As Shade stared at his father, he finally understood why so many people feared them. The other black hedgehog's eyes had started blazing, their red color seeming to catch on fire as he released his Chaos Blast. It had been so many years since he since he had seen him, the last was actually about seven years back in a government laboratory, but because they were part of the ARK Experiments, they were made to never age and neither was worse for wear.
In that year, his father had been entrusted with a little child, a newborn in fact, and wanting her to grow up in protection, he agreed to stay in a laboratory with her. Normally, he would have fought, but he knew these people from long ago, so he trusted them. But apparently, he had decided after a while to leave, or else these GUN soldiers wouldn't be attacking him, Shade thought.
The blast destroyed all the machines, and he easily escaped with his speed from the military people. Without their weapons, they're no threat, his father had once told him, but never underestimate their manipulative ways. He followed his father, waiting until he stopped to show himself.
"Hmph… I thought you were staying with the humans?" he asked with a smirk. Shadow's eyes became angry, but softened quickly when he remembered who he was talking to. "When they received an undeniable order to put a chained collar on Maria for no longer being an infant, I left. Professor Roberts was understanding, however."
Shade knew what that meant, the same scientist had allowed him to escape years ago, and he must have done the same for his father. "Where is Maria, anyway?" he wondered out loud. Shadow turned and led him to a small cave on the edge of the forest they had stopped at, pushing away the foliage to get inside. The light barely filtered through, bouncing off the walls to give the cave an eerie glow.
Immediately a small yellow hedgehog leapt at Shadow, almost knocking him over in a tight hug. She was wearing a white shirt and a ruffled blue skirt, with blue ribbons in her quills and small black shoes. "I missed you, daddy! Where've you been?!" she giggled loudly.
His father embraced her back for a moment, then pulled her off. It was then she noticed Shade. He smiled when she looked confused, as if wondering if she had grabbed the right person. "Maria, this is Shade he's…….." Shadow paused trying to think of how to explain it. "…..Your big brother." He finished, looking at his son, hoping that he hadn't offended him.
But Shade just grinned as Maria hugged him as well, smiling when snuggled her face against his chest fur. He patted her on the head and she let go of him, then he turned back to his father. The black hedgehog was surprised to see that the yellow hedgehog hadn't had an age jump. But then, some of the children did, and some of them didn't, though all of them only grew to a certain age, never growing too old.
"She reminds me of Oracle….." The scarred hedgehog said, pleased that Maria liked him. His father looked at him questioningly. "Who?" he asked. Shade ignored the question, instead turning back to the entrance. "Let's go, I'm sure Atlantis and Coral are wondering why I haven't returned yet. Oh yes, GUN never did find the entrance to the cave, so we never had to relocate, we just dug out another entrance on the other side of the mountain." "Who is Oracle?!" Shadow asked him again as he picked up Maria and followed his son at their usual breakneck speed.
When they got to the mountain, Shade immediately began to climb up it, and after a couple minutes he stopped, suddenly reaching over and shoving a large heavy boulder aside to reveal a tunnel. It was dark at first, and wet, but soon became wider and had soft glowing lights to guide their way. There were many twists and turns, and it seemed hundreds of other tunnels that went off into other parts of the base, but Shade never faltered in his step once, knowing exactly where he was going.
He was walking for the benefit of Maria, who wanted to go slow so she could watch the lights. "So……. Pretty…….." She gasped in wonderment, even Shadow seemed surprised. It was almost like being back on the Black Arms asteroid, except it didn't seem so evil, and the colors were centered more towards a light blue instead of red and purple. "This is where Oracle stays, that's why the lights are this color. There are two sides to the city, Rubieteau, and Doralien. People from the red are darker, and we are referred to as Rubes. And the Doras, are mostly blue and bright, except for Atlantis and Coral." He explained.
"A lot has happened since I left, so….. Is there any…..?" Shadow started. His son shook his head. "Of course not, we all intermingle quite a bit, it's just a fact that the two sides are different, and even though I appreciate how nice the Dora side is, I still feel more comfortable in Rubieteau. There never has been racism here."
It was then that they entered an enormous cavern, so huge that it dwarfed anything that Shadow had ever seen before. There were enormous buildings everywhere, all set in spirals, many of which had gigantic waterfalls flowing from them. Crystalline white was all over, everything seemed to be made of it, and there were pools and lakes, where boats could be seen fishing and paddling. "All the animals we rescued from the Arms were black, how did these bright beings come to be?" Shadow asked his son. The younger hedgehog sighed. "We found some more in the ship we stole not to long after I returned. They were in a hidden compartment, and weren't really labeled as important, they were meant to be training and target practice for the dark ones." He said quietly.
