CHAPTER 29: Beginnings of Suspicions

Panting heavily, Shadow bent his legs and dove forward with all his remaining strength. Finally, his efforts paid off, and he successfully captured the first of the Chaos Emeralds! But it was only the first, and there were still six left to go. He turned around and looked behind him at what he called the Chaos World. The huge halfpipe behind him, miles long, seemed to shrink to nothing, and he found himself standing only feet outside of a huge circular area with a metal grate in the ground in the center. The whole thing was made of blue stone with a large, dome-shaped barrier above. Shadow saw the grate in the center vanish, revealing a white portal leading back to his world. Clutching the Emerald, he leapt down. He was surrounded by the bright white light for a few moments, and his whole body tingled. Before he knew it, he was dumped on the ground in the middle of a valley not far from Station Square.

"Damn, that was intense," he said, still panting. He looked down at his right leg, where he had a huge burn unlike anything he'd ever seen. His skin was showing, it was green, pulsating, swelling unnaturally, blistered severely. He guessed that was probably at least a third-degree burn, but he was no doctor. His leg hurt like hell, but he could at least get around well enough.

FLASHBACK

"What the fuck is going on here!?" Shadow said, stepping back at the sight of the huge thing in front of him. The Chaos Emerald floated inside it, and it radiated a huge amount of power. It was a color-changing, shapeless blob of pure energy, seemingly with no weak point. As he watched, it reared back and began to hurl small blobs of its own form at him, regenerating where the blobs had broken off. He dodged around for a few moments, then watched as the blobs turned around in midair and hurled themselves at him. He jumped up to avoid them, but they followed and one of them, a green one, brushed his right leg, singing the thin quills there and exposing his skin. He yelled in midair, then curled himself into a ball and shot toward the blob that did it, performing the Homing Attack. While he was good at using it after all his practice, it was still tricky to pull off. As soon as he slammed into the blob, it disappeared, and he bounced back into the air. Also, the light that had surrounded him while he was shooting toward the blob disappeared- and so did his protection from being burned by the other blobs. He repeated this attack until all the blobs were gone, then he turned to look at the large one. It quivered violently and let out a loud shriek, then exploded into dozens of smaller blobs. Shadow dispatched them all in the same manner, then turned to the Emerald. It floated up into the air, then quickly flew away, toward the large halfpipe that Shadow chased it through(there had been a barrier preventing access until the blob was gone). After a long and grueling chase, Shadow finally caught the Emerald.

END FLASHBACK

"Something is not right," Shadow said, wincing as he tried to touch his leg. It burned badly, so badly that Shadow nearly crossed his rather large threshold of pain. He gritted his teeth, then clutched the Emerald and began skating back toward Station Square.

Back in his rather small house, Shadow tossed the Emerald onto his bed, then threw himself on it. He lay there for a few moments, then sat back up and picked up the large case that Salia had given him after his meeting with Blank. He opened it and stuffed the Emerald inside, then closed and locked it before sliding it back to its place next to his bed. Then he looked at his leg: the burning continued, but it wasstill a nasty shade of green, indicating that something had probably infected it.

"God damn, what is with those things?" he wondered out loud. "What are they? Why has the Chaos World changed again? I need to find out later. I think a doctor is more appropriate right now." He dragged himself back to his feet, then strode over and opened his front door. Salia was standing on the other side, wearing the same white dress that she had been wearing when she first met Shadow.

"Going somewhere?" she said sweetly.

"Have you been following me this whole time?" Shadow asked.

"No, I was actually watching this place. I noticed that right off the bat." Salia pointed at Shadow's leg, which was pulsating again. "You said the Chaos World changed. How is it different? What was there that did that to you?"

"A bunch of blob things," Shadow replied. "One of them touched me, and now my leg's burning like a son of a bitch. And what a coincidence, the one that touched me was green."

"If it burns, you can probably run cold water over it to ease the pain," Salia suggested. "Although, if you want to see a doctor about it, you should probably make up a story about how you got the burn. Remember, you can't tell anyone what you're doing who doesn't already know."

"Any kinds of chemicals leave green burns?" Shadow asked, getting up to wet a wash cloth to put on his leg.

"Not that I know of, although that does not mean there are none," Salia said as Shadow turned on the water in his small sink. In his hand was a small white wash cloth, which he soaked with the cold water flowing from the tap. Once he dragged himself back to the bed and deposited himself on the mattress, he put the cold cloth on the burn. The relief he got wasn't substantial, but it did help. Salia stepped inside and closed the door.

"I hate to think what the other six Emeralds are gonna be like," he said. "And I can't remember the last time I was actually reluctant to think about things like that."

"Well, it could have been much worse," Salia said. "For instance, you could have failed to obtain the Emerald. You never know about the Chaos World. You could have died at the hands of the blobs, or you could have simply been expelled."

"Yeah, I guess," Shadow said. He looked down at the wash cloth, and noticed it was turning a shade of green: the same shade his burn had been turning. He pulled the cloth off and saw that the burn was a more normal color. The swelling had not subsided, though, and the blisters looked as nasty as ever.

"Interesting," Salia said. "Perhaps the green color came from residue from the blob."

"Yeah," Shadow said. Then he looked up at Salia. "And you sure thought of that quick enough. Didn't even have to give it any thought."

"I know all about residue," the white mouse said with a shrug. "I'm a bit of a neat freak. If I got a spot on this dress, I would change as quickly as possible, then either wash the dress until the spot came out, or I would discard it."

"Sounds to me like you're more of a germophobe than a neat freak," Shadow said.

"And it sounds to me like you might be accusing me of something," Salia said. "Is that a normal thing for you?"

"Kind of," Shadow said, shaking his head.

"If you must accuse anyone of anything, kindly accuse my employer," Salia said. "I am only the messenger girl. I'm lucky I was, too, considering how many others he could have chosen instead."

"What do you mean?" Shadow asked.

"Come now Shadow, do you really think that Dave and I are the only two that work for my employer, especially after you've seen what he built?" Salia asked. "He is very rich, very powerful, very intelligent. He spent years working on that project, and now all that remains is to collect the Emeralds to power the apparatus."

"If he's so rich and powerful, how come I've never heard of him?" Shadow asked.

"He often works behind the scenes," Salia said. "As he is doing now. He is working through me at the moment. Do you understand where I'm coming from?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Shadow said.

"Good," Salia said. "I must leave you now. If people see you with me they may get curious."

"Who's gonna see way out here?" Shadow asked.

"The mail carrier might," Salia said. "And you know how many people they see. You may want to get that burn looked at and tell them it was hot grease, since the green color is out of the way. It looks like a third-degree burn." With a swish of her dress as she turned around, Salia pulled the door back open and strode silently out the door.

"Something's going on that doesn't add up, god damn it, and I intend to find out what it is," Shadow said. "In the meantime, I think I need to get this looked at." He reached for his phone book and flipped through, looking for the address of a nearby doctor's office.

Alright, here's another Shadow chapter for you Shadow nuts. It was a little tough to do, since I have other things on my mind right now, but I got it done. Sorry for the longer wait, though. I have my reasons. Review it, plz.