Before the Vision
Chapter 3: The Aftermath
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. Noises could be heard coming from outside of the door. The men screamed and shouted banging on the door, but Shadow gave out a tremendous roar rocking the lab.
"Please!!" Richard begged. "Please don't kill us!!"
"Kill…" Shadow spoke in a deep distorted voice.
Suddenly the overgrown monster slapped Louis to the side and slashed his claws at Richard. The claws ripped through the man's clothes leaving cut marks on his chest. He cried out in agony and curled up on the floor from the searing pain he felt. Apparently there was some sort of poison within Shadow's claws. Shadow then tossed Richard into the air and breathed out fire engulfing Richard's airborne body. When he fell to the ground the man was completely burnt and dead leaving Louis trembling with tears running down his face. Shadow turned towards Louis breathing heavily. There were banging noise on the door indicating that someone was trying to get in.
Shadow stood silently as the door finally broke open and a team of security officers ran in. They were appalled at the sight of Richard's burnt body and even more frightened at the sight of Shadow. Professor Gerald came into the room as well and was horrified at what he saw.
"Sh-Shadow?" he asked in a small voice.
The monster simply growled and let out a horrific roar almost deafening everyone in the room. Shadow began attacking the officers knocking them left and right. Gerald took cover behind a nearby desk with his heart pounding.
"Is this what I created? Is this a result of my rushed behavior?" The terrified man thought to himself.
The officers began to attack Shadow with their guns and tranquilizers, but nothing seemed to work. The monster continued on attacking them headstrong; his anger appeared to be growing.
"There's no way we can bring him down captain!" one officer yelled.
"We might have to bring in the heavy artillery!" the captain yelled back.
"NO!! We mustn't kill him! I'm sure there's another way." Gerald said urgently to the captain.
Shadow let out another roar as he began to destroy the capsule. He suddenly went wild blowing out fire in all directions. Walls were scorched, lab equipment was destroyed, and the ceiling of the room began to fall apart. The officers and Gerald were on the floor taking cover from the flames and falling debris. A few of the equipment caught on fire and the officers began grabbing any available fire extinguisher and started putting out the small fires.
"You have any other ideas?! This thing will kill us all if we don't stop it!" the captain shouted at Gerald.
Gerald was about to respond but he saw Maria enter into the room with a terrified look on her face.
"MARIA!" Gerald cried out.
Maria fell to the ground speechless at the sight of Shadow. As she observed the dragon-like creature destroying the room, tears filled her eyes. Shadow let out another roar and turned back towards the entrance and saw Maria. He suddenly stopped and an expression of sadness was on his face. He was no longer breathing heavily and seemed to be calming down. Maria's face was covered with tears as her jaw hung open. She tried to speak but no words came out of her mouth.
"Maria…" Shadow whispered.
Steam began to rise from his body and soon it began to shrink slowly. Shadow closed his eyes as he shrunk and began to take shape of his hedgehog form again. Once he was back to normal, a tremendous amount of steam was rising from all over his body. The burning sensation he felt inside was being cooled off by the air around him. Shadow and Maria stared into each other's eyes and the hedgehog took a step forward. But Maria fainted from the shock and Shadow collapsed seconds later out of exhaustion.
The main lab had been closed off for the next few days for repairs to be made. Shadow was transported to another lab above ground in the building the underground compound was built under. He was placed in a smaller capsule and was constantly monitored by security at night and other scientists during the day. As for Maria she was back in her living quarters with Professor Gerald. She was recovering slowly in her bedroom from the shock and had frequent nightmares in her sleep. Gerald spent most of his time with Maria keeping a close watch over her. He frequently made short trips above to check on Shadow and see how he was faring. But the anger of some of the residents added on to his troubles.
He was receiving threats of him and Maria being murdered in their sleep and many of the residents and other scientist began to look at him with sharp cutting eyes. Gerald had a security officer stand watch in front of his living quarters at night just for safety but the pain he felt inside for Maria was too much for him to take.
Days later after extensive research on Shadow's health stats, Gerald's colleagues found out the reason behind Shadow's transformation.
"Apparently it has something to do with his emotions and blood pressure." A scientist explained to Gerald. "Our guesses were that Shadow was angered for some reason causing his blood pressure to rise. His reaction to that sudden rise in blood pressure was his body heat rising."
And what does this have to do with his transformation?" Gerald asked.
"Well remember that one strand of DNA that gave off a vast amount of energy? Apparently that strand reacted to Shadow's body conditions like a natural reflex causing him transform into that beast."
"Is there anything else you've discovered?"
"No sir. This is all we were able to figure out so far but I'm sure there's more to it."
Gerald replied with a simple nod and walked away solemnly. He approached the small capsule at the center of the lab and stared at Shadow disheartened. The hedgehog was floating in a blue colored liquid with an air mask over his mouth and nose. Wires were attached to him which were obviously being used to monitor the hedgehog's conditions.
"Perhaps this was all a mistake…" Gerald said before leaving.
Later on that night Gerald sat quietly in his living reading his favorite book when Maria quietly came out her room in her nightgown. Gerald looked up immediately and hurried over to his granddaughter grabbing her hands.
"You're finally up." he said to her quietly with a joyful tone.
Maria nodded and tried to give her best smile. Gerald carefully led Maria over to the couch and helped her down. He sat down next to her and held onto her hand gently.
"How is Shadow?" Maria spoke in a weak voice.
Gerald froze unsure of what to say. He didn't want to tell Maria of Shadow's condition for he feared it may hurt her even more.
"He's…" Gerald said looking away.
A knock came from the front door in the silence and Gerald answered it. The scientist he had talked to earlier was standing there breathing hard. He had obviously ran from the lab with urgent news to tell. Gerald glanced back at Maria and stepped outside into the hallway closing the door behind him.
"What is it?" Gerald asked in a low tone.
"We've just discovered something." the scientist held up some papers in his hand. "That strand of DNA has grown and our studies have shown that it will continue to grow--"
"What!?"
"Only when he transforms Gerald. Do you realize that if this continues, Shadow will eventually revert back to his original form…permanently."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Without a doubt. Professor, there's really no way to stop this. I mean we can take a chance and try to remove that growing part of his DNA…"
"No chances. I won't put Shadow's life on line."
"…Then what can we do?"
Gerald looked off down the hallway deep in thought. He honestly could not think of anything to do about the situation. He recognized the strong bond that was forming between Maria and Shadow and did not want to jeopardize it. Yet he also wanted to make sure that all of his friends and workers were safe in their small environment. The professor was left stumped with the situation and had to admit to his loss of any ideas.
"I can't really say much on what we can do… Shadow is just reacting naturally to a normal situation that humans would go through. So most of this heavily depends on how well he can control those emotions."
The scientist stood silently staring at Gerald as the old man went into deep thought again. But Gerald decided to give up on finding a solution and just let Shadow be for the next few days. He told the scientist to keep Shadow on life-support for the next few days until he seemed well enough the leave the capsule. The scientist understood and left Gerald. The professor entered back into his living quarters where Maria was still sitting on the couch, now with an anxious look on her face.
"Was that about Shadow?" she asked.
"Yes…" Gerald was unsure if he should tell Maria the details. "He's fine for now. He's in the lab above ground for safekeeping my dear, so don't worry about him."
Maria nodded feeling relieved. She stood up and went back into her bedroom to get more sleep. Gerald felt his heart sank for telling such a hurtful lie.