Chapter 1: Vick and Shadow

~Space station A.R.K. December 1, 1999~

The air was still, a ghostly aura seemed to linger in the air. Sounds of gunshots, yelling and screams echoed through the halls. A flash of black whizzed by, heading to the escape pod corridor. In the corridor, the flash of black skidded to stop reveal a black anthropomorphic hedgehog, who looked about the age of six with an orange/tan muzzle, red stripes along his spikes and a white fluff of fur upon his chest, with a young girl, who looked about the age of 12with long golden hair and the biggest of blue eyes, by his side. "Shadow we must go! And hurry!" She yelled as she slammed the door shut to an echo stampeding footsteps.

The one she was referring to as "Shadow" was the hedgehog, who was rapidly running around the room pressing buttons to set their destination's coordinates. "I know Maria. I'm going as fast as I can." He pressed one last button and a nearby pod opened. "Ok let's go," He said sternly. Before they could even move the big steel door busted down. Men in uniform flooded the room. They had patches on their arms that said "G.U.N." and they all were taking aim for Shadow. Maria pushed him into the pod before anything could happen. A gun was shot, Maria fell over the lever to release to pod. "Maria!" Cried Shadow. Tears streamed down his face. Maria, still barely alive, lifted her head. "Good bye my friend… Live well on the world I dreamed of…" With her last breath she pulled the lever, and then fell dead to the floor. Shadow shot off down to the planet below. "MARIA!"

~Earth, Tacoma Washington, December 1, 1999~

In the small city of Tacoma, there lived a young girl with boyish short hair, big blue eyes, HUGE pink cat ears with a blue stripe down the back of them, and two pink and blue cat like tails. This young girl lived all on her own. She was an outcast. She wasn't human, and she figured that was why no one liked her. She had just turned six that day. She made a little cake out of mud since she could afford to get a real one. She wasn't going to eat it for real of course but she liked the idea of having a family or friends over for the celebration of her birth. She put a stick on top for a candle. She snapped her fingers and a small flame appeared above her thumb, put it to the stick and blew the flame on her thumb to the stick. "Make a wish…" She sighed. "I wish I had a friend." She blew out the candle. After eating her fruit she snatched from the "Tacoma Boys" market, she went for a walk to the park where the normal kids played. The girl hoped they weren't there today. She wanted to swing. Carefully, she flew across the road to the park. There were kids there playing away. She took a swing anyway, she pumped back and forth as she noticed the kids and their parents glaring at her. The swing came to a stop as one of the older kids grabbed the chain. "Hey stupid, this park is for humans only. So beat it!" The girl just sat there looking sad. "my name is Vick, not stupid…" She said quietly. One kid started to throw rocks at her. Not little dainty pebbles but big stones. She winced at every hit. She jumped back and suddenly turned into a cat. Vick ran as fast as she could back across the street and into the forest where she lived.

She gasped for breath as turned back to normal. "Why… What did I do to deserve such hatred?" She felt a drop of rain hit her nose. With great haste she ran to her tree. It was a huge tick tree with a big hole gouged out big enough for Vick to fit in. As the rain began to poor she jumped into her little nest made of bird feathers and bracken. She stayed there for hours, waiting for the rain to clear up. Soon the clouds blew away to reveal the stars above. Curiously, Vick poked her head out of her den. She rapidly climbed to the top of the tree to look at the pretty sparkles in the sky. "Wow! It's so pretty!" A shooting star shot by. Vick held her hands together closed her eyes, and wished once more. "I wish I had a friend…" The shooting star suddenly changed course and landed in the field near her tree with a deafening crash. Flames were everywhere around the fallen star. Scared out of her mind, she ran toward the flames. Wanting to protect her home she ran past the fire ball to the lake. She focused on the water and it soon turned into a snake like form and wrapped itself around the flame. Instantaneously, the flames turned to steam.

The "star's" top exploded off and landed on top Vick. Luckily it seemed hollowed out, so she wasn't harmed just stuck. Out of the "star" came a dark, staggering figure. The figure suddenly fell to the ground with an "OOF!" Vick tried to push up on the cover, making it move a bit. The figure heard it and jumped back. Vick saw the figure through the glass, her eyes widened in fear. She struggled to get out from under the cover but it wouldn't budge. The figure began to walk toward her, she cowered as it came closer and closed her eyes. "Are… are you alright?" The figure asked kindly. She opened her eyes to see a big, black hedgehog. She nodded slowly with a loss of words. The hedgehog lifted the cover high above her. "sorry about that…" he said with embarrassment. Vick's eyes filled with amazement at this creatures strength. "It's ok… I've been through worse." She said shakily.

The steam cleared to show the tears upon the hedgehog's face. "Are you alright?" Gently, she wiped away it's tears. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" It's eyes were glazed with irritation at that comment. "I'm not crying! I have stuff in my eyes…" Vick winced at the hedgehog's sudden ferocity. "My name is Vick…What's yours?" the hedgehog was surprised that the young girl seemed interested in him. "Shadow… My name is Shadow." Cheerfully, Vick smiled. "Nice to meet you Shadow!" She thrusted her hand forward for a handshake. "You wanna be friends?" Nervously, Shadow took her hand. The moment he did, a light shone on them from above.

