I ran around the city for a while before speeding off into the forest. I needed a long hard run to stem this unnecessary anger. I ran through the forest, picking up speed as I went. The trees seemed to bend away from me as though they didn't want to be run over. Everything became blurry as I continued to go faster.
The forest ended rather abruptly as I went up Mt. Coriolas. My ears flattened against my head and my quills bent down towards my back as I ran. This made me aerodynamic so that I could run even faster. Suddenly an explosion sounded in my eardrums and all I could hear was silence and a barely audible rushing noise. I had broken the sound barrier.
Everything was blurry; I could barely see anything for what it was. My eyes were dry and stinging and my fur was getting hot. My lungs were still fine, but I could feel my heart working hard, but not overly so. A trip or a missed step at this speed would almost certainly mean death. I couldn't think of anything that was bothering me because I had to focus on running without tripping. I had to focus on maintaining my speed.
It had been a while since I had run this fast. It felt great, like I was flying. The exertion was cleansing to the mind. I dreaded when I'd have to stop running, when I would have to feel gravity again. I dreaded having to hear and smell and see everything again and have my problems come back to me.
I was now over and past the mountain. I ran towards the desert, past the desert, and I saw the ocean. My legs were starting to burn and my chest was starting to hurt, after all, I didn't run this fast very often. I took my time slowing down, coming back into the world of sound first. The rush of wind in my ears made them pop and everything became clearer as I slowed. I was on the beach when I came to a complete stop.
Everything was on fire, I felt like I had been stuffed in an oven. I was sweating and the sun gleamed on my soaked fur. I panted heavily as I tried to get my bearings. I was slightly dizzy as I lay down on the soft red sand. How many miles was I from the city? I relaxed on the sand, still breathing heavily and I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
I woke up a few hours later to nighttime. The moon was full and shone her light on the water. The red sand was a silvery-white under her pale glow. The water was a black almost as pure as my fur under the cloudless sky. I went for a swim to wake me up before I ran back to the city at a more reasonable pace.
Rather than going to my apartment I went to Sonic and Amy's house. The light in the kitchen was still on meaning that Tails was probably in his lab. He liked snacking at night as much as any eight-year-old. I tried the door and found it open, meaning that I wasn't the only one still out of the house. Sonic was probably taking a run and Rouge was probably going to steal something. Knuckles would either be checking on the Master Emerald or trying to keep Rouge from thieving jewels.
I went inside and saw the TV on. Knuckles was snoozing on the couch and Rouge was lying on him watching some weird show. She looked up and smiled at me; I waved and continued through the house. In the kitchen was Tails, rummaging through the draws that were specifically for snacks.
"Hungry?" I said next to his ear. He jumped and yelped because he hadn't known I was there. I chuckled as he pouted angrily.
"Don't sneak up on me like that! You're so mean Shadow!" Tails said, flailing his arms in anger. I laughed at him as he tried to punch me. He grabbed a pack of Chips Ahoy! Cookies and marched down the basement steps that led to his lab in defiant anger.
I followed him downstairs to his lab, the cup of chocolate milk that I saw on the counter in my hand. I knew he'd realize he'd left it and want it. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at his cookies, before turning around to face me.
"Looking for this?" I said, giving him the cup of milk. He blew a raspberry at me and went to his workbench.
I looked around the lab. It had a huge computer on the wall by the stairs. Tails' workbench was in the middle of the room and was covered in tools, gadgets, and blue glowing plants. On the other wall was a carved hole, a small cave even, which housed the original Tornado. The Tornado X was in some other part of the house, probably under the garage. At the back of the basement were glowing tubes that were like the cloning tanks in a cheap sci-fi movie. Most were empty, except for one. In the one tank was the creature that had attacked me.
I walked over to the tube and stared at the thing. It just floated there, mouth agape as though it were trying to attack me now. I wondered where it came from. I also really wished someone would tell me what the fuck this thing was. As if reading my mind, Tails spoke up.
"I'm not sure what it is. It seems like some sort of Chaos doesn't it? I analyzed its structure and it's almost like Chaos. It's kinda weird though, I've never seen anything on earth like it."
"Have you found out anything else about it? Especially because, where there's one there's bound to be more." I said.
"Nope, I haven't much else to tell. Except that its spit is some sort of tranquilizer. I'm still studying that and its effects." Tails said as he munched on a cookie. I took a cookie and chewed it thoughtfully.
I went upstairs after observing Tails at his work for an hour. Rouge was asleep on the couch, letting the TV watch her. Knuckles was somewhat awake, enough to notice my passing and wave. I went to my room and lay down on my bed. I had slept a lot today so I was wide-awake. I heard a scritch-scritch sound like claws on concrete. That was an odd noise, so I got up and looked out my window.
