Chapter 6 - Date #2

Vector and Drasyre stopped at a little town called Ebony Hills for the night. It was somewhere between Sapphire City and Riverbase, along the Gold Road. It was one of those tiny Mobian settlements that had sprung up to serve as a rest stop along the highway, serviced by native Mobians who lived in the hills and woods in the area.

The biggest of the three hotels in the area was underground, and Vector and Drasyre took rooms on the top floor. Neither liked being underground, and met at an outdoor café a short walk from the hotel.

It was a cold, frosty night, too cold for sitting outside. Vector ordered a hot drink and sat sipping it, but Drasyre simple sat in a chair, gazing off at the highway, nostrils searching the wind for an elusive scent.

"So," said Vector, "when you find this thief of yours, are you going to press charges?"

"I am going to kill him and retrieve my jewel," said the dog. His tone was so matter of fact that Vector felt an uneasy wriggle in the pit of his stomach.

"Uh," said Vector, "you can't kill him. That's murder, and it's an even worse crime than theft."

Drasyre turned his head and glared at the crocodile. The yellow lights of the café bathed his white fur in gold, but the left side of his face was in shadow. With a disconcerting shiver, Vector saw that Drasyre's eyes glowed red.

"The thief deserves to die," growled the dog. "When he stole the gem he cursed me. I have lived with the stigma of that ever since."

"Hey man," said Vector, "I know some people have dirty mouths, but you gotta let it go."

Drasyre blinked at Vector a moment in confusion. Then he said, "You misunderstand me. He placed me under a physical curse. You see me before you in a different body than the one I hatched in."

Vector started to reply, realized that he had nothing to say, and took a drink instead.

Drasyre watched him. "Yes, hatched," he said. "Do you know what the native power of the silver Chaos Emerald is?"

Vector shook his head.

"Deception," said Drasyre. He sat ramrod-straight in his chair, and his eyes seemed to glow even brighter. "I sought to use its power to alter my appearance for my own purposes. I succeeded in placing myself in this body, but before I could revert, he stole the gem. And now ..." He held up his paws, fingers spread. "I am confined to this shape. I am cursed above all of my kind."

On the last word a spark flew out of the dog's mouth and went out.

Vector wanted to ask what Drasyre's original kind had been, but after seeing that spark, he knew. His mouth went dry, and he took a drink to counter it.

Drasyre turned away and stared out into the darkness, panting, dog-like. His hot breath formed clouds of mist on the cold air, and it took very little imagination to see that mist as smoke. Vector didn't know what to do. He couldn't let this non-Mobian into Knothole, where he would kill Spark and probably everyone else. If Drasyre retrieved the emerald and turned back into his real form, none of them had a hope of stopping him. Knuckles. He had to call Knuckles. Knuckles understood Chaos Emeralds--he would know what to do.

As Vector sat there, outwardly calm and inwardly panicking, Drasyre turned back to him. The glow had left his eyes, leaving them blue and dismal. "Vector," he said quietly, "I must recover my body. Every day, every hour that I remain a dog, I lose a little more of myself. I am forgetting who I am, Vector."

Vector raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realize that shapeshifting could do that to you."

Drasyre rested his head in his hands. "Neither did I. The ancient texts in my vaults spoke of Chaos-polymorph, but they did not record the long-term side effects. Part of my mass was accelerated into energy and stored within the emerald. The longer I wait, the more my body energy becomes infused with Chaos energy. I ... fear what will happen if I delay even one more week. We must find the thief and the gem. Quickly."

There was a long pause. Drasyre gazed at Vector pleadingly, and Vector gazed back in discomfort. The situation was getting worse all the time.

"Well," said Vector, "I can call up my contacts and see if they've had any leads so far. Locating a person like this takes time, especially if they're hiding."

"I know," said Drasyre, placing his head in his hands again.

Vector stood up, feeling the cold drag at his body. His muscles were drained and lethargic, his blood chilled. If he stayed out here much longer, his reptile body would succumb to the temperature and he would slip into a coma. "I need to go in," said Vector. "Too cold."

