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!
First of all, BIG sorry to all you people reading this story! I hate making people wait! I'm the Editor of my school's newspaper and I've been very busy with that! However, now that all of my projects are under control, I can now continue without any worries! Thanks for all the awesome reviews, I'm so glad people like my writing! It brightens my day! And yes, you're in for some answers. I've decided to reveal some identities! And now, Chapter 8!
CHAPTER EIGHT - MISTAKE
Sonic felt all of his fur stand on end as a terrible feeling took a hold of him. Somewhere, far, far away from him, someone he knew very well was in trouble. He didn't know who this person was, but he had a feeling it was someone very important. He took all of his concentration off of the current situation and focused on the feeling. In that moment, it was as if he was in someone else's shoes. This, he thought, must be the person. He closed his eyes and everything cleared up.
He was floating. All around him, life kept him up. Funny, it made everything look green. He felt dazed and weak. He wasn't dead... but he wasn't exactly alive either. He looked past his own feelings and saw through the person's eyes. Through the terrible color, he could see there was a white blur ahead of them. No, not white - grey. But the color didn't matter at that point because he recognized the blur. It had to be-
"Tenchi!! Lemon! SOMEONE pick up!" raged Rouge as she smashed the phone onto its receiver for the third time. Sonic looked back at her, feeling both angry and relieved that his concentration had been broken. The frustrated bat-girl had been trying to call her house for most of the night but it had been in vain. Lemon, or Tenchi (who could easily find the phone just by listening) had not answered. Knuckles stood by her, worried.
"Weird, it's not like Lemon to run off without any warning..." he mumbled thoughtfully. "Unless she ran off with Tenchi...Oh man, she's so dead if she did!"
"Tenchi's alone."
Knuckles and Rouge both look up to where Sonic was sitting on the window sill, his face as pale as the full moon that was indicating it was already past midnight. Knuckles was about to assault Sonic with a barrage of questions when Tails and Amy both screamed from the basement. The three friends raced down the stairs, Sonic ahead of them.
"Amy?! Tails!" he burst through the open door and stopped, staring. The whole basement had been lit up by the space transporter, which had suddenly come alive. Many lights had turned on and the machine's computer was humming, the green laser screen up. Sonic stepped forward, his eyes wide.
"H-How-?"
Tails came to beside his friend, equally shocked. "Someone must've used another space transporter! Here, let me look it up!" The young kitsune excitedly began typing on the keyboard as if he had been his whole life. Sonic watched in amazement but was torn away as Amy gripped his good arm.
"Sonic, you look really sick. Are you ok?" Sonic looked down into her concerned eyes and gulped. He opened his mouth to reassure her when Tails cut him off.
"Sonic!!" he yelled in total surprise. "Someone used a space transporter at one of ARK's hidden labs! It's about fifty miles away!" Sonic blinked and came up to beside Tails. He looked very puzzled.
"That means someone else just got onto ARK, right?" Tails nodded.
Sonic narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the screen. A white and grey blur was still in his mind, haunting him like an eerie ghost. And the person who had sent him that image. Who had seemed to become one with him... His eyes widened as his sick and tired mind put two and two together. He knew who was on ARK, although he only knew their names.
"Tails, get us up to ARK, Tenchi's in big trouble!"
The space transporter's low, distant humming was ringing in his ears when he awoke. He was lying on his front on a cold and very hard floor. He felt it with his fingertips and noticed something was very different. Something had been taken away from him. His hands felt as if they had gone numb. But that wasn't the case. That sense had simply lowered. And in that moment, everything started to come back to him.
He had used a machine to travel through space to a colony high above the Earth. He recalled that this colony's name was ARK. He remembered how space had been cold and cruel, making him feel like an ice-cube as he had hurtled towards his destination. And he remembered opening his eyes. He had seen the stars. He had seen the colony. And then he had blacked out.
And now he was lying on the floor, doing nothing. His cause came back to him, reminding him that he had to help Sonic. That's right, Sonic, who was in danger of dying. He needed to get up and find a way to help, just as he had thought before.
But to do that, he'd have to open his eyes.
He gulped at the thought. Was he really ready to do that? After three years of being blind, could he really see? But what if he opened his eyes and was still blind? The disappointment alone would kill him. Maybe if he-
"Get up."
His ears perked and he raised his throbbing head, the numbness beginning to wear off. The pain was finally starting to come. He had been expecting it. He managed to sit up on his knees, his back bent. His arm was beginning to hurt and he remembered injuring it. He wished he hadn't.
"I said GET UP!"
