Disclaimer: Sonic The Hedgehog and all related characters are copyright to SEGA. Lemon the Echidna, Tenchi the Hedgehog and all related characters that don't belong to SEGA belong to me, Zeldafreak-Vikki and my friend, Alyssa the Bat!
CHAPTER TWO - FATE
Space Colony ARK. The first ever Bernoulli Spherical space colony, created 50 years ago by Gerald Robotnik, who was always trying to create The Ultimate Life Form. He had indeed created such a life form but no one knew who it was. Sonic and Knuckles had witnessed a battle between two of the creations: Shadow the Hedgehog and the supposed prototype of the Ultimate Life Form, the Biolizard.
But now both were dead.
Well, almost anyway.
Professor Gerald had created six life forms. Together, they were said to be the Ultimate Life Form. No one would believe it though. The only one who knew the truth was a scientist named Matt Haruna, who had been Professor Gerald's right hand and had survived the raid on the ARK done by G.U.N. It was then that Maria, the professor's granddaughter, had been killed. Matt never spoke of his working with the professor although rumor said that he had smuggled a project from the ARK and had released it into the world. People hoped it wasn't true, as they were all said to be powerful and highly dangerous.
Because he had created such dangerous creatures, Professor Gerald had also created the only thing that could surely destroy them. Of course they could die, they weren't immortal - but they were extremely hard to kill. So the professor created the ultimate poison: Viper X. This poison, if injected, ran through the bloodstream ten times faster than any other poison. All of the projects pocess the power to use the Chaos Emeralds. So Professor Gerald created the Viper X Machine - a machine, when installed, could target a being holding a Chaos Emerald or using the power somehow and hit them with a huge dart, injecting roughly ten wine glasses of poison into their bloodstream.
However, now that the professor was long gone, one of the projects who was still on ARK had his own uses for the machine. This project was Jigoku.
Jigoku was a sort of reincarnation of the Biolizard. He was much smaller and yet much stronger as well. He greatly resembled a raptor except with more human qualities. His hands and feet had great claws and his teeth were very long and sharper than swords. After Super Sonic and Super Shadow had taken the Biolizard's life, Jigoku had awakened in the lab just in time to watch his great rival, Shadow, die. It had been oh so sweet but now it was time to deal with the other.
Sonic the Hedgehog.
Just like Shadow, he was a supersonic hedgehog with incredible mind powers and a talent for using the Chaos Emeralds. He was younger, though, and seemed much more care-free than Shadow, who had been hidden for so long. As for Sonic, he seemed to have no boundaries. Jigoku needed to avenge his own death. Viper X could kill Sonic.
After all, it was meant to kill him.
Tenchi cringed as another wave of pain passed over him. Lemon was sitting next to him on his bed, hugging him close and wishing she could find a way to make it all stop for him. She had simply gone downstairs to get a drink of water when Ojiisan came, telling her that Tenchi was sick. Rouge was out with Knuckles at that hour so it was just Lemon there. And she was completely baffled. She had no idea what was hurting him so badly. All that Tenchi could manage to say didn't make much sense either, "He's going...to kill him...He's going...to...kill..."
Ojiisan was sitting there beside the bed, observing calmly. "He is having a vision, I think." he said.
Lemon looked up at him, puzzled. "Vision? What kind of vision would hurt him like this?"
Ojiisan's old eyes glittered dangerously. "A vision... of death."
Lemon's heart skipped a beat. Tenchi was seeing someone die? Was that even possible or was Ojiisan going senile?
"Lemon..." The echidna looked down to see Tenchi's eyes were still closed. He was still out but talking.
"What is it, Tenchi?" she asked, deciding to play along.
"Th-That's not my real name..." he said, his voice growing weaker and weaker by the second. "My n-name is..."
Lemon felt as if a building had fallen on her as he went lifeless from fatigue.
The next morning, Tenchi didn't remember a thing of what had happened. But he was terribly pale and even more sick than before. So much for Lemon thinking he was healthier. She told him not to give up but he just replied saying, "Just let me die..."
He had given up.
