Storyteller
The night grew increasingly miserable the longer they ran. Knuckles was unwilling to stop, even for a moment, he was keen to put as much space between him and their human pursuers as possible. Somehow he had a strong feeling that at dawn the chase would begin in earnest. The humans would not let this one drop, and now word of a fire spewing hedgehog would get out… The rumours would be confirmed, Project Shadow would be proved alive, and all those investors would want him back. Knuckles had a bad feeling this was not going to end well. The Heavens would have to be smiling on them for them to get out of this one.
Sometime after midnight it had started to rain. The forest ground beneath their feet had turned to mud, leaving them sliding and falling regularly. Nevertheless Knuckles forced himself on, knowing Shadow could run for as long as he was able to ask him. He was angry at himself, he knew he was slowing them down, he lacked Shadow's impressive speed, he was built for conflict, not running away. However he knew this was one enemy he couldn't fight.
After a while the forest and the mountains gave way to open moor land, easier on the feet and the eyes for avoiding obstacles, but not good for cover. When the rain gave way and the moon was able to creep out from behind the clouds Knuckles was able to observe their surroundings. The bedrock of the moor land was obviously granite, in places great tors, large outcrops of rock crested the hills. Knuckles wasn't sure if the humans had built them, or if they were natural things, he guessed the latter, judging by there numerous quality and seeming purposelessness.
As the first hints of a watery grey dawn were rising the increasingly painful stitch running up Knuckles right side became too much for him to ignore. Even Shadow seemed to be tiring. The rain had returned again, leaving Shadow shivering and a warm steam rising off both their bodies. Knuckles, spotted a convenient pile of the granite rocks, and decided to call it to a halt.
To Knuckles' disappointment, the tor did not provide a hollow in which they would be sheltered from all directions. They did however manage to find a grassy section in the middle of the rock formation which would shelter them on most sides. Gratefully they slumped down in it, panting and aching.
He hurt all over, but he was more worried about Shadow. For all the scientists' prowess, they hadn't done much to help him cope with cold. That was one of Shadow's major weaknesses, it was almost unnatural-he seemed almost to lack all the normal means of keeping warm. Wet and exhausted Shadow was shivering only weakly. Knuckles could feel he was terrified, but now the force of his power pushed only half heartedly at his defence wall. Knuckles himself was growing cold, now that he was still. Now they were sheltered Knuckles did his best to try to rub some of the wet from Shadow's short fur, to try and put the warmth back, and ease some the cricks from his own muscles. It quickly proved a hopeless task.
He'd put Shadow in the driest spot he could find, and was now cuddled up as tightly to him as he could get, desperate to bring his temperature back up, and clam him. Shadow's anxiety was twisting around inside him, pushing his power harder against Knuckles blocks now. His anxiety had threatened to make him sick several times, and only an act of will on Shadow's part had prevented it. That was the last thing they needed. Knuckles wracked his mind to a way to take Shadow's mind off their situation, and his fear, then he struck upon an idea.
"I know Shadow… how about if I tell you a story?"
"I like stories…" Shadow mumbled, and tried to curl himself closer against Knuckles, pushing one of his spines against his stomach.
"Yeah…" Knuckles said softly. This morning only one story came to mind, he'd been thinking about it as they ran. It wasn't what he'd have chosen as a lullaby, but his own weary mind could recall little else. As he drew together the words, he hoped mildly that the sound of the voice, rather than the content would calm his frightened Charge. As he began, he wished sadly his clever friend Coral had had more time to read to him.
"A long time ago... As long ago as you can imagine, there was no life in the world, at least not in the way we think of it… There were, simply what we Guardians refer to as the Foundling Forces... several… Things usually come in fives or sevens with Guardians… The one's were interested in though are The Controller… and Chaos." A small smile crept across his face. "Chaos… was the… water force… It would be wrong to call him a god, we don't see it like that… There was the Controller as well, the sky spirit, of thunder; she was sort of… the master of all of them, the leader… but these two were always battling each other. Back them the world wasn't formed, there was water, sky, and Night. Nothing else. Then one day Chaos enraged the Controller and he struck out, with storms and lightning. The lightning struck the water and set it on fire, boiled it away, to reveal the land, to give space for life." Knuckles smile spread "Far from destroying life, the fire helped create it… fire brought light, brought warmth to the sky…" He paused "But that union created something else… along with Life it created Chaos Controlled, the illegitimate children of those ancient Foundling forces. With Chaos Controlled and Life, those children, together they created Time, like you said, Time is a concept, it cannot exist without anyone to measure it."
