CHAPTER 10

THE INNER DEMON TAKES FULL FORM

That next day in the park, Maxcell and Zena were on their way back to the hideout.

As Maxcell walked, he couldn't help but to stare at the blue emerald in his hands. "Wait until Lance sees this."

"Yeah", Zena agreed. "He'll be so proud of you, Maxcell."

He nodded, "I can't believe I found a Chaos Emerald. This must be my lucky day."

"Wrong", a voice had said behind them.

Maxcell and Zena quickly spun around and saw Espio standing behind them.

Zena gave the chameleon a cold look, "What do you want, chameleon? Can't you see we're about to hand over a valuable Chaos Emerald to Lance?"

Espio crossed his arms, "Yeah, you punks have no use for that emerald and you know it."

"Look Espio, we don't want to hurt you so please just leave us alone", Maxcell said in an innocent voice.

"You are pathetic, Maxcell", a familiar voice said out of nowhere.

Zena looked up in a tree and saw a red porcupine with his arms crossed glaring at the brown chipmunk. "No wonder Lance hates you so much. You're completely useless."

Zena's heart had leaped with joy after seeing Appex in her presence. "Appex!" She shouted with joy.

The porcupine looked away from them, "Humph, you're all idiots. Especially you, chameleon."

Espio clenched his fist and held it up at him. "Oh yeah, come and say that down here, pretty boy!"

Appex's yellow eyes flashed over to Espio with annoyance. He jumped down from the tree and quickly snatched the blue Chaos Emerald from Maxcell's hand.

Maxcell's eyes was filled with anger, "Hey Appex, give that back! I found it!"

Zena held the chipmunk's shoulders, "Stop it, Maxcell. You don't want to get Appex worked up over that emerald."

He sighed, "You're right. He did have a rough childhood after all. No wonder he's so grumpy."

Appex turned to Maxcell angrily, "Shut the hell up! My past has nothing to do with you got it!"

Maxcell nodded in fear and decided to remain quiet. Afterwards he hid behind Zena for safety.

Espio laughed under his breath, "You know Appex, even if you do give the emerald up to your so called boss, Lance, you do realize you're just giving it to that good for nothing weasel right? I mean come on, Lance isn't even real. You're doing nothing but chores for a lazy criminal."

Appex clenched the emerald in his hand, "Even if he isn't real, he's still my boss. He cared for me when no one would. I owe him my life and soul."

He shrugged, "Okay, have it your way, moron."

He gritted his teeth in anger, "How dare you insult me! I'll teach you a lesson once and for all!" The fur on his arm had sharpened and hurled towards Espio.

Espio quickly jumped out of the way making the sharp quill miss him. He looked over to Appex, "Hey calm down, tough guy. All I want is the emerald."

"Go to hell", he growled.

"I see...", he stood in a fighting stance. "Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way."

Appex then ran up to him and punched him directly in the face.

Espio fell to the ground hurt. Appex's attacks were pretty powerful so that punch really hurt. Before he could get back up, he was grabbed by his neck by Appex

Appex looked into his eyes full of anger, "You should've kept your mouth shut." He had the fur around his fist erect. "Say your prayers bastard."

While Zena watched, Maxcell turned away, not wanting to see Appex kill someone. He really hated people dying, but he had deal with it because he really had no other place to go other than the home of being a Street Punk.

When Appex was about to kill him, he was startled by a deep and familiar voice.

"Put him down, Appex."

The porcupine quickly dropped Espio's body to the ground and spun around to only find a black hedgehog with a brown squirrel standing next to him. "Shadow and...that girl! But, that's impossible. She was dead."

"Right, was", Shadow said.

"You fool! You know you're not supposed to-"

"I know and I'm not the one who brought her back. It was Nails."

"The slut that has that stupid crush on you?"

He nodded, "Yeah, unfortunately."

He smirked, "Well, let me be the one to put her to death once again." He took out a handgun from his pocket and pointed it at Kayla.