But Ojiisan wouldn't tolerate that. He went right next to Tenchi and he began to say things to him with such an intensity that Lemon's heart was beating in her chest.
"Don't even think about giving up!" he said. "You still have reason to live on!"
Tenchi turned his head away, his dead eyes filled with such a sorrow it made Lemon want to cry. "I have no reason..."
"You have us!" Ojiisan said fiercely. "We're all here, trying to help you! Our hopes will have been in vain if you give up like this!" He seemed to notice how much his voice was rising and calmed down, leaning in closer and speaking in a whisper like the wind. "I am a cheetah, I am an animal meant for speed."
At that last word, Tenchi's ears perked up. He was listening.
"I have been watching you. Your reflexes are faster than any other being I've ever seen. Your build is perfect for accelerating to a very fast pace in a short period of time. And even though you have lost a sense... the others have intensified..."
Tenchi gulped and looked back in Ojiisan's direction. He looked confused. Ojiisan grinned triumphantly. "Do you have memories of speed?"
Tenchi seemed very uncertain. He clenched his teeth as he groped for words that just wouldn't come. Ojiisan put a hand on Tenchi's burning forehead. "Don't worry about it now. Get some rest."
Everyday after that morning, Ojiisan would spend a few hours with Tenchi, training him to use all of his other senses together. Soon enough, he knew whenever a person was in the room simply from their footsteps. And once he was allowed to walk, he was even able to help out a bit. After three years of staying with Rouge, he became a good help.
"Sonic?! Sonic, what's going on!" yelled Tails, hoping Sonic could hear him over the comminicators. Sonic's voice was sounding panicked and rushed.
"Whoever this guy is, he's got a system going through the whole tower and it's shootin' at me!!!"
Tails gulped. "Where are you? I'll pick you up before it can get you!"
Sonic grunted in frustration. "Don't try it!! These darts are huge! I don't want you getting hi-AAAHHHH!!!"
Tails' heart stopped. His radio was now emitting plenty of static. He opened up another channel, on which Knuckles the Echidna had been listening to them from the ground.
"Knuckles!!" Tails said anxiously. "Did you hear-?"
"I'm on it!" said Knuckles, running out from his hiding place. Once he was in range, a barage of darts shot out at him. He pushed on, dodging them. Tails watched in shock. How could the darts target him like that? Were they attracted to something...? Then it clicked.
The Master Emerald. Knuckles was carrying it. And Sonic had a Chaos Emerald with him! Another idea struck and Tails turned his communicator back to Sonic.
"Sonic!! Sonic, if you can hear me, CHAOS CONTROL!!!"
Sonic was in the tower, lying on his side, the Chaos Emerald clasped in one hand. Someone very tall and muscular was stepping towards him but the person was too blurry to make out and Sonic's eyes would only open halfway. He groaned as Tails' voice screeched over the communicator. Then the person's clawed foot smashed it. Sonic clenched his teeth as the heavy foot pushed down on his head.
"Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog." it sneered.
Sonic shut his eyes and his grip on the Chaos Emerald tightened. "Ch- Chaos Control!!" He heard the person scream as he disappeared in a brilliant flash of light and reappeared outside, a few feet above the air, still surrounded by that light. Time had been frozen, all except for Sonic, Knuckles and Tails. Knuckles stopped and stared as Sonic was slowly lowered to in front of him, darts in mid-air around them. Knuckles let Sonic's limp body land in his arms and the light vanished. Time was restored and the darts flew at them. Knuckles dodged them and quickly ran away from the tower. The X Tornado swooped down and Knuckles jumped onto one of the wings. Then they were up and away.
"Tails!!" yelled Knuckles over the noise of the engines. "Sonic's hurt! Head for Rouge's!!"
Tails felt a jolt of panic run through him. No one had ever succeeded in hurting Sonic to the point where he couldn't move before. Eggman definitely wasn't behind this one. They made it to Rouge's in a mere ten minutes but to Tails and Knuckles, it seemed more like ten days. Right when they got there, it began to rain. Knuckles rushed up to the entrance and nearly broke the door banging on it with his fists. Tails stared as a white hedgehog with red eyes that seemed to be constantly staring into space opened the door.
