'Tap, tap', 'Tap, tap', 'Crack'
The four-man team of explorers finally broke through the final obstacle barricading the entrance to the ancient tomb; they had been attacking the multiple barricades for three days and had only just opened the enclosed passage to open air for the first time in who-knows how many hundreds of years.
"Stand back now, we need to let some fresh air in" the team leader told the others
They all stood back, away from the entrance, then, after five minutes, the leader gave the all clear and the four men strode into the darkness of the tomb. They lit their torches and looked around at the smashed tunnel walls, adorned with strange, runic letters that none of them could decipher, slowly they advanced, they crept around the corridors until, suddenly, they were bathed in a bright, green light. The light left as suddenly as it had appeared and the four men felt a little drained, as if the light had wrung them out, like a wet sponge. They looked around again, and saw that the runes had changed somehow, they were now discernable letters, words, and sentences, and somehow they could understand the runes. Slowly they pressed on, reading the runes as they went, the words told a strange story of the tomb's construction and hinted about its purpose. They followed the story, leading them down towards the heart of the tomb, to a door that was closed, seemingly sealed and appeared impenetrable. The runes told the men about powers within the room behind the door and about a panel to the left of it, a panel that when the men removed it, appeared to be a strange metal that concealed wiring behind it. As one of the men reached towards the wires a red light bathed him and a light blinked on overhead, a touch pad became illuminated above the wired cavity and the aforementioned panel was yanked back into place.
The four men stared at the pad on the wall, the runes on it spelled out only one word…'Open'. The button was pressed and the door broke apart and slid up to allow the team access to the room beyond, lights activating as they crossed the threshold. The team saw before them a sprawling lab-like construction that appeared damaged, as if a great battle had been fought there. In the middle of the room were three, egg-shaped pods, one had been almost totally destroyed, shattered by some impact, the second had only the front smashed in, but the third was unmarked, undamaged and stood there, its presence dominating the floor space it rested on. A crescent shaped control console was blinking into life before the four explorers, it had screens showing the pods, two showed the pods as being inoperative and out of commission, but the third showed a different scene, it showed a strange shape within the pod, connected to a breather of some description and floating in some form of liquid. The readout showed the life form in the pod to be alive and healthy.
"Wake up time I think," said one of the explorers as he reached for the button that would open the pod and release the slumbering creature.
Ignoring the cries of his comrades he pushed the release button. Lines appeared on the egg, dividing it into sections from top to bottom, the casing slid apart and down, revealing a transparent shell encasing the creature in its liquid prison. Now they could see it properly, the creature reminded the four men of something, some other creature just like it, one the four had seen before somewhere. Before they could remember what it was they had seen that resembled this green skinned creature, the creature in question stirred within the liquid cell, it's eyes shot open, white with blood red irises and pupils like black holes, seemingly drawing in all the light around them, around the creature's neck was a fine, silver chain with a pendant that contained a sliver of green crystal as the set piece. The creature stared at them, then began to turn into a fine grey mist, the red eyes still watching them, the creature's four, long, gaseous claws that sprouted from it's knuckles, two on either hand, shot out and passed through the transparent material, the claws seamed to cut through the material yet left no mark, when the creature was done it resumed it's former pose and solidified back into it's previous form. The second this happened, long trails began to appear on the transparent material of it's prison, mimicking the path the gaseous claws had taken, when the tracks had completed their mimic, the container shattered along the tracks, showering the explorers with shards of the container's material
"You disturbed me, why?" demanded the creature, stalking towards them "have you found me a purpose? Well? ANSWER ME!" the creature asked, then yelled, diving towards them, claws outstretched.
The explorers fled the daemon and ran away up the passages they had come from, bursting into the sunlight they turned and saw the creature and remembered the other one of this species they had seen, Knuckles his name was, the Echidna. The explores fled the tomb and headed back towards the city leaving the Echidna standing at the tomb entrance
"Who am I?" the echidna asked "I am of mist" he remarked, remembering how he had escaped the pod "I am Mist" he said, naming himself how he saw fit. "Now I, AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!" Mist's scream rent the jungle air as he collapsed to the ground holding his head
~~~Flashback~~~
Mist looked up and stopped bashing the walls of his prison, red gas was coming in through vents in the top of the pod, spiralling around and sinking slowly towards Mist
"NO! DON'T! PLEASE! LET ME OUT!" he yelled to his captors, but they ignored his plea and returned to their work, Mist turned to the pod a little way off, to his friend trapped in the pod
"Help!" he cried feebly as his vision was being blurred by the red around the edge of his line of sight, the gas was swirling all around him now, he was breathing it in, it was stinging his eyes, he couldn't see, all was red, then, suddenly, all was black
~~~End Flashback~~~
Mist got off the ground and stalked out into the jungle, in his memory he had seen another like him, a red Echidna and Mist decided that this Echidna must be found, maybe then Mist would find answers to questions he didn't remember asking, maybe then he could find his purpose.