Something moved in the bushes underneath my window, but I couldn't see because of the balcony. I opened the window (I know it's a glass door, but I don't care) and stepped onto the balcony. The night air was cool and refreshing with a strong breeze. I looked over the balcony railing at the bushes and felt a presence behind me. I turned around and saw this blue jelly stuff sliding its way up the wall and onto the balcony. It reminded me of Chaos.
"Shit." I said as the jelly stuff formed itself into another of those hideously disfigured and wingless dragons.
The dragon thing stood hunched over on two legs with its long ropey arms close to the ground. It reminded me of a cross between these two Digimon I had seen called Devidramon and Coelamon. It drooled, mouth agape to show its fangs and it stared at me. Was it waiting for me to move? I slowly took a step over and it followed my movement. Yup, it was waiting for me to move.
"Can you talk?" I asked it. No harm trying.
"Why?" It responded in this breathy, gravel voice. It was more along the lines of a growl than a word.
"Cuz I kinda wanna know why you're trying to eat me." I said cautiously.
"Need power, why else eat? You have friend, give me friend!" It hissed and spat as it spoke and it lunged clumsily.
"Yeah, but why me?" I asked as I dodged its attack. The monster spat some drool and I dodged that.
"You make light power. We see light of power. More power, more light. Where friend? You kill friend I kill you friend!" It hissed. Then it turned and ran through the open glass door.
I lunged after it trying to catch it. It was so fast. It slipped under my closed bedroom door and I slammed into it trying to catch it. I rubbed my head as I went after it. What I didn't know was that it was smart. I nearly ran into its mouth as it hissed at me. I slashed with my claws and it shrieked as it bled. This thing was truly strange, because it was translucent like Chaos, but it bled. It felt solid when I had smacked it, but it moved like Chaos under doors and such.
"What the fuck are you?!" I shouted as I tried to back away before it could strike back.
"Your death!" It spat as it rushed me. I closed my eyes as it came at me, but it stopped.
I opened my eyes to see it right on top of me, but it was looking at its side. I looked where it was looking and saw that Knuckles had its tail in one hand and his shovel claws to its throat. I scrambled away from the creature and shook off the creature's drool. Amy had come out of her room and I could hear Tails' tails rotating as he flew up the stairs. The creature hissed at the new people and it tried to scramble away, but Knuckles held it firmly.
"What the fu—I mean world?" Knuckles said, faltering at the curse word he was about to use when he saw Amy's glare. The creature wriggled and spat as Knuckles held it upside down by the tail. It hissed and tried to bite, but Knuckles smacked it so hard that I flinched for it. The creature whimpered and cried like a baby crocodile.
"What on earth is going on?" Amy asked.
"This is another of those creatures. It tried to attack me, mainly because I killed its friend." I said, feeling drugged from the thing's drool.
"My friend! I want friend! Kill the black one!" The creature cried.
"Your friend tried to kill my friend, so quit complaining." Knuckles growled at the creature. It trembled and whimpered.
"I don't know about this thing, maybe it won't hurt you anymore. I think it's afraid of Knuckles." Tails said as he looked at the thing.
"Did you see the way Knuckles cold-clocked it? I'd be afraid of Knuckles too. Put it down, I don't think it'll do anything, will you?" I said to the creature.
"No, I do nothing. I stay still." It said.
Knuckles put the creature down and it sat on the floor and sulked. Tails and Knuckles took care of the creature while I scrubbed the drool out of my fur. I was desperately trying to stay awake, but I was feeling groggier by the second. Rouge had made a cup of coffee for me when I got out of the shower. I took one sip and choked, I didn't know coffee could be stronger than I made it.
"Wow, did I actually make it too strong? I didn't know that was possible." Rouge said as she tried to suppress giggling.
"I didn't know that was possible either." I said.
The coffee wasn't helping at all. I went downstairs and stood by the stairs, feeling myself nod off as I leaned against the wall. Sonic had come in and he was looking at the creature. Knuckles was standing next to it like a bouncer and it was trembling. Tails was looking at it too.
"You got a name little lizard dude?" Sonic asked the creature.
"Karo. Please, make red go way. I stay still, I stay still." The creature said as it shrank under Knuckles' fierce gaze.
"Leave it be Knuckles." I said sleepily. I was surprised that I had stayed awake this long.
"Why should I? Its friend tried to kill you and it tried to kill you too. I don't trust it." Knuckles said with a growl.
"Hey Tails, what about those plant things you have in your lab? What are they made of?" I asked, speaking very carefully as to be understood. I was fighting for every waking minute.
"Umm, you mean those plants I was experimenting with using Chaos energy?" Tails asked.
"Yes, the blue glowing ones." I said, recalling what he had on his workbench.