"Who's there?"
Knuckles was gasping from sheer panic as he stepped in, carrying Sonic. "Where's Rouge?? My friend's hurt!"
The hedgehog pointed down a hallway and Knuckles ran off with Sonic. Tails stepped inside as the hedgehog closed the door slowly. The young fox looked up at the hedgehog curiously. "Excuse me, who are you?" he asked.
The hedgehog jumped. "Whoa! Sorry, didn't know someone was still there!" he said. "They call me Tenchi. And you are?"
"I'm Tails! Good to meet ya, Tenchi!" He held out his hand and Tenchi's hand cautiously reached out and shook it. Tails' ears bobbed with curiosity.
"Sorry," he began "but are you-?"
"Blind?" replied Tenchi. "Yeah, it's been that way for three years. Now, who's hurt?"
Tails began to explain while they made their way down the same hallway Knuckles had gone, Tenchi paying close attention.
"So, your friend, Sonic, was hit by a dart and it stopped him immediatly?" said Tenchi when Tails had finished.
Tails nodded. "Just like that!"
Tenchi reached for the door handle as he looked thoughtful. "Must be a very strong poison to take down someone like Sonic, from what your description of him suggests."
They walked into the hospital wing as quietly as they could, Tails holding onto one of Tenchi's arms, leading him the right way. Tenchi knew his way around but he still enjoyed the fact that this young fox was so eager to help him. He grinned as he noticed Lemon walking to them. He recognized her light footsteps coming a mile away.
"Tenchi, there's another hedgehog in here, could you help Rouge out? I need to calm my brother down." With that, she was gone.
Tenchi turned his face to point to Tails. "Would you like to help me?"
Tails nodded, then, remembering Tenchi couldn't see, said, "Yeah!" and he led Tenchi to the bed where Rouge was sitting. Sonic was lying there, gasping in pain. Tails hurried to the other side of the bed while Tenchi consulted Rouge.
"There's a dart in his arm. It pierced the bone." said a very frustrated Rouge. Tenchi sat next to her and very lightly felt out Sonic's arm. From what he felt, he could tell there was alot of blood spilling out from where the dart had hit, that the dart was very big and that it had indeed gone through the bone. He felt around the back part of the dart and his heart missed a beat; it was still pumping poison into the hedgehog's blood stream.
"Rouge, it's still poisoning him, we gotta pull it out now!" he said, his calm voice hinting only the slightest bit of urgency. Rouge gulped. "Er, ok, I'll hold his arm still." She leaned over and held down Sonic's arm. The blue hedgehog didn't struggle; he just braced himself.
Tenchi put one hand around the dart and the other held Sonic's arm steady. His own arm tensed up and, with one swift movement, he pulled the dart out. Sonic groaned as the bone shifted and Rouge quickly checked it. "Don't worry, Tenchi, you didn't break it or anything."
Tenchi felt out where the table was and laid the dart there. Then, as Rouge was cleaning the gash, he reached over and touched Sonic's shoulder gently.
"It's alright," he said, trying to sound reassuring. "You'll be fine."
Sonic's eyes had closed now and he was shaking from fever. He nodded slowly and continued to battle the urge to pass out.
"Th-Thanks... Shadow..."
Tenchi stopped dead. Tails raised an eyeridge. "Shadow?! Sonic, Shadow's dead."
Sonic shook his head. "But... I just heard...him..."
Rouge's bottom lip quivered as a tear escaped her eye. "Rest, Sonic." She turned away, fighting the urge to sob. Tenchi didn't bother to ask. He got up and left. Tails caught up with him.
"Who's Shadow?" asked Tenchi.
"Shadow was a bio-genetically engineered hedgehog. He looked alot like Sonic and he had all the same powers too! Anyway, he got killed three years ago..."
Tenchi was silent at this. Tails looked up at him.
"Now that I think about it, you do sound alot like he did."
Tenchi shrugged. "Maybe. I wouldn't know."