"All right," said Drasyre. He didn't look up as Vector hobbled away into the hotel.

Vector meant to call Knuckles and Espio as soon as he reached his room. But the room was warm, and he was so cold ... He curled up on the bed, thinking that he would call once he was warmer ... and sank into the deep, paralyzed sleep of a chilled reptile.

The Floating Island was near the Mobian equator, hovering at two thousand feet and soaking up inch upon inch of tropical rain. Knuckles had opened channels and sluice gates in the island's river system that he only used once a year. These directed the overflowing rivers' water in plume after plume of water to the ocean below. At this time of year the island became a gorgeous fountain, seemingly held aloft by pillars of white mist.

Knuckles had done all he could to keep the island from flooding, and could not do much more until the monsoon passed. So today he, Zephyer, Talon and their two chao were taking a teleporter to Sapphire City to retrieve Max, Talon's chao.

Chimera and Zinc, a red dragon chao and a metallic silver chao, respectively, ran around the house yelling and throwing things at each other, excited and hyper at the prospect of seeing their brother again. Talon, who had raised Max, was as excited as Chimera and Zinc, and kept using his hovershoes to fly through the house, colliding with walls and furniture, leaving footprints on the doors.

"Talon, not in the house!" Zephyer yelled as the anteater swooped through the living room, the soles of his shoes ablaze with chaos energy. Talon landed, walked quietly out of the room, then leaped into flight again as soon as he gained the hallway.

Zephyer threw her hands in the air and turned to Knuckles. Knuckles was laughing silently with one fist over his mouth.

"You're not helping," she said, eyes narrowed.

Knuckles shook his head and looked at her, grinning. "So the kid's excited. Let him goof off. Talon never acts his age."

"He can act his age without destroying the house," said Zephyer as a resounding crash echoed from the back bedroom. She rolled her eyes and dashed down the hallway. "What was that?"

Knuckles left her to it. He entered the kitchen and rummaged in a cupboard for one of his portable teleporter units. He pulled one out, blew the dust off the foot-wide crystal lens, and inspected the clamps and crystal calibration panel. As he busied himself with this, Chimera scampered in. He was reddish-brown with four horns growing from the back of his skull. For a chao, he looked exotic, dragonish, and rather like Knuckles.

"When do we go?" asked the chao in his raspy voice.

Knuckles shrugged. "Pretty soon. I have to set this up someplace where the energy backwash won't hurt anything. I'm afraid we'll have to teleport in the rain."

"Max will like that," said Chimera, folding his little arms. "Wimpy little water chao. Can I help?"

"Sure," said Knuckles. "Here's a rag. Go scrub the footprints off the doors."

Chimera muttered something under his breath and stalked out of the kitchen, dragging the washrag behind him.

Knuckles went out on the front porch, and was pacing it off and calculating the effects of a Chaos energy pulse, when his communicator chirped. He unhooked it from his belt. "Yo."

"Heya boss," drawled the unmistakable voice of Vector.

Knuckles grinned. "Hey Vec! What's up?"

"Oh, this and that," said Vector. "I'm working on an ... er .. interesting case, and I need some advice."

"Oh really?" said Knuckles, frowning at the com. "I thought it was Chaotix policy not to discuss your clients with outsiders."

"You're a consultant," said Vector, and Knuckles could hear the smile in his voice. "And you're still a Chaotix member. Now, you up to this?"

"Sure," said Knuckles, sitting on the porch railing.

"Here goes." Vector took a deep breath. "Knux, what do you know about 'chaos paul-lee morf'?"

Knuckles blinked. "Wow, I haven't heard that word in ages. You mean shapeshifting?"

"Yeah," said Vector. "What do you know about it?"

Knuckles searched his memory. He had read about this not too long ago. "Let me see. It's a specialized chaos ability latent in the green Chaos Emerald. It transforms the user's body into whatever shape the user desires, but it requires considerable power. Sonic and Shadow couldn't begin to attempt it, for example."