Kayla's eyes didn't focus on the weapon but at the Chaos Emerald in Appex's hand. Her craving for killing had came back to her. Her demon side was taking her over. She smiled evilly as the pupils in her eyes had changed from light blue to black, "A Chaos Emerald..." With incredible speed she ran over to him and knocked him towards the ground as well as making him drop the Chaos Emerald. Kayla quickly grabbed the emerald before Appex could. She looked at the powerful blue emerald in her hand with evil in her eyes.

Shadow ran over to Espio to help him off the ground, "Espio, are you okay?"

He made a nod, "Yeah, but Kayla..."

Shadow looked over to the demon that had taken over Kayla. "That's not Kayla. I'll stop her."

Just as Shadow was about to fight her, Espio had took him by his arm and held him back. "Hold on, Shadow."

The hedgehog looked back at the chameleon. "What?"

Espio had then taken out the two Chaos Emeralds that they had collected and handed them to Shadow. "Kick her ass", was all he said.

He nodded and turned to Kaliyah, "Time to end this, Kaliyah."

The demon then eyed the other two Chaos Emeralds in his hand. 'Two Chaos Emeralds! I need those. Maybe with them, I can unlock my full demon form.' She smirked, 'This will be easy', she thought. She held the blue Chaos Emerald in one hand and held her other hand towards Shadow with an orange aura surrounding it. "Chaos Flame!" An orange fire attack had appeared from her hand and hurled towards Shadow.

Shadow quickly jumped out of the way, making the attack miss him.

Kaliyah gritted her teeth, 'Damn that hedgehog.'

Appex slowly got off the ground in a confused state. He immediately looked over to Shadow, "Great, now that brat has demon powers. You'd better kill her, Shadow or I'll do it for you."

"You can't fight demons, Appex. They're way too strong for mortals like you", Shadow had said.

While Shadow was talking to Appex, Kaliyah ran over to Shadow and punched him down towards the ground along with dropping the Chaos Emeralds. She quickly bent down and picked up the two Chaos Emeralds. She laughed evilly, "I have three Chaos Emeralds...at last."

Shadow quickly got up and saw her hold the three emeralds in her hands. "Not so fast." He used Chaos Spear and tried to stop her, but she had used her Chaos Barrier to reflect his attack. He clenched his fists in frustration, "Damn! It sucks that she has chaos powers!"

Appex quickly turned to the hedgehog, "She has chaos powers?"

"That's not all she has", Espio said as he observed a dark orange aura around the demon. "What's she doing?"

Shadow had then felt a powerful evil essence that made his inner demon take him over. He kneeled to the ground in pain and tried to fight the demon within him.

Espio stood there horrified by Shadow's actions, "Shadow, what's wrong?"

Maxcell embraced Zena for protection, "Zena, what's gong on?" He asked in a scared voice.

"I don't know, but you'd better remove your body from mine if you wanna live", she replied in am annoyed tone.

Kaliyah then kneeled to the ground and started to develop pains all over her body. Her teeth slowly turned into long sharp fangs, razor sharp claws appeared from her fingertips, her tail grew longer, and she grew huge strong looking wings. She then rose from the ground and growled with her saliva seeping from her mouth, "Blood", she growled.

"Oh god", Espio said in a frightened voice. "Kayla...she finally reached her full demon form." He slowly looked down to Shadow suffering, 'And now it may happen to him as well.' "Shadow! You have to fight him! Don't let him get through!" He shouted.

Appex turned to the chameleon, "Don't worry about him. What about us?"

He and Espio watched as the demon slowly made her way towards them.

Zena screamed, "Appex, run!"

"Or else you become demon food!" Maxcell added.

Appex quickly pulled out some of his fur from his arm, "We have no choice. We have to fight this thing."

Espio nodded, agreeing with him. He took out his large shuriken and pointed it at the demon that was coming forth.

Even though they were fully prepared, a sudden force had knocked the demon back on the ground with a powerful strike.

"Whoa! What was that!" Maxcell shouted.

As the dust from the dry ground cleared, a grey fox stood there cracking his knuckle with a wide smirk on his face. "Hey, kids."