Being Free
Written by Airo Smicktor.
Chapter 1 - Geography
"Travel - To go from one place to another, as on a trip; journey"
Shadow had wasted little time since he had been woken up by the bright sunshine on his face. The dark hedgehog was determined to find a way of ending the voices in his head, and was sure Sonic would be key to gaining that end.
Shadow had raced around the valleys and hills, looking for some sort of town, or sign of civilisation, anything that could tell him where the hell he was, and how he could find Sonic.
But there seemed to be no sign of life anywhere. All he could see where high hills, lakes and rivers, and palm trees. All of which were common to the regular landscape of the world, at least to the knowledge he had gained from Professor Gerald and Maria.
Look at it anyway you liked – Shadow was lost.
"Urgh, this is not the best of starts," Shadow said aloud.
Shadow stopped on the top of a hill, and scanned for anything, absolutely anything that could help or guide Shadow to some sort off...
"Huh? What's that?" Shadow has spotted something a good distance off, and it looked like a signpost! Without a second thought, Shadow headed off towards it, and quickly had reached it.
But to say that Shadow was disappointed with what he'd found was an understatement. "What's this? Sonic??"
On the signpost was a large picture of sonic giving the thumbs-up gesture with the words: 'Sonic has passed through Act 1' on it.
"Act 1? What does that mean? Has he just come through this area?" Shadow put his hand on the sign, to discover that the sign rotated. Pushing the sign around, he found only the metallic back, which had the words:
'Continue on to Emerald Hill Act 2'.
"Act 2? That makes even less sense than before! Damn it! Emerald Hill? Where the heck is that?" The frustration was obvious on Shadow's face. This told him nothing, and meant even less.
"I might as well see where this track takes me..." Shadow said as he looked up the road that led to 'Act 2'. "I might still find something of use..." and with that said, Shadow headed off into the rest of Emerald Hill.
Shadow had found that the 'Second Act' of the Emerald Hill was rather like an assault course – multi levelled platforms, large hoops to run around in, and the occasional spike trap to catch the unaware. Even more surprising to Shadow was the abundance of Rings in this area.
It reminded him of his race through the jungle to rescue the emeralds from the prison before it exploded. Shadow brought himself to a halt at this thought, remembering Rogue. She was the one who Shadow had saved, along with the Chaos Emeralds, from the time bomb, although Shadow never admitted it. Shadow remember how Rouge had described the rescue as 'so unlike' him.
But what was he? What was Shadow really like? Even he didn't really know the answer to that, but that rescue seemed to be important for some reason. Shadow also thought that maybe even Rouge was important, but why? She was a jewel thief who had secretly worked for the government, and Shadow had since thought of her untrustworthy since finding out her 'double agent' status. But still there was something about her... her part in his life... what was it... they had been allies for a short while...
"That's it! An ally!" Shadow slammed his fist into his other hand in realisation. "Maybe I should be looking for her instead of Sonic. But then..." Shadow now stroked his chin with his right hand, "...then again, by the same reasoning I could look to the good Doctor for advice..." Shadow then laughed out loud at this, now taking in what he was considering. Both Rouge and 'Eggman', as Sonic always referred to him as, were unsuitable for getting advise from, due to their 'dark' nature.
It had to be Sonic. There was something about him, something pure, and something untainted, something... good.
"Strange, ever since ARK, I've been thinking more often now. Was it so long ago that I only thought of Maria?" Shadow held his head high to look skyward. "Maria..." Shadow became lost in thought about her; whenever Shadow looked back on his memories with her, time almost stood still. Almost like Chaos Control, but there was no need for any emeralds. Long ago Shadow spent every waking moment thinking only of Maria, of revenge for her death, of his tormented soul not having protected her. Yet it was not so long ago, only a few days.
Shadow sighed as he slowly came back around to the world around him. He was still looking at the sky. At the blue sky, at the clouds, at the small aircraft, at the flocks of...
"A small aircraft?" Shadow looked again, and sure enough, there was a small aircraft in the sky above, not too far away either. So almost without hesitation, Shadow raised his hand and called towards it. "Hey! HEY!! UP THERE!! CAN YOU HEAR ME??"
Up in the air, the pilot was checking his instruments, when he thought he heard someone calling. He looked over the right side of his plane, then the left, and saw what appeared to be a hedgehog like figure waving to him.
"Huh? What's anyone doing out here?" The pilot began to turn the plane around, and started to descend into its landing gear.
Back on the ground, Shadow saw the plane begin to come into some distance away. "At last, contact with someone!" Shadow had even surprised himself by calling out without thinking. He had been so apprehensive about contact with others last night, but already he was running up to the landed aeroplane. Shadow stopped a good few feet before the aircraft, as it's propellers slowly winded to a halt, as the pilot jumped out.
The look on the faces of them both told the same story – complete shock, but not so much for Shadow perhaps.
"Why, if it isn't Sonic's little friend!"
"Shadow?!?? YOU'RE ALIVE???"
"Hmph, for as long as my ears stay intact from you shouting, then yes, I am very much alive." Shadow's reply was typically Shadow, if that's possible to imagine. "Miles Prower is still the name, correct?"
"Well, yes" the twin-tailed fox replied, "But most people call me Tails"
Shadow smirked. "Hmph, but I am not like other people, am I?"
Tails frowned a little at this, remembering that Shadow wasn't the friendliest of people.
"...However, I am willing to make some exceptions now, Tails"
Tails expression change was from sadness to almost utter joy; this wasn't the same Shadow that had been around before!
"Wow! That's... that's great! Where... I mean... how... ... WOW!" Tails was plainly lost for words right now, which slightly surprised Shadow. He smiled again, knowing this could take awhile if he didn't take some kind of lead.
"You've obviously have a lot of questions to ask me, and since I too have some questions of my own, how about we go somewhere where we can talk more easily?"
"Um... well... sure! Let's go! We can head to my place! Hop in!" Tails was already halfway into his plane before he'd even finished speaking.
'This kid has a lot of energy for someone so young' Shadow thought as he climbed into the passenger seat and buckled himself in.
Within a minute or so, the plane was taking off and airborne, with the destination: Tails' House.
"Oh man, I can't believe your alive Shadow!" Tails was still talking very loudly, probably due to the aircraft noise. "The whole world still thinks your dead!"
"Dead?" Shadow replied.
"Yeah! After Sonic told us all that you slipped out of his grip when he tried to save you, everyone's thought that you burned up in the atmosphere when you fell! But you're alive!! It's amazing!! I've gotta call up everyone when we get back, everyone will be pleased to see you!"
Shadow was taken aback slightly but Tails' last comment. "They... will be pleased... to see me?"
"Oh sure!" Tails said, turning his around to speak to Shadow, "You're a national hero now!" Tails turned back 'round, unknowingly leaving Shadow very perplexed
"I'm... a hero?" Shadow was almost dumbstruck by this. "I'm a hero... I'm a hero!" A look of jubilation came over Shadow. "I'M A HERO!!!" Shadow shouted, which caused Tails to look around in shock.
"Are you okay Shadow?"
"Yes! I'm fine! I'm perfectly fine NOW!"
"...Okay... You can explain later Shadow..." Tails turned again back to flying his plane.
Shadow was still smiling, as he looked up towards the heavens.
"Maria... You wish has come true..."
N.B. Edited on 29-11-04 for paragraphing. This one's for youRaiegki Leviathan