"Mrrrrow! It's bright!" Shrieked Vick. A "G.U.N." helicopter hovered above. "Give up the hedgehog and no one will be harmed!" They yelled down. Panicking, Vick grabbed Shadow's hand and began to run. They were a flash of blue and black. The helicopter attempted to pursue, but it couldn't keep up. Before the helicopter could spot them again Vick jumped into her den and pulled the moss covering over the hole, which completely camouflaged them from the helicopter. "There… we should be safe now…." Curiously she looked toward Shadow. "How come they're after you Shadow?" He simply shrugged. "I don't know…" He lied. "Well don't worry I promise to keep you safe!" She gave a grin. Cutely, Vick yawned loudly and curled up beside the hedgehog. "My birthday wish came true Shadow..." She yawned loudly and closed her eyes. "What was your wish?" He asked curiously. "That I had a friend….." stifling one last yawn, she drifted off to sleep. Shadow looked at this young girl. "Friend?" The word played over and over again in his head until he too drifted into a deep sleep from all the excitement…

~Tacoma Washington, December 2, 1999~

Vick awoke with the stirring of her new odd friend. "Shadow?" she poked him in his stomach attempting to play. "Ow… Hey knock it off…" Kitten like, she giggled. "Ok I'll be right back don't leave ok?" She poked her head out of the hole. About ten to twenty men in uniform were down below. Surprised she drew her head back in slowly. "Yea… Shadow we gotta go… I'll get those guys' attention and you run for it." She said sternly. Shadow shook his head. "How about I get their attention and you run for it…" He replied just as stern. "There after you when they realize I'm not what their looking for they'll stop chasing me…" Slowly Vick explained her power of morphing and mimicry. "So you'll change into me… they'll chase you for about an hour then you'll find a safe spot to turn back to normal and come find me?" Shadow explained it back to himself. "Yep that's the plan." She silently went out the hole and climbed down the tree. Quickly she turned into Shadow, and began to taunt the men in uniform. "Hey! Stupid people! NAH NAH!" Mockingly she stuck out her tongue and ran the opposite direction of the tree. "After it!" all the men soon were chasing after her, some by foot, and some were on ATVs. The terrible noise rang through the forest. Intent on her mission to help her friend, Vick continued to run even though the noise hurt her ears.

Back at the tree shadow was slowly inching his way down the tree. "Vick is a good friend… But why risk her neck for mine?" He started to run in the opposite direction as Vick but then suddenly stopped. "No! I won't let her do that!" He ran full speed in the same direction as Vick, dodging trees along the way.

Suddenly Vick came to a stop at a lake with a waterfall that blocked the way. "Wuh oh…" Thinking as fast as a six year old half cat demon could think, she plunged into the lake, quickly changing into a humanish form under water, and starting to swim leisurely. G.U.N. arrived at the lake. "Hey girl! Have you seen anything strange go this way." One of them called. Very convincingly, Vick pretended that she saw Shadow run past and pointed up the waterfall. "That thing was so fast it ran up all the way up the waterfwall!" Making sure she acted as six year old as possible. G.U.N. bought her little act, 6 helicopters hovered down above the ground as the people jumped on and flew up the waterfall. Just as the last helicopter was about to go over, Shadow came bursting out of the trees running right into the lake. "Hey! There it is! Go down you idiot down!" The helicopter quickly went down. "Ohhh so close!" Quickly diving under the water, she grabbed Shadow's hand and ran as fast as she could. Which was faster than she went before when getting the men's attention.

Pretty soon, they ended up by a big rock formation. They stopped so Vick could catch her breath. "You can run pretty fast but you can't last long…." Said Shadow smugly. Grinning, Vick walked into the hidden cave. Cautiously, Shadow looked back and walk inside too. There were little paintings that covered the walls. "This is my secret place where I put all that happens to me… Its where I go to be by myself usually…" She looked back at her spiky friend. "But you can share it with me Shadow. It can be our place!" Her words echoed off the rocky walls. She kneeled down at a blank wall and drew a crude painting of Shadow and her holding hands and playing with her fingers. "That represents yesterday when I met you. You are my first friend ever…" She gave a yawn. Shadow sat down right by Vick's picture and began to paint a picture of Vick smiling. The longer he spent on it the larger his smile grew. When he was done he sat up against the wall opposite the fresh paintings. Vick crawled over to Shadow and snuggled up to him. The surprised Shadow gave a smile and wrapped her in a hug. Vick began to purr. "Good night Shadow…" Tired from running, Vick fell asleep in Shadow's arms. "Good night… Vick…" Shadow was just as tired, he soon fell asleep too. They fell asleep in each other's arms.

Vick awoke the next morning to the sound of loud men outside the cave. Sleepily, she rubbed her eyes and nudged Shadow. He awoke with a jolt. "Huh? What's going on?" Vick quickly put her finger to his mouth. Quietly, she walked over to the entrance and poked her head out the cave enough for her to see the men unnoticed. It was the men with the funny uniforms. "A civilian reports that she saw the girl and hedgehog run around here last night." One of them said professionally. "Secure the area! They can't have gotten far…" The one that looked in charge ordered.

Silently, Vick retreated to Shadow. "Shadow… There's a lot of people out there! Are they gonna take you away?" She asked innocently. Sadly, Shadow nodded. "They'll try but as long as you're here there's a reason for me to keep going…" Sweetly he gave a smile with his words. Vick gave a smile, but she felt a tingly sensation. "Huh?" curiously she looked at her hands. They were fading! Along with the rest of her. Shadow noticed too. "Vick?" "Shadow? Whats happening? Shadow! Help! SHADOW!" Vick's face was full of fear and she fully faded away. "VICK!" The sad Shadow sat there with tear filled eyes, now he had lost two important people in the same two days.

The G.U.N. men came rushing in as they heard the hedgehog's cries. "Get off of me! Ugh! VICK!" he cried as he was drug out of the place that in only a few short hours had become the most eventful and important place of his entire life. But now what did he have to live for? He hadn't a friend in the world….