A slightly small white hedgehog came running up to them, she was wearing a light green dress and a pair of sandals. She was taller then Maria, but not by much. Shadow knew within an instant of looking into her lavender eyes who she was. "So this is Oracle…." He said. She had Shades eyes, oh she definitely had those, and his attitude.
"Papa, is this grandfather, cuz I don't like him, he looks like you!" she laughed. Then she spotted Maria. "Oh hi. I bet he's mean, eh? Don't let you have whatever you want, and I bet he makes you…." The little yellow hedgehog stared at her in admiring confusion, she liked this new girl, but didn't understand anything because she was talking so fast.
"Oracle……!"Shade warned her. "Jeez, what now, Papa?! Want me to take her around and show her stuff? Gee, if I don't I'll probably end up scrubbing Pixie's scales again! C'mon!" With that, she gently took Maria's arm and zoomed off with her. Shadow looked worried for a moment, but then relaxed when Shade rolled his eyes. "Well, at least she likes you…." He said.
"How old is she?" Shadow asked him as Shade led him back into the mountain. It wasn't long before the tunnel lights glowed a crimson red instead of blue. "Well, she aged like me, so let's just say about twelve. But if you think that's surpassing, you wait until you see Darkerz. Poor thing…."
"What's wrong with him?" His son was quiet for a minute before he found the right words. "He….. Takes care of all the orphans. Yes, there are orphans here." He said at his father's shocked face. "All thanks to a human sickness that someone picked up when outside getting news about GUN. They died of it, but passed it on to a lot of people before they did. It took us a long time to find a vaccine for it, by then it was too late for some. Heh, Rouge doesn't help him much…. She says it's good for him…." Shade suddenly halted, his eyes narrowing in the darkness.
"Soooo……. Diz is dat hedgehog fromz the outsidez, hmmm? Doezn't look so tough to mez!" A pair of glowing red eyes were staring at them from the darkness, a sly look about them. "Demon, you already know who this is, and I'm not in the mood today!"
But the eyes only narrowed more, and there was smirk to the tone. "Riddlez! Or noez coming inz!" That was when Shadow detected a youthfulness to the voice. Whoever this was, he was just a kid playing games. 'I'll humor him…..' Shadow thought for a moment before coming up with a good answer. "What is evil and good at the same time?" The creature in the darkness paused, surprised that someone had actually tried him.
It was a very short riddle, with a very short answer, but Shadow doubted he would understand it being so young. After five minutes, he finally gave up and let them pass. "Whatz the answerz doh?!" he yelled first.
Shadow smirked darkly at him. "That's life." The being suddenly stepped into the dim light where he could be seen. Demon was only about six years old, but that was not what made Shadow wonder. He was not a full species, instead, he was part bat, part hedgehog. The little hedge-bat had quills but wings also, his large ears and black fur told where he came from. He had not inherited the age jump.
"Well, I see a lot more has been going on then I thought." Shadow said. "Noez onez has ever beatenz my riddlez so simply beforez!! Whyz?! Whyz so easyz!?" Demon stomped his feet a couple times then ran off down a tunnel, and Shade shook his head. "Rouge is gonna have fun screaming tonight…."
"The Doras have basically a few big caverns like the one you saw, each housing big cities. Us Rubiens though…… We have smaller caverns, and those are by far many more than theirs, all connected by a maze miles and miles long. Don't lose sight of me."
Shadow finally asked the question he'd been dying to know the answer to. "How is all this possible under one small mountain?!" His son stopped, and looked sideways behind him. "It's not. When we first entered the cave, you don't see it because you're eyes are adjusting to the light, but we've gone through a portal into another world, and it's definitely not Mobius. This world…. We stay underground, mostly anyway, it feels sort of natural I suppose, though there are many villages in the trees. It has only been a few years since beings of our kind have visited this world, but the dragons are now very widespread." Shadow looked doubtful for a moment, unbelieving. Sure there were dragons in Mobius, but there were not many from what Tails had told him, and why were there even more here?
"This place," Shade continued. "This world, it seems as if we all belong here." His son walked on, this time because he didn't want his father to get lost, not that it would worry him, he just knew that it would embarrass him to ask for directions. "Oh yes, there's a couple other people living here that may shock you." The younger hedgehog said with a smirk.