"But… I wasn't there at the beginning of the world…"
Knuckles put his finger against Shadow's lips "Sshhh" He hushed him softly, willing him to be calm "These forces were just that, forces, they weren't alive. The definitely weren't gods. I wouldn't be telling the story well if you thought that. Guardians don't know what truly sparked life, what made the Controller and Chaos unite, we prefer not to wonder, just accept that life is here, and make the most of it while we have it. Guardians have no wish to become creators…
"Chaos Controlled represented a unity between the two foundling forces, the water boiled away… so… like the humans say, the world did rise out of Chaos.
"After that day, life spread onto the land, forests sprung up, fed by the water taken up into the sky in that initial strike. Then animals… and then eventually… the Echidna, the humans, then in its proper time, the Guardians… They say the Guardians are a relic of the Controller, we are as close to a balanced force between those two that exist on Earth… but they say our strength is from the Controller, that is why, every time a Guardian is so angry, or so desperate, that our Hyper Forms take hold we spark electricity, as a memory of that ancient strike. Our Hyper Forms are natural things… they exist naturally in those who are to be Guardians… our final line of defence… for not all Guardians can call on the Shards of the Coreinth, as the Echidna can. Where Sonic's Supper Form takes him closer to the Balance, and is pleasant for him, our Hyper Forms take us further away… It is not only painful, but terrifying, we unleash a monster every time out Hyper-Form takes hold, it is our darker self. But a darker, more powerful self is sometime required, just to get our message across. To induce our Hyper Form with a Chaos Emerald is even more dangerous… More used to control we risk our Hyper-Forms slipping the noose, and running free with our bodies, as the Coreinth did with Pathfinder. Which is why I was unwilling last time Sonic asked me to… and why I was afraid what could happen if you touched me… I thought it could tip the Balance completely… We Guardians fear either extreme, and seek to dwell somewhere in the middle… humans and other Shremu see the spectrum beginning at white at one end… descending through grey to black. Guardians put the white in the middle, with black at either end.
"You my Shadow… are effectively a creature with you Hyper Form stuck switched on… all the time… that's what gives you your power… you can draw on both sides of the Balance… in equal measure… leaving you easily able to go astray. It it's a fine line we walk you and I…
"It was destined that Chaos Controlled would be an artificial life form, for it is a paradox… this Balance could not exist in a natural creature… that is why Guardians rejected technology… we feared that it would be our Shard-Touched fists that would create our potential destroyer… we saw it better not to risk creating something that though he could be a force for good, could become so corrupted… and turned to evil. But we watched humanity grow… flounder in her infancy when the Echidna were already growing mature… We knew it would not be our hands which would bring you into being…
"The only other force left in the world representing that precarious balance was the Coreinth… As you know, when the Ancient Echidna Pathfinder touched it its power was too great… it consumed him, a force too strong, to close to the balance… ultimately the raging forces were too great for him… and many died at his puppet hand… The Echidna broke the Coreinth… creating the Emeralds and the Shards, and on that day sealed our fates as the Shard-Touched endowed with the symbols of that Balance… the tempered strength drawn from it, placed in our large fists, but with it came the curse of a stony heart, rarely pushed to either extreme, for we found that those extremes create our emotions… We were the ones who broke the Coreinth, so naturally the Master Emerald, the Controlling Force was put under our care… the Chaos Emeralds were less of a worry, not needing a Guardian, Chaos was shattered into pieces… but if the Coreinth was ever brought back together the result could be catastrophic, as you know… for it is a fine line the Balance… a hairs breadth… impossible to stand upon… Chaos Controlled represents an attempt at that balance… he represents the unobtainable…" Knuckles looked down on Shadow and his voice softened and began to trail off "Chaos Controlled is not in Balance… he swings as a pendulum… striking into the dark on either side, it is his Guardian's duty simply to narrow the width of that swing, whilst still keeping the clock ticking…" Knuckles looked down at Shadow, nestled against him "Sweet dreams my Charge"
With that Knuckles set himself a time to wake, and closed his eyes.
