor that way! He's a caring man who does what's best for everyone!"

"I suppose keeping all of us cooped up underground like rats is what's good for us huh!? It's not helping you idiot! We're still stuck here doing lame projects, and if Maria was never born--"

Shadow had tackled Richard midway through his sentence. Louis stayed back afraid of what the hedgehog might do. Shadow stared Richard down growling with every breath. He felt his anger growing inside of him.

"Don't you ever…ever speak ill of Maria." Shadow growled through his teeth. "She obviously means the world to Gerald and it would shatter his heart if she died!"

"Go to hell you stupid hedgehog." Richard retorted in a low tone.

He then grabbed Shadow by his back and threw the hedgehog at a nearby lab table. Shadow slid across it smashing through the glass objects and slammed into the cabinets behind the table and fell to the floor. He laid there with small shards of glass in his skin and heard Richard and Louis heading for the exit. Shadow balled up his fist squeezing a shard of glass in his hand. A small line of blood dripped from the palm of his hand as the hedgehog felt his anger grow at an amazing rate. Tears began to form in his shut eyes but then they suddenly opened up. His eyes were glowing a blood red color and Shadow leapt up off the floor and onto the lab table.

Richard and Louis turned around just as they reached the door and yelped at the sight of Shadow. The fearsome hedgehog was hunched over in a crouching position breathing harshly. Steam rose from his body and his hands dug deeply into the metal table.

"W-what's going on?" Louis asked trembling.

"I don't know!" Richard shouted. "Let's get out of here!"

Just as the two men turned to leave, Shadow unleashed a powerful blast of energy shutting the double doors and locking them. Richard and Louis turned back shaking in fear as Shadow leapt off the table and onto the floor.

"DIE!!" the hedgehog yelled.

A blast of wind filled the lab knocking over glass test tubes and anything other objects on the tables in the room. Richard and Louis were pushed back into the doors and unable to open their eyes from the harsh wind. As for Shadow his body had a red aura around it and slowly he began to grow and change shape. His face became like that of a lizard and his ears became long and sharp folding back against his head. Shadow's arms grew tremendously becoming muscular with large sharp claws on his hands. His legs grew in the same manner becoming muscular, and a set of scales grew down his back to the tip of his long tail. Wings sprouted on Shadow's back with their span taking up the width of the lab. His eyes were a deep red color and his mouth was drooling of saliva as he showed off his sharp incisors.

Richard and Louis were on the floor trembling as Shadow approached the two with booming footsteps. He let out a low growl and had a sinister look on his face.