There was a brief silence. "Yeah," said Vector. "That's ... a problem ..."

"Not trying to transform yourself, are you?" asked Knuckles.

"No," said Vector, sounding as if his mind was a million miles away. "I've ... uh ... taken a case involving it ..."

Knuckles waited, but when Vector said nothing else, he prompted, "I need a little more information, if you don't mind."

"Yeah," said Vector slowly. "Well, it's a weird story, but here goes." He told Knuckles the whole tale of Drasyre transforming himself, and of Spark stealing the silver Chaos Emerald before he could change back. "So I'm between a rock and a hard place," Vector concluded. "I have to help Drasyre, but that means putting Spark in danger."

"And heaven knows that Spark doesn't need that right now," said Knuckles with a sigh. "He's terminal."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. "Didn't know that," said Vector quietly. "What do we do, boss?"

"I'll talk to him," said Knuckles. "I'm going up there tomorrow anyway, and we'll see what happens. Maybe he'll give the emerald back."

Sapphire City was roaring with life when Shadow opened his eye. Traffic noise was deafening at rush hour. He was surprised that he could hear it so well from inside the apartment ... then he lifted his head and realized that he wasn't in the apartment. He was on the roof.

He sat up with a start. Condensed moisture ran in trickles down his robotic limbs and dripped into his eye. His fur was soaked and chilled, and the winter sun was making him steam. He scrambled to his feet, then dropped to all fours and shook himself like a dog, sending spray in all directions. Feeling slightly warmer, he walked to the edge of the roof and looked down.

Wait a minute. There was the apartment complex across the street from him. He was on the roof of the business high-rise across from it.

"Mekion," he yelled mentally at his other half, "what did you do? I went to sleep indoors!"

The only reply was stony silence.

Shadow searched his memory for any shreds that Mekion might have left in his nocturnal wanderings. There was no distinct memories, but there were impressions and sensations, information that his body had gathered and his brain had stored. He remembered skating at breakneck speed up a highway, dodging cars. He remembered his shoulder aching as he climbed a ladder. Last of all he remembered a light in the sky. But like a dream, these impressions faded as soon as he remembered them. Maybe he should chain himself up at night to prevent this sort of thing.

The black hedgehog located the ladder on the side of the building, slid down it into an alley, and sneaked back across the street to Nick's apartment. Nick opened the door at his knock, and stared as a shivering, dripping Shadow stepped inside. "Don't ask," said Shadow, heading for the bathroom for a hot shower. "You don't want to know."

As he stood under the steaming water, rinsing grime out fur and scrubbing it out of his metal joints, he wondered about the light in the sky. Why was Mekion interested in it? Every time that Mekion had taken over, Shadow had awakened in some high place that gave a clear view of the sky. It frightened Shadow. It was so unlike anything that Mekion had ever done! Was he trying to destroy aircraft now?

He emerged from the bathroom forty-five minutes later, his scrubbed fur bearing rake-marks from his comb. Nox met him at the door. "Shh!" the chao whispered. "Somebody's at the door."

Shadow and Nox shrank back behind the bathroom door. Nick had opened the door three inches and was looking out.

By this time, Shadow had discovered that Nick lived in fear of GUN finding out about his Chaos field, and taking him away for 'study'. Shadow shared this fear, but his was not so extreme, for he was capable of destroying and maiming anything the military could throw at him.

A high-pitched female voice said, "You can't fool me, I know he's in there. Hey Shadow, it's Amy!"

He knew that voice and that name. He dug back into layer after layer of semi-repressed, fragmented memories. Amy. A pink hedgehog. He had seen her on Mecha's ship, the Annihilator. And she was looking for him?

He stepped out of hiding and whispered, "Let her in, Nick."

Nick looked over his shoulder with a frown, but stepped back and opened the door.

Amy stepped inside, looking around dubiously. Then she spotted Shadow, and her eyes lit up. "Shadow!" she squealed, darting toward him. Before he could react, she threw her arms around him and squeezed him in a hug.