"I don't see why that makes you so special" Kreb shouted angrily
Rooster turned round "Because I have the bottle to stand up to them. You've got some nerve calling me chicken"
"Least I don't get into fights I can't handle"
"Nah, you just cosy up to the under-grads and get them to do your dirty work for you"
Kreb felt his temper boil over. He raised his fist and smashed Rooster in the face. Rooster fell back, only to be jumped upon by Kreb, who landed a fast volley of powerful punches all over Rooster's body.
A few minutes later Kreb knew it was over. He looked down on Rooster's lifeless shape and wanted to be sick. Behind him he could hear the voices of the Masters and the Guardians of Trainees. He hadn't meant to kill him; he hadn't intended to hit him that hard. He stared at his hands. He hadn't even been aware he had that much power. The Masters and the Guardians ran up, Cholra among them. He numbly heard whispers of alarm, then as the lead Master looked at the corpse, a single, terrifying word. Marchac. He wondered mildly if all the trainees would use their opportunities to beat him, or if his friends would abstain…
Knuckles' body clock dragged him back to consciousness. He blinked twice and looked up at the heavy cloudy sky. It was just after midday, Knuckles had allowed them only a few hours rest. The world looked no more promising now than it had when he went to sleep. He groaned and looked across at Shadow. He was curled up into a tight red and black ball and seemed to have tried to bury himself in the ground while he slept. When Knuckles looked down at himself he realised Shadow wasn't the only one covered in a layer of thick red brown mud. He groaned again. Waking Shadow was not a task he relished. Quietly he muttered his name, when he got no response he tried again, a little louder. Shadow let out only a weak groan and mumble in response, and tried to curl up tighter, a task which Knuckles had thought impossible.
"Shadowkin… time to wake up…"
"No…"
Knuckles laughed softly and brushed his muddy fur the wrong way up his back. Shadow let out a low shuddering growl at that, which made Knuckles want to laugh even more, so he did it again. Shadow growled louder and uncoiled against his touch, then rolled onto his back. Knuckles lifted himself up, despite the complaints of his aching muscles to lean over him.
"Time to get up"
Shadow's eyes blinked open, seemed to identify the face looking into his, he groaned and shut his eyes again.
"Come on, I'm not going to disappear if you close your eyes"
Shadow's low groan seemed to say he wished he would.
"Come on up … we have to go"
Shadow's eyes rolled open again "You're not going to quit are you?"
Knuckles shook his head "Nope" and smiled, despite everything he was in fairly high spirits.
"I was having a nice dream too" Shadow said indignantly as he sat up "Can't you do something about the weather… I thought you said this was supposed to be summer?"
Knuckles looked up "that's one thing you should learn about Earth my Shadowkin, the last thing you should rely on is the weather…"
Shadow frowned at him "What are you so happy about? Considering we're out here in the cold and wet, we've just lost our home, all our possessions, and the humans are most likely out to get us…?"
Knuckles' smile floundered for a moment "I've still got you…" He said softly, then his smile returned as he ran his hand the wrong way up Shadow's fur, again producing that shuddering growl "Besides, keeping morale up is part of the job description!"
Shadow raised an eyebrow but pulled himself to his feet. "Where are we going?"
Knuckles got to his feet also "I don't know… We'll find out when we get there"
"Ok, where are we now?"
"Dunno" Knuckles shrugged simply, a small smile on his face.
"Great…" Shadow said sarcastically as they skulked from among the rocks back out onto the moor.
Meanwhile news of Project Shadow's continued survival had leaked its way to the Army, to that section formerly known as G.U.N. Of course G.U.N had been officially disbanded after the disaster that had been the ARK and Project Shadow, but there were always fragments of these old ideas that remained. G.U.N had undergone a name change, and now dwelt somewhere under the Army's vast research and development department, the uniforms were prettier, and their reputation all the more wholesome, the personnel had grown old and inevitably changed, but for what it was worth, their purposes remained more or less the same…
The searches, once begun had been extensive, involving huge numbers of army personnel, but they had paid off… One lucky commander had found his prey…