He cringed at the voice. It was a very powerful voice, deep and full of sorrow turned into cold strength. On the other hand, his own voice was weak with pain and confusion.
"Who are you?" he asked wearily.
"Why don't you open your eyes and see me?" it replied, with a hint of impatience.
He tried to resist. He tried to shut all of the sounds out-
"NOW!" it screamed.
"Alright, fine!" he yelled back. He held his breath and opened his eyes. He gasped. He could see!
He was kneeling in a big, circular room filled with many different objects. Laboratory. He was in a lab, on the space colony ARK. Everything was unnaturally quiet and the room was dimly lit.
"There, now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" said the voice, its impatience punctured. "Now, what's your name?"
He looked up, blinking furiously. The dim light seemed to be the source of the voice and even that was hurting his eyes. "I-I don't have one..."
The voice chuckled in reply. "You do have a name, you just can't remember it. Fine, tell me what my name is." It was an order, not a request.
He thought for a minute. "Are you...Arashi?"
"Excellent. It seems you haven't forgotten everything. What else do you know?"
He thought again. "I'm...a hedgehog?"
"Well, of course you are! Why don't you take a look at yourself?"
He gulped, then dared to look down. His fur was a very light grey color. Funny, Lemon had always said it was white. But he knew that wasn't right either. He could see the golden rings. Just how he had pictured! His hands were gloved and stained with dirt and something red was smudged onto it here and there. He looked down at his arm and jumped.
His whole arm was bleeding non-stop. A puddle of blood was soaking his knees and turning his fur red. He stared, pained and bewildered. That monster had only bitten his wrist, yet it felt as if his whole arm was cut open!
"Funny, you're starting to look like your old self." the voice said after awhile. "Here, allow me to help."
At those words, the whole lab was lit up. He squinted his eyes as they stung painfully. He managed to see that there was a tank, filled with green liquid. Inside that tank, it was watching him. He slowly got up and limped over to the tank, his legs feeling like jelly.
"Arashi...?" he said, a lump starting in his throat.
Arashi nodded. He was a big hedgehog, bigger than Sonic, with light blue fur and yellow eyes, which were half-closed. There was a black symbol on his chest that was like an X with a line piercing it through the top to the bottom. There was also a black upside down triangle mark on his forehead. His quills were typical for a hedgehog, six quills all going down the back of his head. Little did the nameless hedgehog know that he had met someone else with a similar appearance.
"Yes, I am Arashi," he said, his lips unmoving. He was using telepathy. "I remember you, the one with no emotions. I thought you had died along with Maria."
"Maria?" asked the confused hedgehog. The name was like a sword, stabbing his chest. "Maria...is dead...?"
"That's what I thought... But if you're here, I wonder if she-"
CRASH!
The grey hedgehog screamed as he was hurled back into the wall. The whole tank had been broken and the machinery around it had exploded. Flames licked at the broken glass as Arashi hit the floor, his body useless. Only his tortured mind had survived over the years while his body had been as good as dead. But his senses still worked. And he knew what was coming.
Jigoku stepped past the flames, which did no harm at all to his thick skin. "Nice try, Arashi! But I intend to kill your clone and take his power, then I can be the Ultimate Life Form!"
Arashi's yellow eyes widened. He tried to speak but no voice accompanied his moving lips. He stopped and struggled to stay alive, tapping into his telepathic powers.
Jigoku ignored that skeleton of a hedgehog and looked down at the blind clone. He wrapped his clawed fingers around the hedgehog's neck and lifted him up until his feet were far above the ground. He kept his eyes shut, his teeth clenched.
"Ah!" he groaned, gripping Jigoku's arm and trying to push him off. But he wasn't near as strong as the giant lizard.
Jigoku grinned, his fangs bared. "And now, your powers are mine, clone!"
"C-Clone?" he choked, his strength leaving him. He opened his eyes, curiosity making his fear diminish. "Wh-What're you talking about?"
"You are Arashi's clone! You-..." The raptor-like creature faltered, his eyes focusing in one the hedgehog's eyes.
Red. Not green. Red.
"Jigoku, you fool!," came Arashi's telepathic voice, much weaker than before. "That is not my clone... You can never kill them..."
Jigoku felt goose bumps rising in his skin as he looked back to the hedgehog in horror. When he spoke, he couldn't stop himself from stuttering. "B-But that means-!"
The hedgehog's grip tightened dangerously as his red eyes glowed. His voice alone brought fear and bad memories.
"That's right, you made a mistake, BioLizard! I'm the Shadow!"