Shadow disliked physical contact. Any time anyone touched him, he was injured soon afterward, as Robotnik had showed him in his lab. Shadow's robot hand closed on the quills on top of Amy's head. He jerked her out at arm's length and held her there. Amy shrieked and clapped her hands to her head.

He let go and stepped back. "You have no business here," he whispered, trying to ignore the scratchy feeling in his throat. "Leave."

"But Shadow," said Amy, rubbing the top of her head, "I came all the way here to see you! I want to be your girlfriend!"

Shadow's reaction surprised everyone, including himself. He laughed.

He had not laughed in longer than he could remember. Nick, Amy and Nox all stared as he laughed in his odd, whispering voice, which soon dissolved into a coughing fit. Amy? His girlfriend? He looked at his ferocious metal hand, considered Mekion's reaction, and his dormant sense of humor sprang to life. Darn it, that was funny!

"Shadow, are you sick?" Amy asked, for his coughing sounded as if his lungs were tearing apart. Shadow shook his head and drew deep breaths. As he calmed down, he felt a new, stabbing pain in his throat and chest. Laughing felt good at first, but it had its price.

"He's fighting a form of bronchitis, I think," said Nick. "Look, Amy, you can't stay here. My apartment is too small, and people will notice the Mobians moving around here, and ..." He looked at Shadow, and Shadow understood. Someone might come looking for Amy, and if they found out about Nick, then there would be questions, discovery of Nick's condition ... word might get back to GUN ... No, Amy couldn't stay here.

"Go home, Amy," Shadow whispered, wiping his mouth. "No doubt Sonic misses you."

"That's why I'm here," said Amy, glaring. "Sonic's getting married, and I'm taking revenge by dating people he doesn't like."

Shadow gazed at her, sensing the spite crackling from her like electricity. "Sonic does not like me, hence your choice?"

Amy nodded.

For some reason this hurt Shadow somewhere deep down. She had not sought him out because she liked him, or was interested in him; she had done it to take revenge on someone else. In essence, she was using him as a pawn. The gall of bitterness rose in him as swiftly as the laughter had done.

He crossed his arms to protect his heart. "Then you are wasting your time. You are not here for me. You are here for you. It is a hard thing to realize that the world does not revolve around you."

Amy's mouth fell open. Shadow's words hurt her even more than Tails's, because they were true. She didn't notice Nox, for the black chao was standing behind Shadow, but Nox was biting his lower lip, trying not to burst into tears. From Shadow, Nox felt a burst of pain, and anger at being made to feel that pain. From Amy he felt a mixture of sorrow, rage, and selfishness. From Nick's direction came steadily rising terror. Nox was the tuning fork, resonating emotionally and afraid that he might shatter.

"You're as mean as Sonic!" Amy cried.

Shadow's eyes, natural and robotic, focused on her. "I am far meaner than Sonic. I have far less to lose. If you were wise, you would depart immediately. Mekion may decide that you are a threat." As he spoke, he knew that Mekion had already scanned her, calculated her threat level as negligible, and had returned to his silent contemplation of who knows what.

"But I don't have anywhere else to go!" Amy wailed. "I have to stay here!"

Shadow looked at Nick and raised an eyebrow.

Nick stepped forward. "Look, Amy, I like Mobians, but this is a small apartment. There isn't room for you, and I don't want kidnaping charges brought against me."

"I can sleep on the floor," she said. "Please don't throw me out. Please." Her eyes filled with tears.

Nick looked helplessly at Shadow, who shrugged. Nick ran a hand over his short hair and sighed. "Fine, you can stay here until I can contact your family."

"Don't call them!" said Amy in horror. "I ran away!"

Nick looked at her in growing distaste. "You did, huh? I'm defiantly tracking them down, now." He picked up his wallet and put on his coat. "I'm late for work. When I come home tonight, you'd better be ready to leave, Amy." She glared at him until he was out the door and gone down the steps.