"Yeah they are infused with Chaos energy. Why do you ask?" Tails asked, hovering over to me.
"Feed them to the creature." I said. I sat down and promptly passed out.
"Black one. Wake up kind one!"
I opened my eyes to Tails and the lizard—Karo, I corrected myself. Karo wasn't an ugly creature anymore, now he was a rather endearing wingless dragon. He was still the color of Chaos, but he had normal looking red eyes. Another thing I noticed, he wasn't drooling anymore. I sat up and Karo scrambled off the bed.
"That was a good thing, feeding him those plants. As I'm sure you've noticed he isn't drooling anymore, he stopped as soon as he was fed him. It must be some sort of weapon for catching prey, though why he was chasing you is still beyond me." Tails said as he scratched Karo's dragon-like horns.
"Black one, kind one makes bright power light." Karo said.
"He keeps saying that whenever I ask him why he was trying to eat you. I don't think he knows how to answer any other way. I wonder how he even knows as much English as he does. Anyway, I guess eating makes him shed, because that's why he's not ugly anymore." Tails said. His nose screwed up in disgust at mention of the shedding.
"So, what's this kind one stuff?" I asked. It was meant more for Tails than Karo, but the beast answered.
"Black one, kind one not let red hurt Karo. Karo want sorry to kind one. Karo want kind one friend." Karo said simply.
"My name is Shadow. You want to say sorry. You want me to be your friend." I said, hoping that the creature would understand my correction.
"Karo want to say sorry to kind one. Karo want…Shadow to be his friend." Karo said, faltering when he tried to say my name. It was more as if he was saying Sadda than Shadow.
I felt just as I did when I had run into Karo's friend the other day, groggy and with a headache. I got up and stretched, yawning. Karo hopped over to me. He had normal length arms, he now reminded me of a velociraptor/dragon mix. He half loped, half hopped on his back legs and occasionally walked on all fours as he trailed Tails and me downstairs.
Karo hid behind me at the sight of Knuckles, who glared suspiciously. I waved Knuckles off and continued into the kitchen. Amy was in the kitchen cooking. Karo attacked a glowing plant on the counter and even gobbled up the dirt. Rouge was nowhere to be seen, but Sonic was sitting at the table. He was drinking orange juice and had some toast on a plate.
"Good morning Shadow! Want some eggs? Who knew that Karo was so helpful! He ate the rotten vegetables in the fridge!" Amy said cheerfully. Glad you like him, I thought.
I sat down and ate what she put in front of me, eggs, bacon, toast, a veggie omelet, and a good cup of coffee. Karo sniffed the last of my coffee and I watched him test it with his tongue and then slowly lap it up. My ear twitched in annoyance as I watched the lizard drink the last of my coffee. Next, he sniffed at the half an omelet that I wasn't going to finish. He munched that down. Then, he sniffed at my bacon.
"You can't have my bacon." I said and he lay down and sulked. I thought he ate chaos energy.
"What do you normally eat Karo?" I asked the lizard. He looked up and rolled his eyes, presumably in thought.
"If it glow with power light I eat. Bitter drink glow faint, yellow thing glow faint. But it glow so I eat. Crunchy thing just taste good." Karo said, speaking slowly. His words were poorly formed and barely understandable as he spoke.
"So…what is glowing in here?" Sonic asked curiously.
"You, Shadow, pink one, two tail. You, red and Shadow make bright power light. Dying plant make more power light than live plant. Except for blue plant two tail give Karo, that good." Karo said carefully. He tried very hard to pronounce my name correctly, but it still sounded more like Saddo than Shadow.
"So, basically anything that was recently living or is living. However, you, Shadow, and Knuckles make a brighter 'power light' than everyone else." Tails said to Sonic.
"Maybe that has something to do with our higher amounts of chaos energy. I wonder how he would react to a Chaos Emerald." I said to my bacon. I decided that I didn't really want it and I tossed it to Karo, who gobbled it up happily.
"Maybe we should see." Tails said before running downstairs to his lab. He came back up quickly with a Chaos Emerald.
Karo stared at the Emerald and began to drool slightly. He walked over cautiously and sniffed the Emerald. Tails used a test tube to catch some of the slime from Karo's mouth. Karo snatched the Chaos Emerald and ran away with it. I grabbed his tail and he tried to scrabble away. Before I could wrench the Emerald from his mouth however, he swallowed it.
Everyone stared at Karo and he crouched low in fear of an explosion of anger. However, none of us could move out of surprise. Karo started to glow and the whole process reminded me of a Pokémon evolving, except his skin split along his back and fell off like a shroud. Now there was a bigger Karo with small wings. He looked even more like a small dragon now, although he still wasn't that big what with all his strength and speed.
"I don't think that's a good thing for us." I said.