First of all, BIG sorry to all you people reading this story! I hate making people wait! I'm the Editor of my school's newspaper and I've been very busy with that! However, now that all of my projects are under control, I can now continue without any worries! Thanks for all the awesome reviews, I'm so glad people like my writing! It brightens my day! And yes, you're in for some answers. I've decided to reveal some identities! And now, Chapter 8!
CHAPTER EIGHT - MISTAKE
Sonic felt all of his fur stand on end as a terrible feeling took a hold of him. Somewhere, far, far away from him, someone he knew very well was in trouble. He didn't know who this person was, but he had a feeling it was someone very important. He took all of his concentration off of the current situation and focused on the feeling. In that moment, it was as if he was in someone else's shoes. This, he thought, must be the person. He closed his eyes and everything cleared up.
He was floating. All around him, life kept him up. Funny, it made everything look green. He felt dazed and weak. He wasn't dead... but he wasn't exactly alive either. He looked past his own feelings and saw through the person's eyes. Through the terrible color, he could see there was a white blur ahead of them. No, not white - grey. But the color didn't matter at that point because he recognized the blur. It had to be-
"Tenchi!! Lemon! SOMEONE pick up!" raged Rouge as she smashed the phone onto its receiver for the third time. Sonic looked back at her, feeling both angry and relieved that his concentration had been broken. The frustrated bat-girl had been trying to call her house for most of the night but it had been in vain. Lemon, or Tenchi (who could easily find the phone just by listening) had not answered. Knuckles stood by her, worried.
"Weird, it's not like Lemon to run off without any warning..." he mumbled thoughtfully. "Unless she ran off with Tenchi...Oh man, she's so dead if she did!"
"Tenchi's alone."
Knuckles and Rouge both look up to where Sonic was sitting on the window sill, his face as pale as the full moon that was indicating it was already past midnight. Knuckles was about to assault Sonic with a barrage of questions when Tails and Amy both screamed from the basement. The three friends raced down the stairs, Sonic ahead of them.
"Amy?! Tails!" he burst through the open door and stopped, staring. The whole basement had been lit up by the space transporter, which had suddenly come alive. Many lights had turned on and the machine's computer was humming, the green laser screen up. Sonic stepped forward, his eyes wide.
"H-How-?"
Tails came to beside his friend, equally shocked. "Someone must've used another space transporter! Here, let me look it up!" The young kitsune excitedly began typing on the keyboard as if he had been his whole life. Sonic watched in amazement but was torn away as Amy gripped his good arm.
"Sonic, you look really sick. Are you ok?" Sonic looked down into her concerned eyes and gulped. He opened his mouth to reassure her when Tails cut him off.
"Sonic!!" he yelled in total surprise. "Someone used a space transporter at one of ARK's hidden labs! It's about fifty miles away!" Sonic blinked and came up to beside Tails. He looked very puzzled.
"That means someone else just got onto ARK, right?" Tails nodded.
Sonic narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the screen. A white and grey blur was still in his mind, haunting him like an eerie ghost. And the person who had sent him that image. Who had seemed to become one with him... His eyes widened as his sick and tired mind put two and two together. He knew who was on ARK, although he only knew their names.
"Tails, get us up to ARK, Tenchi's in big trouble!"
The space transporter's low, distant humming was ringing in his ears when he awoke. He was lying on his front on a cold and very hard floor. He felt it with his fingertips and noticed something was very different. Something had been taken away from him. His hands felt as if they had gone numb. But that wasn't the case. That sense had simply lowered. And in that moment, everything started to come back to him.
He had used a machine to travel through space to a colony high above the Earth. He recalled that this colony's name was ARK. He remembered how space had been cold and cruel, making him feel like an ice-cube as he had hurtled towards his destination. And he remembered opening his eyes. He had seen the stars. He had seen the colony. And then he had blacked out.
And now he was lying on the floor, doing nothing. His cause came back to him, reminding him that he had to help Sonic. That's right, Sonic, who was in danger of dying. He needed to get up and find a way to help, just as he had thought before.
But to do that, he'd have to open his eyes.
He gulped at the thought. Was he really ready to do that? After three years of being blind, could he really see? But what if he opened his eyes and was still blind? The disappointment alone would kill him. Maybe if he-
"Get up."
His ears perked and he raised his throbbing head, the numbness beginning to wear off. The pain was finally starting to come. He had been expecting it. He managed to sit up on his knees, his back bent. His arm was beginning to hurt and he remembered injuring it. He wished he hadn't.
"I said GET UP!"