Shadow turned his back on Amy and entered the kitchenette to find something for breakfast. His stomach was pinched with hunger, probably because he had been sleep-running. He opened a cupboard and took down a package of powdered food supplement, which Nick had picked up for him in a Mobian store. Shadow liked it because he could wolf it down and feel full. He poured it into a cup, mixed it with water, and ate the resulting sludge with his fingers. He knew that Amy was watching him, but he didn't care. Yes, he was a slob. He was also starving. He had enough problems without some girl trying to ruin his life, the way she was trying to ruin Sonic's.

At the thought he turned to look at Amy. She was standing beside the table, watching him with a sort of horrified fascination. "So," he whispered, "has it worked?"

"H-has what worked?" said Amy.

Shadow nodded at her. "Your revenge on Sonic with your choice in dates. Has it worked?"

Amy folded her arms and turned her head, angry at the memory. "No," she growled. "He thinks it's funny. And so do you."

Shadow chewed and swallowed. Eating soothed the pain in his throat, and he could speak if he swallowed afterwards. "Yes," he whispered. "Because your actions are foolish. You may offend or annoy Sonic, but you will not hurt him. I am not his enemy. If you wish to upset him, you must not only fraternize with his enemies, you must become his enemy."

"Become ... his enemy?" said Amy slowly, trying not to stare at the mess that Shadow was making. "Like ... want to kill him?"

"Yes," said Shadow.

Suddenly Shadow was no longer speaking, but his lips kept moving, forming words that he had not meant to say. "I am his enemy, as well as the enemy of all. I was trained by Metal Sonic, who is the chief of hatred and deception. I am indebted to him and will one day destroy him to--"

He clapped a hand to his mouth in shock. Mekion had bypassed Shadow entirely and simply used Shadow's mouth to communicate. "No," Shadow snarled. "I don't want any of those things! Mekion, stop it!"

In the same breath, but in a softer whisper, Mekion replied through Shadow's mouth, "You are nearly obsolete, Shadow. Living, you will die."

In the same second, Shadow looked down and saw the metal on his left half crawling over his fur like molten worms, turning the rest of his cells into cold, dead metal. He screamed and clawed at himself, trying to stop it, trying to push it back, but it slid through his fingers like oil. Mekion was laughing ...

Shadow came to on the floor with Amy and Nox kneeling over him. Shadow sat up with a gasp and looked down at himself, seeing to his relief that the black metal and the black fur remained where they had always been. He clutched his chest, and felt places where he had clawed himself. He was bleeding under his fur.

"What happened?" asked Amy. Her eyes were wide in fear.

Shadow looked from her to Nox. "What did I do?"

Nox was trembling, but his voice was calm enough. "You and Mekion were arguing, and suddenly you started screaming and thrashing around ... like you got shot or something. Then you fainted."

"Was there ..." Shadow's voice closed off. His throat was full of mucus. He climbed to his feet and spat in the sink.

Nox said, "There was nobody around to attack you. It was just you and Mekion."

"Mekion," said Shadow bitterly, and coughed. He spat out more mucus, and stared at it. A silver substance was coming up now, like ash or metal shavings. It tasted like blood. He rinsed out his mouth, gripped by the sudden, overpowered urge to call Mecha. Not only had Mekion aggressively invaded his mind somehow, but now he was choking up this weird gray stuff. Standing at the sink with Amy and Nox watching him, Shadow felt terrified, very young, and very alone. What if Mekion did have the power to roboticize him? Shadow didn't know if he did or not. Mecha would know. He built Mekion. But Shadow couldn't use Mekion to call his old master, not when this was happening to him.

"Nox," he said, "I need to call Mecha."

Nox and Amy stared at him, and it took him a moment to realize why. His voice had returned. "Wait," he said in his old, natural voice, no longer whispering. "How is this possible?" He touched his throat. The pain was ebbing. Was this a trick, or had his voice miraculously healed? Maybe not miraculously ... those were dead nanites that he was coughing up.

"Um," said Amy, "there's a radio in the Tornado. How come you've been whispering, anyway?"

"Show me," said Shadow, pushing past her. "I need to tell Mecha about this, and I don't care what Mekion does to me."