He cringed at the voice. It was a very powerful voice, deep and full of sorrow turned into cold strength. On the other hand, his own voice was weak with pain and confusion.
"Who are you?" he asked wearily.
"Why don't you open your eyes and see me?" it replied, with a hint of impatience.
He tried to resist. He tried to shut all of the sounds out-
"NOW!" it screamed.
"Alright, fine!" he yelled back. He held his breath and opened his eyes. He gasped. He could see!
He was kneeling in a big, circular room filled with many different objects. Laboratory. He was in a lab, on the space colony ARK. Everything was unnaturally quiet and the room was dimly lit.
"There, now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" said the voice, its impatience punctured. "Now, what's your name?"
He looked up, blinking furiously. The dim light seemed to be the source of the voice and even that was hurting his eyes. "I-I don't have one..."
The voice chuckled in reply. "You do have a name, you just can't remember it. Fine, tell me what my name is." It was an order, not a request.
He thought for a minute. "Are you...Arashi?"
"Excellent. It seems you haven't forgotten everything. What else do you know?"
He thought again. "I'm...a hedgehog?"
"Well, of course you are! Why don't you take a look at yourself?"
He gulped, then dared to look down. His fur was a very light grey color. Funny, Lemon had always said it was white. But he knew that wasn't right either. He could see the golden rings. Just how he had pictured! His hands were gloved and stained with dirt and something red was smudged onto it here and there. He looked down at his arm and jumped.
His whole arm was bleeding non-stop. A puddle of blood was soaking his knees and turning his fur red. He stared, pained and bewildered. That monster had only bitten his wrist, yet it felt as if his whole arm was cut open!
"Funny, you're starting to look like your old self." the voice said after awhile. "Here, allow me to help."
At those words, the whole lab was lit up. He squinted his eyes as they stung painfully. He managed to see that there was a tank, filled with green liquid. Inside that tank, it was watching him. He slowly got up and limped over to the tank, his legs feeling like jelly.
"Arashi...?" he said, a lump starting in his throat.
Arashi nodded. He was a big hedgehog, bigger than Sonic, with light blue fur and yellow eyes, which were half-closed. There was a black symbol on his chest that was like an X with a line piercing it through the top to the bottom. There was also a black upside down triangle mark on his forehead. His quills were typical for a hedgehog, six quills all going down the back of his head. Little did the nameless hedgehog know that he had met someone else with a similar appearance.
"Yes, I am Arashi," he said, his lips unmoving. He was using telepathy. "I remember you, the one with no emotions. I thought you had died along with Maria."
"Maria?" asked the confused hedgehog. The name was like a sword, stabbing his chest. "Maria...is dead...?"
"That's what I thought... But if you're here, I wonder if she-"
CRASH!
The grey hedgehog screamed as he was hurled back into the wall. The whole tank had been broken and the machinery around it had exploded. Flames licked at the broken glass as Arashi hit the floor, his body useless. Only his tortured mind had survived over the years while his body had been as good as dead. But his senses still worked. And he knew what was coming.
Jigoku stepped past the flames, which did no harm at all to his thick skin. "Nice try, Arashi! But I intend to kill your clone and take his power, then I can be the Ultimate Life Form!"
Arashi's yellow eyes widened. He tried to speak but no voice accompanied his moving lips. He stopped and struggled to stay alive, tapping into his telepathic powers.
Jigoku ignored that skeleton of a hedgehog and looked down at the blind clone. He wrapped his clawed fingers around the hedgehog's neck and lifted him up until his feet were far above the ground. He kept his eyes shut, his teeth clenched.
"Ah!" he groaned, gripping Jigoku's arm and trying to push him off. But he wasn't near as strong as the giant lizard.
Jigoku grinned, his fangs bared. "And now, your powers are mine, clone!"
"C-Clone?" he choked, his strength leaving him. He opened his eyes, curiosity making his fear diminish. "Wh-What're you talking about?"
"You are Arashi's clone! You-..." The raptor-like creature faltered, his eyes focusing in one the hedgehog's eyes.
Red. Not green. Red.
"Jigoku, you fool!," came Arashi's telepathic voice, much weaker than before. "That is not my clone... You can never kill them..."
Jigoku felt goose bumps rising in his skin as he looked back to the hedgehog in horror. When he spoke, he couldn't stop himself from stuttering. "B-But that means-!"
The hedgehog's grip tightened dangerously as his red eyes glowed. His voice alone brought fear and bad memories.
"That's right, you made a mistake, BioLizard! I'm the Shadow!"